Spoiler automatic retract question

[Maurice]

Back in my FS9 days, I had my spoiler servo working perfectly. The spoiler would deploy after touch down and retract as soon as I increased power.

But now with FSX,  I have not been able to get the spoilers to retract after I increase the power after landing. The spoilers deploy after landing but the only way I can retract them is to hit the / key on the keyboard. I cannot retract them manually either because the servo is still powered after deployment and holds the lever in place.

So, my question is: Has anybody with powered spoilers got them to retract after landing and after increasing power?

This is for sure an automatic function with FSX and if I just run FSX on a desktop sim, the spoilers do retract automatically after landing & applying power and I can see that in an outside view so the problem is not FSX.

So the reason must be that something is preventing the retraction from happening and I have not yet been able to figure this one out.

By the way, I am using Phidgets to power my spoiler & autothrottle servos.

Thanks,

Maurice

[Maurice]

*** PROBLEM RESOLVED *** 

Well, it took me several months of part time investigation, but I finally managed to get my spoilers to work perfectly with FSX. They extend on landing & retract as soon as I re-apply power which is great, especially in the case of an aborted landing.

Sometimes I amaze myself with my stupidity and sometimes I amaze myself with my extreme foresight when trying to anticipate future problems. In this case, it was my foresight which saved the day. 

Several years ago, when I built my throttle, I installed a switch which would be activated when the spoiler was fully deployed. I did not at that time really know if or when I would need that switch but I thought it was a good idea to add it while the throttle assembly was not fully closed yet.

So, after noticing that the 'Spoilers Do Not Arm' light was always activated after the spoilers extended after landing, I thought that this might be preventing the spoiler retraction from happening since that light may be indicating that the spoiler's automatic  mechanism was disabled.

I then used that switch to send a keystroke command of Shift-/ to re-arm the spoilers when they were already fully extended. Now, after landing, the Spoilers Do Not Arm light still comes on but goes off as soon as the Spoilers Arm command is received. The Spoilers Armed light comes on & stays on until I re-apply power and then the spoilers retract as they should and the light goes off..

A minor side effect of this is that if I fully deploy the spoilers in flight by moving the levers to their full up position, the spoilers Armed light comes on and the spoilers do not deploy until I move the lever back a little bit to de-activate the switch. I can really live with that since on a real throttle, there is a 'Flight Detent' position which is slightly before the UP position.  I would think that the spoilers would be deployed up to the Flight Detent position during flight and that they would only reach the UP position after landing, which is exactly what my spoilers are doing now.

Mike, if you read this post, I would love to know if I am right about the Flight Detent position.

Anyway, I'm a really happy camper now and I hope this may help anyone with a similar problem.

Maurice