Hello everyone. Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I have a little problem with the simulator at the flight school I teach with. Here's the situation:

 

We have a PFC Modular Flight Deck system that we were using a few years ago. It's the serial controller setup with X-Plane 8.4. I know it's an older sim, but we just got it back out of storage and I'm trying to get it up and running again. It worked when it was put into storage.

 

The thing worked for a little while after we set it back up, although we noticed that the cable running from the console to the computers was prone to interferance. If you had it too close to a power cord, it would glitch badly. After doing some reading, that seems to be fairly common. It was working just fine after we got the cable routed away from any power cords.Fast forward a few weeks, and the sim has ceased working entirely. Its not that it's glitching, it's just doing nothing. X-Plane doesn't recognize anything in it, and in the "Equipment" page, we don't get any signals from the yoke or rudder pedals. It's literally like you unplugged the cable.

 

PFC has a test utility that came installed on the computer, and I can get very limited communication between the computer and the console. It appears most of the avionics are communicating since I can make the trim wheel, autopilot, marker beacon lights (most of the time), gear handle, and so forth move/change/activate from the computer. The problem is that there seems to be zero communication from the throttle quadrant, yoke, or rudder pedals.

 

What in the world is going on here? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

>>PFC Modular Flight Deck system<< What is the exact name of the this system? I have the Professional Flight Single Console. It's 12 years old. The problem may be a failed mother board. That happened to me a few years back.

 

Have PFC suggested any solution?

As far as I know, it's just their Modular Flight Deck system. That's what the name in the manual says, and every piece of literature I have on it. There's a picture of one that looks just like ours on their website: http://flypfc.com/?/training-systems/mfd/ The one on the top left is it.

 

When you said a failed motherboard, you mean on the computer or the console? I tried hooking the console up to the COMM 2 port on the computer, and reassigning the port in X-Plane. That didn't seem to make any difference.

 

I called PFC on the issue, and I wasn't able to get very far. They charge for tech support, and they told me that they have ceased supporing the serial version anyway.

Ah! yes - very nice. Also, very expensive. My console is an old version of the C2 Professional flight console http://flypfc.com/?/products/consoles/

 

I was referring to the control panel inside the console itself, but the clue to your problem may be in one thing we have in common - the serial connection. How are you connecting your module to the computer? I, and many others, have found that USB adaptors don't always work properly. For a perfect linkage I have a serial port card installed in the computer. This is the one I use http://www.lindy.co.uk/2-port-serial-card-pci-card/51236.html

 

I hope this helps.

 

Frank

It's connected with a regular serial cable to the computer. I've also swapped serial ports on the computer, and that didn't do any good. What's the liklihood that the hardware controller would have failed like this?

Unless the connecting cable has failed, I feel that the controller panel must be the culprit.

 

These are pictures of my failed controller and the replacement.

 

 

 

The area marked is where I believe the failure had occurred, but that was only my surmise. The replacement was supplied by PFC. I fitted it myself. It has run well ever since. That is about 4 years.

 

Regards

Frank