Lost contact with controller

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

I use VoxATC 7.42 with P3D 4.5. Sometimes (now) I have this problem. All communication works fine, but at a certain moment the controller seems to have lost me. In this case I have contacted Departure, VoxATC recognizes my contact phrases (turn blue), but nothing happens further on. What's going wrong and how can I prevent this?

Hans Hartvelt
The Netherlands

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Hans,

Your issue has been reported to the developer. It's possible that some other app or process is interfering with the connection between VOXATC and the sim. As a workaround, if it happens again, Disable and the re-enable VOXATC. After hearing the testing of the TTS voices and a slight delay, VOXATC should continue responding and injecting AI Traffic. Now for some questions:

1. What other flightsim apps and utilities are running when this happens, including weather injectors, FSUIPC, TrackIR, etc.?
2. How many TTS voices are installed and which type of voices are installed? For example, VOXPop, native Windows 10 voices, Ivona, Cereproc, etc..
3. Which sound device is being used: integrated  default chip, Realtek audio, 3rd party sound card, Nvidia sound from the GPU, etc.? Is more than one audio output device active?
4. Do you have your Internet browser or any other program running while the sim is running?
5. What anti-malware utility do you use and have you excluded VOXATC and the sim from being scanned by the utility?
6. What version of Windows are your running? For example, Windows 10 (2004) which is the May, 2020 update.
7. What Video card and video driver version are you using?

Jay

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

Jabloom, thank you very much for your very early reply. I will check my configuration in order to answer your questions. BTW I work in a remote configuration. Do you want to know the apps on the server and/or on the remote pc? For now, I remember when I had this problem before and I disabled and enabled Vox again, Vox starts again from the beginning (ATIS) and doesn't continue where it left me (make contact with departure). I'll be back!!!

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

If you are enroute, VOXATC should continue as if nothing happened. If you are on the ground, it will start all over with the ATIS.

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

Thank you for this tip. I will try the workaround next time.

Here are the answers to your questions.

1. Server:
Windows 10 latest version / update
Active Sky for P3D4
Active Sky Cloud Art
P3D v4.5
FSUIPC 5
Littlenavmap
Littlenavconnect
FsAeroData
Prosim737 system
Prosim737 MCP
RSIM throttle
SIOC
Prosim CDU
GSX
Topcat
Vox Net client

Remote PC:
Windows 10 latest version / update
Littlenavmap
VoxATC Server
VoxATC panel

2. All default voices and all additional VoxATC voices. No third party voices.

3. Remote PC: Microsoft High Definition Audio Device 

4. 3 PC's in a network. Network is continuously connected to the internet.

5. Microsoft defender and firewall. As far as I know, the sim nor VoxATC are excluded from scanning. I must check this.

6. See above.

7. Server: NVidia GeForce GTX 1080
Remote PC: AMD Radeon HD 5450.

Hope this helps.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Hans Hartvelt
Not finished yet

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

5. Server: P3D folder was excluded from scanning. The VoxATC folder was not. I have added this one now.
Remote PC: The VoxATC folder was not excluded. I have added this one now.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Running apps across a network is always a difficult set up to troubleshoot. Can you run everything temporarily on the server as a test? The only other thing that I can suggest is to reduce the number of apps and add-ons that are running. I would first disable GSX and not run LNM, then Active Sky and as a last resort, fsaerodata. 

[vadriver 247]

8 hours ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

VoxATC recognizes my contact phrases (turn blue),

i would always have this behaviour if i included an enroute hold in my pfpx prepared flightplan (ie in vox's flightplan extras)

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

@Jabloom. So you suppose that the error is caused by another program that interferes with VoxATC. The question is: which one? It sounds as a long way to go because I must execute a number of flights to discover this evil program, but I will try. Thanks for your help so far.

On 7/16/2020 at 5:08 PM, jabloomf1230 said:

Hans,

Your issue has been reported to the developer.

PS, if you are privileged to communicate with TW, please ask him urgently to fix the 'oceanic center' bug, when flying in a remote configuration. I would be him so grateful!

@VADriver. It is not entirely clear to me what your point is. What do you mean by 'this behaviour'? Turning the phrases into blue after recognition is a normal working procedure of VoxATC. If you means that you should also lost communication with an enroute hold in your flightplan, I can tell you that I never uses this option.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1 minute ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

PS, if you are privileged to communicate with TW, please ask him urgently to fix the 'oceanic center' bug, when flying in a remote configuration. I would be him so grateful!

Since I don't fly in a remote configuration, any comment from me would have less credibility. The contact page on the official VOXATC website is monitored by the developer and since he is working on the next version, now would be a good time to jog his memory about this error. Keep in mind also, that presently the P3d5 version of VOXATC (which you aren't using), does not support a network configuration, so a future update to that version may address your concern.

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

Jabloom, good tip. I sent TW a request. Hopefully he will include a fix for this boring bug in the next update. Also good to know that the new P3D5 version is not suitable for remote configurations yet.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Here's a hint for you that may allow you to figure out a workaround. VOXATC Indexer only reads Center/FIR data from the file bvcf.bgl, located in the sim's ../scenery/world/scenery folder. It then creates the file bglcenters.dat in

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC P3D 4

If VOXATC can't find a specific center in that file at the user's location, it uses the fallback option, oceanic center. My guess is that the Indexer is either not creating the file bglcenters.dat correctly or the file is not accessible, because of the remote installation.

[vadriver 247]

4 hours ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

If you means that you should also lost communication with an enroute hold in your flightplan, I can tell you that I never uses this option.

Hans

correct, no response from departure & unfortunately i too don't use the hold feature anymore.

but then, this is not your issue it seems.

[Hans Hartvelt 11]

On 7/17/2020 at 9:51 PM, jabloomf1230 said:

Here's a hint for you that may allow you to figure out a workaround. VOXATC Indexer only reads Center/FIR data from the file bvcf.bgl, located in the sim's ../scenery/world/scenery folder. It then creates the file bglcenters.dat in

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC P3D 4

If VOXATC can't find a specific center in that file at the user's location, it uses the fallback option, oceanic center. My guess is that the Indexer is either not creating the file bglcenters.dat correctly or the file is not accessible, because of the remote installation.

Jabloom, this is very helpful information, I was looking for, for quite some time. 

I use FSAeroData, so the original bvcf.bgl file is replaced by a new one, whereas the old one is renamed as bvcf.bgl.FSAD. I know that there are compatability problems with FSAD and VoxATC, but when I use VoxATC on my server, VoxATX recognizes FIR names and frequencies. 

In the folder C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC P3D 4 on the server, I find this bglcenters.dat file, but also 47 older versions.

On the remote PC I also find this bglcenters.dat file in the folder C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC Net Server. The time of the file is about one hour later but the size is exactly the same (469 kb). No older versions here.

I cannot read .dat files so I cannot check the content of these files. From outside they look OK.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

 

4 hours ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

I find this bglcenters.dat file, but also 47 older versions.

Those numbered versions of all the DAT files are backups of previous versions and can be deleted.

4 hours ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

I know that there are compatibility problems with FSAD and VoxATC

VOXATC works with fsaerodata, as far as I can tell. Its entry point in the scenery library should be below all 3rd party airports, but above the default scenery items.

4 hours ago, Hans Hartvelt said:

On the remote PC I also find this bglcenters.dat file in the folder C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC Net Server. The time of the file is about one hour later but the size is exactly the same (469 kb).

The two versions of bglcenters.dat should match exactly, both in size and time created. Looks like something is out of sync between the remote and server PCs. You could try matching them up and see what happens.