Troubleshooting
Main Window
By default SimBridge's main window starts hidden to the systems tray, to view it select Show/Hide on the systems tray icon.
The main window running SimBridge displays the servers log file information and provides important information about the started services, the necessary urls and ip addresses.
Note
This window does not need to remain open and can be re-hidden using the system's tray icon.
Notice
If the main window is closed (via the (X) button), SimBridge will be closed entirely and will need to be restarted
Network Configuration
To access SimBridge's remote displays from a remote device you need to make sure that this device is on the same network as the PC running the MCDU Server.
This is typically the case if both, the PC and the device use the same Internet router and the same WiFi.
To check this you can look at the IP address the MCDU server has listed in its main window while starting.
Or check it as described here: Find your IP address in Windows
In the example above the IP address is 192.168.1.19.
Your device should typically also have an IP address starting with 192.168.1.x in this case.
You can check this in the device's network configuration.
Examples for Device Network Information (click to expand)
iPad:
Samsung Android:
If you still can't connect to SimBridge's remote displays your firewall might be blocking the traffic. See next chapter.
Firewall Configuration
Disclaimer
Changing Windows settings, especially security settings like the firewall comes with certain risks. Please do not change these settings if you are not comfortable doing so. FlyByWire Simulations does not take any responsibility for any issues caused by your changes to Windows or security settings.
If you can't reach SimBridge's remote display from your browser on your device or on your local PC then it is very likely that your PC firewall is blocking this network traffic.
To test and confirm this turn off your firewall and try again to reach a remote-display via your browser. If you now can access your MCDU from your browser you have confirmed that it is indeed the firewall that blocks this access.
Turn the firewall back on again.
(never run a PC without a firewall)
We now know we need to open the port we want to use. The default port is TCP 8380 and this must be allowed to pass the firewall.
There are several ways to open ports on your PC firewall.
For the Windows Firewall you can follow this guide here:
Opening a Port on Windows Firewall Instructions
Alternatively you can open a Command Line prompt as Administrator and use this command:
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Local API Server" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=8380
For an advanced guide of this command see the Microsoft documentation:
netsh advfirewall firewall
Remove Autogenerated Rules (click to expand)
Sometimes Windows has already automatically generated some rules after showing you a firewall dialog when starting SimBridge.
If you still can't connect to SimBridge these rules might be the cause. After adding your own rule as described above you don't need these anymore and they can be deleted.
They usually look like this:
Windows Dialog creating these automatic rules looks likes like this:
This should now allow access from your browser to SimBridge's remote display.
Occupied Port
Sometimes the default ports 8380 is already used by other services on your PC.
In this case you should get error messages similar to this:
Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::8380
How To Check If a Port is Already In Use? (click to expand)
You can see if a port is occupied by making sure the Local API Server is off and then running this command:
Windows Command Line:
netstat -ano | find "8380"
netstat -aon | findstr 8380
If the corresponding port is already in use the output should be similar to this:
TCP 0.0.0.0:8380 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 4
TCP [::]:8380 [::]:0 LISTENING 4
...
If the port is indeed already occupied then you need to change the default port in SimBridge Configuration.
You also need to change the port in the flyPad EFB Sim options page.
Of course now the firewall might need to be opened for this new port.
Logfile
The logfile contains all of the messages printed by the main window as-well as debug messages.
The log file is stored in a file in this folder, formatted by date:
<YOUR_COMMUNITY_FOLDER>\flybywire-externaltools-simbridge\resources\logs
Installation and Upgrade
Sometimes the installation or the upgrade of Simbridge will fail with an Error during the Installation. This happens when Simbridge is still running in the background, even though the Installer indicates it isn't.
Use the Windows Task Manager to stop the Simbridge process as described in the Stopping Simbridge documentation and then run the installation or upgrade again.