P3D V2.0 vs CH products

[pmanhart 176]

It's been my practice to make a backup copy of the controls.xml file...

 

...it's saved my bacon more than once! B)

 

I'm not smart enough to have thought of doing that... but am going to do it tonight!

[hychewright 46]

Styckx, You are so correct. Last night before I read this thread this morning I thought to my self since I've tried everthing else I'll delete CH manager and try it. Sure enough, I deleted CH manager and all three controls were detected by P3D! That is weird? I was able to calibrate all three through just P3d and everything is all set. Don't know why CH software conflicts with P3d but it does for me on my system. As stated, I have windows 7 64 bit.  I won't to thank all who replied to my help request. This is a great family fliers!

 

Regards

 

Lamar Wright

[n4gix 4,947]

The CH manager is relatively ancient software that was supplied to provide support for older operating systems that did not have native drivers for external hardware. It is obsolete... :wacko:

[SteveW 1,792]

The CH drivers are OK, they don't respond to sleep/wakeup event's, not too much of a problem. Once you've got a properly installed CH Manager, you need to start the "C:\Program Files (x86)\CH Products\CMCtlCtr.exe" program each time you boot up, place a shortcut to it into your startup folder. "C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

[n4gix 4,947]

"Okay" perhaps, but also totally unnecessary...

 

...but thanks for providing the tip on how to make it work!  ^_^

[SteveW 1,792]

"Okay" perhaps, but also totally unnecessary...

Not sure what made you say that, I find the CH setup with CH Manager works best.

[n4gix 4,947]

Two reasons, actually. P3Dv2 has excellent support for CH products already, and FSUIPC has always been my go to for fine-tuning my controls. It's already present for a host of other reasons, so I may as well use its facilities rather than having yet another TSR program taking up resources... :Nerd:

[SteveW 1,792]

CH Manager is not a TSR program, (last time I heard about them I had DOS on a 486) but rather why would I want a .dll running in process with P3D/FSX when it's not necessary?

 

I would unplug all CH items and remove CH Control Manager with the Control Panel remove apps. Then reboot and plug all the CH items in and then install CH Control Manager 455a. Put the shortcut to CMCtlCtr.exe in the startup and make sure it's set to mapped and that the mappings have been downloaded and CMCtlCtr is set to start in mapped mode.

[styckx 1,871]

Styckx, You are so correct. Last night before I read this thread this morning I thought to my self since I've tried everthing else I'll delete CH manager and try it. Sure enough, I deleted CH manager and all three controls were detected by P3D! That is weird? I was able to calibrate all three through just P3d and everything is all set. Don't know why CH software conflicts with P3d but it does for me on my system. As stated, I have windows 7 64 bit.  I won't to thank all who replied to my help request. This is a great family fliers!

 

Regards

 

Lamar Wright 

 

 

B)  So glad I could help, or well. Back up with what you figured out on your own.  :lol:

[SteveW 1,792]

rather than having yet another TSR program taking up resources

Other programs do not take up valuable resources from P3D/FSX but .dll's do, that's what they do.

[n4gix 4,947]

CH Manager is not a TSR program, (last time I heard about them I had DOS on a 486) but rather why would I want a .dll running in process with P3D/FSX when it's not necessary?

Steve, you wrote:

 

 

you need to start the "C:\Program Files (x86)\CH Products\CMCtlCtr.exe" program each time you boot up, place a shortcut to it into your startup folder.

 

This is the very definition of a "terminate and stay resident" program. It's loaded into system memory and sits quietly inactive until called for by another program. As for FSUIPC, its memory footprint is no larger than my Grabber2k screenshot utility, which is also a TSR program. It takes up just under 2k of system memory.

 

In any event, I did thank you for providing the precise information that the OP (or anyone else for that matter) needed to know should they ultimately choose to use the CH Control Manager utility. That is "Good to Know."

 

In fact, I would truly appreciate it if you would post that same information in the "P3D Tips and Tricks" forum where I can then lock it for future ready reference! Thanks in advance. :Applause:

[RWFeldman 159]

FSUIPC is differently the best way to go. Isolated from the sims setting and a backup setting with the FSUIPC.ini file. I have everything set through FSUIPC and completely disable the Sim controller. With all my controllers and settings, i couldn't live without it

[SteveW 1,792]

Yes, to be fair to FSUIPC, it's a fine program that's been honed over decades and barely impacts FSX/P3D at all.

 

However the facts are clear, .dlls take away resources from FSX/P3D directly, they run in process with FSX/P3D, whereas your "TSR" is a term more accurately meant for multiple programs running on operating systems without true multitasking support, i.e. before Windows.

[SteveW 1,792]

...I would say it's unfair to CH to ignore whatever the particular problem is, CH Manager works great, when it works. At least, I would want to be sure the system works properly.

 

I would plug all the CH gear into a powered hub. Depending on USB hardware, some systems need to be set to not allow to go to sleep, and maybe even the screen sometimes should be set with a blank screensaver rather than allow full sleep modes.

[pmanhart 176]

It should also be mentioned that if you do use CH Control Manager, it's the only way to properly calibrate your CH controllers before the input values reach FSUIPC.

Without using the CH Control Manager calibration, you can end up with values like below:

Axis
-Range, -Center to +Center, +Range

Rudder Axis
-16380, 1200-1450, 16125
(17580 of movement one direction, but only 14675 of movement the other direction)

If you use CH Control Manager to calibrate the axis in question, then you will end up with the following calibration values in FSUIPC:

Rudder Axis
-16380, -520-520, 16380
(15860 of movement in both directions, 520 I believe is the default value, but you can of course set the deadzone to whatever you want such as 0 and 0, therefore giving you 16380 of movement in both directions but no deadzone)

 

 

This is the way I setup my CH Gear, which includes a Fighterstick, Eclipse Yoke, Throttle Quadrant, Pro Throttle and Pro Pedals (of course not all at the same time!)

 

1. Plug in what controllers I am using

2. Install CH Control Manager

3. Calibrate through CH Control Manager

4. Use FSUIPC to map axes and buttons, then use calibration to ensure full range of motion in all axes.