Installation Problems

[Mishka]

Hi, I am a new user and I have tried to follow the instructions carefully.

I am using X-plane with the Zibo mod and a Behringer X-Touch mini

I have changed the IN/OUT ports in the aircraft template - B738_XMidiCtrl.toml - in the aircraft folder but Xmidictrl still shows the ports for the device as 0/1 and of course there are errors and it does not work. I do not know another way to change the ports for the X-Touch - the Midi Devices section of Xmidictr shows the X-Touch ports as In 4- OUT 5.

I have put your 737 template in the aircraft folder and I have loaded the Behringer mini templates using the X-Touch utility but I am not able to get it to work.

Please help if you can as this looks to be a fab utility without having to spend hours setting it up!

I have attached the log files as requested.

Thanks

Dave

Log.txt XMidiCtrl_Log.txt

Edited March 1, 2022 by Mishka

[VirtualCPT]

Hi Dave,

I just checked to log and it seems that the plugin is picking up the wrong profile:

2022-03-01 11:07:21   [INFO]    Aircraft Profile 'D:\X-Plane 11/Output/preferences/XMidiCtrl/Profiles/XMidiCtrl.toml' found

Let me quickly explain, how the system tries to load aircraft profiles:

1. As a very first step, I look into the current aircraft folder, e.g. 'D:\X-Plane 11\Aircraft\B737-800X', for a file called XMidiCtrl.toml. If this file exists, it will be used otherwise I continue with step 2.
    
2. If no profile was found in the current aircraft folder, I will have a look at the common profile folder. In your case this would be folder 'D:\X-Plane 11/Output/preferences/XMidiCtrl/Profiles/'. This plugin will search for a file called <ICAO_Aircraft>_XMidiCtrl.toml. For the 737-800 the file name would be B738_XMidiCtrl.toml.
    
3. I the plugin still didn't found any profile it will search for a file called XMidiCtrl.toml within the common profile folder. In your case 'D:\X-Plane 11/Output/preferences/XMidiCtrl/Profiles/XMidiCtrl.toml'

So, why did I implement steps 2 and 3. Well, quite a few people didn't want to have to aircraft configuration directly in the aircraft directory. In case of an aircraft update you have to backup the XMidiCtrl configuration etc. That's the reason I created a directory within the preferences to store all the different configurations for the aircrafts. Since the files cannot be called just XMidiCtrl.toml I decided to add the ICAO name of the aircraft as a prefix.

Step 3 was implemented, because a user wanted to create one common aircraft configuration which applies to all his aircraft. The common aircraft profile will be loaded if no individual profile was found. 

You can find this information in the documentation, as well (https://mauer.github.io/xmidictrl/#/profile).

I would recommend the following steps:

1. Delete the file 'D:\X-Plane 11/Output/preferences/XMidiCtrl/Profiles/XMidiCtrl.toml'
2. Make sure that you have a file called XMidiCtrl.toml in the aircraft directory of the ZIBO.

Hope that helps,
Marco

 

[Mishka]

Hi Marco,

Thanks for the quick reply - and the great work on this app!

While I was waiting I had another look and found I had copied the same profile into the aircraft folder and the into the common profile folder - I had changed the ports in both but it still didn't work until I removed the profile in the aircraft folder then all was good! I have now done what you suggest and removed the profile from the common folder and just have it in the aircraft folder and all is good.

I am now looking forward to editing the profile mapping for my needs - if you have an "idiots guide" to doing this it would be great.

Thanks for your work in making this and I will donate to help.

Regards

Dave

 

[Mishka]

Hi Marco - could you tell me where I can find a list of the available commands for the Zibo737

That would be very helpful in setting my options up.

Thanks

Dave

 

[VirtualCPT]

Hi Dave,

I'm very happy that it works for you now. I'm still trying to improve the plugin, such as implementing a better user interface and enhancing the documentation. I started writing some first steps, they might be useful for you:

https://mauer.github.io/xmidictrl/#/create_profile

I personally would start with simple steps. Have a have a look at the ZIBO example in the examples folder and try to change the mappings more to your likings. The ZIBO addon is a very good start, as ZIBO included excellent documentation with it. In the ZIBO folder you can find two files called B738_Commands.txt and B738_Datarefs.txt. They list all commands and datarefs for the ZIBO including descriptions.

Unfortunately, not all addon developers include those information. In those cases I use the DataRefTool https://github.com/leecbaker/datareftool. It lists all commands and datarefs. Can be a bit buggy at times, but generally speaking a nice and useful tool.

Let me know if you need any help!

Thanks,
Marco

[Mishka]

Thanks Marco that is a great help. If I may a quick further question. In your Zibo 738 profile in the Encoder Buttons section is this entry:

 { ch = 11, cc = 10, type = "pnp", command_push = "laminar/B738/EFIS_control/capt/push_button/std_press", command_pull = "FlyWithLua/B738/toggle_baro_in_hpa" }, 

The X-Touch mini does not have Push/Pull controls so was wondering how this should work as it does not toggle the Baro setting.

Am I missing something?

Cheers

Dave

[VirtualCPT]

Ah, you discovered my push&pull implementation.

It's quite simple, when you press the knob/button for a short time the push comment will be triggered. If you hold down the knob/button for a longer time (I think it's a second or so) the pull command will be triggered.

This is really useful for the Airbus, as most of the knobs in the real plane have push and pull.

[Mishka]

Great idea - I use the 737 but will be moving to the airbus soon so i will look out for that.

Is this something you coded into your app? I assume "Push/Pull" in this way is your idea.

Thanks

Dave 

[VirtualCPT]

Yes, it was my idea. I started the development of XMidiCtrl around one year ago and tried to get the A321 working with it. Nearly all knobs on the MCU have push and pull, so I was looking for a simple solution to simulate that behavior without the need of another button.

You can apply push&pull to any button on the X-Touch Mini. For most planes I have for example the chrono start/reset mapped to push and ET start/stop on pull.

[Mishka]

Hi Marco,

Sorry to contact you again but a couple of problems today.

I started X-plane today but XmidiCtrl said "no profile for aircraft" even though it worked yesterday and the profile was in the B737 aircraft folder. I copied it to the common profile folder and it worked - I wondered why it didn't see the profile as it did yesterday even though it was there.

I have attached the log file in case it's an something you can see happening.

I also notice the X Touch midi ports had changed so I had to update the profile to reflect this - I assume that is out of your control how the PC allocates midi ports - I don't think it's possible to tell X Touch to use the same ports is it?

I also notice the Push Pull command for the Baro you mentioned above causes an error.

Regards

Dave

 

XMidiCtrl_Log.txt

Edited March 2, 2022 by Mishka

[VirtualCPT]

Hi Dave,

That's really weird. I never had this problem before. Was the file in the aircraft folder really called XMidiCtrl.toml? Sometimes, editors add some extension like .txt or so.

I'm surprised that you get different ports on your X-Touch. I'm using my X-Touch for over a year and the ports never changed. I even unplug it from time to time, but it's always on port 0 for inbound and port 1 for outbound. Do you have any other MIDI devices connected?

For my personal profile I have a custom lua script to toggle the baro units between inch and hpa, because I couldn't find a command for that. Unfortunately, I left it in the released version. I will update the file, thanks for the "bug-report" :-)

In case you want to have this function as well, here is the lua script:

if PLANE_ICAO == "B738" then
    -- Barometer
    function toggle_baro_in_hpa()
        if get("laminar/B738/EFIS_control/capt/baro_in_hpa") == 1 then
            command_once("laminar/B738/EFIS_control/capt/baro_in_hpa_dn")
        else
            command_once("laminar/B738/EFIS_control/capt/baro_in_hpa_up")
        end
    end    

    create_command("FlyWithLua/B738/toggle_baro_in_hpa",
	               "Toggle barometer between in and hpa",
				   "toggle_baro_in_hpa()",
				   "",
				   "")
end

Cheers,
Marco

[Mishka]

Thanks for the info.

The file in the aircraft folder is called - B738_XMidiCtrl.toml - as it is for the Zibo 737 as I think your online instructions say . I copied this to the common profiles folder and it then worked.

I do have another midi device but it was not turned on - I do think midi in the PC can be a bit flaky at times!

Thanks

Dave

[VirtualCPT]

Ah, now I see the problem. In the aircraft folder I'm looking for a file called XMidiCtrl.toml (without any prefix). It's really just the common folder, where the prefix is needed. Probably a bit too confusing for new users. Maybe I should also look for files with a prefix in the aircraft directory. What do you think?

I tried to explain everything in the documentation:
https://mauer.github.io/xmidictrl/#/profile

Please let me know if you spot any errors in the documentation or if things are worded weirdly. I'm not a native English speaker, although I lived in the UK for a long time.

Cheers,
Marco

[CVH]

Having some issues as well.
My devices are recognized under the Device List. APC40mk2, APC40mk1, Kontrol F1, Kong nanoKontrol2, etc.

I am not using them simultaneously.

All the devices will not show incoming messages. (PC - xplane12)

I am just getting started with the plugin so maybe I have not installed correctly?

I placed the downloaded folder in the plugins directory.

note: on my MBP M1 Max, the plugin does not populate under the plugins menu via X-Plane(compatibility)?

Edited November 23, 2022 by CVH
additional comments

[Pils]

27 minutes ago, CVH said:

note: on my MBP M1 Max, the plugin does not populate under the plugins menu via X-Plane(compatibility)?

Assuming it’s installed correctly, you’d have to be sure to run the sim via Rosetta.