Have been workinig with AFPD for three days now and it randomly loses calibration. When I then go to Calibrate from the AFPD main menu and attempt to recalibrate it, the dialog indicates that it is sensing a 3 channel transmitter. Have done all the usual Windows things - reboot, uninstall and reinstall, etc... Have also played with the cable and USB ports to no avail. When it is working I am getting frame rates between a low of ~40fps and an high of ~80fps. Would appreciate any ideas or suggestions at this point. Thanks in advance
Bruce

Transmitter: JR652 - 6 channel connected to a USB port via the AFP cable and the JR extension with the mono plug.

Computer: Dell Dimension, P4 at 2.4Gig, 512 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 420 video card (64Meg)

I have had the same trouble. I have been using it fine with prop aircraft for the last couple of days. I found out tonight when I try to load a jet or helicopter it now sees my JR Centry 7 radio as a 3 channel. Also tried a JR Unlimited and a JR 388s. I had started a post last week about this only to find it had been deleted by someone elese. Hopefully tomorrow it will work fine for the prop aircraft, at lest that's what happened last time. I wonder if this has something to do with JR radios?

Now while I was missing around with the program I notice that in control calibration the red bars are jumping all around and that it's detecting my transmitter as a 5 then a few seconds later it will detect it as a 6 channel and it keeps jumping around between 3, 5, 6, and 7.

Computer - Got my AFPD to run normally for about an hour an a half today and it
did not fail at all. It had never run for more than about 20 min before.

What I did was make a grounding strap (see the thread in this forum on "AFPD
USB Interface Grounding Issue). In my case I ran it from the back of my PC
chassis to my transmitter. AFPD worked great and is still at it. Don't know if this
is our problem but its worth a try.

Will keep you posted.
Bruce

This was happening to me too........until I realized my Tx was in PCM mode, not PPM.

I my Centery and Unlimited radios are PPM and I had set my 388s to ppm. AFPD works great just as long as I don't load a jet (of any kind) and a helicopter (of any kind). If I do AFPD starts missing up and my trans shows up as a 3 channel and the controls (red bars) start flashing back and forth. I'll try the grounding thing to see if that helps.

Computer - if it only fails for certain planes, I can't imagine that it
would be a grounding problem. If the failure mode is particular to
a plane or type of plane it has to be a software problem.

Mine continues to work. Hope it stays that way.
Bruce

Computer - it failed with the ground strap so that wasn't it. I am
out of ideas!
Keep me posted.
Bruce

Hello,
Just thought I'd let you know that my AFPD is doing the exact same thing. I emailed Dion at O.M.P. & he advised me to contact Mike at IKARUS in Ft. Myers FL.. Mike said, "send it to me & I'll take a look at it". IKARUS has just now received it (1/03/2005) and has not had time to respond yet. I'll keep you posted as this matter progresses. Here's the note I sent Mike.



Hello Mike,
Here is the interface cable that we discussed over the phone. I have tried it under every conceivable condition. I've tried it with three different radios, a JR347 and two different
JR8103's. Tried it with module in and module out. Removed and re-installed software three or four times including the update patch. Tried it with and without the patch. Adapted the cord from a stereo to mono. plug. Tried it on two different modern computers each having specs. far beyond recommended minimum specs.. Most of the time, when you use the simulator for the first time that day, it works fine for about one hour +or-. Then the control surfaces on the plane start to quiver or glitch. When you detect the glitch starting to take place, it doesn't take long before the minor glitches progress into full blown wild gyrating spasms. The control surfaces travel to their limits in the wildest thrashing you've ever seen. If you then navigate to the main menu page and click on calibrate you'll see that the program only "sees" a four channel radio, when in reality, you are using a seven or eight channel radio. You can then unplug the chord from the transmitter & re-plug and it still only finds a four channel radio. Unplug & re-plug the cord from the computer and after the program locates it, you get the same four channel response. After some hair pulling & fiddiling around if you'll unplug the chord from the computer & transmitter, go find something more fun to do, come back after a couple of hours, try it again, it will usually work again for a little while, then it's right back to it's old problems again. Any help with this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Crowfly - thanks for the heads up. With some miinor differences your
description matches mine exactly. Several days ago, I posted the
problem to the IPACS site but they have not responded. I will be
chasing them today. There are a number of complaints on their
forum about USB connection reliability (even for the old AFP) so
don't think that we are experiencing a new problem.

Believe that the components that they have in the USB cable are
failing after some amount of use. Thinking it might be a heat
problem after it failed one time, I even put the cable assembly
in the freezer for a while to see if that would change anything but
it didn't. Still couldn't get it to recalibrate until I waited for several
hours.
Many thanks for t he contact, will keep in touch.
Bruce

How about a cable exchange....If OMP will send you a new cable...after you get it send back the cable that is causing trouble back to then. I myself would like to buy a extra cable and have it on hand. Should not cost that much. Good luck Capt,n

Captain John - intending to do that today.
Bruce

I do not know what did it....but just handing the transmitter to a friend so he could fly my aerofly Deluxe, it went goofy ....all the plane would do is rev up and crash. I went to the assignment screen, and every thing was messed up. Could not seem to correct it, so I removed the complete programe and re-installed it. I did get it back working good. Now I got smoke!!!! My friend sure likes it. I think he wants one also. I/ we hope there is a solid fix for the cable problem. May have to get a new cable if Ikarus comes out with one. A fun sim...for sure!!!!!! SEE Update in new reply Thanks

Hi everyone.

Have you notice that loading say a jet or helicopter makes a difference on yours? I have been flying my AFPD for a couples of days without any problems. Went to load a jet and whamm right back to 3 channels and controls locked at full.

Yes I had my go right back to the 3 chan also. Maybe we have to have all the controls checked to operate a heli first. Right now planes are fun...so I will do them. Try putting in all the little dots in the page for heli operation. Good Luck Capt,n

Spoke to OMP last night and they do not sell the USB cable
as a separate item. Can only exchange a bad one. I will be
talking to Ikarus in Florida today (they were closed yesterday)
to try and exchange mine.
Bruce

Here are a few things that may help from loosing calibration. Be very carfull of static electricty in your body. Make sure the shoes you whear do not cause static e when walking on carpect...ect. I also found Endust spray for computers helps to keep this static e away. I had a snap from my hand to Transmitter (static e).... and lost all calibration. A ground wire may help to. Might have to put grounds on everything!!!! Man this AFP Deluxe is FUN...and I an not crashing near as mutch!

Captain - I have made a ground strap (see above) and tried
it. It didn't seem to make a difference. I had it wired from the
PC chassis to the transmitter and/or my body. Is that the
way it should be done??

Bruce

BOY>>> I am not sure. Seems like it should work. I think after what-ever goofed up the calibration sticks in the program some how. I would delete or uninstall AFP completely and clear out anything else that may interfere. Then re-install AFP -D again. That is way I got mine to run right. Good luck Capt,n

Captain - the Ikarus guy today said that static electricity can damage whatever
they have built into the cable. That is interesting because my experience was
a progressive thing, ie, the time that it would run before failing got progressively
shorter through the week that I worked with it. Don't expect electronic stuff
to act that way these days. They usually work or they don't. Anyway I FedEx'd
them my cable today. But I will use the ground strap on the new one when
I get it.
Bruce

Here is another thing that goofed my sim up right when I was running it.....a pop-up reminder to buy the next version of _ortn AntiVirus 200? Had to reset cal & controls. I am going to delete that one out of my system. You know .....add & remove place. I hope that does not happen again. It messed up my settings and well the airpane crashed.

Hi:
I've been having similar problems with AFPD not seeing xmtrs or thinking it is seeing a new tx and dropping calibration. I've been having this problem with a Fut 9C using the mini trainer connector to 1/8" plug adaptor cable and have also had some problems using a Fut T6X with the DIN to 1/8' connector. When I grounded the 'shield' on the tx connector to the PC case all seemes well - but that is a messy solution. What I did was to open up the
1/8" stereo connector on my Reflex XTR dongle and found that they had a 5.6K resistor between the negative signal (signal ground) brown wire and the shield connection on the connector. I decided to try the same on the AFPD dongle connector and now everything is rock solid! What you need to do is to open (unscrew) the 1/8" male plug on the AFPD USB dongle cable and solder a 5.6K 1/4 watt or 1/8 watt between where the outer cable shield connects to the connector and the actual connector 'shell or shield' connection. The actual resistor value is probably not that critical so anything betwen 2K and 10K would probably also work. Please not that this modification 'may' void your warranty, but I get the impression the ADPD guys are more open minded than that.
Anyway hope this helps. [img]c:\Mod.jpg[/img]

Humm... didn't seem to get the image to display. This is my first attempt at adding an image to a post. Is there a trick?

tnx,
Bill...

[img] mod.jpg [/img]

Wow - how very non-interitive. Can't even preview the images to see if they work.
(Sorry for the double image insertion...)
Bill...