Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking (SOLVED)

Support for Air Player desktop.

Moderators: russ, Ralph

Post Reply
Message
Author
Tetrachromat
Posts: 236
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 6:55 pm

Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking (SOLVED)

#1 Post by Tetrachromat »

I have a weird issue with Air Player (4.0.2) and my (Logitech) SAITEK Radio Panel (with MSFS plugin 8.0.313.0).

Everytime I start Air Player my SAITEK Radio Panel starts blinking (all zeros, 1 second on, 1 second off). When I stop Air Player the blinking stops as well. This is reproducible consistently.

I have no clue why this happens, or how they could interact.
All my controllers are connected to separate USB connectors directly at the PC backplane (no external hubs).
Tried disconnecting and reconneting the panel.
Reinstalled the logitech plugin (8.0.313.0)
Reinstalled Air Player (4.0.2)
Reinstalled AM Plugin (3.5) - BTW: Why does the manifest.json still show 'package version' as "3.4.0"?
Nothing helps.

MSFS is not running, so SimConnect is also not operational. When MSFS is running, the blinking stops and the SAITEK Radio Panel is working as intended.
Last edited by Tetrachromat on Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Ralph
Posts: 7878
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 7:02 pm
Location: De Steeg
Contact:

Re: Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking

#2 Post by Ralph »

Could be something like Air Manager trying to write a switch position and your hardware doing the same, then they fight with each other. Aside from that, I guess you have your reasons to assume, but it happens often that people think we're doing stuff to their hardware. Until this day it has never been true.

Tetrachromat
Posts: 236
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 6:55 pm

Re: Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking

#3 Post by Tetrachromat »

Actually it is just a minor issue, as is does not prevent me from flying.
And I do not assume anything. I just put it up here for discussion.

I should also note that the blinking starts as soon as I start Air Player without any panel loaded. Just 'Air Player' running in the background and 'Air Manager' is also off.
So there should be no instrument LUA code running.

Starting Air manager and manually 'Showing' any panel does not have an effect on the blinking.

I still try to eliminate all possible causes:
- I do have a Arduino MEGA (flashed from airmanager) controlling my MCP. I did disconnect it.
- I have other logitech controllers (yoke, rudder pedals, throttle quadrant). All disconnected.
- Killed any processes related to flight simulation (Bridges, Gaming Services) or addons (StreamDeck, Navigraph simlink).

After that I think it must be somehow hardware related. To me it looks like the SAITEK Panel is permanently resetting / initializing.

But I still have no clue why it is related to Air Player being started or stopped.

User avatar
jph
Posts: 2846
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 12:50 pm
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking

#4 Post by jph »

Tetrachromat wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:02 pm

After that I think it must be somehow hardware related. To me it looks like the SAITEK Panel is permanently resetting / initializing.

Sounds to me like a crappy Logitech (MS) fs2020 game driver - search the emptynet for Saitek / Logitech issues with the game. I don't think there has ever been a stable version as MS keep moving the goalposts. Now it is XBOX orientated as opposed to PC then I only expect it to get worse.
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

Tetrachromat
Posts: 236
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 6:55 pm

Re: Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking

#5 Post by Tetrachromat »

I came to the same conclusion, that it is an issue with the logitech driver, when NOT connected to MSFS 2020.

When connected to MSFS there is no issue. It is working perfectly all the time since release of MSFS.

Tetrachromat
Posts: 236
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 6:55 pm

Re: Air Player let my Saitek Radio Panel blinking

#6 Post by Tetrachromat »

I found the cause of the blinking SAITEK Radio Panel.

'Enhanced Power Management' was set to ON for all my controllers. I know I did set them to OFF after some issues with the Yoke some month ago.I assume it was set back to ON when updating to Windows 21H1.

But I still wonder why it is triggered by starting 'Air Player'.

@Ralph
Does the new 'Air Player' (4.0.2) scan the controllers on startup? It introduced a new feature for using 'Game Controllers' in the API like game_controller_list() and game_controller_add(...).

Anyway, one issue less to care about.

Post Reply