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On-going USB issues ?

Some of you may have noticed that I have had a number of recurring issues with usb's over the last 6 months.

Well in my extensive search for answers on the internet, I have come across some very obscure information that should be shared.

Elsewhere I have discussed changing the usb setting disable in advanced settings in power options in control panel.

The next one is a gem for all windows users, who has a computer that is not new. By that I mean that you have plugged and unplugged many peripherals over the years. Well, big surprise,windows has remembered each peripheral. When you open control panel and then device manager it will give you whats connected or disabled now. If you go up to the menus, look for Show hidden devices, and you may or may not view some more items.

However do this procedure and you just might be shocked just how much is lurking "under the hood".

Why would you do this? Because hidden device references can cause conflicts with currently active drivers.

Open a Command Prompt window. Copy and paste this text into it.

set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

start devmgmt.msc

Now press return.

Then, if it has worked, in the View menu in Device Manager select Show Hidden Devices.

Check for any 'greyed out' devices under USB controllers and Human Interface devices. You can also check under any other category. Right click on each greyed out device and choose uninstall.

It is suggested NOT to uninstall any Microsoft devices, or anything in the sound folder unless you definitely know the item is not still installed.

Reboot.

Disclaimer. This worked for me. I am not responsible for what you do to your computer.

It was easy, but in my case time consuming as I had almost one hundred entries to individually uninstall !  Except for new computers which may have no greyed out devices, you may have heaps like I did.

Go ahead and do your computer a favour.

Cheers

Mark Speechley

 

 

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As many of you would know I am one of the lucky ones to have my Lear simulator humming along with my flight crew in our 'mission flying' nights. I have 4 computers to run my sim but you might get away with two, preferably three. My air crew consists of the two pilots and me as the Flight Engineer. Why ? Because my hardware and software combination is so complex that certain hardware will randomly drop off line and I'm needed to sought the problem without missing flying time.

For example, someone will yell out that the elevator trim on the yoke is not working. Or the buttons on the First Officer EFIS are off line or the buttons on the MFD aren't working.

Well fortunately I have made up a list of the errors we see and the 'fixes' that I have to do to keep the pilots happy. My fixes may be unique to my setup so I'll type up the list and upload down the track in case anyone is interested.

Many of the fixes are as simple as a restart of WideFS for one of the computers. Others require restarting Interface IT. For those of you who are not familiar with those programs yet....you will. Occasionally a reboot of one of the computers is required etc.

The errors appears to be random.

As this thread is an old thread regarding USB, I thought time for a refresh after reading a reply Rob Ainscough made over at AVSIM. Rob has been the go-to man for years for graphics settings fo P3D.

Here is an excerpt of his, of some very salient advice that I'm sure is part of my problem.

Q    Haven't you run into the wall of max USB Drives? 

A     Each PC will be different (sadly), but every single PC I've worked on has limits but there are ways to increase those limits.  Additional PCIe USB cards (very specific USB PCIe cards and they are MB dependent), EFI/BIOS settings, higher watt USB hubs with quality power supplies, GoFlight LED brightness adjustments (reduces power consumption), etc. etc. ... lots of issues I've discovered and worked around over the years.  Overclocking also adds to USB instability.

My SimPit main FS PC is currently operating 38 USB devices using two additional USB PCIe card.  I've managed 47 USB devices using three USB PCIe cards.

I few years back I purchased a USB protocol analyzer (even comes with an SDK) to help me understand the power cycle issues with GoFlight USB devices ... it helped me figure out best cable types and connectors and lengths to use, best HUBs, best ports (yes even the ports have variances), faulty GoFlight modules, etc. ... once resolved it was VERY important for me to document the EXACT connections and make sure they didn't change.....

So as you can see, the more complicated your setup is the more prone to potential problems. If you go cheap with some of the hardware including cheapy chinese hubs you increase your risk of errors. By all means have a go first as you might get away with it for the price but you'll know where to look when the problems show up.

My tips are ;

1/ Buy powered hubs

2/ Prefer USB 3 hubs but not all USB 2 devices play nice in a usb 3 hub.

3/ Some hubs can have a combination of USB 2 and 3 ports.

4/ If you need a USB extension cable prefer ones that say they are active or passive to make sure that the distance will be at least or up to 5 metres for a USB 3 to keep a good signal.

If anything this thread is just to give you a little reminder that if you are having some weirdo problems consider the USB.

Cheers

Mark S.

Hey Mark,

This is some really good info and advice that you have posted here.  This is good stuff to know and keep an eye out for especially since our future path forward is going to be using Arduino Nano and Mega interface cards for each of the Jet45 AAS modules.  This means the amount of USBs that we will be using will increase by about eight but we will no longer be using the three Pokeys cards.

Rob Ainscough stated in the excerpt you have clipped in that he is using as many as 47 USB devices in his simulator!  The good news for us Lear45 builders is we will use nowhere near that many USB devices, maybe more like 30 USB devices.  This is a concern for Shane and I but all the reading that we have been doing says that we can run as many copies of the Ardunio software on each of the USB devices as we desire.

You would think that there has to be a point where the amount of USB devices does effect the performance of the sim.  But again, if Rob is running 47 USB devices, we should be in really good shape, especially since our USB devices will be spread over three computers in an ideal setup.

 

Hi all,

Time for a timely reminder.

I just received this email which reminded me of the problems and probably still intermittent problems that I am experiencing. The different usb standards still encourage some of the hardware to not play nice, even when we are assured of backward compatibility.

Worth a quick read.

https://fsxtimes.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/582-usb-hub-for-fip-is-still-preferred/

Stay safe everyone.

Mark S.

Hey Mark,

Again, great info on the USB issue.  It is hard trying to keep up with all the latest and greatest technology changes.

Since the last time I posted on this topic, we have refined the amount of Arduino interface cards we will need down to 14.  (Not including the flight controls or relays)  Back in Oct 2019, I said the total number of USBs could be as high as 30.  If nothing else, I can say now for certainty that we will be under 30 devices total.

We are still working on the Interface Plan Master which is just about complete.  I can't wait to share it with everyone!