FSX 2020 keeps dropping my cameras

[cookie.jennings@shaw.ca]

hello GSF, thanks for such a great forum. I'm having some difficulty with my swing cameras on my FSX 2020. I have the GCQuad with club and recently purchased two Imaging Source Cameras DFK33UX273. I noticed in one of the forums that some guys were using the DFK's and Imaging Source indicated that FSX users were buying DFK's for swing cameras. The cameras are plugged into a 3.0 usb docking station. When I run IC Capture, an Imaging Source video program, the software recognizes the cameras and portrays the live image from each. When I run the FSX 2020 program, and go to settings to set up the cameras, I can instantly connect to my laptop webcam. I'm not as successful with the DFK cameras. The software sees the cameras as they are possible selections in the drop down menu, but most times FSX will not connect to the cameras. Occasionally I've had success connecting to the cameras, but it's real hit and miss. Is connecting cameras to the FSX 2020 software usually no problem? Does anybody have a suggestion as to what I might be doing wrong? Thanks!

[Jwm]

Is the IC Capture software running at the same time? Close out all programs using the cameras and then load up FSX and see if that works.

[Baller]

+1 on that thought.

[preludesam]

We need the specs from your PC to determine if you have the hardware to use cameras with this much bandwidth. You should include the motherboard and CPU as a bare minimum. Are you using a laptop or a desktop because although they may have the same on paper specifications they are not created equal? You will probably not be able to run two cameras with this much bandwidth on a laptop. The most likely cause of the cameras disconnecting is you are maxing out the bandwidth of the USB controller. Swing Catalyst (https://support.swingcatalyst.com/hc...3-0-Components) website goes into a lot of issues with users trying to connect two cameras to a laptop or even a desktop that has a weak USB controller. Some newer desktop motherboards have a decent USB controller to handle the bandwidth but they still recommend a separate PCI-E card for USB when using two high speed/bandwidth cameras at the same time. The PCI-E card has a much stronger USB controller (sometimes two controllers) and bypasses the onboard controller sending information straight to your CPU using a much higher bandwidth connection on the PCI lanes. Simply put the max speed of an onboard USB 3.0 controller is 5 Gbit/s but in reality, you will never see max speeds. One of your cameras nearly maxes out that transfer rate. The docking station has that max bandwidth amount of 5 Gbit/s and it has 8-10 Gbit/s (2 cameras) requesting a transfer. It will close the connections on one or both or drop frames. You can't just add extra ports and double or triple the transfer bandwidth. There is also the question of how long the USB 3 cable is that you are using. Anything over 3 meters should probably have an active/live cable repeater instead of a standard cable to keep signal integrity high enough to work. High speed camera systems with this much resolution and bandwidth requirements do not generally plug and play. A good way to test this would be to only use one camera and see if you are still having disconnections issue. Get rid of the docking station as they work great for adding a mouse or keyboard but are not designed for multiple high bandwidth connections. The camera should be plugged into the motherboard USB 3.0 I/O ports at the back of the PC or on the PCI-E card.

[Baller]

I have the same cam, but only one and no probs. BUT, FSX and camera interface SUCKS ARSE! I might have two of these cams if they worked perfectly, but there is a delay for FSX to even process the video. That's why I only have one. My Cam 1 is a crappy cam that I manage to get 100FPS on a DTL view for most things is fine. For the FO view, I have the IC cam. I need to click the "2" button over and over until it shows up when ready.. There is no tech in FSX for cam interface. It just plain sucks. But this cam is rock solid and I do get 238 FPS with it in my FO view...eventually.

Hopefully in the next release that'll be addressed, but who knows.

But yes, just how JWM above mentioned, you cannot have two things accessing your cam at the same time. Also to what Preludesam mentioned (kinda)...you gotta have each cam on a separate 3.0 controller or they will not have enough bandwidth to connect to the cams. Try one at a time and leave the other disconnected. And for long distances, use fiber. I don't think a repeater will work with these cams. I have a couple of those repeater cables sitting in a box because they don't work so well with these but the fiber is spot on.

Best of luck! Keep us posted.