Motorized TQ and Ifly 737

[GSalden]

Hi Pete,

 

Could you give me some advice on the following ?

 

I have a motorized TQ with Phidget hardware and connected to FSX ( FSUIPC ) by Fs2Phidget.

A Leo Bodnar joystick card gives me the axis adn is programmed in FSUIPC.

Throttle 1 and throttle 2 values are read from FSUIPC and assigned in Fs2Phidget.

With the default 737 this is working very good.

Th ethrottles are moving slowly up or down to their positions.

 

However, I have a 737 home cockpit and am using the Ifly Cockpit Builders Edition.

Everything is working fine.

Only the throttles are an issue.

 

When using the speedknob to decrease/increase the ATspeed, the throttles have the intention to jump to their new position with a lot of zigzagging up and down.

And then finally after several seconds the throttles come at rest at their correct positions.

I can see in Fs2Phidget that the Fs values ( FSUIPC ) and Phidget values also are jumping up and down.

 

As it is working ion the default 737 it looks like me that the issue might be caused by the Ifly 737.

On the other hand when moving the throttles by hand the throttle onscreen are working correctly.

 

As Alan Dyer stopped giving support on Fs2Phidghet I cannot ask him.

It is possible to install Fs2Phidget on a client pc. Perhaps a "direct"contatc between Fs2Phidget and Ifly CBE is causing this.

Steve Masson from Flight 1 does his best , but has no Phidget + Ifly CBE experience.

 

Is there anything FSUIPC could help me with  ? ( LUA script ? )

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

[Pete Dowson]

When using the speedknob to decrease/increase the ATspeed, the throttles have the intention to jump to their new position with a lot of zigzagging up and down.

And then finally after several seconds the throttles come at rest at their correct positions.

I can see in Fs2Phidget that the Fs values ( FSUIPC ) and Phidget values also are jumping up and down.

 

It sounds like the motor control is from an offset in FSUIPC which is in conflict with whatever iFly is doing. I'm afraid I know nothing about either the iFly implementation nor Phidgets. I don't think iFly use FSUIPC at all, but you can use a program called iFly2FSUIPC to map stuff between them. Maybe you need to use that to get the actual iFly throttle values for Phidgets to read?

 

If the Phidgets programming doesn't allow you to change to iFly2FSUIPC mapped offsets, maybe you can use a Lua plug-in to fake the offsets it is using with the values fromiFly. There's an example Lua plug-in in the package of Examples installed in your FSUIPC Documents folder which shows how such "spoofing" is done via offset 0024 (see "Liar.lua").

 

It is possible to install Fs2Phidget on a client pc. Perhaps a "direct"contatc between Fs2Phidget and Ifly CBE is causing this.

 

Does iFly support Phidgets directly? Sorry, I've no idea about that.

 

Regards

Pete

[GSalden]

Thanks Pete. I wil surely try it.

Ifly to FSUIPC is merely for knobs/switches etc.

 

I found a smoothing throttles LUA script from you ( 2008 ) .

Just added the script and activated the LUA in FSUIPC.

That is the first I am going to try.

[GSalden]

The LUA script did not solve the issue.

What do you think about the following : disconnecting the hardware throttle values from Fs when using the AT.
Perhaps the potmeters values interfear with the Ifly values then...

As far as I understood Fs2Phidgets is reading the Fs values so the potmeters values are non important when the AT is on.
If you think that it might be worth to try can I do this directly in Fsuipc or do I need to make a LUA script for that ?

 

I came across this thread in which you gave the perfect advice . The way I descirbed the issue, do you think it's worth a try ?

 

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/61123-disable-throttle-input-when-at-is-armed/ 

[Pete Dowson]

What do you think about the following : disconnecting the hardware throttle values from Fs when using the AT.

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't realise that was not already being done -- either by the Phidgets code or by iFly's own A/T code.  Othercockpit builder software like Project Magenta, ProSim and SimAvionics normally do that for A/T, just monitoring the axis values for override by the pilot.

 

Yes, if that is not done you will certainly get the affect you describe, because the FS throttle is being controlled by both the A/T and the axis values.

 

If you think that it might be worth to try can I do this directly in Fsuipc or do I need to make a LUA script for that ?

 

You can't do it in FSUIPC alone because, although you could set the appropriate offset by an assignment (perhaps a dual assignment along with the A/T switch), in order to keep the axes disconnected the bits being set need renewing every few seconds -- there's a safeguard against a disappearing application so that throttles aren't lost forever in a session.

 

Si you'd need a Lua plug-in which checks for AT being enabled and if so sets the disconnection bits in offset 310A at 5-8 second intervals. You'd need to detect A/T being enabled -- if iFly uses the FS A/T that is easy. If it does its own thing you might need to link to it using that iFly2FSUIPC program or the Phidgets programming.

 

Regards

Pete

[GSalden]

Thanks Pete.

As always your support is very good.

 

The moment I disconnect the joystick card ( Leo Bodnar ) which is connected to the throttles potmeters, the Fs value in Fs2Phidgets drops to 0.

So Fs2Phidgets needs the the  values from the hardware throttles.

 

Then I did a test :

 

I unplugged the power to the phidgets hardware and then by hand moved the throttles.

Immediately the throttles onscreen started jumping up and down.

 

The same test I did with the default 737.

When moving the throttles by hand nothing happened to the throttles on the screen.

 

That leads me to the conclusion, like you already  pointed at, that the Ifly AT has been programmed differently than the default aircraft..

When the hardware throttles are not moving ( doesnt matter at what position they are ) then no issue.

When they are being moved the jumping issue occurs.

 

Ii will take this further to the F1 forums.

 

Many thanks Pete.

 

Regards,

Gerard