Elevator trim FSUIPC

[SKYWARRIOR]

Hi,

I am a relative newbie and am having trouble with a less than smooth Elevator trim using the Go Flight Gear / flap trim module.

I would like to try using FSUIPC and see if it will be more reliable and smoother. Can you advise the best way to go, Is a mouse macro ?

I note that if using FSUIPC you need to disable the Go Flight controller, does this mean you have to elect to do all GF Modules thru FSUIPC ( for instance with the Gear /trim unit can I just process the trim or all that module or all GF Modules that are in the circuit?

I have now transferred all other actions from FSX to FSUIPC

As an aside ca you tell me what FSUIPC SDK is please.

Thank you

David

Windows 7 /64 bit i7 4 core TH/Tgo

[Pete Dowson]

I am a relative newbie and am having trouble with a less than smooth Elevator trim using the Go Flight Gear / flap trim module.

Is that the LGT or LGT2? The one with one or three trim wheels?

I would like to try using FSUIPC and see if it will be more reliable and smoother.

If it is an LGT, using the GoFlight driver, I think it simply sends ELEV TRIM UP and ELEV TRIM DN controls, depending which way you turn it. They should provide the same sort of operation as using the trim keypresses (NUMPAD 1 and 7) as they are the same controls. What is the actual problem? Too slow, too fast, or erratic response?

Can you advise the best way to go, Is a mouse macro ?

No. Mouse macros are for programming buttons to operate some types of gauges on screen which otherwise can only be accessed with a mouse. That never applies to any normal FS control.

I note that if using FSUIPC you need to disable the Go Flight controller

Where do you note that from?

Naturally, if you want the operation of a button, dial or lever to be acted upon only once, as you would, then only one program should be reading it and acting upon it. Unfortunately, I note that, in FSX at least, the "GFConfig" program GoFlight supplies for configuring their devices does not actually allow the trim wheel(s) on the LGT to be freed from GF control. So, the problem if you tried to program the device in FSUIPC would be that both FSUIPC and GFDevFSX would be responding.

So, yes, you would probably need to stop GFDevFSX.exe from running and use only FSUIPC. But this means using FSUIPC for everything you have from GoFlight -- the GFDevFSX.EXE program provides the interface for pretty much everything GF as far as I can tell. This isn't so much a problem for all of the inputs (they will all look like buttons to FSUIPC, and can be programmed directly in FSUIPC's Buttons and Switches tab), but there is no associated default handling of GF displays and indicators in FSUIPC. Even if the LGT is the only GF unit you have, it still means programming the three Gear indicator lights correctly.

GF display handling used to be done via an extra program I supplied, GFDisplay. It still can be -- by all means investigate that if you are interested. Nowadays, though, for GF units connected to the main FS PC, I'd recommend using Lua plug-ins. There's an extra function library available to Lua plug-ins calld "gfd" (for GoFlight display) which can handle everything GF offers. But it does involve a level of basic programming.

I do see that GFConfig can adjust the "gain" on the trim wheel(s). Have you first attempted to adjust that to your satisfaction?

As an aside ca you tell me what FSUIPC SDK is please.

"SDK" stands for "Software Development Kit", and it provides the resources that application programmers need to interface their programs to FSUIPC. The only part of it which may be of interest to users is the document detailing all of the FSUIPC offsets, as these can be manipulated directly by assigning "Offset" controls to buttons or keypresses.

Regards

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Unfortunately, I note that, in FSX at least, the "GFConfig" program GoFlight supplies for configuring their devices does not actually allow the trim wheel(s) on the LGT to be freed from GF control. So, the problem if you tried to program the device in FSUIPC would be that both FSUIPC and GFDevFSX would be responding.

Correction!

I just updated my GoFlight software to version 1.93 build 12, a very recent pre-release from GoFlight, and it seems that the trims CAN after all be configured for FSX (and FS9), with one of the options being "no selection". I don't know when this changed, maybe I was out of date -- check your version and/or look out for an update on the GoFlight website.

With such a facility you can certainly set the GF driver to "no selection" on the trim wheel and then program that in FSUIPC. Not that in FSUIPC you will find the wheel looks like 4 buttons -- slow and fast in each direction. So you could assign the slow ones to single ELEV TRIM UP/Down on "press" only, and the fast ones to the same controls on both "press" and "release". They will give you two speeds. And yuo wouldn't need to worry about programming the gear lights.

But first see if adjusting GF's own "Trim control Gain" gives you what you want.

Regards

Pete

[SKYWARRIOR]

Pete,

thank you for your reply. I am going to try all suggestions and report back. I believe I read you could not have the GF control in the same folder ? I will try and find where that was. The unit is the older version LGT 1.

Thanks again

one learns a little each day

David

[Pete Dowson]

I believe I read you could not have the GF control in the same folder ?

You must not put the GFDev.dll module which FSUIPC uses to interface to GF modules into the FS9 Modules folder. With FSX it does not matter, but with FS9 it would cause FS to crash as it will try to load it like an FS module.

If you've installed the GoFlight software correctly then you should not need to worry about where GFDev.dll is, as FSUIPC can find it via the Registry entry for the GFConfig.EXE program installation. GFDev.dll should be in the same folder.

Regards

Pete

[SKYWARRIOR]

Pete,

thank you for your help.

David