All quiet on the forums, what has happened.....

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Usually I check the threads and activity before I go to bed here in Arizona, since many of my friends here are from overseas and awake.  Wondering if everything is OK.  I am not simming right now, I have had a curious issue.  When I am on the Internet, my controller in P3d goes haywire, I can't trim my aircraft, as if something is controlling my joystick.  As soon as I disconnect, things return to normal.  Can hackers get into the hardware of our controllers I wonder.  I have a strong firewall, have never seen anything like this.  It does not happen in Xplane11.  It seems especially a problem with Carenado aircraft.  Did not know whether to post this in the hardware forum or not, but since it is a web related issue I thought I would post it here.  For the time being I am flying my sim disconnected from the web, and I only connect to post screenshots or read email and news.

John

[scianoir 610]

Some of us are still here John but I agree it has been fairly quiet on the forums recently. As I live in the west of the UK, I spent yesterday battening everything down outside the house and then hiding from Hurricane Ophelia!

I don't know the answer to the question you posed about hackers getting into controllers but until I installed AS16 I generally used to fly with my computer offline as I too worried a bit about hackers, having been hit a few years ago.

Bill

[John_Cillis 2,406]

1 hour ago, scianoir said:

Some of us are still here John but I agree it has been fairly quiet on the forums recently. As I live in the west of the UK, I spent yesterday battening everything down outside the house and then hiding from Hurricane Ophelia!

I don't know the answer to the question you posed about hackers getting into controllers but until I installed AS16 I generally used to fly with my computer offline as I too worried a bit about hackers, having been hit a few years ago.

Bill

Thanks, then it is not my imagination.  They can attack the resistors in the controllers, but not the code or circuitry, it is all solid state, non moving, just a bunch of electrons going back and forth.  My math teacher used to throw a Texas Instruments calculator across the room to demonstrate that, just like Professor Sadoway teaches Solid State Chemistry at MIT.  We laughed so hard, when the calculator would start right up.  I have one calculator from Texas Instruments, a highly programmable LCD one, for more than 35 years now, it just needs a new battery.  LED calculators were bad, they used way too much energy for their displays, and today I don't use them at all as I am very handy with math, algebra and trig.  Never went beyond trig though, I felt Calculus dug too deep into the workings of the universe, even though it is used today for GPS, Physics, etc.  Trig alone can manage GPS, that's how I coded Landclass Assistant, using Trig.  Pi is your best friend!

John

[Captain Kevin 586]

I'm still here. I haven't really been around much the past week or so because with the release of the QualityWings 787, I spent more time on their support forums trying to help people out if they had issues that I was able to help solve quickly. I probably spent more time doing that than I did actually flying the thing. With very limited time in my day, it's hard to be in both places at once.

[W2DR 1,860]

I don't have an answer John but I gotta believe the hackers have better things to do than worry about our joysticks. As a side note, I still use my TI2500 that I bought in 1972. I can't believe that was 45 years ago........sigh.........Doug

[lownslo 592]

17 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

When I am on the Internet, my controller in P3d goes haywire, I can't trim my aircraft, as if something is controlling my joystick.  As soon as I disconnect, things return to normal.

Haven't heard that one before!  Do tell more about your network...

Calculators... have an HP11C that I bought in 1979.  Since then there haven't been many days it doesn't see a fair amount of work.  Never failed, never hiccuped!

Greg

[John_Cillis 2,406]

1 hour ago, lownslo said:

Haven't heard that one before!  Do tell more about your network...

Calculators... have an HP11C that I bought in 1979.  Since then there haven't been many days it doesn't see a fair amount of work.  Never failed, never hiccuped!

Greg

Hard calc to use, they used reverse polish logic I understand.

[simaddict 46]

It could be, like I have noticed, that many people(me included) are building new computers from the top down, and have no reason to tweak things anymore? I used to look for and chase any forum posts about tweaking for better performance! No More!! The only thing I changed was wide view aspect=true, but that's a norm. ORBX and my TON of add-ons ...PMDG, Fly Tampa, FSDT, REX Essentials+OD, REX 4, Soft clouds, MCE, Old Prop, Carenado, Captain Sim, all need NO Tweaking at all!! No more slow loading textures, Popping autogen, OOM's(I've had none!!) Frames average mid 100's for default aircraft, and upper 70's for payware near payware airports!! So, maybe that's why forum activity has decreased some? I spend so much more time flying and enjoying now.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

19 hours ago, simaddict said:

It could be, like I have noticed, that many people(me included) are building new computers from the top down, and have no reason to tweak things anymore? I used to look for and chase any forum posts about tweaking for better performance! No More!! The only thing I changed was wide view aspect=true, but that's a norm. ORBX and my TON of add-ons ...PMDG, Fly Tampa, FSDT, REX Essentials+OD, REX 4, Soft clouds, MCE, Old Prop, Carenado, Captain Sim, all need NO Tweaking at all!! No more slow loading textures, Popping autogen, OOM's(I've had none!!) Frames average mid 100's for default aircraft, and upper 70's for payware near payware airports!! So, maybe that's why forum activity has decreased some? I spend so much more time flying and enjoying now.

It seems that the autopilot problems are aircraft specific.  I only seem to get them on the Citation 525, I don't get them on the Piper Malibu.  I engage the flight director, set the altitude and nav hold, and the autopilot maintains the V/S and heading all the way into the flight levels.  If I hand fly the 525 to cruise altitude and then engage the autopilot I'm fine.  Flying to Reno now in the Mirage, no problems whatsoever, so the Internet thing is probably not really the problem.  Problem on the 525 is there seems to be no way to engage the flight director.

John