New USB calibration

[kryten]

Hello,
  Since the new calibration method started I have been unable to calibrate the toe brakes on my CH Products pedals. I cannot get the brakes to fully release. The magenta lines on the indication icon move down to the bottom when I release the toe brakes but stop and are visible at the bottom. They do not disappear like they used to. Pushback is not possible. When I calibrate I push a brake pedal fully forward, the figure goes up to 1000 and I click on full forward. I release the pedal, the figure goes to -992 and I click on full aft. I have tried clicking or not clicking on the middle. I save the situation but when I restart PSX the brakes have the same problems. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Phil.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hello Phil,

the USB page is a subpage of the Preferences tab,
therefore your USB settings are to be stored in pref files (not situ files)
on the Preferences > Save page in the pref file you are using.
The name of the pref file you are using is displayed in small font under the Save button.
It typically reads "Last loaded: Default.pref"

Situ files don't save preferences! Loading a situ file will not change your preferences!

Situ files save the stuff on the Situation subpages only, not the stuff on the Preferences subpages.

Do you see what I mean?

You may want to take a look at page 35 of the Aerowinx manual.

There are six groups of Instructor pages, each with a different color. Some groups have a "Save" and a "Load" page. Each save/load function has a colored icon in the tab title and refers to the respective colored group:

(Red) Situation - Save & Load refers to all variables set on the red pages (Position, Weather, etc. pp.)

(Orange) Model - Save & Load refers to all variables set on the orange pages (Airframe, Equipment, etc.)

(Cyan) Layout - Save & Load refers to the setting of the layout 9-packs.

(Magenta) Preferences - Save & Load refers to the variables on the magenta pages (Audio, USB, etc.)


Regards,

|-|ardy

[cagarini]

Phil,

just one calibration suggestion based on my recent experience with the toe brakes.

Since the non-deflected pedal returns ( -992 ) from your hardware, I would suggest setting the mid ( center ) value to something like ( -250 ) and see if you can fix it this way. Try with other values bellow the default midpoint which in this case should probably be ( + 4 ), such as ( -300, -200, -150, -100.... -50 ) until you can fine tune it to your liking.. The rest ( how to save ) applies just like HH pointed out above.

[Hardy Heinlin]

... suggest setting the mid ( center ) value to something like ( -250 ) and see if you can fix it this way.

Phil tries to save his USB settings in situ files instead of pref files. That's why his USB settings are not reloaded when restarting PSX. They haven't been stored. This problem will not be fixed by using a different center value, but by saving the settings in a pref file instead of a situ file.

I release the pedal, the figure goes to -992 and I click on full aft. I have tried clicking or not clicking on the middle. I save the situation but when I restart PSX the brakes have the same problems.

USB settings cannot be stored in situation files.

[cagarini]

Phil tries to save his USB settings in situ files instead of pref files. That's why his USB settings are not reloaded when restarting PSX. They haven't been stored. This problem will not be fixed by using a different center value, but by saving the settings in a pref file instead of a situ file.

Yes Hardy, I'm aware of that, but honestly, and from what Phil writes, I'm not sure if when he callibrates it during a session, before saving whatever, the reults are satisfactory, I mean, even when he saves that -992 to the full aft ?  So, just in case apart from not using the correct "perf" instead of "situ" save, there is yet another problem with how he's CH HW communicates with PSX, through the  OS, I've left yet another suggestion ...

[Hardy Heinlin]

Maybe you're right, but then Phil's quoted sentence doesn't make sense, and his attempt to save this stuff in situ files is still not the correct way either.

Phil, could you be more specific please?

I assure you, if your pedals worked in the old PSX version, they will work in the new version as well.

And: Do you run multiple, networked PSX instances? If so, how do you start them? With AerowinxNetStart.jar?

Does -992 refer to one pedal or to both pedals? They are certainly different. You need to calibrate the one pedal, then the other.

If you have cable noise around -992, enter -900 in the "full aft" box. This way everything below -900 in the USB will set "full aft" in PSX.

Try this with both pedals.

If that doesn't help, try -800 etc.

[kryten]

Hello,
  Many thanks to those who have taken the time to reply. I have tried saving to an a1.pref file but it did not solve the problem. As I understand it when I calibrate and select "Close" the effect should be straight away without needing to save. Saving is needed to keep the calibration after closing then reopening PSX. Is this correct? This is important as the following suggestions were tried and tested after selecting "Close" but before saving.
  I tried manually entering the mid settings as suggested by jcomm but they did not solve the problem. Thanks anyway for the suggestion.
  Hardy: I run 2 networked PSX both started with AerowinxNetStart.jar. I've checked the client and USB in the Preferences/USB menu is not selected.
1000 and -992 refer to both pedals.
  I don't know what cable noise is but I tried manually entering -900, -800, -700 etc. in the full aft box but it made no difference.
  I tried reversing things. I pushed the toe brake fully forward and selected "full aft". Then released the brake and selected "full forward. This solved the problem but the pedals work backwards and it would be confusing to use them this way. The figures were 1000 and -992 again.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hello,

regarding the "full aft" entries and values, you must be confusing something, I just don't know what.
I can't see what exactly you are doing ...

By "cable noise" I mean vibrations.
When the pedals are released, are the values changing at random like ... -992 ... -999 ... -982 ... whatever ...?

Do you have any question regarding the notes in this tutorial? http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4805.0

I don't know what cable noise is but I tried manually entering -900, -800, -700 etc. in the full aft box but it made no difference.

What do you mean by "it made no difference"? What did you do after the entry. Did you just look at the magenta lines? Did you also move the pedals?

Did you assign multiple USB devices to the toe brake pedal and you didn't notice it?


Regarding autosaving a pref file: At sim exit, PSX only autosaves the Default.pref file.
All other files, e.g. a1.pref, need to be saved manually while the sim is running.
You need to save it on that PSX instance which gets the USB pedal inputs.

As I understand it when I calibrate and select "Close" the effect should be straight away without needing to save. Saving is needed to keep the calibration after closing then reopening PSX. Is this correct?

Correct.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[pilotwannabe1]

Hi Hardy,

I too am seeing some unusual behavior with my control axes in recent times (after the axes calibration procedure was tweaked).  When I load up my pref file, all is as expected.  If I quit PSX and run it again, my different axes seem to be reversed (e.g., throttle, elevator, aileron and thrust levers).  If I reload the pref file, everything is right again.  But each time I run PSX, the axes are reversed.  I've never had this problem before and I have not changed anything as far as I recall.

I know I'm missing something, but what?

Thanks,
Rushad

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Rushad,

do you start with AerowinxNetStart.jar?

If yes, what text is in AerowinxNetStart.ini when you open the ini with a text editor?

When PSX is started and you open the page Preferences > Load, what is displayed under the Load button in the text line that start with "Last loaded: ..."?

If you say reloading the pref file solves the problem, which of the listed pref files do you reload?


Regards,

|-|ardy

[kryten]

Hello,
Hardy, I'll try to answer your questions. I've not used the "Quote" function on posts before but I'll try.

regarding the "full aft" entries and values, you must be confusing something, I just don't know what.
I can't see what exactly you are doing ...

My full aft figure when I release the pedals is -992 on both. As I said in my last post I did not know what cable noise was (I do now) but as you suggested manually entering figures such as -900, -800 etc in the full aft box I did this to see what would happen.

By "cable noise" I mean vibrations.
When the pedals are released, are the values changing at random like ... -992 ... -999 ... -982 ... whatever ...?

No

Do you have any question regarding the notes in this tutorial? http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4805.0

The only thing I wondered about in the tutorial was that the full forward figure is negative whereas mine is positive. I said in my last post that I tried reversing things. With the pedals released I clicked on full forward. When I pushed the pedals fully forward I clicked on full aft. The pedals then worked the wrong way round but the magenta line disappeared when I pushed the pedals fully forward. In this configuration the full forward figure is negative, like in the tutorial. Everything else I calibrated using the tutorial (yoke, throttles, flaps etc.) work fine.

What do you mean by "it made no difference"? What did you do after the entry. Did you just look at the magenta lines? Did you also move the pedals?

After clicking on "Close" I move the pedals to see what effect the calibration had on the magenta line.

Did you assign multiple USB devices to the toe brake pedal and you didn't notice it?

I've checked this and I have not done so.

Regarding autosaving a pref file: At sim exit, PSX only autosaves the Default.pref file.
All other files, e.g. a1.pref, need to be saved manually while the sim is running.
You need to save it on that PSX instance which gets the USB pedal inputs.

Before I close PSX I go to the Preferences/Save menu. a1.pref is highlighted in the list(a2.pref, a3.pref) and at
the bottom there is "Save as a1.pref". I click on this and it changes to "Confirm save as a1.pref" and I click on this. I save it on the PSX running on the PC with the pedals connected.

I hope this has answered your questions OK. As I said above, the positive and negative figures for full aft and full forward which are opposite ways around between the tutorial and what I get may be significant. The fact that when calibrating if I release the pedal and click on full forward and then push the pedal fully forward and click on full aft (giving a negative value for full forward as in the tutorial) the magenta line disappears when the pedal is pushed fully forward.

Please let me know if any of my answers are not clear.

Phil.

[Hardy Heinlin]

All clear so far. Thanks.

The option to invert plus/minus is an intentional feature. Some users have a reversed polarity in their hardware, so they need this option.

Well ... I have no idea what's keeping your toe pedals out of aft. This is extremely bizarre.

What center value did you enter? It should be somewhere around zero.

Please try this, just for an extreme check:

In "Full forward" enter 1000
In "Center" enter 800
In "Full aft" enter 600

Now,
when your pedal is at 1000, the magenta hooks should be full foward,
when your pedal is at 800, the magenta hooks should be half forward,
when your pedal is at 600 or below, the magenta hooks should be full aft (i.e. invisible).


Can you load an older PSX version and see if it's really better there? Maybe it was just coincidence.


Regards,

|-|ardy


P.S.:
What PSX instance are your pedals connected to? Client or server?
Will the problem disappear when you disconnect your PSX instance from the main network?

[Panos Bilios]

Hi guys

I too have the same problem with stuck toe brackets
just under the joke symbol. I have tried all different suggestions
here at the forum to calibrate them but to no avail.
I believe that my rudder pedals are simply too worned out
there is nothing wrong with the calibration rutine.
its no big deal thought I use the trigger button in my
joystic for manual braking.

Panos

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Panos,

they are supposed to work from full aft to full forward in PSX even if your hardware provides just a small fraction of the normal USB range.

E.g. if your full forward hardware value vibrates around 300 (instead of 1000) and your full aft vibrates around, say, -200 (instead of -1000), it is still able to provide the full range on the PSX deck. The calibration would be this:

In Full forward enter 200 (that is 300 minus 100 for the vibration zone)
In Full aft enter -100 (that is -200 plus 100 for the vibration zone)
For the center click "Set center" (which will be 50, the center between 200 and -100)

So in this example, when your hardware goes from 200 to 50 to -100,
PSX will go to full forward to center to full aft.
When your hardware is between 1000 and 200, PSX will stay at full forward.
When your hardware is between -1000 and -100, PSX will stay at full aft.

Does your problem also exist when PSX runs solo, disconnected from the main network?


|-|ardy


Do you guys understand the principle of the full aft and full forward points? If you get noisy values near the outer extremes, you need to shift the values more towards the center, so that each outer extreme gets a greater neutral zone. That is, the positive value needs to be decreased to get the value closer to the center. And the negative value needs to be increased to get the value closer to the center. If you do this reversed, you will make it worse.

[pilotwannabe1]

Hi Hardy,

>> do you start with AerowinxNetStart.jar? <<

No, I start with AerowinxStart.jar

>> When PSX is started and you open the page Preferences > Load, what is displayed under the Load button in the text line that start with "Last loaded: .<<

Last file loaded is Default.pref

>> If you say reloading the pref file solves the problem, which of the listed pref files do you reload? <<

I load PSX_RFE.pref, which is a file I have created for the Thrustmaster Warthog.  I use only one instance of PSX and no add-ons.

Thanks,
Rushad

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Rushad,

AerowinxStart.jar always starts with Default.pref, not with your special PSX_RFE.pref.


Solution A:
Start PSX at the command prompt of your operating system with this command:
AerowinxStart.jar PSX_RFE.pref

Or ...

Solution B:
Go to Preferences > Load and load PSX_RFE.pref, then go to Preferences > Save, select Default.pref on the list and double-click the Save button. The current settings are now saved in Default.pref as well.


However, solution B should actually happen automatically when you load PSX_RFE.pref and then quit PSX. Next time you load PSX the Default.pref file should set the same preferences variables that were set when quitting PSX the last time. So maybe the problem lies somewhere else.


Regards,

|-|ardy


Edit: When the problem occurs next time, please first reload Default.pref (not PSX_RFE.pref) and check if this will also load the desired USB settings (without reversed axes).

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good morning,

my plan for today:

I'll check if there are any 32 bit floating point rounding errors in my new USB calibration system. Rounding errors are normal mathematical effects, but they may turn a value of 999.999 to 999 instead of 1000 if the converter truncates it instead of rounding it up. In a perfect full range linear calibration the involved factors are 1.0, but if a calibration factor requires fine adjustment, e.g. if full aft goes to -992 instead of -1000, the factor may include fractions and cause rounding errors. Perhaps.

And I'll check if any unintended axis reversal is possible during PSX start when the start-up pref file is already loaded. This may explain Rushad's problem if his problem only affects axis reversal while all other USB variables are correctly loaded.


Regards,

|-|ardy


Edit:

12 o'clock news: I can reproduce the toe brake problem, and I think I can fix it.

14 o'clock news: I just found out that if the axis is reversed, the calibration system applies the entered min/max values in the reversed (wrong) order. So here's a temporary trick before the next update is available: If your full aft indicates, say, -950, and your full forward indicates, say, 850, you need to enter -800 in full aft and 900 in full forward. In other words: You need to swap the aft and forward values, and their polarity too. The forward entry sets the neutral buffer for the aft signal, and the aft entry sets the neutral buffer for the forward signal.

[kryten]

Hi Hardy,
  I've just tried your suggestion and it works. Thanks for your help and to the others who replied. I'm happy that it seems as if I was not doing something stupid (as I've been known to do before).

Phil.

[pilotwannabe1]

Hi Hardy,

>> However, solution B should actually happen automatically when you load PSX_RFE.pref and then quit PSX. Next time you load PSX the Default.pref file should set the same preferences variables that were set when quitting PSX the last time. <<

That's what I was expecting too.

>> Edit: When the problem occurs next time, please first reload Default.pref (not PSX_RFE.pref) and check if this will also load the desired USB settings (without reversed axes). <<

I did as you suggested and loaded the Default.pref file first, and the axes were still reversed.  All of the button assignments work fine.

When exiting PSX (after loading the RFE_PSX.pref), is the Default.pref file that's created supposed to look identical to the RFE_PSX.pref file?  I just eyeballed the 2 files and they do look a little different.

Thanks,
Rushad

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hi Phil.

I'm happy that it seems as if I was not doing something stupid ...

You're absolutely right, indeed. -- Sorry, it was my fault!


Hi Rushad.

When exiting PSX (after loading the RFE_PSX.pref), is the Default.pref file that's created supposed to look identical to the RFE_PSX.pref file?

Yes, they must be 100% identical. To analyse the differences, could you post here the contents of both files after quitting PSX?


Regards,

|-|ardy