PMDG 747 v3 Spoiler Axis

[xkoote]

Hey Guys,

I am hoping someone can help me on this. I have a Saitek Yoke and Throttle setup. I fly the PMDG 747, 777 and DC-6. As such it has now become a necessity to use

FSUIPC to map the throttle quadrant to match my aircraft. I have now managed to:

1. For the DC-6, match the three axes to ENG 1/2, ENG 3/4 and the Master Prop Lever

2. For the 777, match the three axes to ENG1, ENG2 and Spoiler Lever

3. For the 747, match the three axes to ENG 1/2, ENG 3/4 and Spoiler Lever <-- HOWEVER.....

The 747 spoiler range has a flight detent tab that seems to throw my spoiler axis completely out of whack. If I just assign the axis it works correctly, but it is not reversed. With the lever to max the spoiler correctly moves down to the Flight Detent. Bring the lever down to min and the spoilers jump from the Flight Detent back up to the Retract position. As you can see, it needs reverse sensing. To do this I have to go to Joystick Calibrations under spoilers, and select "Rev.". This does the trick on the 777 which does not have a Flight Detent setting. On the 747, the spoiler lever suddenly acts completely out of whack, floating about between RET and FLT DET. settings. 

Anyone have a clue what I can do to solve this?

 

Thanks,

 

Xander

[Pete Dowson]

24 minutes ago, xkoote said:

The 747 spoiler range has a flight detent tab that seems to throw my spoiler axis completely out of whack

Are you testing on the ground? Don't. The sim tends to regard being on the ground as "landed" and if you engage anyting near the "arm" position is will deploy fully.

25 minutes ago, xkoote said:

As you can see, it needs reverse sensing. To do this I have to go to Joystick Calibrations under spoilers, and select "Rev.". This does the trick on the 777 which does not have a Flight Detent setting. On the 747, the spoiler lever suddenly acts completely out of whack, floating about between RET and FLT DET. settings. 

It sounds ike you selected REV after calibrating. Don't. Options like that need selecting before calibration. Press the "reset" buton for the calibration to remove it, then select SET, the REV, then calibrate.

Pete

 

[xkoote]

Pete,

I'm testing airborne. I will try to reset the calibration and set the Rev before assigning Pete.

Thanks,

Xander

[Pete Dowson]

6 minutes ago, xkoote said:

I will try to reset the calibration and set the Rev before assigning

Not before assigning, before calibration. You need to assign first of course.

Pete

 

[xkoote]

Pete,

I'm still pretty new (2 days) at FSUIPC calibration and so I have not read up on all the differences. But what did the trick on the 747

and that didn't need to be done on none of the other axes mentioned above was to instead of sending the setting to FS as normal axis

I chose to Send Direct To FSUIPC Calibration. It was probably because I don't yet understand the difference between these two. So

when I sent it directly to FSUIPC Calibration, selected Rev. and the calibrated the axis it started operating normally. i.e. First inch of travel

arms the spoiler, on the ground, full axis travel is full spoiler travel. And when airborne, the axis moves to the FLT DET and stops

(at around 60% mark). Further movement of the axis towards fully deployed makes no difference. For those interested, all my throttle, propeller

and spoiler axis assignments have been deleted from P3D v4

All is solved, thanks for the input.

 

Xander

[Pete Dowson]

25 minutes ago, xkoote said:

and that didn't need to be done on none of the other axes mentioned above was to instead of sending the setting to FS as normal axis

I chose to Send Direct To FSUIPC Calibration. It was probably because I don't yet understand the difference between these two.

When "sending to FS" it is just like assigning in FS/P3D. Same controls as assigned there, and they reach the sim in exactly the same way.

Doing this means FSUIPC has to intercept the control, again, within FS for calibration, then send it back again -- but at a lower level so a loop doesn't occur.

Sending direct to FSUI{C's calibration bypasses a lot of this.

The reason differences can arise are because different add-on aircraft do things differently. The PMDG aircraft actually do their own interception of throttle inputs (for sure) and very likely other controls like spoilers. 

This usually means that throttles, in particular, have to be sent to FS, and not calibrated, because otherwise two different values might then eventually arrive in the sim's simulation level engine. That produces conflicts which may be observed as unwanted movements of the throttles. If you don't see this then probably your calibrated throttle inputs correlate well with what the aircraft code modules are doing with them.

Pete

 

[xkoote]

Thanks Pete! Amazing product.

 

Xandee