A couple of queries after my first day.

[stretch1365]

Hi all,

I have been using FSX for a number of years, but only this weekend decided to buy a Saitek yoke, rudder pedals and trim wheel with an additional Throttle Quadrant. After installing their software and trying all weekend to set mode 1 with Mixture, Prop and Throttle and Mode 2 with Spoilers, Throttle and Flaps I gave it up as a bad job! Nothing worked as it should, so frustrating.

Anyway I know everyone goes on about how useful FSUIPC is in FSX, so today I bought the payware version to sort out my problems. After a day playing around with settings and reading the manual I have the basics of what I was looking for, including setting up a Joystick for those planes without Yokes, brilliant.............I found it so good and most things worked first time, even reverse thrust on my jets!

I do have just a few questions however,

I have set up profiles as suggested in the manual, Props, Jets, and Props with sticks, however I have noticed that each assigned profile only applies to the aircraft that was loaded at the time I set the profile up. So if I have say 10 Carenado Cessna 172's in different liveries, only the one on the screen at the time gets the "prop profile". Is there a way to apply my "prop profile" to all of them at the same time, or do I have to apply my profile to each individual 172 as I use it?

I'm also trying to set up a profile for the Aerosoft Catalina, and have everything working except the Mixture which I am trying to set up using a lever on the throttle quadrant but indexed in 1/3rds with Lean, best, and Rich but the Mixture levers on the Catalina don't seem to move with the lever on the quadrant. I Know this isn't a simple Axis setting like Prop or Throttle and is taxing me a little?

I've also noticed that since installing FSUIPC, FSX seems to pause for a second every now and then and reload the "traffic" which I found a little odd, once done it returns to where it was, but is there a way to either not see the "loading traffic bar" or not reload traffic so often. It's maybe just a setting issue not a fault!. I wonder if it's something to do with FSUIPC creating those saved settings in case I crash?

Anyway, sorry to ramble on but those are my only queries after a much better day than I had all weekend!

thanks for a great product.

regards.

David Phillips.

PS must set up a signature first next time!

[Pete Dowson]

I have set up profiles as suggested in the manual, Props, Jets, and Props with sticks, however I have noticed that each assigned profile only applies to the aircraft that was loaded at the time I set the profile up. So if I have say 10 Carenado Cessna 172's in different liveries, only the one on the screen at the time gets the "prop profile". Is there a way to apply my "prop profile" to all of them at the same time, or do I have to apply my profile to each individual 172 as I use it?

Well, it is quite easy, with profiles, to assign each as you load them, but there is another way, and that is to simply find the relevant [Profile.<name>] section in the FSUIPC INI file (in the FS Modules folder), and edit the entry (or entries) below to be an abbreviation of the name which will match all of the aircraft of that type. For instance, say you had:

[Profile.Prop]

1=Carenado Cessna 172 White

changing ths to

[Profile.Prop]

1=Cessna 172

would match all aircraft with "Cessna 172" in the name, whilst

[Profile.Prop]

1=White

would match all with "White" in the name.

This does assume you have "ShortAircraftNameOk=Substring" set in the [General] section, but that is defaulted these days so it should be unless you've changed it.

I'm also trying to set up a profile for the Aerosoft Catalina, and have everything working except the Mixture which I am trying to set up using a lever on the throttle quadrant but indexed in 1/3rds with Lean, best, and Rich but the Mixture levers on the Catalina don't seem to move with the lever on the quadrant. I Know this isn't a simple Axis setting like Prop or Throttle and is taxing me a little?

If that add-on aircraft has a mixture control not operated by the misture axis assignment then you would certainly need to do something different. But I cannot really help without knowing what it needs to select the right setting. If there are some controls or keypresses to operate then that can be done by assigning to ranges on the right-hand side of the axis assignment tab.

I've also noticed that since installing FSUIPC, FSX seems to pause for a second every now and then and reload the "traffic" which I found a little odd, once done it returns to where it was, but is there a way to either not see the "loading traffic bar" or not reload traffic so often. It's maybe just a setting issue not a fault!. I wonder if it's something to do with FSUIPC creating those saved settings in case I crash?

If you've elected to have autosave enabled then it could be, though it would certainly indicate a problem with your disk system as saving files should be so fast you'd not notice, and it certainly shouldn't delay FS so much that it forces a reload -- that only happens if the time gets wildly out! I never notice saves and nor should you. Windows should be caching files and you disk system should have sufficient buffers. The saved files are not large.

There's a more likely answer, and that is the clock sync option, if you've set that, on the Miscellaneous tab. I use that too and don't get any reloads, but FS will reload stuff and give a progress bar if the time sync has to change the time by a minute or more -- changing by seconds doesn't do a reload. However, your system time should not really drifting so far off the FS time as to require a minute adjustment very often, if at all, once sync is obtained. Maybe the frame rate is rather low and FS is struggling to keep up? Do you get a lot of stuttering?

Regards

Pete

[stretch1365]

Hi peter,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I will try the shortened name for aircraft of each type in the profile part of FSUIPC found in the modules file, I have been there to delete a few profiles wrongly assigned so no problem there............Please excuse some of my descriptions of files and pages etc, I'm still learning a whole lot about computers while at the same time learning about the in's and out's of getting the most from FSX. Great fun!

My Catalina query might not be easily sorted as I don't think Aerosoft have a Key command for mixture settings. The mixtures are set moving a lever similar to "prop pitch" but it's indented with 4 settings, off, lean, auto rich and full rich which I think are only supposed to be adjusted from in the Virtual Cockpit................I'll look into this one again later tonight.

my last query regarding the loading bar coming up on the screen, which says something about "loading traffic" I've never seen this one before either. I do have the "Clock Sync" option checked, but as you say it shouldn't be that far out after only 10 or 15 mins. I know my system is only mid range and it does well to run FSX, REX Essentials, Ground Environment X, etc and A2A, PMDG type aircraft too............Did I mention that second screen which I know knocks quite a few frames/second off the total. lol I think it might well be something I have to play around with..............I might turn off the second screen and see if that makes a difference and make some notes on what causes it. At least it's not doing it all the time and doesn't distract from my flying.

Once again thanks for your quick reply.

Regards,

David Phillips.

[Pete Dowson]

My Catalina query might not be easily sorted as I don't think Aerosoft have a Key command for mixture settings. The mixtures are set moving a lever similar to "prop pitch" but it's indented with 4 settings, off, lean, auto rich and full rich which I think are only supposed to be adjusted from in the Virtual Cockpit................I'll look into this one again later tonight.

Not very nice for cokpit builders if they don't provide some other way to control it. There are a couple of avenues to research (well three actually):

1. Enable event and axis logging in FSUIPC's logging tab, and see if sleecting the mixture positions actually sends controls to FS. If so you can assign to those.

2. Read up on the "mouse macro" facilities in FSUIPC and see if it responds to those.

3. It may be using "Local Gauge Variables" or "L:Vars". If so you can contruct macros to write to those, which may work. You can list the L:Vars using an FSUIPC-assignable control, or log them as they change by running a Lua plug-in provided in the examples Zip in your "FSUIPC Documents" folder.

my last query regarding the loading bar coming up on the screen, which says something about "loading traffic" I've never seen this one before either. I do have the "Clock Sync" option checked, but as you say it shouldn't be that far out after only 10 or 15 mins.

Well try unchecking the option in any case, to check.

{LATER]

I just checked on the User Contributions subforum, and I thionk you'll find a full solution for your Catalina questions there -- see the thread entitled

Aerosoft Catalina commands (upd 19thDez09)

Looks like guenseli solved the problem using my third suggestion above, i.e L:Vars.

Regards

Pete

[stretch1365]

Hi Peter,

Sorry for not getting on here for a few days to read your reply................Would you believe I've been busy programming FSUIPC and having great success. I keep setting up Axis and Buttons for an aircraft and then getting another idea and changing them all again, lol. I think I've settled on settings I'm happy with now. FSUIPC is just so flexible.

I will try unclicking the Clock sync, and see if that helps, I've been running FSX and trying to see if there is a pattern developing.........No luck as yet.

Thanks for the comments regarding the Aerosoft Catalina, I'll have a look at that thread in a minute.

Regards.

David Phillips.