Sending Squawkbox PTT command via external application

[frazer84]

Hi Pete,

 

Is there any way to, via an external application, send the same command as the Squawkbox PTT command that is selectable in the drop-downs in the buttons section of the FSUIPC module in MSFS? I guess I'm looking for a way to alter an offset to press and release the squawkbox PTT button.

 

Why would I want to do this? I have a joystick card connected to a computer that is NOT running MSFS, but I want a button on that joystick card to act as the PTT for Squawkbox.

 

Thanks!

 

Regards,

Daniel

[Pete Dowson]

Is there any way to, via an external application, send the same command as the Squawkbox PTT command that is selectable in the drop-downs in the buttons section of the FSUIPC module in MSFS? I guess I'm looking for a way to alter an offset to press and release the squawkbox PTT button.

 

Why would I want to do this? I have a joystick card connected to a computer that is NOT running MSFS, but I want a button on that joystick card to act as the PTT for Squawkbox.

 

WideFS can do this for you. With WideFS you can assign buttons in FSUIPC from any network connected PC running WideClient.

 

Pete

[frazer84]

Hi and thanks for the quick answer.

 

I've read about this feature in the manual, but at the moment I have set this facility to off (ButtonScanInterval=0) in my config file to not get WideClient to crash due to some hardware not making WideClient happy (often crashing due to WinMM.dll or DirectInput). That's why I was hoping to be able to trigger this from an external application that doesn't crash and that reads the joystick card inputs and sending it through FSUIPC.

[Pete Dowson]

I've read about this feature in the manual, but at the moment I have set this facility to off (ButtonScanInterval=0) in my config file to not get WideClient to crash due to some hardware not making WideClient happy (often crashing due to WinMM.dll or DirectInput).

 

Wow! Not heard of anything like that before! Sounds like a bad driver. I think you should try uninstalling each device and its driver, and reinstalling so that the driver and its registry data are refreshed.

 

That's why I was hoping to be able to trigger this from an external application that doesn't crash and that reads the joystick card inputs and sending it through FSUIPC.

 

Such an application would probably meet with same crash, though, as it would need to call the same APIs.

 

Pete

[frazer84]

Wow! Not heard of anything like that before! Sounds like a bad driver. I think you should try uninstalling each device and its driver, and reinstalling so that the driver and its registry data are refreshed.

 

Such an application would probably meet with same crash, though, as it would need to call the same APIs.

 

Pete

I read about it here on the forums, where the suggestion to set the value to 0 also was mentioned as a possible solution to crashes due to WinMM and DirectInput.

 

The application is there already (without a single crash) doing similar stuff (processing the joystick buttons and axis), I'm just missing an offset to change when the button is pressed.

 

Regarding re-installing, I've even bought a whole new computer to make sure it's not a USB problem on the motherboard (this new motherboard has another USB driver chipset).

 

By the way, I've tried multiple version of WideClient (6.995, 6.998a, 6.998b).

 

/Daniel

[Pete Dowson]

I read about it here on the forums, where the suggestion to set the value to 0 also was mentioned as a possible solution to crashes due to WinMM and DirectInput.

 

Reference please? I expect I advised that merely as a test to see if it was a driver/registry problem. Did they ever come back for a follow up?

 

The application is there already (without a single crash) doing similar stuff (processing the joystick buttons and axis)

 

In that case I would most certainly like more information so I could investigate, because without details I can't really fix things now, can I?

 

I'm just missing an offset to change when the button is pressed.

 

If you want to make it issue a control, like the added FSUIPC PTT control, just sent the appropriate control number to offset 3110. What else were you looking for? Or use the virtual buttons so that it can be programmed in FSUIPC instead.

 

Regarding re-installing, I've even bought a whole new computer to make sure it's not a USB problem on the motherboard (this new motherboard has another USB driver chipset).

 

If the crash refers to WinMM or another DirectInput module then it wouln't be anything to do with USB, but device drivers and/or registry.

 

Pete