Controls locking up in flight

[Vasco 3]

Hi Guys,

 

Sitting Duck suggested I post in this forum regarding a game killer of a problem.

 

In all other flight sims I use a full CH flight control rig consisting of a Flightstick or Combatstick, Pro Throttle and Pro Pedals. I also use a TrackIR4. The problem I am having is I am unable to use this rig in OFF as the controls lock up in flight inside the first three minutes. In fact when leaving the sim and checking calibration in the CH Control Manager afterwards I find all three controllers are unrecognised by the programme requiring computer reboot.

 

I have tried all the corrective action suggested in the FAQs, these forums and those over at Sim-Outhouse to no effect, but most of them just deal with the use of rudder pedals in addition to a joystick. Is anybody else using a similar rig and if so, how did you get it to work? I'd also appreciate a copy of your 'Mine.xca' file if at all possible.

 

P.S. My PC's running Vista

[BirdDogICT 3]

Hi Guys,

 

Sitting Duck suggested I post in this forum regarding a game killer of a problem.

 

In all other flight sims I use a full CH flight control rig consisting of a Flightstick or Combatstick, Pro Throttle and Pro Pedals. I also use a TrackIR4. The problem I am having is I am unable to use this rig in OFF as the controls lock up in flight inside the first three minutes. In fact when leaving the sim and checking calibration in the CH Control Manager afterwards I find all three controllers are unrecognised by the programme requiring computer reboot.

 

I have tried all the corrective action suggested in the FAQs, these forums and those over at Sim-Outhouse to no effect, but most of them just deal with the use of rudder pedals in addition to a joystick. Is anybody else using a similar rig and if so, how did you get it to work? I'd also appreciate a copy of your 'Mine.xca' file if at all possible.

 

P.S. My PC's running Vista

 

Vasco,

 

I'm also running a CH FSPTPP rig, with TrackIR, CH Control Manager 4.51, Bonz's OFF Profile http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6204, and default Mine.xca but in XP SP3. Not experiencing any problems here. I'm somewhat of a noob with CH programming, but not having problems creating/modifying simple profiles. Bonz's profile is designed specifically for BHaH and TrackIR and is pretty straightforward.

 

Have you tried the CH forums (e.g.; Hardware Help http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14) for advice? Several of their administrators (like Revvin, Bob Church) are fans of OFF and CFS3. I'd start there.

 

Good luck.

[steve58 0]

maybe a controller conflict? Didn't Homeboy post something about setting up multiple controllers way back? If you can't find anything searching through the forums, maybe try PM'ing him....

[sitting_duck 3]

yeah,,,you know,,i think it was homeboy......

 

incredibly helpfull guy,,,,like steve suggested,,,shoot him over a pm,,,

[Vasco 3]

Thanks guys,

 

I've PM'd Homeboy and started trawling the CH forums as well.

 

Fingers crossed!

[sitting_duck 3]

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=40614&hl=

 

this is one of his suggestions,,,,will look for more

[Capt. Winters 0]

Hi Guys,

 

Hi Vasco,

 

Have you tried turning off the CH manager, I have a similar set up to you Pro Peddles, Throttle Quadrant and Stick, but I have never run the manager part of the CH hardware.

 

I simply plugged in the various parts allowed windows to recognise them and then in game assigned the various buttons and levers on the throttle quadrant and joystick to perform the various ingame functions.

 

Thats also the way I did my IL2 setup.

 

one day I will delve into the manger part for key binds etc but for the moment I'm getting everything I need out of the assign functions in each game. plus its all a bit confusing for me in the CH manager... :)

 

regards Rob.

[BirdDogICT 3]

Vasco,

 

If you download Bonz's profile into the CH Control Manager, you'll notice that the profile uses Mapped Mode, mapping all of your devices into one. BHaH easily recognizes one controller, and Bonz's profile automatically assigns axes and joystick buttons. There is no need to open the BHaH controller interface at all (at least this was true for me).

 

The only problem I've had with my setup is related to how Windows handles USB devices...on several occasions, I've unplugged a CH controller and Windows wouldn't recognize the device again. I had to go through the ritual of uninstalling all CH drivers and the CM software and reinstall everything, paying VERY close attention to CH's installation instructions.

 

I've found that downloading profiles from the CH site significantly reduces the amount of time you have to devote to programming. I also find that assigning axes and keys within CM to be much easier than assigning them within the game, but to each his own. If you're using BOTH methods, it's easy to create conflicting assignments.

 

Let me know if you can't get this sorted out...I'd be glad to help.

 

Good luck.

[Vasco 3]

Guys,

 

Thanks for the advice. I've been in touch with Homeboy and we're examining possible solutions (it appears that this problem may be related to Vista) but nothing yet. Bonz's profile has helped but I'm still losing random controllers in flight. The only way I have found to correct this is to pause the simulation, ALT-TAB to Desktop, run the CH Control Manager, rescan for controllers (whichever controller has been lost in-game is also absent in Vista), download the profile into the rig and ALT-TAB back into the sim. The loss of a controller happens randonly but at least once every 5 minutes while in flight, or around 3 out of every 5 times when coming out of warp. This makes the simulation managable in single player but I'm never going to be able to participate in multiplayer games or join an online squad until this issue is resolved.

 

I've been waiting years for a WWI air war simulation with as much depth as this ever since PC upgrades made RB3D/Promised Lands unplayable. To discover a WWI simulation of this quality and have issues like this is absolutly heartbreaking.

 

I'll continue to search for a solution but if anyone can think of any possible fixes please let me know.

 

Regards,

[Creaghorn 10]

best fix would be to get rid of vista. it's a piece of sh... rarely anything works porperly. more trouble than joy with the most simple programms. use xp and then in future maybe use windows 7. at least from betatesting people say it works very good and is better than anything before.

i know. not a good advice, but this is what i would do and what i did.

[Vasco 3]

Guys,

 

PROBLEM FIXED

 

This may be one for the FAQs - The three controllers of my flight rig were plugged into a Belkin USB hub with an independant power supply. An inspection of the USB hubs in Device Manager showed that all three controllers combined were using well below the maximum power output of the USB hub; power management had also been disabled so there appeared to be no issues relating to the limits of the USB hub. This setup works perfectly well with every other flight sim I play on the PC and has done for years.

 

As I was running out of ideas I tried unplugging the three controllers from the Belkin USB hub and plugging them directly into three independent USB ports in the back of the PC. I have since logged a total of 5 flying hours in an FE2b with 20 Sqn RFC and I haven't experienced a single control failure (mind you I haven't come accoss a single German aircraft either!).

 

Are there any online squads looking for a 52 year-old ex-British Army Air Corps air gunner and WWI flight sim enthusiast who has flown online since 1997

Edited June 17, 2009 by Vasco

[Creaghorn 10]

glad you fixed it

 

sorry, mr. vista. not your fault

[BirdDogICT 3]

Guys,

 

PROBLEM FIXED

 

Vasco,

 

Glad you got it sorted it out...it's not the first time I've heard of someone with problems with a powered hub and multiple USB controllers.

 

CH controllers are overkill for a WWI sim, but I've never had to replace pots, springs, hats, and buttons like I have with other brands.

 

Cheers

[HomeBoy 1]

I doubt it's Vista in this case as I've heard of this sort of thing with XP users as well. There must be a power issue of some sort with Vasco's Belkin hub. He says OFF is the only game that exhibits this behavior. I have a "homemade" controller that OFF refused to see at all when none of the other games I play have any problems at all with. After much head scratching, I realized that the three axes I had plugged into my six axis controller board were using ports 0, 2, 3 (thus skipping port 1). Out of lack of anything else to try, I moved the connector from port 3 to port 1 and suddenly OFF was happily seeing my controller. For some reason OFF does not like it when you skip a pin. That is VERY strange! Vasco's Belkin hub issue reminds me of that.

 

FYI:

CH Products recommends that you use a dedicated PCI USB card rather than the built-in USB ports or a self-powered USB hub. Even if you use a hub (maybe like in Vasco's case), you still have to plug the hub into a USB port on your computer and if that port is one of the built-in ports, you can still have trouble. CH gear is pretty rugged stuff and requires good solid power to function well. A good quality power supply plays the most important role in all this too since all power initially comes from there.

 

It is my opinion that the TrackIR device is just as dependent on good power (if not more so) as CH gear. I recommend you buy one or two quality 4-port USB cards and plug all your CH and TrackIR gear into that and leave the built-in ports for non-important stuff like printers, mice, UPS, etc.

 

If after obeying the above stated "recommendations", you still have controllers suddenly disappearing, you may want to check

 

Control Panel-->System-->Hardware-->Device Manager-->Universal Serial Bus controllers-->USB Root Hub-->Properties-->Power Management

 

and make sure this setting is UNCHECKED:

 

"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

 

Having this option checked with CH controllers or TrackIR can definitely cause problems. I just turn that off on all my USB Root hubs as the power saved is negligible anyway.

 

I have no gaming experience with Vista so you may have to search around a bit to discover how to manage your USB ports.

[sitting_duck 3]

Glad to see you got it fixed vasco. And will tuck that piece of info into the data base...

 

Homeboy, thanks for helping,,,knew i could count on you..

 

lol....and vasco,,no online squads yet, but gotta belive its in the future eventually...

 

If you want, i am running a mp tuturial tonight at 730. Gotta have teamspeak and a mic

 

all the details for teamspleak are in the mp tuturial stick in the mp section of the forum

[Vasco 3]

Thanks guys,

 

Sitting Duck. Thanks for the offer of the MP tutorial - I'm in.

 

TS is setup and I'm on channel now. 19:30 in Boston is 00:30 over here. Yell over the mike when you arrive on TS and I'll join you all.

 

Regards,

 

Vasco