Help with FSINN transponder and "real" buttons.

[Harry Spillett]

Hello,

 

I have had a break from FSX for a few years (due to my PC running out of steam!) I am just in the process of getting back in and have decided to make some of my own GA "avionics" to compliment my off the shelf yoke, peddles and throttles etc.

 

I am working on the transponder first. I have got the encoders working to change the code and would now like to add a few other features. I use FSINN on VATSIM:

 

1) is there now any direct control from FSUIPC to FSINN to set standby and mode C? There used to be direct control for Squawkbox, I could not see any change but perhaps i have missed something.

 

2) I would like to have an LED on my transponder that lights up when I send FSINN an IDENT button press. Is there a way of driving this using FSUIPC? I could build a little 555 timer circuit to mimic the time delay but would rather have the LED be driven by FSINN / FSUIPC for as long as the IDENT icon is shown on screen.

 

3) On my previous setup I had a button assigned as VFR that would automatically program the transponder to 7000. I made a note of the value required by FSUIPC but cant remember how i set the program to sent it. can anyone refresh my memory!

 

On a more general note, is there a way of seeing a list of all of the button assignments in FSUIPC as a table or list rather than going through each button to see what it is set to trigger?

 

Regards,

 

Harry

 

[Pete Dowson]

1) is there now any direct control from FSUIPC to FSINN to set standby and mode C? There used to be direct control for Squawkbox, I could not see any change but perhaps i have missed something.

I don't know. You need to consult FSINN documents or support. The Squawkbox support was their action, originally using an FSUIPC offset -- 7B91. Check that you don't have this in your FSUIPC4.INI file:

 

NoActionOn7B91=Yes

 

In SB4 they changed to using SimConnect Client Data, a memory area called ""SquawkBox Data". FSUIPC uses this when 7B91 (or 7B93 for IDENT) is written to.

 

There in no code specific to any other on-line flying client. I don't know if FSINN and iVASP have made their own implementations, but the FSUIPC facility should work if they've used the SB4 methods.

 

2) I would like to have an LED on my transponder that lights up when I send FSINN an IDENT button press. Is there a way of driving this using FSUIPC? I could build a little 555 timer circuit to mimic the time delay but would rather have the LED be driven by FSINN / FSUIPC for as long as the IDENT icon is shown on screen.

 

 

See offset 7B93 in the offsets status document in your FSUIPC Documents folder.

 

3) On my previous setup I had a button assigned as VFR that would automatically program the transponder to 7000. I made a note of the value required by FSUIPC but cant remember how i set the program to sent it. can anyone refresh my memory!

 

Easiest way is assign to "Offset word set" with offset 0354 and parameter x7000.

 

On a more general note, is there a way of seeing a list of all of the button assignments in FSUIPC as a table or list rather than going through each button to see what it is set to trigger?

 

The assignments are all saved in your FSUIPC4.INI file. The Button assignments are all in a section called "Buttons". The format is described in the Advanced User's manual, and the codes FS coding for controls in in the List of FSX and P3D Controls document. Numbers less than 65536 refer to added controls which are also listed in the Advanced User's guide, as are Offset encoded values which look like xNNNNNNNN (N's are characters 0-9, A-F).

 

A decoded version of assignments and calibrations in the INI file is actually an interesting idea. I might add such a facility one day, when I have a couple of days to spare. Maybe a Lua plug-in so folks can adapt it to taste.

 

Pete

[Harry Spillett]

Thank you for the prompt response Pete.

 

With regard to your comment about FSUIPC offset -- 7B91 do you mean that the Squawkbox and FSINN conventions may be the same and that I should essentially use the Squawkbox options for changing modes to see if they work? In the past I have used the button assignments in FSINN itself however it would seem more elegant to use FSUIPC for as much as possible.

 

I will check out the documents folder for the IDENT offset. again i would rather the program lit the LED rather than fudging it with an external circuit.

 

Thank you for the reminder about the VFR button. I seem to recall I had to enter an odd value (3584) to get the desired readout last time. (Would it have been octal?).

 

As you can no doubt tell my experience of your program to date has essentialy been to use it for basic button assignments, I have yet to delve into ofsets or other "coding" operations!

 

Thanks again,

 

Harry

[Pete Dowson]

With regard to your comment about FSUIPC offset -- 7B91 do you mean that the Squawkbox and FSINN conventions may be the same and that I should essentially use the Squawkbox options for changing modes to see if they work?

 

Well, I honestly don't know. That's why I suggested checking FSINN documetation and/or support to check. You could try it, I suppose. Can't do any harm.

 

i would rather the program lit the LED rather than fudging it with an external circuit.

 

There's no way to drive any outputs directly from FSUIPC, and no way to drive LEDs without some sort of electric circuit. I use an Arduino board for my LEDs, with a Lua plug-in send it messages. You need to program both Arduino and Lua that way.

 

Thank you for the reminder about the VFR button. I seem to recall I had to enter an odd value (3584) to get the desired readout last time. (Would it have been octal?).

 

No way. Octal is base 8, so only has digits 0-7, no 8's possible. I don't know of anything using octal -- last time I used it was on the Leo III mainframe back in the 60's. FSUIPC doesn't support it for sure.

 

3584 decimal = x0E00 hex, which wouldn't make sense either, and there's nothing relevant in offset 3584. x7000 id decimal is 28672.

 

Pete

[Harry Spillett]

Ok I will try the Squawkbox options and see what happens! there is no mention of anything relevant in the FSINN manual that i have seen, unless there is an "Advanced Manual"

 

I intent to use an Arduino board to drive the LED in question and eventually seven segment diplays for radios etc. When i said "drive" I should have said trigger!

 

The VFR button is a strange one, I definitly had to use 3584 to get 7000 on the transponder. I originally tried converting 7000 to hex and that value did not work in the end I used trial and error which isnt very scientific but produced the correct result! I will have another go when I am back on my sim PC.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Harry

[aua668]

Hi,

 

One small hint for you: You should switch from FSInn to vPilot for online flying on VATSIM. Much easier to configure, model matching is simple and it's maintained. Give it a try and you will be convinced. And the SB4 offsets are working ...

 

Rgds

Reinhard

 

PS:Pete, I like the idea of a tool documenting the settings in a human readable way - would be VERY helpful

[Pete Dowson]

PS:Pete, I like the idea of a tool documenting the settings in a human readable way - would be VERY helpful

 

I've thought about that, and I think that I might just optionally add a comment at the end of any line which contains an encoded control or keypress, to give the same text as in the assignment dialogues -- ie control name or keypress labelling.

 

If there's already a comment on a line, that will get left intact instead. I know that many users have put their own comments in to assist them remembering what they've done, and I wouldn't want to undo all that.

 

It will only do this when re-writing a section in any case, so only for the current Profile and when pressing OK in Settings after a change in the relevant section. It really isn't worth adding a large amount of code to do it in one complete pass. Sections are never read in bulk like that at the moment.

 

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

A decoded version of assignments and calibrations in the INI file is actually an interesting idea. I might add such a facility one day, when I have a couple of days to spare. Maybe a Lua plug-in so folks can adapt it to taste.

 

PS:Pete, I like the idea of a tool documenting the settings in a human readable way - would be VERY helpful

 

It was easier than I thought.

 

I've added annotations into the settings file in version 4.951, now available. The assignments of axes, keys and buttons are all commented automatically in the INI with decodes of key values and controls.

 

Pete

[Donovan]

Fantastic addition, Pete!  Thank you!

 

Don

[aua668]

I've thought about that, and I think that I might just optionally add a comment at the end of any line which contains an encoded control or keypress, to give the same text as in the assignment dialogues -- ie control name or keypress labelling.

 

If there's already a comment on a line, that will get left intact instead. I know that many users have put their own comments in to assist them remembering what they've done, and I wouldn't want to undo all that.

 

It will only do this when re-writing a section in any case, so only for the current Profile and when pressing OK in Settings after a change in the relevant section. It really isn't worth adding a large amount of code to do it in one complete pass. Sections are never read in bulk like that at the moment.

 

Pete

 

Pete,

 

Often the simple solutions are the best. GREAT idea. This is the best way, to implement it. If it's implemented, I will be finally able to read these sections without always  reading the manual in parallel.

 

:D

 

Best reagrds

Reinhard

[Pete Dowson]

If it's implemented, I will be finally able to read these sections without always  reading the manual in parallel.

 

Download 4.951 released yesterday, then, as it is implemented. And it does it whenever an assignment section is used, it doesn't wait for any changes to be made. For profiles it does it when the profile is used.

 

Pete

[aua668]

Hi,

 

I did a first test. And voila: I had one error in my generic profile - one assignment, which should have been in an aircraft specific profile was created by me in the generic button section by error.

 

Never detected that. But with the automatic documentation this is really easy to track down. Whenever we believe, that this product can't get better, it definitely gets better.

 

Many thanks for that great new feature.

 

Rgds

Reinhard