barrykensett Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 I have used two configurations using the steering tiller facility in FSUIPC, the first setup was with two joysticks connected to the FS sim PC plus one pair of rudder pedals. I disconnected the throttle connections in the joystick and plugged the steering tiller pots in there (easy short wiring job). The detection and calibration worked fine except that when taxying the aircraft twitches from side to side, not enough to make it unusable but very annoying as it does not follow a smooth track. I messed about with calibrations in FSUIPC but never managed to get it smooth. I think it is getting spurious inputs from somewhere and with so many controls in the game I am not surprised but I have tried to ensure through calibration that all controls "at rest" are properly zeroed. I am now trying out FS Communicator so I have two sidesticks connected to another PC which talk across with WideFS. Also I managed to get the throttle pots mapped to rudder as before but now I don't see the calibration options in FSUIPC (I presume this is normal using pots across WideFS?). By trial and error I found however that if I selected NW Steering in the axis calibration page and just clicked the centre point that the rudder came in as taxi speed increased so I thought I had cracked it, however the main frustration I still have is the twitching of the steering is just the same as before. I have of course calibrated everything in FSComm. FS communicator recommends Auto Coordination selected on and when I taxi and steer with the stick it is so smooth. This prompted me to try mapping the steering tiller to the ailerons but that messed the ailerons up. Has anyone else here had the "twitching" and managed to sort it? Barry www.a320sim.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dowson Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 The detection and calibration worked fine except that when taxying the aircraft twitches from side to side, not enough to make it unusable but very annoying as it does not follow a smooth track. I messed about with calibrations in FSUIPC but never managed to get it smooth. I think it is getting spurious inputs from somewhere and with so many controls in the game I am not surprised but I have tried to ensure through calibration that all controls "at rest" are properly zeroed. FSUIPC's axis logging should show you what is going on. If you are getting jitter with controls centralised and not being touched then there's something odd. Have they got a clean power supply, good connections and cables? If USB connected try a different USB socket, preferably either one on the motherboard, or on a good powered hub. Don't use unpowered hubs. And check that the potentiometer or whatever in the control isn't worn or dirty. I've used Servisol electrical cleaner on some to good effect. For the neutral, central area, you could use FSUIPC's "slope" facility to set a flatter central response. Of course this wastes a little resolution in the outer areas which have to be steeper to compensate, but it is often a good fix. It is the equivalent of the "null zone" in FS, except that simply removes part of the range altogether. I am now trying out FS Communicator so I have two sidesticks connected to another PC which talk across with WideFS. Also I managed to get the throttle pots mapped to rudder as before but now I don't see the calibration options in FSUIPC (I presume this is normal using pots across WideFS?). Only if it is trying to write direct to the FS control offsets. There are a set of offsets (3BA8 to 3BC6) which were originally made for handling the PFC range of serial port devices. Values written to those are detected in FSUIPC's Axis Assignments as being on joysticks 16-18 and can be assigned and calibrated like any others. Regards Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrykensett Posted October 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Pete Thank you for those pointers, I think the mechanics are all OK as I have tried pulling them out one at a time (rudder and the two sticks) but I will double check. I do have a worry about the CH rudder and will be making a new set of rudder pedals soon. All plugged into motherboards. I have tried playing with the slopes but will have another play; I was trying to get a wider null zone. I did not know about the 3BA8 to 3BC6 offsets and have not yet been able to find them in your documents, can you give me a clue as this excites me? Thanks for your help. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dowson Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 I did not know about the 3BA8 to 3BC6 offsets and have not yet been able to find them in your documents, can you give me a clue as this excites me? Are you looking in the SDK as you should? They are listed in both the "FSUIPC for Programmers" document and the "FSUIPC4 Offsets Status" document, the only continually updated references for FSUIPC offsets, and they've been so listed for a couple of years at least. As all of the offsets are listed in order, I don't see how it is you cannot find them! Regards Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrykensett Posted October 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 Found them in the docs for PFC.DLL. Will try them out. Thanks again Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrykensett Posted October 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Pete Those offsets worked fine in that they appeared in FSUIPC as joysticks. I have put the rudder and brakes on the same PC as the nosewheel steering. I have carried out basic calibration in FS Comm, i.e extremes and centre for rudder and tillers, max and min for brakes. I then tried to set up in FSUIPC to get the steering and rudders separated. I went through the well trodden procedures but could not get a calibration to work, the input values did not look anything like the output valus from FS Comm and I could not get a centre point on either of the axes. Going back to FS Comm I put the steering and rudders all to 0BBA (rudder) and that works fine except that of course the two axes are both working at all times. The brakes calibrated fine. The sim is flying OK with the present setup but it would be nice to get the tiller to wash out, have you any more tips? Regards Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dowson Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 Those offsets worked fine in that they appeared in FSUIPC as joysticks. I have put the rudder and brakes on the same PC as the nosewheel steering. I have carried out basic calibration in FS Comm, i.e extremes and centre for rudder and tillers, max and min for brakes. Sorry, I don't understand much of that. What is "FS Comm"? Aren't you calibrating anything in FSUIPC? I then tried to set up in FSUIPC to get the steering and rudders separated. I went through the well trodden procedures but could not get a calibration to work, the input values did not look anything like the output valus from FS Comm and I could not get a centre point on either of the axes. Did you read the write up about those offsets in the Offsets documentation, as i pointed you to? Using them like PFC uses them your values have to be 0-127, as that is the range used by PFC. FSUIPC then scales them by x 512 in order to get them to normal FS-accepted values. If you are already sending such values you have to take precautions, as described. So, I think you must be missing something in the documentation. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrykensett Posted October 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 Pete Sorry FS Comm = FS Communicator. To recap on my objectives, because my sim is A320 I want to implement Fly-By-Wire; I am trying FS Communicator as this is the only software that I know of which does this. Also it incorporates the Airbus joystick priority handover feature with the proper warning lights. To save wiring and interface cards I re-allocate the throttle axis to nosewheel steering so that service physically goes wherever the sticks go. My rudder and brakes are a separate "joystick" Before I started to use Fs Communicator I had all the joysticks on the FS computer and set the controls up in FSUIPC and it all worked but as stated in the original post it was very "twitchy". In accordance with FS Communicator recommendations, the joysticks (sidesticks) are not now on the Flight Sim Computer. The roll and pitch axes go into Fs Communicator and via WideFS and FSUIPC to the Flight Sim (FS9) Because of the way I have wired things the tiller is not now on the FS Computer and is not handled by FS Communicator so I need to send that to the Flight Sim through FSUIPC. Initially I sent the rudder offset to the Flight Sim and that worked fine. I could not however use the tiller/rudder setup in FSUIPC as I could not "see" the axis. This is where your suggestion to use the PFC offsets looks to sort out my problem, if I can "see" the tiller and rudder axes in FSUIPC I can calibrate them. I missed the point about using values 0 - 127, I think I can sort that by setting the range in FS Communicator and will try that next. Thanks for your patience, I do try to read the manuals but there is a lot to read and a much of it I don't pretend to understand being a very old engineer, not a programmer. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dowson Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 I missed the point about using values 0 - 127, I think I can sort that by setting the range in FS Communicator and will try that next. Thanks for your patience, I do try to read the manuals but there is a lot to read and a much of it I don't pretend to understand being a very old engineer, not a programmer. But you only had to read the comments alongside the offsets you are using. They are surely not that long and complex? Look, I'll reproduce them here to save you all that bother of getting the document back up on your screen (I've emphasised the parts which should have sprung up into your attention): Area used by PFC.DLL for axis input, for optional assignment and calibration in FSUIPC.When the PFC driver is not being used, other programs can make use of these offsets to input axis values directly to FSUIPC, which also can then be assigned in FSUIPC and thence calibrated. Note that by default FSUIPC assumes that the normal input here is in the range 0–127, and scales it accordingly. For applications supplying a greater range, possibly up to the maximum allowed for joysticks (–16383 to +16383) the “RAW” option will be needed to avoid this scaling. Regards Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrykensett Posted October 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Thanks Pete, I sat on the naughty step for a couple of hours and then went back to the sim armed with your advice and all my controls are now visible and able to be calibrated in FSUIPC. I am hoping that having got all the controls working through the same software setup and with a bit of tweaking to create dead zones in the centres of travel that the "twitching" which started this post will go away. Time will tell. Barry http://www.a320sim.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dowson Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 ... all my controls are now visible and able to be calibrated in FSUIPC. Good. Hope it all works well for you now! Regards Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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