Big problems assigning/calibrating axes:-(

[Delvos]

Good morning Pete... i have big problems assigning/calibrating joystick axes via FSUIPC 3.90. First i deleted all axes assingments in FS (FS9.1) and my FSUIPC.INI (not write-protected:-) doesn't have any joystick/button assignsments either, so everything is clean. First i wanted to assign an axis as a flap lever with detentes, so i went to the axis assignment page, moved my desired axis which was succesfully recognized and assigned it to 'Flaps' / send via FSUIPC calibration. I went to the joystick calibration page 6, pressed 'Set' and 'Dt' and tried to set the detentes - but the IN/OUT values did not change. So i went back to the assignment page, rescanned my axis and saw that my previous assignment was not stored. I reassigned it, pressed OK and re-entered FSUIPC to check. No assignment stored. The next attempt was successful and i found out that i have to assign twice(!) until FSUIPC stored my assignment!

Back to the joystick calibration page 6 i wanted to set my flap detentes now... Pressed the Set button, the Dt button and moved the lever to the flap-up position to set the #0 and #2 values first. Moving the lever i saw that the IN values changed in a correct way from 16383 to -16384 whereas the OUT values displayed only show 3 different values when moving the lever from UP to DOWN: 16383, -130 and -16384.

Number of flap detentes is set to 9 (B737) and the lever i use is the SAITEK Pro Flight TQ. Everything is running under Windows XP SP3...

Can you tell me what's going wrong? Best regards,

[Pete Dowson]

i found out that i have to assign twice(!) until FSUIPC stored my assignment!

I really don't know what you've got going on there. There's no difference in what FSUIPC is doing the each time.

Please download the latest version (3.918) from the Updates announcement above, and try that again. It works fine here, 100%.

If there's still a problem, possibly you have some mix up with setting aircraft or profile-specific options?

Back to the joystick calibration page 6 i wanted to set my flap detentes now... Pressed the Set button, the Dt button and moved the lever to the flap-up position to set the #0 and #2 values first. Moving the lever i saw that the IN values changed in a correct way from 16383 to -16384 whereas the OUT values displayed only show 3 different values when moving the lever from UP to DOWN: 16383, -130 and -16384.

Sounds right -- there will be defaults set from the #1 value, so you have min (#0) notch #1, and max (#2). Now you carry on and calibrate each of the 7 intermediate notches #1 to #7. You'll see the max notch number increase to #8 in the end. Seems like you simply are not doing the calibrations. Notch calibration is like doing centre calibration on the yoke -- except you have (for a 9-notch flap lever) 7 "centre" positions to calibrate. That's the whole point.

If you don't have real notches for the flaps lever, and are happy to have FSUIPC compute evenly spaced-out values, do NOT use the detente calibration facility. I think you are misunderstanding what this is for, perhaps?

Regards

Pete

[Delvos]

Hi Pete and thx for the fast reply! Well, when i'm back @home i will install the 3.918 version and try again. I don't think i misunderstood what this is for:-) In fact i really need the manually set detents, so i have to calibrate each of the notches individually because of the non-unique notch-distances on a 737 flaps lever:-) OK, now i understand the difference between IN and OUT values; initially i have only #0,#1 and #2 values set - so FSUIPC will only send these three values to FS until the intermediate notches are defined - logical, of course:-)

Besides this - when using flap detentes calibration, the correct axis assignment for my flap lever would be: Flaps - via FSUIPC calibration, am i right?

BTW: i would be glad if you'd like to visit my homecockpit-site - http://www.b737sim.de - and leave a view words in my guestbook:-)

Regards,

[Pete Dowson]

when using flap detentes calibration, the correct axis assignment for my flap lever would be: Flaps - via FSUIPC calibration, am i right?

I'm pretty sure all of the calibration facilities, including flap notches, can be accomplished no matter how you assign the axes. Really it is more efficient is all of your axes are via the same mechanism -- so all in FSUIPC with "direct to FSUIPC calibration" checked, or all assigned in FS (but then make sure max sensitivity and min dead zone in FS).

The option for assigning in FSUIPC but still sending the values via FS controls is there for two reasons

(1) there are many possible such assignments which are NOT covered by FSUIPC calibration in any case, and

(2) there are some add-on aircraft panels which need to process the original FS controls and won't work with FSUIPC control methods.

BTW: i would be glad if you'd like to visit my homecockpit-site - http://www.b737sim.de - and leave a view words in my guestbook:-)

Maybe. ;-)

Regards

Pete

[Delvos]

Hello Pete, everything is working well now; i've installed the latest FSUIPC version, assigned my axes and calibrated them via FSUIPC. The problem concerning my flap lever was, that i had to check 'Reverse':-) After this i could finish calibrating my flap lever...

The axis assignment still works a little bit strange; when pressing the 'Rescan' button once (no movement of any device!), FSUIPC shows randomly(?) one of my joysticks that are already known to FSUIPC and an 'assignment' that is really not assigned to this stick, but to another one. Pressing 'Rescan' again, another joystick is shown and another random action. After pressing 'Rescan' again, all fields are cleared and the command 'Move Lever' is shown and i can move my desired joystick to be recognized... A little bit strange - but can be worked around as described...

Regards,

[Pete Dowson]

... when pressing the 'Rescan' button once (no movement of any device!), FSUIPC shows randomly(?) one of my joysticks that are already known to FSUIPC and an 'assignment' that is really not assigned to this stick, but to another one.

Not at all randomly. The display shows the first input which indicates a change. If one you aren't moving is being seen, it is because it is suffering some "jitter". Many potentiometer-based joystick axes give slightly different readings each time they are measured (temperature, pressure, dirt, humidity etc). Normally one "parked" at either extreme should be "quiet".

This is the reason the Axis Assignments tab is equipped with an "Ignore" button, so you can tell it to ignore interfering jittery axes (on this visit only).

Pressing 'Rescan' again, another joystick is shown and another random action.

You obviously have jitters in more than one place. Maybe a wobbly power supply? Or you are allowing USB power saving? And try parking all unused axes.

After pressing 'Rescan' again, all fields are cleared and the command 'Move Lever' is shown and i can move my desired joystick to be recognized... A little bit strange - but can be worked around as described...

Not strange at all -- jitters are quite common especially with cheaper or older joysticks, less so with modern digital ones -- providing the power supply is smooth. After all FSUIPC4 can do no more than respond to axis changes. That is all it is doing. I can apply filters to axes AFTER assignment, but if applied beforehand the filtering might eliminate the changes which it needs to detect.

Regards

Pete

[Delvos]

Yes, i understand - i remember the notes when RTFM:-) and saw that effect when calibrating joysticks - different IN-values although i did not move the stick...

Regards and thy,