Can't see PFC menu under Add-on menu in FSUIPC7

[nguindon88]

Hello,

I've been a long time user of FSUIPC over the years for FSX, P3D4 and 5. Over Xmas I've switched over to MSFS.  I have the Cirrus II PFC console (USB) for many years.  I have it functioning with MSFS, everything works, yoke and buttons and I can assign the various throttle axis etc..  A recent change with the parking brake with PMDG 737 has had me investigating if I can change the bindings of the buttons and switches on the Cirrus console.  I stubbled across the forum posts that shows a menu item under addons which seems to allow to see the buttons assignments for the PFC consol.  I was under the impression that the assignments for the PFC console were hard coded somehow and just seem to work without me having ever done anything. I go to FSUIPC7 menu for addons and I don't have that.  Is there another step other than placing the PFChild64.dll in the same folder as FSUIPC required?  What prompted this is PMDG feels they have fixed the parking brake issue where a person depresses both brakes and then engaged the parking brake with the appropriate button.  It worked perfectly with the PFC consol but since they say they've fixed it, I now have to cycle the push/pull button on the PFC consol a few times for it to activate the parking brake. But this lead me to the PFC menu that I seem to be missing.  Any advice?

Thanks

Norm.

[John Dowson]

14 hours ago, nguindon88 said:

I stubbled across the forum posts that shows a menu item under addons which seems to allow to see the buttons assignments for the PFC consol. 

That is for the PFCcom64.dll driver. The hid driver has no such menu/interface.

14 hours ago, nguindon88 said:

I was under the impression that the assignments for the PFC console were hard coded somehow and just seem to work without me having ever done anything.

They are hardcoded. However, they can be overwritten by adding a macro to a file called PFC.mcro.  This is explained in the PFChidDLL User Guide.

14 hours ago, nguindon88 said:

What prompted this is PMDG feels they have fixed the parking brake issue where a person depresses both brakes and then engaged the parking brake with the appropriate button.  It worked perfectly with the PFC consol but since they say they've fixed it, I now have to cycle the push/pull button on the PFC consol a few times for it to activate the parking brake.

Not sure why this is - try using FSUIPC's logging facilities to see if the correct events are being sent. If it was previously working perfectly, and now its broken, it sounds more like they have broken this than fixed it....have you asked about this on PMDG support?

John

[nguindon88]

Thanks John for the information that answers all my questions. Everything is as it should be with the dll and FSUIPC.  Glad to know I'm not missing anything.  Yes I've reach out to PMDG support as the change in this scenario is their code affecting the parking brake logic.  The issued a fix which appears to work for some but for me it now kinda works but not like it originally did with a single pull and push of the button to toggle the brake.  I'll continue the discussion with them as they are under the impression right now that they have fixed the issue with the latest patch which doesn't completely fix it for me.

 

Thanks

Norm.

[activex]

Norm,

Please keep us posted on the progress of this issue. I have exactly same problem.

lk

[John Dowson]

This issue also posted in this topic: 

 

I haven't had time to look at this yet...once I've got the next version of FSUIPC7 released I will take a look to see what PMDG have changed and see what I can do about it...

John

[John Dowson]

For the PMDG parking brake, you should use either:
   1. Presets PMDG_B737-7_PARKING_BRAKE_ON and PMDG_B737-7_PARKING_BRAKE_OFF
   2. The Rotor Brake control with parameter 69301 for off and 69302 for on
   3. Custom control 70325 with parameter 0 for off and 1 for on

To do this when using the PFChid driver, you need to add two macros called ParkingBrake+ and ParkingBrake- to your PFC.mcro file (or whatever it is called, if you have changed the name using the MacroFilename config parameter).  Something like the following using custom controls:

[Macros]
1=ParkingBrake+=C70325,1
2=ParkingBrake-=C70325,0

or the following using the Rotor Brake control:

[Macros]
1=ParkingBrake+=C66587,69302
2=ParkingBrake-=C66587,69301

You will (most probably) still need to fully apply the brakes before you can set the parking brake..you can also do this in the macro if needed....I can help with this if necessary.
 

John

[John Dowson]

Just looked and tested this... this is what worked for me to use buttons to set parking brake on/off without having to activate the toe brakes manually (not using PFC hardware though):

[Macros]
1=ParkingBrake+
1.1=C66387,16383 ; Left brake fully on
1.2=C66388,16383 ; Right brake fully on
1.3=C1152, 2500 ; Pause for 2.5s 
1.4=C70325,1 ; Set Parking brake on
1.5=C1152, 1000 ; Pause for 1s 
1.6=C66387,-16383 ; Left brake fully off
1.7=C66388,-16383 ; Right brake fully off
2=ParkingBrake-
2.1=C66387,16383 ; Left brake fully on
2.2=C1152, 1000 ; Pause for 1s
2.3=C66387,-16383 ; Left brake fully off

You could maybe try decreasing the pauses, but some pause is certainly needed.

Also, may require adjustment if you also have toe brakes and they are calibrated in FSUIPC - if it doesn't work, try removing the calibration.

John

[activex]

Using rotor break control it worked perfectly. Thank your for solving this problem for me.