NEW Windows XP FMS Adapters are now here!

[tallflyer]

I Just updated my site:

The NEW Windows XP FMS Adapters are now here!

http://www.flatfoamflyers.com/fms.html

[Dalite]

Do you have plans for a mini-din cable for ESky Transmitters?

[4 stroken ron]

What does your XP FMS adapter do?

I have a Futaba Serial cable from Mile high, XP and a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro monitor. I can download, run FMS, set it up, and fly just fine. Then after about 10 to 20 minutes of flying the computer loacks up and I get an error message from the monitor that says it is "out of synth" "please reset synth." FMS is the only program I have that ever gets this message. Will your adapter fix this promlem?
Thanks for any help
Ron

[bluesky123]

Ron,

"Out of synch" error is probably caused by the monitor working at "uncomfortable" refresh rate, not by the transmitter interface.

I've never heard about this problem until recently I assembled a PC from different bits and pieces laying around my shop for a guy from from our R/C club. The PC and all the simulators worked fine with my monitor but, as soon as I took the PC to his house and connected his old monitor, misterious errors and lock-ups started happening. Fortunately, his old monitor died a couple of weeks later and he bought a newer used monitor--all the problems disappeared!

Back to your problem. There are at least two things to try:
1) Fly FMS not in full screen but in windowed mode (when you can see the window frame around FMS windows as well as the usual Windows desktop). This way, FMS won't change the refresh rate and the monitor will be working in the same mode as usually.
2) Try finding something like "refresh rate override" in video card settings. Not all the video cards give you this, but cards based on ATI and nVidia chips usually have this option. If you find this, you may be able to set a riasonably low refresh rate, say 65...70 Hz, for the reolution you are flying FMS at.

Good luck,
Boris

[Dalite]

Also, some of the models that are available for download are not compatible for all the versions of FMS. It may be video refresh rate, processor speed, etc. You may want to turn on the frame rate so you can monitor the rate in the upper right hand screen and this may help in isolating the problem.

Does the lockup occur when you are flying the Hughes model that is included in the original FMS distribution?

Still this doesn't stop the model from occaisionally flying through the ground to altitudes in the minus column. Once it does this, even flying back up through the earth doesn't reset the susyem, and I have to quit the program then reload to get it re-initialized.

You may want to use the newer version that monitors gas or battery and set it up for shorter flights, then re-initialize on each take-off. Just a guess.....

Also, if you try the sky edit program that is circulating, don't get to chummy with the tree-tops and shed structures in some of the landscapes. They are prone to dissappear at the horizon line. You can still crash if you fly into where they were....

[bluesky123]

There are several unrelated frame rates:

1) Frame Per Second, FPS, describes the speed at which the simulator regenerates the picture. When many objects are being shown and/or the plane/hely model is too detailed, this FPS drops.

2) Monitor refresh rate, which has nothing to do with the simulator performance. Monitor refresh rate is one of the parameters determining the current video mode, just like the screen resolution or the number of colors (color depth). Usually, simulators and other games let you change the screen resolution (in order for you to find the best combination of image detaiols and FPS), but rarely the monitor refresh rate can be chosen from the simulator menu. In this situation, Windows tries to select the "best" refresh rate it thinks the video card and the monitor can handle. Usually, Windows tries to set the refresh rate as high as possible. Unfortunately, the higher the refresh rate is, the harder it is to handle, especially for older monitors.

This second rate, the monitor refresh rate, is waht seems to be causing Ron's problem.

Boris

[Dalite]

Good info, and thanks for the clarification.

In my installation, using a 400 MHz machine running Windoze 98 SE, the complexity(?) of some of the models causes the video to be jerky and lagging control functions by a number of refresh cycles. I have to change the resolution to reduce the jerky motion, and have responses to control functions (stick input) re-occur in real time. This is where I apparently mistook Frames Per Second as a function of refresh rate (the speed at which the electronics was able to refresh the video going to the screen). I merely leave it activated so I can monitor the speed and judge FMS's reaction to different models.

It appeared that FMS would vary the Frames Per Second in accordance with the ability of the graphics circuity to be able to refresh the current action.

In my installation, they seemed to co-incide.

In rendering video, I know that 30 Frames per second is a good benchmark, and I see rates of above 8 FPS on my FMS installation. I haven't kept a constant watch; just use frame rate as a criteria for judging which models I have the best response from, based on the speed of my older machine and it's video capabilities.

[tallflyer]

Thanks for replying to that Question about the refreash rate!

I have been busy and did not have a chance to write back!