FStarRC

[kzuerner]

Hi Pete,

I was useing your FStarRC program last year for a long time very successfully with my FS9. I had to pause my simflights for several month but now I can start to use my simulator again.

Unfortunately my FStarRc (version 1.85 - also loaded as Version 1.86 from your downloadarea - date 20.3.2004) does not produce any outputfile anymore also I print the navlog as "Expanded Log". I have checked the pathes in the ini-file and even changed them to c:\temp (a folder I definitely have) but no success.

What happend in the months since my last usage was that I updated my Jeppesen Flightmap regularely. Currently I am useing Version 9.3.0.0 (Build 11516).

Can you think of any reason why it does not work anymore? Can I somehow "monitor" what is going on?

Regards

Klaus

[Pete Dowson]

What happend in the months since my last usage was that I updated my Jeppesen Flightmap regularely. Currently I am useing Version 9.3.0.0 (Build 11516).

Can you think of any reason why it does not work anymore? Can I somehow "monitor" what is going on?

Yes. Jeppesen, in their wisdom, keep messing about with the print formatting. FStarRC relies on recognising bits of the print output stream so it can extract the data it needs. It cannot do this directly as it is encrypted.

I have a world-wide corporate FliteMap, currently at version 9.0. To update to that from the last cost me hundreds of Euros, and the price gets steeper, so I am not willing to update it continuously I'm afraid.

Maybe the changes needed to FStarRC are minor, but it is hard to tell and harder to test without the software. There are some detailed logs I could probably use to decide, and I can try to work out how to get them so you can help -- but unfortunately I am on holiday after tomorrow for nearly two weeks.

Please write again after September 12th and I'll see what can be done.

Regards

Pete

[kzuerner]

Thank you Pete for your quick reply!

No problem! I do not see this beeings a major problem, as I can help myself in other ways.

Have a nice holiday and I will come back at the end of September.

If I can be of any help with my version of Flightmap (I am allowed to install it on a second computer, so it will be no licence-violation!) let me know!

Regards

Klaus

P.S.: Maybe this is also the reason why GPSOut does not work useing WideFS any more. But it works useing a "null-modem".

[Pete Dowson]

Have a nice holiday and I will come back at the end of September.

You would need to set "Log=Debug" in the FStarRC.INI file [settings] section, then run a session. The FStarRC.Log file it produces will be quite big, but it should help me work out what to change -- you'd then have to test any changes for me.

but not now, when I come back! ;-)

P.S.: Maybe this is also the reason why GPSOut does not work useing WideFS any more. But it works useing a "null-modem".

No, that must be something else entirely. Are you using MixW to create two virtual serial ports? Flitemap should not be able to tell any difference between a real COM port and a virtual one -- that's the point. Can you not select the port? Maybe they've restricted it now to COM1 and COM2, though that would make no sense.

I did read something someone reported that Jeppesen were dropping the moving map feature from FliteStar/Map in some version.

Regards

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Oh, it does occur to me that I do have a later, unreleased (as yet) version of FStarRc -- version 2.00. It has a load of extra undocumented facilities to do with Radar Contact 4 and 5. The reason it is unreleased is that I've simply not got round to documenting these additions, and no one has pressed me for anything.

however, there is a remote possibility that it may work better with FliteMap 9.3. Give it a go anyway, and let me know.

Regards

Pete

FStarRC_200.zip

[kzuerner]

Thank you Pete!

I will test and report back!!

Klaus

[kzuerner]

Hi Pete!

I have done a test with version 2 and got the following log.

Jeppesen uses the mfc42.dll in their directory.

Unfortunately I can not attach files (don't know what I am doing wrong).

0 ********* FstarRC, Version 2.00 by Pete Dowson *********

0 Sending RC plans to: C:\Programme\Jeppesen\Common\FsPlans\

10 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

10 Error: couldn't hook DrawTextA

10 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

10 Error: couldn't hook DeleteDC

17636 ********* FstarRC Log file closed *********

Maybe this information helps.

Regards

Klaus

(Won't be back until September 22nd)

[Pete Dowson]

I have done a test with version 2 and got the following log.

Jeppesen uses the mfc42.dll in their directory.

Unfortunately I can not attach files (don't know what I am doing wrong).

ZIP them first in any case. Send to petedowson@btconnect.com as an email attachment.

0 ********* FstarRC, Version 2.00 by Pete Dowson *********

0 Sending RC plans to: C:\Programme\Jeppesen\Common\FsPlans\

10 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

10 Error: couldn't hook DrawTextA

10 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

10 Error: couldn't hook DeleteDC

Looks like you didn't put the FStarRC.exe and FStarRC.dll into the correct folder, the same one as Flitestar.exe and MFC42.dll? There are no changes in Version 2 which affect the initial hooking of those routines, none at all.

Regards

Pete

[kzuerner]

Hi Pete!

I am back and made a new test!

Sorry to say, that the result is the same.

I double-checked that the FStarRC.exe and FSTarRC.dll are in the same directory as the FlightStar.exe.

Any advise?? Could it be that Jeppesen uses a newer version of mfc42.dll which creates the problems??

Regards

Klaus

[Pete Dowson]

Could it be that Jeppesen uses a newer version of mfc42.dll which creates the problems??

The error is that it can't find MFC42.DLL at all.

In any case, I thought you said that the older (currently released) version of FStarRC got further, or at least didn't fail like this?

Odd that there's been no change in any of that area -- the changes were mainly to do with providing additional parameters for Radar Contact APL plans.

Pete

[martingreen]

In fact, when Jeppesen came out with NavSuite, they dropped FliteMap. They claim that the same functionality is now available in their newer product FlighDeck. If you owned a license for FliteMap at any time in the past, you can still install it with any current version of FliteStar.

I own the full NavSuite package with FliteStar/FliteMap version 9.3.0. but can not get FstarRC to work with it. Have you made any progress on that issue since September?

Best regards,

Martin Green

martin.green@verizon.net

[Pete Dowson]

I own the full NavSuite package with FliteStar/FliteMap version 9.3.0. but can not get FstarRC to work with it. Have you made any progress on that issue since September?

No, because I have no information. If you want me to look, please get me a full log. Be sure to use the 2.00 version as appended earlier in this thread, and set "Log=Debug" in the FStarRC.INI file [settings] section. Then run a session including pronting the report. The FStarRC.Log file it produces will be quite big, but it should help me work out what to change -- you'd then have to test any changes for me.

Send it ZIPPED to petedowson@btconnect.com.

Regards

Pete

[martingreen]

Peter,

Just sent you the log file you requested along with a .pdf of the printed output.

Look forward to working with you to make this work. Happy 2008.

Martin Green

[Pete Dowson]

Just sent you the log file you requested along with a .pdf of the printed output.

Look forward to working with you to make this work. Happy 2008.

Phew, that was quick!

I'm still catching up today from my week off. Visitors and another day off tomorrow, so I'll not get to this till later in the week, or maybe next week. Okay?

Happy New Year!

Pete

[martingreen]

Peter,

I worked out the following partial workaround. It requires that the user have two separate logical partitions on their hard drive or a separate hard drive.

Since a Flitestar license allows a user to install the program 3 times, if someone has only installed it on a desktop and a laptop, they can use the original master disks to install the program one more time on the separate hard drive or partition. The master disks for the program currently install version 9.0.x which works fine with FStarRC 1.86 and 2.00. The updates to the FliteStar program code are currently done through the navdata updates.

After the separate install of 9.0.x, the user has to then copy from the working installation of 9.3 the following files:

1. All files in c:\Jeppesen\Common\Terminal Charts

2. All files in c:\Jeppesen\Common\Text, and

3. All files in c:\Jeppesen\Flightstar\Enroute Data,

to the corresponding folders in the 9.0.x installation. That way, the 9.0.x version, which works with FStarRC, can use the most current data for flight planning.

The reason this is only a partial workaround is that both instances of FliteStar write a “flitestar.ini” file to the %systemroot%\Windows folder. So, both instances of the program try to read the same file and although 9.3 can read the one created by 9.0.x, the 9.0.x instance will crash when trying to read the one created by 9.3. This means that every time the user runs the 9.3 version, the 9.0.x version will crash the next time it is run and the flitestar.ini file will have to be recreated. This can easily be done by simply navigating to the C:\Windows folder (on most systems) and deleting the file "flitestar.ini" from the folder. The next time either version of FlightStar is run, it will create a new version. This will require resetting the default airplane and default view and window layout.

However, until the new method is figured out, this compromise gives the best of both worlds.

Marty

[daveherrington]

Happy New Year, Pete!

I'm also running Jeppesen FliteStar 9.3.0, and I installed the FstarRC 1.86 along with the FstarRC 2.00 update from above. I've verified that everything is present in the FliteStar directory. I'm experiencing the exact same problem. I'm running Windows 32-bit Vista. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Here's the entire contents of the FstarRC.log file with Log=debug set, so I'm not sure if zipping & emailing the file to you is really necessary:

0 ********* FstarRC, Version 2.00 by Pete Dowson *********

0 Sending RC plans to: C:\Jeppesen\FliteStar\

30 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

30 Error: couldn't hook DrawTextA

30 Error: no Base for for MFC42.dll

30 Error: couldn't hook DeleteDC

Is it some kind of path problem that could be fixed by setting an environment variable ?

[Pete Dowson]

Here's the entire contents of the FstarRC.log file with Log=debug set, so I'm not sure if zipping & emailing the file to you is really necessary

No, it isn't. Thanks to Martin I've already verified that 9.3 no longer uses the MFC42.DLL library, which FStarRC hooks in order to extract the data from the print stream. It now uses MFC71.DLL instead. I'l be making a version of FStarRC which tries that DLL if MFC42 can't be hooked. This should allow a full log to be derived which will enable me to work out what else has changed. Stay tuned for a few days. I won't be able to deal with it will Wednesday or Thursday in any case.

Regards

Pete

[martingreen]

Peter,

I am pleased to confirm that FStarRC 2.001 appears to work just fine with FliteStar/FliteMap 9.3.0.

Congratulations and thank you for your extremely quick fix.

Marty

[daveherrington]

Peter,

I am pleased to confirm that FStarRC 2.001 appears to work just fine with FliteStar/FliteMap 9.3.0.

Congratulations and thank you for your extremely quick fix.

Marty

Great!!!

Is this new version available for download?

-Dave

[Pete Dowson]

Is this new version available for download?

Yes. Check the Other Downloads announcement above. It's at the end.

Pete

[daveherrington]

Is this new version available for download?

Yes. Check the Other Downloads announcement above. It's at the end.

Pete

Pete,

Thanks a million for the quick fix! It works PERFECTLY! NICE WORK!!!

For the convenience all of the other Jeppesen FliteStar 9.3 users out there:

Here's a link to the "Other Downloads and Updates" announcement that Pete mentioned above that contains the compatible new FStarRC version:

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=41519

(Look for the heading "FliteStar plans exporter, FStarRC".)

Here's to a Happy New Year of Flying in 2008!!!

-Dave