Calibration issues

[Shawn]

I have a PFC Yoke, pedals and throttle quadrant in my sim and I'm running into issues where I am losing calibration. When I start up the sim it's pretty standard now to have to re-calibrate at least one control axis via FSUIPC? I'm at a loss as to where to start looking for the solution, can anyone point me in a possible direction. There are a number of USB driven devices running on a single computer, the controls are plugged directly into the computer and the rest of the devices (Phidgets LED 64, Bodnar board, etc) are plugged into a powered USB HUB. I'm using FSUIPC to calibrate all the controls and have turned off all controls via the FSX control panel. The problem seems to be a random one but the pedals tend to lose calibration more than anything else. The Bodnar board and Phidgets board work without issue. Thanks in advance for the help.

[Peter Dowson]

I have a PFC Yoke, pedals and throttle quadrant in my sim and I'm running into issues where I am losing calibration. When I start up the sim it's pretty standard now to have to re-calibrate at least one control axis via FSUIPC?
... the controls are plugged directly into the computer and the rest of the devices

I assume, then, that these controls are true USB yostick devices, as seen by Windows, and are not connected via a PFC digital control system and my PFC driver module? If they are the digital ones they shjould be calibrated in the PFC module.

First, do check that power management is turned off for all USB devices which have such an option in the Windows device manager.

Second, apart from power variation, temperature and humidity play an important role in how the axis positions are measured. Could they be getting hotter or more humid as you are using them? I know my cockpit gets pretty hot this time of year (with 7 PCs steaming away as well as the PFC circuitry), even with a fan blowing through.

Finally, all those potentiometer devices used in joysticks and so on do seem to be prone to getting dirty and even worn. However, that normally gives jitters and jumps, not a change in readings over time.

Regards
Pete

[Shawn]

Thanks for the indepth reply Peter, the controls are only a few months old and are true USB style joysticks. Once the controls are calibrated they work fine until either flight sim or the computer is shutdown, I don't think the issue is with heat or humidity. I checked and power management is turned off for all the devices. I was just flying, shut FSX down, restarted it and the pedals had lost calibration again, when I went into FSUIPC to re-calibrate the controls, full movement of the pedals would only register a negative value? I had to unplug the pedals and plug them back in before I could get a positive number to show up? I'm planning to buy another powered USB hub and will use that to plug the controls into the computer and see if that helps? Any other suggestions you or others might have would be appreciated.

[Peter Dowson]

Once the controls are calibrated they work fine until either flight sim or the computer is shutdown

If they are calibrated in FSUIPC, all that happens is thast the numbers you've calibrated them by -- i.e. the minimum, centre, maximum values, are saved in the FSUIPC configuration file -- the INI file. Next time you load FS, those same values are brought back and used. If they are now wrong, that implies that the devices themselves, or their driver(s), are actually providing different values each time. I've really never heard of anything behaving like that.


I was just flying, shut FSX down, restarted it and the pedals had lost calibration again, when I went into FSUIPC to re-calibrate the controls, full movement of the pedals would only register a negative value?

Whether values are positive or negative is not relevant, it's the amount they change by that gives you control, and the larger the range of the changes, the more sensitivity, the more control, you can get.


I had to unplug the pedals and plug them back in before I could get a positive number to show up?

If merely unplugging and re-plugging in a device changes its behaviour, then you've got something broken -- either the device(s) or they are connected.


I'm planning to buy another powered USB hub and will use that to plug the controls into the computer and see if that helps?

You implied that your pedals are currently plugged directly into the PC, right? If they are playing up in the way you say with a computer USB port, then it sounds like there's something wrong with the motherboard USB chippery. If that's the case then plugging a hub into the faulty PC USB ports won't help. If you are going to spend some money it might be wiser to get a PCI USB board to install internally, and bypass the mobo's own USB sockets altogether.

Regards

Pete