When I find I am stuck on an EPIC problem, I just call the man who built the EPIC cards. He is more than willing to answer your questions. His name is Ralph Robbins get it "R&R" electronics. I am not going to post his phone # here but if you own an EPIC card then you have it. Look thru the docs you got with the cards. Ya I know some of you live on the far side of the planet so get up at 3:am and call him. My system is running fine on 5.0 and win98. Except for the win98 glich about the game controler not seeing the joystick in the right order and the fact that if you make changes to the code as far as adding or delete a joystick you must go into the system register and delet the joysticks yes all of them, it works just fine. this is for win98 mind you. I feel that win98 still works the best. Good luck and don't give up. It does work.:-sun1

Robinson not robbins! I remember you, I remember you were one who pulled your hair about EPIC issue, yelling for help when you were helpless. Apparently you seem not have rolled up you selves and fought hard to understand how EPIC systems work LATELY! If you would have done that, or understand whole concepts/logical of electronics you wouldn't think about dialing Mr Robinson's number. No offense, but a better methods for you to become helpful to yourself is not try to blow your short fuse out, try hard as you can until you finally understand whole concepts of EPIC, this is only way you could learn how to use it without any problems and save up your fuses, I assure those EPIC owners would agree to what I said. Well anyhow I am glad you got your help, and hope that would bring you happiness beyond your future.

Dear Arthur:sorry to say, but I totally disagree with your ramblings.First, I feel that some basic rules of courtesy should be observed in a forum.Second, the EPIC system is complicated, both hard and software. Any other product with this price tag would have decent documentation. But we are forced to find solutions by trial and error or to spend endless hours on the net trying to find info in a forum. The EPIC should be usable by everybody, not just by some electronics geeks who have nothing better to do with their time but to "fight hard to understand how EPIC systems work". I, for my part, want a manual!Hans

There's a grain of truth in everyone's post here...I dove into EPIC in 1996 and have emerged, well... insane. It took me 3 months to get a single switch to light a single light bulb. I'm no stranger to electronics either. At one point in my younger days I could recite the entire 74xx series of TTL logic chips and what they did. In high school, I taught the Advanced Electronics class instead of sleeping in the back like I did in English and speling! :-). Even so, the EPIC system came to be my Mount Everest. ...and that's when the questions REALLY started and subsequently why I started www.avsim.com/bluesideupI spent most of my time talking with Ralph, who is a man of infinite patience and has not succumbed to 'the dark side' of customer support. Some of you know what I mean. I don't know why TVRON didn't contact Ralph earlier. Perhaps after beating one's head against the nearest solid vertical surface, one's thinking tends to get mucked up. Also, it appears that TVRON came into the scene at a REALLY bad time. EPIC USB was(is) still in Beta, and for awhile there, the EPL language was undergoing major permutations, as was everyone's sanity!I've resigned myself to the fact that my own sim project will be a 5-year endeavor. It is now going on year 6 and I'm almost halfway done!My $.0002 worth

Hans-- This is not about being electronic geeks, its about how much you can understand function of those circuits, or how to do programming. As matter of fact to those who is far proficent in electronics as of now has already went through some struggle and fustration for months and months, it depends who can strive through all complexions, and have a bucketful of patience. Trust me, I, as Flight Simulator Technican for B737, Cessna and King Air, one simple programming interface card has worst complexing understanding than EPIC itself, and yet there is a lack of doucements troubleshooting problem. That is not because of the manufacturer itself, its because its how those owner develpop the circuit commands. Ralph likely can tell you how to interface it, but cannot tell you how to program it since everyone has their own different desire on buidling their simulation. But my point is, nothing can expect as easy understanding among to electronics circuit that has lot of function for every commands.

I don't think there is a single word said here, about the EPIC difficulty workings and support, that isn't the truth. I purchased my system, late October, and had it ready to be plugged in late November, couldn't get my system to recognize it until last Monday. Only to find out the right version of EPICIO.dll was not shipped with the installation disk. The documentation is awful, test, default, joystick files are missing and who knows what else. I'm trying start with the most simple thing to do, plug in a joystick and get it to work. I've had no luck so far. But like the rest of you builders, it's frustrating and challenging, but I WILL get it to work, I'm determined.BTW, if anyone knows where there are some good documentation, and files, please let me know. It would make my life a lot easier:)

I would recommend going with EPICMapper...www.epicmapper.comMarc has written a simple program that will accomplish most anything with EPIC, and it also writes most of the code for you.I know.. that removes some of the challenge.. Think of it this way... at least IBM doesn't expect you to write the machine language for their latest Pentium Release!

check www.podsystems.chNot really documentation, but a full set of v.50 compatible files containing quite a bit of comments: epl.'s hpl.'s ini.'s - its all there. It was (and still is) great help for me when it comes to programing. Hans

I agree: epicmapper is woth it's money. Makes programing much faster, especially all the reading from and writing to FS via PH's, nqw's and the like. And it works like a charm with PM, on the same PC or over a network.But don't get me wrong: there is still some programing to do, so imho epicmapper is not a program for the faint hearted - it just makes our lives so much easier. There is only an online manual, and I'm afraid to say it would not win prices for clarity or detail (haven't I heard this one before..?). But Marc offers good and fast support.Hans

there is another good source for the epic use. Robert Fischer made a freeware utility to communicate beween EPIc and fsupic. he also has his 50 epl code on his page. look on his FS communicator link:http://www.flightsimulator.at/. i am using his utility and i am happy with it.Achim Bethke

Thanks Achim, it IS a good source to have. And the Podsystem suggestion is good to, Peter D. has put much time and energy into his system and I'm glad he is willing to share it with us.