MBunjes 2 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Greetings. I recently finished building my new Flight Sim PC and in my quest for unsurpassed realism I added a box with a lot of pushbuttons so I could manipulate panels in the 737 NGX cockpit and send commands to GSX and Radar Contact. I had an Arduino card lying around so I flashed it to make it a HID joystick device and assigned a lot of keypresses via FSUIPC. All was well and it even worked. It was great for moving around in the NGX cockpit untill I started to actually fly. Now comes the weird part. I had only to move my hand in the vicinity of the button box and the PMDG NGX pitched violently upward. No buttons were pushed, the box wasn't even touched. This was no coincidence, I've tested it 5 or 6 times. The pc was restarted, the flight reinitialized and the same behavior occurred. I'm seriously suspecting witchcraft at this point. Has anyone ever encountered anything like it or is this a candidate for the strangest flight Sim behavior ever ? Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 That is pretty strange, but stray capacitance can do all kinds of things. Check to see that the box is well grounded. John Link to post Share on other sites
MBunjes 2 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 It's a plastic box. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 It still sounds like a grounding issue of something internal to the box. John Link to post Share on other sites
MBunjes 2 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Ok, I'll look into it and report back. Link to post Share on other sites
needles 1,013 Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Also check to see that nothing in your FSX settings has been mapped with the same buttons. This can sometimes cause unreliable behaviour. Good luck. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
flybytes 34 Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 A metal box should stop that, but to save time & labour, buy a can of ferrite paint & spray the exterior of the plastic box & as already mentioned insert a grounded screw or bolt. As an ex radio ham, years ago, I sprayed the interior of my computer display & keyboard (a Radio Shack TRS-80) with ferrite which prevented the horrible radio harmonics they produced from interfering with my sensitive short wave radio. As it happens, the greyish colour of the ferrite paint is often a very good match of aircraft Boeing flight-deck grey. World war 2 military radio chassis & boxes were often internally coated with silver (an excellent conductor) to ensure that radio waves could only be received or transmitted via the antenna & not through the box. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites
MBunjes 2 Posted October 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 Thanks for the suggestions. It turned out to be the Arduino. I switched it for a very cheap 64 input card and now everything is working just fine. I'll definitely keep the ferrite paint in mind though. Martin Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Low 63 Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 FSX was developed with the help of both witchcraft and voodoo magic. Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 FSX was developed with the help of both witchcraft and voodoo magic. Chris, where do I get those 2 programs you refer to above?..... Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 Chris, where do I get those 2 programs you refer to above?..... Haiti. Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Don't forget the gremlins.... Link to post Share on other sites
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