Starter topic for people who have problems with throttles (non FSUIPC)

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

This topic is created for people for people who have problem with the throttles. This very unfortunately but unavoidably causes headaches for about 0.5% of our users, a small percentage but a lot of customers. I will explain what causes it, why we have no alternatives but to do it this way and what you can do to solve it. Rest assured that we have solved it for most people and are 100% sure it can be solved for all people who are willing to accept that FSX as it is cannot do Airbus style FADEC engine control and that we need to replace part of FSX. So telling us your throttle works in all aircraft but the Airbus X Extended is something that does not surprise us at all and actually just means it works in other aircraft.

Why are there problems for some users?

In the Airbus A320 series the throttle is not connected to the engines but to an engine control computer called a FADEC. In fact for 98% of the flight you will not be using the throttle and it will stay in CL(imb) mode. It is far more a 'mode selector' then a throttle. That's why it got detents where the throttle will 'click' into. The only way to model this behavior in FSX where the throttles are directly hardwired to the engines is to intercept the throttle channel. And here there can be problems. These are not unexpected, we knew this would be an issue for some users. Yet it is unavoidable. Every serious Airbus simulation will have these issues. If you see one that does not, you know they are not modeling a complete FADEC.

If your throttle channel is standard FSX it should all work without problems (though we know of an issue with non English Windows version that is easy to solve). If you are using 3rd party software (like FSUIPC) the standard throttle channel is not available and we can not intercept it. We will then need to connect the throttle channel to the FADEC.

What you should start with:

Always:

• Calibrate your joystick and throttle. The Airbus FADEC is depending a lot on exact data from the throttle and if you throttle does not give the complete range there could be problems.
  
• Set the joystick sensibility to maximum and the null zones as small as possible, a good control set will work fine with the lowest setting, older (cheaper) ones might need the sliders a bit to the right. These settings will work for nearly all aircraft btw.
  
• Move you FSX.cfg to another location (do not delete it) and start FSX. FSX will create a fresh one on startup. If the throttle now works you know where to look. If the result is the same move the FSX.cfg back to it's original location.
  
  Consider:
  • Removing the driver software that came with your controls if you do not use any of it's functions. FSX, P3D does NOT need any specific joystick drivers. It will read the raw data and it will allow you to assign any of it buttons and sliders to standard FSX functions
    
  • Not using FSUIPC for throttle controls. We seen a lot of people who are doing this but have no idea why they do it. It is for sure a very useful option if there are problems, but most users will just not need it. Do not use FSUIPC if you are unsure of what you are setting.
    

  Where to go with specific problems:

  [*]If your Windows is not English -> http://forum.aerosof...-automated-fix/

  [*]If you got more then one throttle channel -> http://forum.aerosof...-automated-fix/

  [*]If you are using Windows 8 and your joystick disconnects in flight ->

  -Windows 8 has a well documented problem with joysticks. If you Google on [windows 8 joystick disconnect] you will find a lot of posts about that. This problem is not related to the Airbus X Extended (or even FSX/P3D) and we know of no fix for that.

  [*]If you are unable to idle your throttles -->

  Check the calibration and set the sensitivity and null zone as advised.

  At this point the throttles for virtually all people who do not use FSUIPC for throttles will be solved. If there are problems remaining they indicate there are more bits that are not standard and we will need to start looking at log files.

  You will find this log file in C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\AerosoftAirbusExtended or in non English windows the relevant path. The log file is called AsInput.log and is overwritten every time FSX is started. Post a description with the log file in this section: http://forum.aerosof...without-fsuipc/

  Again, we like to make clear that there is no way around intercepting the throttle channel and that it is unavoidable that this would lead to some issues. But most of these issues have now been identified.

  

  Vol8_ThrottleSetup_EN.pdf