CH Control Manager & Win 7 64bit

[Ardy123]

For some reason when I try and use the CH Control Manager, and I go to 'calibrate' on it, although the stick shows up, the control manager fails to trap any input from the stick.

Any suggestions would be very helpful.

[Buckaroo]

For some reason when I try and use the CH Control Manager, and I go to 'calibrate' on it, although the stick shows up, the control manager fails to trap any input from the stick.

Any suggestions would be very helpful.

Did you load your .map of choice first?

You have to be in Direct Mode to calibrate.  Mapped Mode is for testing.  Just click on the Direct Mode icon, then click on the Test/Calibrate icon.

Did you initially scan your controllers?  If not, try the Rescan button within Test/Calibrate.

I have the Fighterstick Pro, Pro Throttle. and the Pedals, all USB, and Win 7 compatable.

It has been awhile since I did the process.

Calibration cannot be done through Windows, but only through the CH Control Manager.

The program has its own manual how-to.  There is a section on Calibration.

Then if you are stuck on something, there is the CH Hangar forums.

I calibrated my setup, in Aces High, both ways using Control Manager OR direct to Aces High controllers setup.  It works both ways for me, one OR the other.  But calibration has to be done in Control Manager.

When I 1st log-on for a session, I always have to firstly calibrate my plane, initially, using the Aces High controllers calibration utility, to center every thing, then I am good to go.

I found setting up the CH Control Manager very difficult to learn and I am by no means an expert using it.  Some guys to CH Hanger are experts.  There are guys' .maps to use for Aces High at CH Hanger and setup information concerning Aces High.

I have a pretty good setup for me, my own .map, but I do not use Modes or the text programming.  Also, 3 buttons on my Fighterstick are mapped to TrackIR.

There are a few guys in here with this gear.  Better wait for more responses as to advice.

I run my setup in Mapped Mode.

[Ardy123]

I read and tried some of the suggestions in the ch hanger forum. none worked

[Buckaroo]

I read and tried some of the suggestions in the ch hanger forum. none worked

I found this to be true, also, as the newer Aces High update patch does not allow the older CH Hanger .map(s) to work correctly.  

So I created my own.  The way I did it, I brought up the Aces High controllers' map utility on my Desktop monitor screen, while simultaneously bringing up the CH Control Manager and mapped them together to create my own .map .

I also, separately setup within Aces High's controllers map utility, without bringing up or using the CH Control Manager.  Both setups work, independent of each other.  And I see no difference in performane, either way.  And nobody showed me how!  I just experimented.

I edited my 1st post here with the corrected information using Direct Mode since posting it.

[Ardy123]

I also, separately setup within Aces High's controllers map utility, without bringing up or using the CH Control Manager.  Both setups work, independent of each other.  And I see no difference in performane, either way.  And nobody showed me how!  I just experimented.

Just tried that, no luck. Both AH and the control manager failed to receive any events from the joystick (ie, buttons nor stick input was being received). I notices that if I uninstall the control manager and just use the stock windows driver, the stick works but there is alot of flutter in the output values (x & y).

[Buckaroo]

Just tried that, no luck. Both AH and the control manager failed to receive any events from the joystick (ie, buttons nor stick input was being received). I notices that if I uninstall the control manager and just use the stock windows driver, the stick works but there is alot of flutter in the output values (x & y).

Flutter?

Better ask Skuzzy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My PC is a mid-tower desktop.  It is hard wired, not wireless and an Ethernet DSL feed.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bring up my CH Control Manager before entering my Aces High session.  I find my .map I use, open it, load it into the CH Control Manager.  If it loads sucessfully, it will have a pop-up stating so.  I run in Mapped Mode.  Then I minimize it, to my Taskbar.  Then I start Aces High.

==================================================================

OK, you are going to hate me for this:

Start over!

Pull out your controllers from the back of your machine (as to what CH recommends) or Aces High suggests a Belkin power hub, about $100, restart your machine.  Start Windows, I use Windows Home Premium, 32-bit on a dedicated hard drive just for Aces High and another 32-bit sim.  Plug each controller in, and verify each time, one by one that your PC recognizes each controller.  Then, once everything is in, go to the Windows controllers' setup and initially set it up.

I forget how I brought the CH Controllers into the setup as the next step.  But it has to be done.  Afterwards, when you go to the Windows controllers' setup to calibrate there, it will tell you to do your calibration in the CH Control manager.  And then go from there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is another way, Plug and Play, using USB controllers :

After doing the above procedure, do not add the CH Control Manager.

Calibrate in Windows controllers' setup.

Then go to the Aces High area to map your controllers, joystick, throttle, pedals, directly.  I did it this way when I 1st setup my home built PC about 2 years ago with my brand new CH gear controllers and ran it fine, this way, until I joined another sim where I had to learn to use the CH Control Manager.  Once I had it setup for that sim, I found I also had to use it for Aces High.

The learning curve to learn how to use the CH Control Manager was harder for me than learning Aces High, easily the equivalent of a 3 credit college course, but no instructor or real person tutor.  I am age 60.  Nothing comes easy anymore like when I was twenty.  Just tough it out.

Do an Advanced Search here to forums to find who else has the CH Products, gear.  Send them PMs, personal messages, ask questions.

By far, I think, learning to use the CH Control Manager properly is not easy.  I do not think many sims have people using the gear, but, CH Products stay in business, so somebody is buying their stuff.  Give CH Products tech people a call, ask questions.  I think Ack Ack user here used to work for them.  CH Hanger is not directly affiliated with CH Products, I think this is correct.  The guy that created the CH Control Manager can be found to CH Hanger and he will go way out of his way to help you, or at least in the past, this is true.

It is the weekend.  Skuzzy will probably chime in or the other people after the weekend real life activities get out of the way.  I am surprised nobody else has chimed in.  I don't think most people here to Aces High that use the CH Products gear, use its Control Manager.

I will go find some (plural) url links that really helped me, that might prove useful to you, standby...

http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/forum.php?s=c65606a93b28e7ea09e798e17b591ad1

http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/showthread.php?7923-Aces-High-%28

[Skuzzy]

I find it is never a good idea to use CH products without a powered USB hub.  Windows 7 64 bit has a bug in the USB support when the power levels drop too low in the USB bus.

[Buckaroo]

I find it is never a good idea to use CH products without a powered USB hub.  Windows 7 64 bit has a bug in the USB support when the power levels drop too low in the USB bus.

I'm not having a problem.

I use a Staples powered hub, but will be adding the $100 Belkin to my new machine.

[Buckaroo]

Flutter?

Better ask Skuzzy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My PC is a mid-tower desktop.  It is hard wired, not wireless and an Ethernet DSL feed.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bring up my CH Control Manager before entering my Aces High session.  I find my .map I use, open it, load it into the CH Control Manager.  If it loads sucessfully, it will have a pop-up stating so.  I run in Mapped Mode.  Then I minimize it, to my Taskbar.  Then I start Aces High.

==================================================================

OK, you are going to hate me for this:

Start over!

Pull out your controllers from the back of your machine (as to what CH recommends) or Aces High suggests a Belkin power hub, about $100, restart your machine.  Start Windows, I use Windows Home Premium, 32-bit on a dedicated hard drive just for Aces High and another 32-bit sim.  Plug each controller in, and verify each time, one by one that your PC recognizes each controller.  Then, once everything is in, go to the Windows controllers' setup and initially set it up.

I forget how I brought the CH Controllers into the setup as the next step.  But it has to be done.  Afterwards, when you go to the Windows controllers' setup to calibrate there, it will tell you to do your calibration in the CH Control manager.  And then go from there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is another way, Plug and Play, using USB controllers :

After doing the above procedure, do not add the CH Control Manager.

Calibrate in Windows controllers' setup.

Then go to the Aces High area to map your controllers, joystick, throttle, pedals, directly.  I did it this way when I 1st setup my home built PC about 2 years ago with my brand new CH gear controllers and ran it fine, this way, until I joined another sim where I had to learn to use the CH Control Manager.  Once I had it setup for that sim, I found I also had to use it for Aces High.

The learning curve to learn how to use the CH Control Manager was harder for me than learning Aces High, easily the equivalent of a 3 credit college course, but no instructor or real person tutor.  I am age 60.  Nothing comes easy anymore like when I was twenty.  Just tough it out.

Do an Advanced Search here to forums to find who else has the CH Products, gear.  Send them PMs, personal messages, ask questions.

By far, I think, learning to use the CH Control Manager properly is not easy.  I do not think many sims have people using the gear, but, CH Products stay in business, so somebody is buying their stuff.  Give CH Products tech people a call, ask questions.  I think Ack Ack user here used to work for them.  CH Hanger is not directly affiliated with CH Products, I think this is correct.  The guy that created the CH Control Manager can be found to CH Hanger and he will go way out of his way to help you, or at least in the past, this is true.

It is the weekend.  Skuzzy will probably chime in or the other people after the weekend real life activities get out of the way.  I am surprised nobody else has chimed in.  I don't think most people here to Aces High that use the CH Products gear, use its Control Manager.

I will go find some (plural) url links that really helped me, that might prove useful to you, standby...

http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/forum.php?s=c65606a93b28e7ea09e798e17b591ad1

http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/showthread.php?7923-Aces-High-%28

Time limit was up for modification.

So.... some of the old post, and some new material :


OK, you are going to hate me for this:

Start over!

Pull out your controllers from the back of your machine (as to what CH recommends) or Aces High suggests a Belkin power hub, about $100, restart your machine.  Start Windows, I use Windows Home Premium, 32-bit on a dedicated hard drive just for Aces High and another 32-bit sim.  Plug each controller in, and verify each time, one by one that your PC recognizes each controller.  Then, once everything is in, go to the Windows controllers' setup and initially set it up.

My source: "Download the latest version of Control Manager.  Uninstall the older version, unplug your controllers, and start fresh.  Plug in the controllers 1st as I said, above.  Then install the CH Control Manager newest version off the CH Products web site.  Windows will first load a driver for each device on its own.  Then the CH Control Manager will reload the correct drivers - and more importantly - will convince Windows to surrender control of those devices to Control Manager.  This is to avoid a virtual fight with certain stupid Windows software rules.  Now you are ready for the initial setup.  Select highest number of buttons.  Do not elect to combine the controllers as one.  Begin to build your new .map  .  It should install itself into your Windows Documents files.  Mine is at >>> C:\Computer\(my user name)\My Documents\CH_Control Manager\Maps   .    CH .maps usually consist of a xxxx.map or xxxx.cms or sometimes a xxxx.cmc  ."  That is all the info I had to work from as advice.

I forget how I brought the CH Controllers into the setup as the next step, but see the preceding paragraph above.  But it has to be done.  Afterwards, when you go to the Windows controllers' setup to calibrate there, it will tell you to do your calibration in the CH Control manager.  And then go from there.

Do not setup the controllers "combined devices" as one!

I've done enough to help.

Everything you need to know is at CH Hanger or http://forums.eagle.ru  or the tutorial that comes with the CH Control Manager.

There are guys with condensed how-to's of maybe making the process easier by using their .pdf tutorials.

If I can figure it out, anybody can.

Most guys to Aces High, I think, just Plug and Play their USB stuff.  Forget about using Control Manager unless you want to use its programming CMS functions.

Cheers

[Ardy123]

I find it is never a good idea to use CH products without a powered USB hub.  Windows 7 64 bit has a bug in the USB support when the power levels drop too low in the USB bus.

Ok, I know what is causing the flutter. I have always had my CH stuff plugged into  a USB hub, but as my laptop only has 2 usb ports, I have other items connected to it. On a USB port the outer pins are Ground and Power, As such, when I connected a volt meter to it and noticed that when the USB hub had several items on it (like trackIR), the voltage fluttered between 5.5 volts and 4.7 volts.

Considering the CH stick is basically 2 100k potentiometers, a fluxuating power source would cause fluttering. I went ahead and purchased an industrial USB hub that guarantees 500mA for each port. hopefully that will be able to deliver stable power. If that doesn't work, I could modify my stick to take power from an external 5.5 charger (not to difficult, as it looks like a simple PIC 8 bit micro controller & USB chip and 3 pots is the whole thing).


As for why the CH Control manager does not work and when used, causes the computer to not receive any events from the stick, no idea. I'll continue digging through the CH forums and the links you posted.


EDIT: it seems that the power issues could be resolved if CH had put a power regulator that dropped the power to 3v from 5 and a nice capacitor to smooth it out...

[Drano]

Have the same rig and OS. I've found when calibrating in cm you have to get the rig out of mapped mode first. Up at the top click on "off"". Now go thru your calibration sequence. Go back into mapped mode and download the profile to the rig again. Test it. It should be ok.

Another tip I picked up from ch hangar. Sometimes the rig loses setting for no apparent reason. Look for a file called  cmstart.exe. Drag and drop that into your startup folder. It'll run at startup now and reload your profile. It isn't a resident program and only runs for a few seconds.

Give that a shot. Might have been mentioned above but there was to much WOT to read.

[bustr]

Load cell amp for custom joysticks.

http://www.leobodnar.com/products/LC-amp/

[Ardy123]

Load cell amp for custom joysticks.

http://www.leobodnar.com/products/LC-amp/

Thanks bustr, that link could save me much time if the new hub doesn't work out.

[Buckaroo]

Ok, I know what is causing the flutter. I have always had my CH stuff plugged into  a USB hub, but as my laptop only has 2 usb ports, I have other items connected to it. On a USB port the outer pins are Ground and Power, As such, when I connected a volt meter to it and noticed that when the USB hub had several items on it (like trackIR), the voltage fluttered between 5.5 volts and 4.7 volts.

Considering the CH stick is basically 2 100k potentiometers, a fluxuating power source would cause fluttering. I went ahead and purchased an industrial USB hub that guarantees 500mA for each port. hopefully that will be able to deliver stable power. If that doesn't work, I could modify my stick to take power from an external 5.5 charger (not to difficult, as it looks like a simple PIC 8 bit micro controller & USB chip and 3 pots is the whole thing).


As for why the CH Control manager does not work and when used, causes the computer to not receive any events from the stick, no idea. I'll continue digging through the CH forums and the links you posted.


EDIT: it seems that the power issues could be resolved if CH had put a power regulator that dropped the power to 3v from 5 and a nice capacitor to smooth it out...

I have Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit on a i7-920 at 2.66GHz CPU home built desktop machine, now just about 2 years old.  I initially tried Aces High this way in 64-bit mode, but it was not playing nicely.  My C: drive I use Norton Home Premium.

Skuzzy, at the time, suggested running in 32-bit Windows 7, which I currently do, on a separate, dedicated hard drive in a dual boot setup not using Norton.  I use Microsoft's Security Essentials, only and it is my F: drive. 

My PSU is about 300 watts over what my system needs, a Cooler Master 750 watt unit in pure sine wave.  I have used a clamp ammeter to check my amp load and I never even pull 3 amps, ever.  I use a Sears AC Line Splitter to accomplish this.

I plug my controllers directly into the back of my machine as suggested by the tech guy I talked to at CH Products.  I actually perform better this way than the powered hub I was using.  So I switched my other stuff into the hub.

I have no issues.

Your mileage may vary.

My new Alienware is a much better machine in a 2nd generation i7 CPU, dual SLI, RAND setup running at 3.9GHz for a game I need it for, not Aces High, and in 3D.  I intend to use a better hub with this machine.  I intend to use Windows 7 Pro and it will be dedicated for gaming only, including Aces High.  It has a 875 watt psu.  I will run the Microsoft Security Essentials on this machine.  Aces High is safe---I turn off the firewall and the antivirus when I play it.  Just remember to switch back when closing the game.

To be fair, I thought you should know.

[bustr]

Ardy,

Here are a bunch of Joystick tools to clear your calibrations in the registry and look at your axis.

I had a similare problem with the CH manager and ran the Clear Calibration Utility. It worked in that case. I've also found that between my 6 USB ports some are better than others. Remember that your CH products are USB1.1 while many other manufactuers conform to USB2.0. Are your problems related to missmatch USB versions in the bus? I've gotten spiking problems from my joystick from that problem in the past.

Downlaod a copy of PC Wizard 2010 and click on the the Ports Icon. Your CH products will be enumerated and you will see they are USB1.1 - Low Speed. Saitek is all USB2.0 High Speed if you have any of their products. I have CH Joy/Thro and Saitek rudder. If I setup the HUB for the CH ahead of the Saitek HUB in my PC USB ports my POST hangs at the Bios Logo Screen.

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DIVIew - shows you otuputs for all USB controller devices. Leobodnar links to it for testing his custom build USB controller chips.

http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836/DIView.zip
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Wingman Gagets - shows you outputs and lets you clear your calibrations in the registry.

http://www.wingmanteam.com/latest_software/gadgets.htm