Error Loading Firmware for MCG to FBM III

[Weegie]

Got the grip today, installed the extra board and reconfigured the wiring, which I hope is correct I had some difficulty understanding the instructions so ended up using the pictures

I had been using an old version of VKBCfg-C_77_2_0 with firmware 1.79 and all was great.

After install I checked the stick with this program and the although nothing worked on the grip the X and Y axes were still fine and the digital endless rotaries along with some other switches on the base (but not all)

When I went to upload the new firmware with the ZBootloader the stick was recognized and I selected the _MambaFat_MCG_PRO_v_97_0 the bootloader erased the old software then the program seemed to hang for a few seconds and returned a message stating the download failed

The Y axis is now not working and I've got a non functioning stick, I have already sent a message to VKB Europe as well

I really want to keep the grip and get it working, but I need help

Attached is a screenshot of the bootloader (I repeated the Firmware upgrade to get the screenshot)

Plugging the USB directly into the back of the computer and a hardware reset just repeated the error message

Assistance would be greatly appreciated

[Ron61]

Do not sew new firmware with the old flasher (v.0.97), otherwise there will be such a result.
Use version 1.18 and everything will be fine. Take from here.

[Weegie]

I'll try that Ron thanks so much for replying and assisting

I'l report back either way

John

[Weegie]

So loaded up the new Bootloader and tried it, when I ran it, I got the result below, you can see it ends with an Error Write data, I have no idea what that message is trying to tell me

When I run the VKB Device Config, first I get an error that I'm using old firmware, once I accept that I've got the results posted below, you can see nothing seems to be recognized on the axes test page

On closing the VKB Config I get an error message

Access violation at address 0041B68D in module 'VKBDeviceCfg-C.exe'. Read of address FFFFFFC

I then have to close VKB Device Config using the task manager as accepting the error then trying to close from the program simply brings up the error message again

It appears to me that the bootloader is NOT loading the firmware and reverting me back to the old configuration and I've just confirmed that by opening the older VKBDevCfg-C_0_77_2_0 and I at least get the axes back

[Weegie]

I just did a hardware reset and this time the Bootloader completed the operation

However loading VKBDevConfig-C_v0_90_3_5 still gives me the Old Firmware warning and it would appear that the New Firmware is not getting loaded into the stick

[Ron61]

Read here first and do it yourself. Follow the link (given above) and download firmware 1.98_1 and the configurator 0.90.92. In the archive, select the firmware specifically for your grip and flash. After that, reset the settings to default with the button in the configurator and then calibrate.

[Weegie]

I think I am getting somewhere, with your help Ron61 but still experiencing problems

When I initially loaded the firmware the went to the VKB Config program it showed the X, Y axes and the brake as a slider.

However I moved the program to where I want it to load from, it was initially in downloads and now I can't see the axes again

The Bootloader appears to have loaded the firmwareand I altered the Zconfig.ini to inclued the 2 lines in the thread you pointed me to

I have another observation I am running the stick through a hub although the other devices connected to it are disabled. This has not caused me any problems in the past, but I wanted to point it out

What I have now is this

When I set the default button I get the error message "Invalid Pointer Operation"

Thankyou so much for your assistance so far it is very much appreciated and I feel I'm not too far from getting it to work

John

[Ron61]

Try reconnecting the USB cable and rebooting the configurator.

[Weegie]

So without warning suddenly the Config program started to show the axes, then went blank again.

I also noticed that the stick was dead at one point and after a while realized this was related to one of the dials on the stick base. When rotated to almost the stop the stick died

So have I misunderstood the connections? It seems very strange.

I'll try to photograph the wiring inside the stick tomorrow, I have no idea if I can get close enough to get good resolution. If not I'll try to make some sort of diagam to show how I have wired it

I'm feeling a little better as I'm it feels that Ron is leading me slowly and I'm making progress, this is great and I'm grateful

John

[Ron61]

The connection of the handle with the base can be viewed in the Global-External tab by the Stat button. Or in Test-External Devices.

[Weegie]

Thanks Ron although I'm unsure what the results told me. All I saw was a green line progressing along the bottom, I'll post up pictures and any observations on that later. First a base line so as I know what I've done so far is correct and there are no major blunders on my part

Here is the wiring of the plugs in 2 pictures, click on them to enlarge them if they are unclear.
First with the gimbal removed, the coloured arrows show which plugs are connected to each other

The green and the yellow arrows were using the cables supplied with the kit
The red arrow comes from the LHS forward plug and connects to the supplied circuit board as shown

Next the same thing with the gimbal inserted into the base

The orange arrow is the X axis on the gimbal, the plug on the gimbal is at the front and it's the shorter of the 2 axes cables
The purple arrow is the Y axis on the gimbal, the plug is roughly in the center fore to aft and on the right hand side in the picture
The blue arrow I'm not really sure what it does but comes out the center of the gimbal and plugs into the supplied circuit board as shown

I decided to also check via the Hardware in the control panel to determine how Windows was seeing the FBM/MCG Grip

I then started to check how each physical device was being seen by Windows

First the X & Y axis worked showing the cross moving horizontally and vertically, although the X axis was inverted, i.e. I move the stick to the left and the cross moved to the right and vice versa. The Y axis was not inverted.

The POV Hat was operated by the "Master Mode" Hat and worked as an 8 way hat
The other axes were being recorded as follows

Zaxis: MCG X Axis Gate Cont Hat
YRot: FBM THR (Rear Dial LHS Stick Base with center detent)
ZRot: FBM PROP (Front Dial LHS Stick Base without center detent)
Slider: MCG Y Axis Gate Cont Hat
Dial: MCG Brake

All other Hats, buttons etc: on MCG operate buttons
Digital Dials on FBM Base for Alt Trim & Elev Trim operate 2 buttons each dependent on rotation of the dial
Digital Dial on FBM Base for RDR Trim does nothing

The last thing to note is the ZRot axes behaves strangley, when you rotate the Prop dial on the FBM base (the one that kills the device power) it appears to increase or decrease non linearly then the bar indicating the amount of dial movement moves back to an approx default position. It's definately not responding like a normal input. All the other buttons, hats and dials behave as they should.

I'm unsure if any of that assists in the trouble shooting of the VKBConfig-C program and why it doesn't register the axes, well except on 2 brief ocassions when it did seem to work.

I've also tried rotating the Prop dial around to different positions but so far it made no difference to the behavior of VKBConfig-C

Any of that information useful or more important any glaring errors?

John

[Weegie]

So I have no idea how long this will last or if it's permanent

I had to take the stick to pieces to take the photoographs in the previous post (obviously).

I just reopened VKBConfig-C again now and the device registered. Here is what I am getting

I recalibrated the stick and all the axes and all appears good for now, I'm hoping it will stay that way as I I've invested a bit of time with this program and I'm familiar with the basic functions of it and really like it.

Going to leave that Zrot alone

Even if it does stop working it's not the end of the world though a bit inconvenient as I'll loose some of the very trick things that can be accomplished with the VKBConfig-C program. That said I could use something like Joystick Gremlin for button functionality like the shift and tempo commands if it does not, at least the cal is now completed.

Thanks Ron61 you've been an enormous help, I'll definately now be keeping the MCG as the number of buttons axes and options I now have are verging on stupid, it's fantastic.

Fingers crossed VKBConfig-C keeps behaving as it's the icing on the cake & I'll report back if I have further problems

John

[Ron61]

Please take screenshots from the axis test in the configurator, and not from the Windows applet.
And I would like to know more specifically what does not work? Can you take a look at the photo of the stock pad?
Show a screenshot of the Profile-Axes tab.

[Weegie]

Sure Ron I'll do anything you ask me to

I'm unsure though what you mean by "Can you take a look at the photo of the stock pad?"

Here is the Profile-Axes tab

Short video of the axes configuration page operating the grip and Mamba base dials, hats, stick etc: here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElVK9qv4bY&feature=youtu.be

Hope that helps

John

[Ron61]

Suspiciously small distance between the boards - unnecessary contact is possible. I propose to increase it by screwing another short stand on the first. And fix the third.