vPilot radios not working in Fenix A320 unless menu is open

[Matthew Orlando]

First I had everything running as non-administrator with a joystick bound to PTT and I was seeing audio levels in the audio panel. So I know my mic was working. I connected at KBOS and tuned to BOS_GND. Asked for radio check. Heard nothing. In the vPilot client, the frequencies were listed correctly in the upper-right. There were no error messages. I tuned a few different frequencies tried again. Couldn't hear ATIS, or any of the other controllers. I connected back to BOS_GND. After a few minutes I got a message from the controller saying I had a stuck mic.

I checked my PTT settings and the key was bound correctly and not being pressed. I don't see how it was activating my mic. I disconnected, quit everything, reconnected and it was the same thing. Another pilot contacted me saying my mic was on. I went into the vpilot client, disabled PTT entirely, and they were STILL telling me my mic was on. During this whole time none of the TX/RX lights were on in the vPilot client. I had absolutely no indication that I was transmitting anything.

I read elsewhere that running vPilot as administrator might help, so I tried that. At first it seemed to be working. The TX/RX lights turned blue, along with the connected frequencies. I was was able to request clearance and was asked to sand by. At some point the controller asked everyone to stand by and the channel went silent. A few minutes later, I still hadn't heard anything (not even new people on the channel who didn't know to stand by). I did a radio check and heard nothing. I looked at the vPilot client, and again none of the freqs, TX or RX were lit up. Fearing I was in a "mic stuck" situation again, I disconnected.

After that I decided to see if the plane was the problem. I switched to the MSFS A320 and everything worked fine. I switched to the Cirrus SR22 and everything worked fine. The TX/RX/freqs lit up as soon as i tuned them in, ATIS was audible, etc. I switched back to the Fenix and started having the same problems.

I hit escape to go to the MSFS menu, and suddenly could hear again. The indicators lit up in vPilot and everything seemed to be working. I hit escape again to close the MSFS menu, and vPilot stopped working again. Menu open: works. 100% reproducible.

I am also reporting this to fenixsim.

[Matthew Orlando]

Note: this is not just an audio issue. If I type a message into vPilot, it will tell me I'm not transmitting on any channels.

Edited June 4, 2022 at 12:30 AM by Matthew Orlando

[Matthew Orlando]

I figured it out. My throttle had a switch bound to battery 1. When it was off, the radios don't work. When it's on, they do. This switch does nothing to actually control the battery in the Fenix, but it does seem tell MSFS/vPilot whether the radios should be on.