DA20 Katana: 1. no "Initiation Window" 2. Canopy goes away

[creek7 3]

Hello,

firstly, apologies if this post is in the wrong place, but although I am logged in (of course), the "Diamond DA20-100 Katana" forum does not allow me to start a new topic...

I just bought the DA20 (v.1.0.4, from JustFlight), and basically all went well. Smooth installation/activation, and a first short test flight was successful; it's a very nice plane indeed.

Just two (minor) issues so far:

1. No "Initiation Window"

On loading the DA20, the "Initiation Window" comes up only as a black rectangle which disappears after a few seconds; only the big "4X" remains. If I click that (thinking it might bring the Init.Window back), it also disappears, and nothing else happens.

(And yes, I always load a situation with the default C172 first, before I switch to the DA20.)

There are several posts elsewhere on this forum which seem to refer to the same issue, but I can't quite see a solution consensus.

Is it so that I do not really need that "Initiation Window"?

The other menus ("Preflight" to "Settings), as called up by shift-3, all appear OK and seem to work fine.

Except that the settings are apparently not preserved: E.g. I had all the sounds activated, but the next time they were de-selected again.

Ditto for the Initiation Mode: I had set it to "Cold And Dark", but the next time it was back to "Automatic".

Is it so by design that I have to make these for every session anew? I tried reloading the plane (from within the menu), but it didn't help.

2. Canopy missing or disappears

This is a strange one (perhaps an animation issue?):

On loading the DA20 (as said, always after loading the C172 first), the glass canopy is sometimes missing at once, both in VC and in external view.

Opening/closing it does in fact work, but only the "struts" can be seen (and move correctly).

Even weirder: often the canopy is initially there and OK, but vanishes when it is opened for the first time, never to come back again.

EDIT: Just tried again, and by chance discovered that switching to "Instructor Mode" brought the canopy back again! And now it can even be opened and closed repeatedly, without going away.

But after reloading and going back to "Realistic Mode", it's gone again ...

I searched ths forum and the FAQ but couldn't find anything really helpful, so all hints will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

creek7

[Sriver 185]

Maybe try a reset with the reset utility tool, located in the "Diamond DA20-100 Katana 4X" folder.

[creek7 3]

Maybe try a reset with the reset utility tool, located in the "Diamond DA20-100 Katana 4X" folder.

Thanks for the tip!

I have now tried reset.exe, but for both options ("delete all data" and "delete data except timers"), I get an error message "Data file not found."

So, clearly something is not right with the setup.

Where is this reset.exe documented (couldn't find it in the "Introduction" manual), and what is this "data file"?

Cheers,

creek7

[EDNR-Cruiser 319]

Check your config file (FSX.CFG).... - do you have
HIGHMEMFIX = 1 under [GRAPHICS]???

If not.... - gotta learn a lot.... 8-)

[creek7 3]

Check your config file (FSX.CFG).... - do you have HIGHMEMFIX = 1 under [GRAPHICS]???

Oh yes, I have that! Running e.g. PMDG 737, 777, and lots of Orbx stuff, so am diligently following the teachings of Kosta, Nick, and Jesus!

But thanks for the reminder, always good to double-check these things.

If not.... - gotta learn a lot.... 8-)

Well, I am in the "business" since FS I on Apple //e, so...

Still, I had forgotten that a missing HIGHMEMFIX can have this kind of effect, so I did (re)learn something indeed.

In this case it seems strange (at least with regard to the "Initiation Window") that only this one window turns up as black rectangle, whereas all the other menu windows are OK.

Cheers,

creek7

[creek7 3]

As a further update:

Some sleuthing has now revealed that I do not have the data.cfg file at all.

In fact, not even the folder "4X_DATA" where it should be has been created during the installation
(full path under Win7: C:\Users\{myUserName}\AppData\Roaming\4X_DATA\Diamond DA30-100 'Katana'\ ).

I created it manually, hoping if the folder is there the file would now be generated; but that seems not to be enough: there is still no data.cfg in the subfolder.

Could anyone perhaps make a data.cfg available somewhere, please, so that I can use it as a starting point?

Of course I have also considered re-installing the plane, but I fear this will lead to re-registration hassles...

Besides, why should it work the second time...?

Thanks in advance for any further tips.

Cheers,

creek7

[mopperle 4162]

I would recommend to uninstall the Katana and reinstall it as Administrator. You last issue is a clear indication of insufficient access rights.

[creek7 3]

I would recommend to uninstall the Katana and reinstall it as Administrator. You last issue is a clear indication of insufficient access rights.

Thanks for the reply. I had used admin rights before, but tried again, to be safe.

But it didn't help.

Quite the opposite, in fact: In the usual manner, things are rapidly snowballing from bad to worse to catastrophic.

The situation is now as follows (after four de- and re-installations of the DA20, and about a dozen FSx restarts):

• Most disastrously, the EZCA add-on is now no longer loaded with FSX, and is of course then also missing from the Add-on menu.

  (This was the case already yesterday, before I began de- and re-installing the DA20.)

• This means that FSX is now effectively unusable for me.

  (All joystick etc, input has to be channelled through EZCA. If that is lost you have to re-assign everything in FSX itself. And until you do that, you cannot control FSX at all.).

• I have checked fsx.cfg, EXE.xml and DLL.xml, but all EZCA related entries are still there and exactly as before. I have also tried backup versions of these files, it did not help.
• What makes this especially annoying is that (as reported above) my first short but successful and very pleasant flight with the DA20 was made while using EZCA. So it was initially not only still active after installing the DA20, it even worked fine with this plane.

  In various threads on this forum there are reports that somehow Aerosoft add-ons may interfere with EZCA, but it is all too vague to provide a real solution (I don't consider re-installing EZCA, FSX, SP1, SP2 and possibly Windows, a solution...)

• After de-installing the DA20, EZCA is still not loaded, and FSX remains thus uncontrollable/unusable for me.

As to the DA20 itself:

• Even after four reinstallations (all of them with "run as admin"!), the folder

  C:\Users\{myUserName}\AppData\Roaming\4X_DATA\Diamond DA30-100 'Katana'\

  has still not been created, and the (probably vital) file data.cfg is thus still missing.

• During the installation, I checked "Install Launcher", but after then clicking on Finish (the only option), nothing happened. i.e. no Launcher installation followed.

  I have an ancient Launcher version already (1.0.0.9) installed, but surely that should be updated?

• Sometimes I now noticed another black window, a very small one. After undocking the title could be read as "Instructor Avionics" (or possibly "Electrics", can't remember).

  So apparently the "Initiation Window" is not the only one remaining black.

• Sometimes, but not always, after loading the DA20, the propeller tips have a "frayed" (damaged) look. Apparently it can be fixed via the Instructor page, but I am not sure if his always works.
• When clicking on the three buttons under "Systems Status" ("Repair All" etc.) on the "Instructor/General" page, they show now reaction. Is this normal? Shouldn't they at least "flash" (be highlighted) for a moment?

Obviously, much of the above may be related to the missing data.cfg file.

As FSX is in effect now dead for me (mainly due to EZCA no longer being loaded), all further tips will be greatly appreciated.

In particular, I'd like to understand how an add-on plane can suddenly stop EZCA (or whatever other add-on) from loading, even though neither fsx.cfg nor exe.xml nor dll.xml have changed in any relevant way.

And this after the same add-on plane for at least one flight has successfully co-operated with EZCA...

Cheers,

creek7

[creek7 3]

Update:

Problems solved.

After a full day's work I was eventually able to fix the DA20 by:

• manually creating the missing folder
  C:\Users\{myUserName}\AppData\Roaming\4X_DATA\Diamond DA30-100 'Katana'\ ;
• putting into it a data.cfg which I fortunately found reproduced in a post here on the forum;
  (so now the DA20 Reset utility also works).
• applying a Registry fix: some obscure wrong key value (I don't know which one) prevented the prompt asking me for permission to trust the special DA20 gauges, so apparently they were never even loaded.
  Unfortunately that did not become clear visually in FSX (probably because those GAUs work behind the scenes; they are not flight instruments).
  The tool to sucessfully fix the Registry was the "FSX DLL.XML Viewer and Repair Utility" from the Flight1 collection of free utilities, which sports a "Check Registry" option. (Thanks, Flight1!)
• After some more work, I also got EZCA back.
  It now even works together with the DA20 again.

So, after one day of hard work I'm back to the happy state which I had had already before.

Still, it's better than not to be back to that state...

Cheers,

creek7

[Mr.Düssel 44]

Wow, just found that thread... Congrats to your hard work for that little plane... I had a lot of fun with it, when it was released... Perhaps I have to install it again... Hopefully without all the issues you had. But I have a backup of FSX, Da-20 and its cfg data files, if that case happens.

Have fun with little Katy and happy Landings!