Installing FSUIPC4 for FSX Problem

[rightstuffer]

I am try to install the Aerosoft's GA28R simulator on a new Windows 7 computer with FSX installed with all service packs. Aersoft has informed me that they no longer support this device.

Have several problems:

Where can I download GA28R.dll 1.00?

When I lauch the GA28R software, it is only looking for FS2002 or 2004, and there is no option to point the software to FSX. Does anyone know of a work around for this?

Thank you

[Pete Dowson]

You posted a support question to the FAQ subforum, which is a repository for Answers to frequesnt questions. I moved it to the Support Forum for you.

I am try to install the Aerosoft's GA28R simulator on a new Windows 7 computer with FSX installed with all service packs. Aersoft has informed me that they no longer support this device.

Wow! You have one too? I understood they only made 5 of these wonderful beasts! They wanted to buy mine back off me at one time! ;-)

Where can I download GA28R.dll 1.00?

Sorry, I don't use the Aerosoft driver, i wrote my own. If they no longer support the device I doubt you can get their original software now.

When I lauch the GA28R software

Sorry, i'm confused now. If you have the software what was the previous question about?

it is only looking for FS2002 or 2004, and there is no option to point the software to FSX. Does anyone know of a work around for this?

You might have to install it in FS9 then copy it over. Sorry, I don't really know.

I could send you a copy of my own driver, but you'd need to install and register FSUIP4 first. And there's no documentation and no support -- you'd be fending for yourself. All I could do is provide the module and my own INI/parameter fiel for it.

Regards

Pete

[SeanG]

You posted a support question to the FAQ subforum, which is a repository for Answers to frequesnt questions. I moved it to the Support Forum for you.

Wow! You have one too? I understood they only made 5 of these wonderful beasts! They wanted to buy mine back off me at one time! ;-)

Sorry, I don't use the Aerosoft driver, i wrote my own. If they no longer support the device I doubt you can get their original software now.

Sorry, i'm confused now. If you have the software what was the previous question about?

You might have to install it in FS9 then copy it over. Sorry, I don't really know.

I could send you a copy of my own driver, but you'd need to install and register FSUIP4 first. And there's no documentation and no support -- you'd be fending for yourself. All I could do is provide the module and my own INI/parameter fiel for it.

Regards

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

Sorry for reviving this old thread... I just acquired a GA28R, formerly at a flying school here in NZ...  I have yet to fire it up, I am assured it was working before I collected it... Could I trouble you for a copy of your driver?  The sim currently has FS2000 on it (and was being actively used with it up until recently!), but I plan on trying to get it running with FSX if possible.  The sim is in really good condition, and I'm looking forward to getting my GA flying fix with it :)

 

You mentioned that they only made a few of these things, which is a real shame as it appears to be a great, and well made piece of kit!

 

Cheers

Sean

<Fellow GA28R owner.. soon to be pilot!>

[Pete Dowson]

Hi Pete,

Sorry for reviving this old thread... I just acquired a GA28R, formerly at a flying school here in NZ...  I have yet to fire it up, I am assured it was working before I collected it... Could I trouble you for a copy of your driver?  The sim currently has FS2000 on it (and was being actively used with it up until recently!), but I plan on trying to get it running with FSX if possible.  The sim is in really good condition, and I'm looking forward to getting my GA flying fix with it :)

 

You mentioned that they only made a few of these things, which is a real shame as it appears to be a great, and well made piece of kit!

 

I was told there were only 5 made, and even the makers don't have one now -- in fact they wanted to buy mine back!

 

Please email me petedowson@btconnect.com regarding this and I will try to sort something out. Because I never released it there's no documentation, so I will have to fire up my GA28R PC in order to get my INI file settings for you to use as an example.

 

Pete

[SeanG]

Pete, Sir, you are a legend :)

 

Funny, I contacted Andrew at Aerosoft... and he wanted to buy mine too!

 

Email inbound shortly.

 

Thanks again,

 

Sean

 

p.s. Hope the Steam Train trip was good!

[David Love-Brice]

Morning Pete,

Sorry to dig up this old post, but I wanted to reach out for some thoughts and advice. 🙂  I, like Sean above have a GA28R instrument panel through my local Air Cadet Squadron.  They've tasked me with the job of seeing if I can get it updated and working with a modern system.  They're currently using WinXP (I think) and FS2000, though I'm hopeful that the updated DLL can allow it to work via FSUIPC in FSX:SE.

Sean has provided me with a copy of the GA28R.DLL and .INI files you provided him with a few years back.

I appreciate that your time is valuable, however I'm having some issues getting things working with this fantastic piece of kit.  So please bear with me while I explain a little on the issue.

So currently, I have the Aerosoft GA28R panel connected to my laptop via a Serial to USB cable (with drivers installed for COM3, though I understand I can change COM ports), FSX Steam Edition, FSUIPC 4.974 and the GA28R.DLL and associated .ini file in the FSX/Modules folder.

As part of the setup process, I've edited the FSX:SE dll.xml file to include the following;

  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>GA28R</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>Modules\GA28R.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>

This prompts me in FSX to load the DLL when the aircraft loads, so I know the Sim is picking up the DLL correctly.

I fire up the instrument panel first which then runs it's self test, I then load FSX,  When FSX loads the simulation, the instrument panel dies out and the GA28R.log file outputs the following;

********* GA28R.DLL, Version 1.20 by Pete Dowson *********
  COM3 open okay
     8594: Restarting serial operations due to lack of reception ...
********* GA28R Log file closed *********

I do get some communication between the device and the sim, as I can see it on my FSUIPC log file, though it does die at different points, and in either case, it doesn't seem to be syncing back to the instruments on the panel as they never update regardless. 

I'm not sure if this is all due to a different FSX version number than what the DLL was coded for or something else.  I'd hate to go back to the cadets and say I couldn't do anything with it.

There's so many many options within FSUIPC and the COM port settings in windows that I'm lost as to where to start troubleshooting!

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Regards

David.

Edited October 27, 2019 by David Love-Brice

[David Love-Brice]

Just going to add an update here. 🙂

I've managed to get things working by removing the DLL and just using the G28RCOM1 program and items seem to work for the most part using that at this stage.  There's a couple of minor issues in relation to some switches, though It seems to work in FSX:SE and P3Dv4 at this stage.   Certainly with reporting back to the sim panel.

No idea why the DLL doesn't work though, that's weird.

[Pete Dowson]

4 hours ago, David Love-Brice said:

As part of the setup process, I've edited the FSX:SE dll.xml file to include the following;

  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>GA28R</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>Modules\GA28R.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>

This prompts me in FSX to load the DLL when the aircraft loads, so I know the Sim is picking up the DLL correctly.

No, you need to remove that. GA28R.dll is loaded automatically by FSUIPC when it is seen in the Modules folder. If it is already loaded then the linking GA28R and FSUIPC does will fail to properly complete.

4 hours ago, David Love-Brice said:

I'm not sure if this is all due to a different FSX version number than what the DLL was coded for

It isn't coded for any particular version. FSUIPC tends to all the differences. GA28R only talks to FSUIPC and the device.

48 minutes ago, David Love-Brice said:

I've managed to get things working by removing the DLL and just using the G28RCOM1 program and items seem to work for the most part using that at this stage.

Is that the original fixed serial port driver supplied by Aerosoft? I wasn't happy with that, which is why I wrote my own. I was using GA28R with FSX-SE, but now  I use GA28R64 - the 64-bit version for P3D4.

If you need the P3D4 version let me know. I don't openly publish either because I am too lazy to do any documentation! 😉 (and as far as I knew there were only 5 of these cockpits ever made -- Aerosoft wanted to buy mine back at one time!).

50 minutes ago, David Love-Brice said:

No idea why the DLL doesn't work though, that's weird.

The only setting up to be done is to put the correct COM port and speed into the INI. My INI is:

[Connection]
Speed=38400
Port=COM1
[User]
LEDdaytime=48
LEDnighttime=16
ADF100Hz=Y

But, as I said, you must let FSUIPC load it, not pre-load it via an Addon XML file.

Pete

 

[David Love-Brice]

Hi Pete,

If you can send me the 64 bit version, that would be awesome!  if you throw it through to help@irissimulations.com.au, I'll get it. 🙂

I'll try removing the dll.xml entry and see if that helps my woes. 🙂  It's such an awesome bit of kit, shame only a handful were made.

Do you have any objection to my writing some documentation for them on your behalf?  Just in case someone else decides to update from FS2000! 😄

Edited October 27, 2019 by David Love-Brice

[Pete Dowson]

 

20 hours ago, David Love-Brice said:

If you can send me the 64 bit version, that would be awesome!  if you throw it through to help@irissimulations.com.au, I'll get it. 🙂

Well, that's another story.  I did most of the conversion from the 32-bit version long ago, but I never got to test it yet because I've been concentrating on my 737NG cockpit using ProSim instead. I upgraded the main PC for that, and the previous one was "passed down" to the GA28R setup.  I've not had time to connect that up yet.

So, if you want a tested version of GA28R64 I'm afraid It'll be a few weeks yet -- but i do aim to have it all up and working correctly again before Christmas.  If you'd like an untested version to try I can send it this week, and i'll need some logs back to see how it was. But otherwise i'd recommend waiting -- please send me a reminder now and then, maybe at 2-3 weekly intervals (else i'm bound to forget, sorry ... old age!)

20 hours ago, David Love-Brice said:

Do you have any objection to my writing some documentation for them on your behalf?  Just in case someone else decides to update from FS2000! 😄

Feel free! But I think in that case you ought to include details of other INI options:

All in [Connection]:

Debug = n 
-- where n is the sum of the following choice of values:
-- 1   = Log COM port data
-- 2   = Log COM Read/Write actions
-- 4   = Log input packet decodes (most useful)
-- 8   = Log Write packets

-- 64 = Log Writes to FSUIPC Offsets

-- 512 = Send copy of log entries to "DebugString" (for use in debuggers, for real time view
------------ (you can get a program called Debugview.exe to show these too - somewhere on Microsoft web sites.

AutoRestartTime = 6000 (milliseconds). default 6000, minimum 1000
ReadSleepTime = 20 (milliseconds)
WriteSleepTime = 20 (milliseconds)
ClearOnReset = No (or YES)
SyncInit = Yes (or NO)

Those are really not for general use changes, but may be advised if needed (judging by errors or whatever in log).
 

The other parameters are as in the INI file I already presented.

Pete

 

[David Love-Brice]

Thanks Pete, 

I'm happy to try out an untested version and provide log files, but don't go to any unnecessary effort, I'm just has happy to wait too. 🙂

Depends what's better for you.

Thanks for the info on the debug, that'll come in handy no doubt.  

David.

[Pete Dowson]

6 hours ago, David Love-Brice said:

I'm happy to try out an untested version and provide log files, but don't go to any unnecessary effort, I'm just has happy to wait too. 🙂

Well, you can get it using this link: GA28R64.zip

That includes the INI with all log options set, so the log will be pretty big. if you post one back here please be sure to ZIP it.

If it appears to be working, or almost so, please feel free to reduce the logging  before posting -- the value 1020 will remove a lot of repetetive stuff about con port I/O.

Pete

 

 

[Andrew McLean]

Hi all,

Glad to hear the sim is still running!! It was made in 1998. Even though some of the internal cabling wasn't planned too well the rest of it should be reasonably bullet-proof.

As a side note, we used the same stepper motors for most of the instruments that VW use in their analog RPM and Speedometer gauges. From memory they step at 1/3 of a degree and are super smooth. Made by a company called Switech. Not even sure if they're still around.

Yes, as Pete mentioned, I'd still like to buy one back from someone if they want to sell it. I don't have any spares anymore either. It was almost 23 years ago!!

Cheers,
Andrew McLean
www.aerosoft.com.au
Sydney, Australia