PE Client Loses Push-To-Talk Mapping When FSX Runs as Admin

[Mark Hargrove]

I recently bought and installed the PMDG 737NGX add-on. The manual suggests running fsx.exe as administrator for a Windows 7 installation and I dutifully modified my FSX startup shortcut to do this. It turns out, though, that this causes a very strange problem with the PE client -- at least on my system.

After starting the FSX (as administrator), loading my Flight1 Citation Mustang, and then starting the PE client, everything works fine -- right up until I load a flight plan (via the FSX 'Flight Planner' menu option). After loading the plan my push-to-talk button stops working. Yes -- I know that sounds weird, but it's 100% reproducible. I have the PTT key set to the \ (backslash) key and use FSUIPC to map my joystick 2 button to that character. The setup has been working perfectly since I joined PE. Tonight, after loading up my flight plan (and I'm talking about the FSX flight plan, not the flight plan we file with the PE client) and getting set to call clearance delivery, my PTT button wouldn't work. If I bring up the PE client main screen, click in the chat window, then press the PTT button on my yoke I see it "type" a \ character in the chat window (and repeatedly type them if I hold the button down). This suggested to me that FSUIPC is doing the right thing, but that the PE client wasn't "seeing" the keystroke via it's API with FSX.

It took me a long time to track down the cause, but once I retraced my recent changes and removed 'Run as Administrator' privileges from the FSX startup shortcut, the problem disappeared.

It's possible this is an issue isolated to my system, or perhaps to FSX running Flight1's Citation Mustang add-on (I've not tried to reproduce the problem with other aircraft) -- but it's such a strange problem that I just thought I'd describe it here in case anybody else runs into the issue. I don't know if the PMDG 737NGX sim really needs FSX to run as adminstrator or not, and I don't know if this problem will appear with the 737 -- but I guess I'll eventually find out!

[Keith Smith]

From the "common errors and how to fix them" sticky thread:

Issue: Pressing the PTT key doesn't cause the TX light to illuminate (ie, the transmit function isn't being triggered at all)
Solution #1: Verify you are pressing the correct PTT key. This is in Options->Radio screen of the PilotEdge client
Solution #2: Make sure FSX is NOT running as Administrator. Running it as Administrator will cause it to absorb the key press before it can be seen by PE, which is running as a SEPARATE application (PE does NOT run as a module in FS9 or FSX)

Can you have it run as something as Administrator? If not, then you're not going to be able to use a keyboard-based PTT solution. However, you're already using FSUIPC, and you've already mapped a joystick button, which means you're 2/3 of the way there. Rather than mapping the joystick button to a KEY PRESS, you can trigger the PTT function directly. See this example from the SB3 manual: http://squawkbox.ca/doc/appendix/3rdparty.php (note, that image is for an earlier version of FSUIPC, but the concept is the same). The PE app responds to the RW/AVC PTT ON and RW/AVC PTT OFF functions that FSUIPC trigger.

This way, you're not relying on the keypress making it to the PE client.