Goflight & FSUIPC Problem

[pumrigar]

I just upgraded a registered version of FSUIPC for FSX to the latest version (4.57). I am now having a strange problem with my Goflight Modules. Upon starting FSX, everything seems fine and the modules all light up, FSX loads the default flight and the modules go dark. So far all is ok. Upon engine start, some of the modules now fail to light up. Specifically GF-166, GF-45, GF-46. If I press a button on them the numbers light up but the labels are blank. I have tried:

1. Reistalling and rerunning the latest GFConfig.

2. Temporarily removing the FSUIPC dll from the modules folder (This fixes the problem but obviously no FSUIPC loads now).

3. Tried resetting FSUIPC to default settings.

My previous version of FSUIPC worked fine (sorry I dont remember the version). FSX is on a dedicated PC with Windows 7 (64 bit), Intel I7 920, 6 GB RAM, EVGA GTX 275, Soundblaster X-Fi Xtremegamer and all the latest drivers.

Any help appreciated.

[Pete Dowson]

I just upgraded a registered version of FSUIPC for FSX to the latest version (4.57). I am now having a strange problem with my Goflight Modules. Upon starting FSX, everything seems fine and the modules all light up, FSX loads the default flight and the modules go dark. So far all is ok. Upon engine start, some of the modules now fail to light up. Specifically GF-166, GF-45, GF-46. If I press a button on them the numbers light up but the labels are blank.

I'm not aware of any problems with GoFlight operation in 4.57, but please try the current update, 4.583, available in the Updates announcement above. The GoFlight units I have work fine with that. Let me know, please.

Regards

Pete

[pumrigar]

Thanks for the response. I tried the update but no go. I then restored my entire system from a recent backup and all is working now (FSUIPC is version 4.53). I tried renaming the dll in the modules folder and installing the one from the update but the problem immediately recurred so I am stuck at the moment with 4.53. Its something with my system and FSUIPC versions greater than 4.53. As long as there is no need to update I,m ok at the moment.

[Pete Dowson]

Thanks for the response. I tried the update but no go. I then restored my entire system from a recent backup and all is working now (FSUIPC is version 4.53). I tried renaming the dll in the modules folder and installing the one from the update but the problem immediately recurred so I am stuck at the moment with 4.53. Its something with my system and FSUIPC versions greater than 4.53. As long as there is no need to update I,m ok at the moment.

What version is your GFDev.DLL module? You should find that in the same folder as your GFConfig program. Right click on it and check Properties-Version. Then check the Updates Announcement at the top of this Forum. There's a recent version there which certainly works fine here. But please first save your original, because if changing it does make a difference I'd like you to send me your old one to test here, as I'm not aware of any incompatibility I've introduced and would need to check it.

If you are not assigning any GoFlight switches and things in FSUIPC you might also want to try the latest 4.58x version with the GFDev.DLL temporarily renamed or removed, so FSUIPC will not even try to access those modules.

Finally, it might be worthwhile going to the GoFlight website and downloading and installing the latest possible release of drivers, in case it's some sort of GFDev / GFDevFSX incompatibility.

I do hope you won't just give up on this as it is serious and I do need to resolve it.

Thanks,

Pete

[pumrigar]

My version of GFDev.dll was 1.90.0.2 . I downloaded ver 1.93.07 from your updates. Here is what I found:

1. With FSUIPC at 4.53 either version of GFDev.dll works fine.

2. With FSUIPC 4.57 or 4.58x either version of GFDev.dll does not work.

3. If I totally remove (rename) GFDev.dll, all versions of FSUIPC work fine (I do not assign any Goflight switches through FSUIPC)

4. I already tried downloading and reinstalling the latest Goflight software but with no success.

Basically removing GFDev.dll does the trick. Also when FSX (SP2 btw) starts the version of GFDEVFSX.exe is 1.90.0.4

Hope you are not too concerned as I dont see any similar posts. It may just be my system. Atleast I found out that GFDev.dll is not needed for my modules to work.

[Pete Dowson]

My version of GFDev.dll was 1.90.0.2 . I downloaded ver 1.93.07 from your updates. Here is what I found:

1. With FSUIPC at 4.53 either version of GFDev.dll works fine.

2. With FSUIPC 4.57 or 4.58x either version of GFDev.dll does not work.

...

Hope you are not too concerned as I dont see any similar posts. It may just be my system. Atleast I found out that GFDev.dll is not needed for my modules to work.

Right, but it will be for others. I will try to reproduce the problem here.

Also when FSX (SP2 btw) starts the version of GFDEVFSX.exe is 1.90.0.4

Hmm. I have 1.93.0.13. Maybe mine is a pre-release. I'll go get the one from their website. I would have thought, if you've updated to their latest, it would be later than 1.90.

Just in case it is relevant, could you tell me what version of Windows you are using please? Also, when you said:

Specifically GF-166, GF-45, GF-46. If I press a button on them the numbers light up but the labels are blank.

The labels are just the ones on the left-hand side or top of the GF-45 and 46 aren't they? none on the 166? Apart from the labels, did the units appear to operate correctly, numbers and dials-wise?

Thanks,

Pete

[BAW019]

For info, I've also recently found that all my Goflight modules light up during the initial load of FSX (as usual) but as soon as that's complete and I'm at the gate they go dark (new behaviour - they stayed lit before).

As a work-around I've removed the GoFlight component from the FSX.xml file and I launch it manually once FSX has finished loading. The modules light up and work fine after that but it's odd that it's recently started doing this.

I'm at work at the moment so I can't verify the component versions but when I get home I'll check I'm on the latest ones and try to run some tests.

Ian

[Pete Dowson]

For info, I've also recently found that all my Goflight modules light up during the initial load of FSX (as usual) but as soon as that's complete and I'm at the gate they go dark (new behaviour - they stayed lit before).

When do they light up again? Are you sure that's not just because your default FSX flight is with the battery or avionics off?

As a work-around I've removed the GoFlight component from the FSX.xml file and I launch it manually once FSX has finished loading. The modules light up and work fine after that but it's odd that it's recently started doing this.

If it's to do with the battery switch it may be improved and intended behaviour?

Regards

Pete

[pumrigar]

On the Goflight website the latest version is listed as 1.90.4 . My version of windows is 7 (64 bit) and FSX is the only program I run on it.

Regarding the modules, yes the labels on the GF-45 & GF-46 (top and left) do not light up. If I turn a dial, the numbers light up and appear to function normally but the labels remain off. The GF-166 has no label but the numbers will light if I press a button and appear to read correctly.

Thanks.

[BAW019]

Hi Peter, it occurs to me I might be hijacking pumrigar's topic which I'd rather not do!

I'll wait till you've sorted him out them I'll pick this up again - I have a work around so it's not urgent.

All the best both!

Ian

[pumrigar]

Hi Ian,

Entirely up to you and Pete but I dont mind at all. Far as I'm concerned the more input the better. Like you its not super urgent in my case as I have a work around.

Thanks,

pumrigar

[Pete Dowson]

On the Goflight website the latest version is listed as 1.90.4

Okay. I've got that one too anyway.

My problem at present is that I cannot get GFDevFSX to work at all, in the first place, with or without FSUIPC. I think my SimConnect SP1 installation is messed up and it needs SP1, not SP2. I can't repair SimConnect on Win7 at all, it seems to be 100% resistant to any attempts, and I am not willing to do a complete rollback and reinstall on my development PC. So I may have to install stuff on a separate PC altogether and try there.

It is odd that no one else has reported this problem. You'd think it would be serious enough for quite a clamour!

Regards

Pete

[Holclo]

Pete

I have a very similar problem. Windows 7 64 bit, FS9, GF-46,GF-P8,GF-T8, FSUIPC 3.965.

More or less exactly as described by Ian.

On loading I get the GF-46 lighting up with, for example, Com1 129.22. As the FS load completes the GF-46 goes blank. As I have the GF-P8 buttons programmed (via GoFlights set up) to select various radios to display on the GF-46 I then press a button to display Com 1 and get the frequency only appearing (no COM1 on left hand side)Then I press the button to select COM 2 and get both COM 2 and frequency digits appearing, then select button for COM 1 and get both appearing.All radios then work normally.

I can live with that but today on a flight I went to change the Com 1 frequency to get arrival ATIS and as soon as I touched the tuning encoder knob i got a "black screen" failure. FS( simply stopped and a reset of fS9 automatically occured. Maybe that was a coincidence but as you are aware I am just getting everything installed in Windows 7 and these issues take time to test.

Another interesting thing, totally unrelated, is that even though I save my flights with zero flaps the planes load with flaps at 10 for the PMDG737 or 20 for the default Cessna.

Bill

[Pete Dowson]

I have a very similar problem. Windows 7 64 bit, FS9, GF-46,GF-P8,GF-T8, FSUIPC 3.965.

More or less exactly as described by Ian.

On FS9! So it isn't just a GFDevFSX.EXE problem? I don't seem to get any problems with the FS9 stuff. I have a GF46.

I've asked Doyle, the author of both GFDev.DLL (which FSUIPC uses) and all the FS modules and drivers for GF modules, to help here, because it is looking very much like some interaction between GFDev and the other modules. The only additions in FSUIPC have been minor, a few extra calls to GFDev to ascertain howw many of each unit there are and to register an interest in seeing if any disappear or join later.

I can live with that but today on a flight I went to change the Com 1 frequency to get arrival ATIS and as soon as I touched the tuning encoder knob i got a "black screen" failure. FS( simply stopped and a reset of fS9 automatically occured. Maybe that was a coincidence ...

I sduspect it might be, but I think I need the author of the GF stuff to help out here. There's nothing FSUIPC does by itself, only requests to GF software, and if you aren't using FSUIPc GF assignments, then after the initialisatioin, there's nothing happening at all between FSUIPC and the GF modules that hasn't always been happening for years now.

Another interesting thing, totally unrelated, is that even though I save my flights with zero flaps the planes load with flaps at 10 for the PMDG737 or 20 for the default Cessna.

And what is controlling the flaps?

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

On FS9! So it isn't just a GFDevFSX.EXE problem? I don't seem to get any problems with the FS9 stuff. I have a GF46.

I'm now wondering whether I've been misinterpreting what you all have been reporting.

With FS9 and the GF-46 programmed with 8 different radio capabilities as allows for in GFConfig, I get the following sequence when FS9 is loading:

1. Initially, as FS9 is loading, the GF46 displays one of its redio settings, label on left, numeric value on right.

2. when FSUIPC initialises, the name blanks, but the numbers stay.

3. On using the button to select another function, the label comes back. From then on all is okay -- the label is always there.

If this is what you are all seeing, or similar, then I think all it is down to is FSUIPC's initialisation: as soon as it sees any devices with displays it clears those displays ready for use by whatever. I think what is happening is that the GoFlight initialisation is occurring first, and thereafter it doesn't replenish its display. If this is the cause of the "problem" I can fix it easily -- just not clear the displays, or make it optional and off.

What makes me think it isn't that simple was this original report:

I am now having a strange problem with my Goflight Modules. Upon starting FSX, everything seems fine and the modules all light up, FSX loads the default flight and the modules go dark. So far all is ok. Upon engine start, some of the modules now fail to light up. Specifically GF-166, GF-45, GF-46. If I press a button on them the numbers light up but the labels are blank

I would have thought that if the modules are put into use later, by the GoFlight driver, they would re-display. FSUIPC's "blanking" is only done once, at the start.

Please advise.

Regards

Pete

[Holclo]

Pete,

Your description above is exactly what is happening with my FS9/GoFlight. Once the labels have been brought up (I do this by pressing the button on the GF-P8 allocated to COM 2 -- the button for COM1 will not bring up its label until after COM 2 has been called up) then all is fine and the GOFlight-46 and P8 work perfectly.

In my case the GF-46 blanks out initially just after I press "FlyNow" on the loading screen and the "Loading Scenery Graphic - progress bar" starts.

Hope I have explained this OK

Take Care

Bill

[Pete Dowson]

Pete,

Your description above is exactly what is happening with my FS9/GoFlight.l

So, at least for you just cutting out my Blanking during initialisation would fix it. I'm hoping the others in this thread can confirm.

I'll make the change anyway to FSUIPC3 now and put it up in the Updates announcement at the top of the Forum. Check later today or perhaps tomorrow morning.

Regards

Pete

[Holclo]

Pete

OK - thanks

Bill

[Pete Dowson]

I'll make the change anyway to FSUIPC3 now and put it up in the Updates announcement at the top of the Forum. Check later today or perhaps tomorrow morning.

I've changed both FSUIPC3 and FSUIPC4, on the assumption it is the same problem on both. The updated versions are already available in the Updates announcement.

Regards

Pete

[Holclo]

Pete

Thanks - that's me sorted on FS9

Bill

[pumrigar]

Hi Pete,

I tried the update. First I updated to ver 4.57 again and then copied the update posted above to my modules folder. The problem remains as follows:

1. On the GF-46 and GF-166, I can get the displays to light up (including the label) and function correctly by pressing the buttons and rotating the dials.

2. On the GF-45, rotating either dial lights up the numbers but the label remains blank.

I apologize if I did not make this clear in my original post but this is the same behaviour as before. If I remove GFDev.dll from the Goflight folder, every module functions correctly regardless of FSUIPC version. I do not run FS9 so cant test that.

Regards,

pumrigar

[Pete Dowson]

I tried the update. First I updated to ver 4.57 again and then copied the update posted above to my modules folder. The problem remains as follows:

1. On the GF-46 and GF-166, I can get the displays to light up (including the label) and function correctly by pressing the buttons and rotating the dials.

2. On the GF-45, rotating either dial lights up the numbers but the label remains blank.

I apologize if I did not make this clear in my original post but this is the same behaviour as before.

Hmmm. Strange. Now FSUIPC is not addressing the GF displays at all, unless you've set the BlankDisplays parameter to "Yes", which seems rather unlikely. So, although my code is now the same on both FS9 and FSX, you still have exactly the same problem with FSX whilst it is fixed on FS9.

After FSUIPC has initialised its links to GFDev.dll, it doesn't touch the displays. In fact there is no difference at all between 4.53 and 4.57 or later after initialisation, unless of course you run a Lua plug-in which operates with GF units.

I've done a special test here. I've run FS9 to get my GF46 operating with both label and number displays working, then force-ended FS so that the displays are still shown. I then loaded and ran FSX, with the latest FSUIPC4 update, but without GFDEvFSX.EXE. The displays stayed, unchanged. Before today's update they were most certainly being cleared. So I am happy that my side is now okay.

So, this either points to a rather insidious interaction problem between GFDev.DLL and GFDevFSX.EXE, for which I am going to have to await GoFlight's pronouncements, or, just possibly, it indicates that you are actually not really running the later code.

Just as a positive elimination of that second possibility, could you please double check for me? Run FSX and go to the main tab in FSUIPC options, the one showing the version, and tell me what it says. And check the FSUIPC4.LOG, see what that says. Thanks.

Oh, by the way, both FSUIPC3 and FSUIPC4 do still blank the displays when you close down the FS session. I thought that was okay, and neat. ;-)

Regards

Pete

[pumrigar]

Hi Pete,

In FSX the version of FSUIPC is 4.583. I am pasting the log below minus my registration info.

********* FSUIPC4, Version 4.583 by Pete Dowson *********

Reading options from "E:\FSX\Modules\FSUIPC4.ini"

Trying to connect to SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07 ...

FSUIPC4 Key is provided

WideFS7 Key is provided

Running inside FSX on Windows 7 (using SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07)

Module base=61000000

Wind smoothing fix is fully installed

DebugStatus=255

32 System time = 08/02/2010 19:16:56

32 FLT UNC path = "\\FSX\FSX_DOCS\"

32 FS UNC path = "\\FSX\FSX\"

266 LogOptions=00000000 00000001

266 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay

1516 Running in "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", Version: 10.0.61472.0 (SimConnect: 10.0.61259.0)

1516 Initialising SimConnect data requests now

1516 FSUIPC Menu entry added

1563 \\FSX\FSX_DOCS\My Default Flight.FLT

1563 \\FSX\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\C172\Cessna172SP.AIR

28188 GoFlight GF45 detected: 3 devices

28188 GoFlight GFP8 detected: 2 devices

28188 GoFlight GFT8 detected: 3 devices

28188 GoFlight GFLGT detected: 1 device

28188 GoFlight GF166 detected: 3 devices

28188 GoFlight GFMCP detected: 1 device

28188 GoFlight GF46 detected: 1 device

28750 System time = 08/02/2010 19:17:25, Simulator time = 19:17:00 (01:17Z)

28750 Aircraft="Cessna Skyhawk 172SP Paint1"

29579 Advanced Weather Interface Enabled

109907 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 81 secs = 27.7 fps

134344 System time = 08/02/2010 19:19:11, Simulator time = 19:17:46 (01:17Z)

134344 *** FSUIPC log file being closed

Average frame rate for running time of 88 secs = 27.8 fps

Memory managed: 43 Allocs, 43 Freed

********* FSUIPC Log file closed ***********

I tried one more thing. This time when FSX loaded (FSUIPC 4.583) I said no for loading Goflight. After FSX was fully loaded at the default flight I manually ran GFDevFSX.exe. This time it all worked fine. Not sure what that means though.

Regards,

pumrigar

[Pete Dowson]

In FSX the version of FSUIPC is 4.583. I am pasting the log below minus my registration info.

Ah! That probably explains it. 4.583 was last week's update, for something else entirely. It was yesterday afternoon (12:32Z as per my message to that effect) when I uploaded 4.584 with the fix. Later, around 16:00 I uploaded 4.585 with some other, unrelated change. You either went and downloaded 4.583 before you saw my message saying the fix was there, or you somehow managed to download a cached copy on your ISP's server.

I tried one more thing. This time when FSX loaded (FSUIPC 4.583) I said no for loading Goflight. After FSX was fully loaded at the default flight I manually ran GFDevFSX.exe. This time it all worked fine. Not sure what that means though.

That simply confirms 100% that the problem is merely to do with the initialisation, as I suggested, as FSUIPC's initialisation actions were over and done when you loaded GFDevFSX. THat in turn which means it most definitely is fixed in 4.584 and later, but of course not 4.583 because that pre-dates the change (as in fact you could check by looking it the date on it -- I think you'll see it's the 4th, i.e. last Thursday!

Regards

Pete

[pumrigar]

Hi Pete,

I am happy to report success. Made sure I had your latest update and all Goflight modules are functioning correctly (FSUIPC 4.586). Thanks for your outstanding support.

Regards,

pumrigar