Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

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jph
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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#21 Post by jph »

The knobster takes a miniscule amount of current. It is not a current limit problem with the knobster.
It sounds as if you have an issue with your mainboard. I presume you tried the knobster on the mainboard ports with NO OTHER USB devices plugged in ?
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

bi30153
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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#22 Post by bi30153 »

No, I tried the knobster on the mainboard ports but I had ( USB 1TB drive , Logitech switch panel, USB keyboard, USB mouse connected) .

The USB 1TB drive used his own power supply. The Logitech switch panel, the keyboard and the mouse won't used a lot of current.
I will keep the USB HUB because I will add more USB devices very soon: Logitech Flight Rudder Pedals, Flight Multi Panel, Flight Radio Panel.

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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#23 Post by jph »

bi30153 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:19 pm No, I tried the knobster on the mainboard ports but I had ( USB 1TB drive , Logitech switch panel, USB keyboard, USB mouse connected) .
It sounds like you are overloading / maxing out your mainboard ports, the knobster was probably the last straw. In theory, your USB 3 ports should be able to run a minimum of 500mA each port, but that all depends on the design. Quite often they wont. The knobster will take about the power of a single led only !. it is a minute draw.
Not sure of the consumption of the logitech switch panel but if it is self powered it will be fairly high. You will probably find if you remove either the logitech or the USB drive it will work fine (just as a test).
I presume the USB drive is a 2.5" as if its a 3.5 it should have it's own 12V supply. It works now anyway so you are ok and you have no worries ;)
Only out of interest but what mainboard is it ? - is it a laptop ?
Interesting for a nerd like me :lol:
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

bi30153
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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#24 Post by bi30153 »

My computer is old but powerful Desktop :

DELL Precision T3500 with 24 GB RAM ,
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5680 @ 3.33GHz 3.33 GHz ( Windows 10 / 64 bits)
O/S : 1 SSD drive 256 GB
Game: 1 SSD drive 1TB.

I will do some tests with the USB 3 card (4 ports) when I will receive the cable for it (next week).

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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#25 Post by jph »

It doing very well for 15 years old. You don't see too many with floppy drives built in now.
As it only ever had native USB 2.0 support the power output from the USB sub system will be minimal. The logitech card is probably hammering it. The hard drive potentially as well, you will only be getting abut 40 MB/sec max (theoretical 480Mbit). It will be much faster over USB 3, probably up to round 120 to 150 MB/s on long block burst. Huge difference.
It also uses an on board hub already for the USB mainboard ports so the hard drive cn fully saturate the bus bandwidth which can also cause exactly that issue.

If you are putting a PCIe USB 3 card in then move your peripherals over to that. You don't need any special cables for USB 3 ports - unless you are specifically running a USB 3 capable device. It is fully backwards compatible such as a USB Hard drive. Things like the knobster and the logitiech box can use any old cable with the right connectors on each end.
The USB 3 expansion card will be a welcome upgrade. Let us know how you go on.
:)
Last edited by jph on Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

bi30153
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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#26 Post by bi30153 »

No problem, I will let you know the results of my tests with the USB 3 card.

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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#27 Post by jph »

Thanks, I edited my above post to add that the mainboard in that system already uses a 'hub' built into the system for the on board ports so that the USB drive can potentially fully saturate the bandwidth of the USB2 subsystem if you are on the same branch with the knobster. Definitely move the USB drive to the USB 3 card. It is probably that that is the culprit as it is so much faster than the mainboard can handle. The new PCIe card will sort that.
Joe
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bi30153
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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#28 Post by bi30153 »

WOW, I just tried the knobster connected to the USB 3 card port and it works fine ! So, it's a good solution for the connection problem .

No error message in the log.txt file:

2022-07-30 13:04:48.042 INFO EntityManager - Starting Air Manager Home Use 4.1.4 (Home Use, Activated) (JAVA=16.0.1)
2022-07-30 13:04:48.080 INFO AMBase - Initializing
2022-07-30 13:04:48.081 INFO AMBase - HW id = 99688a82407421d24f31a3024e0c6a3c
2022-07-30 13:04:51.021 INFO HardwareKnobster - Found knobster with channel A

No need for a new cable in that case !

Thanks again Joe ...

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Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#29 Post by jph »

No worries, glad you got it sorted.
Make sure you also definitely connect your USB external hard drive to the new USB 3 card as it will be much much faster ..presuming it is a sata drive in a usb 3 housing.. They will be perfectly happy on the same card..
Joe.

Oh, here is a link to the service manual and data for your machine. Worth keeping in a safe place if ever you need it.
I like Dell, the older ones, I have several older Dell machines that ae a similar age and all running superbly.
Heres the manual if you ever need it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... gdfiVScHzP
Joe. CISSP, MSc.

bi30153
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:28 pm

Re: Knobster from Sim Innovations not connecting to AM 4.1.4 (Windows 10)

#30 Post by bi30153 »

Hi Joe, my external USB hard drive is working better connected to the USB 3 card. So today, I got my knobster working fine, my USB hard drive is faster and I could used my USB HUB for all the other flight sim devices.
By the way, I had already the manual for my T3500 machine.

Thanks again for your help Joe ...

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