FSUIPC 3.5: Aircraft-Specific Joystick Axis Assignments?

[paparomeo]

I have both a yoke and a joystick connected to my computer.

I'd like to have the stick controlling pitch/yaw when I load an aircraft that has a stick in real life, and the switch to the yoke for yoke-controlled planes.

To make this work, I have been using a cumbersome system of two different copies of the FS9.cfg file and a pair of batch files to copy/rename them prior to launching FS2004, but it would be great if it could happen automatically when I select a particular aircraft.

Will the newest FSUIPC facilitate this switch or axis-control? Or does the aircraft-specific control feature only apply to the buttons, and not to the control axes themselves?

I've read through the user guides and I'm still not clear on this point.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Pete "PapaRomeo" Rafle

[Pete Dowson]

but it would be great if it could happen automatically when I select a particular aircraft.

For a couple of years FSUIPC has supported multiple flight controls connected simultaneously. This facility is used for cockpits with both pilot and copilot yokes or sticks. Both are operational at the same time, and FSUIPC takes the maximum deflection for the two.

This is described in the section entitled "Multiple Joysticks" in the Advanced User's document inside the FSUIPC package.

Will the newest FSUIPC facilitate this switch or axis-control? Or does the aircraft-specific control feature only apply to the buttons, and not to the control axes themselves?

The facilities for aircraft-specific button programming has been in FSUIPC for a while. the new facility in 3.50 relates to the "Joysticks" options, i.e. calibrations, mappings, and so on, not the "Buttons" section.

So, yes, the new facilities do help more, in that you can calibrate the two control sets separately, making those calibrations aircraft-specific, but FSUIPC does not actually deal with axis assignments - in fact it knows nothing about them, as it deals entirely with FS controls not joysticks as such.

In other words, you still need to get your controls assigned via FS -- using other control numbers for one set, as described in the advanced users guide for multiple joysticks. You could have been using that system for years, and it can be very workable. The ability to calibrate separately for different aircraft just adds icing to the cake. :-)

Regards

Pete

[paparomeo]

Wow, thanks for the speedy and thorough reply.

I'll be registering my copy right away.

One more question, though:

Does the facility that takes only the controller sending the largest deflection mean I can just leave the settings in MSFS so that *both* the stick and yoke are mapped to pitch and roll, and just use which ever one is appropriate? When I've done this in the past, I had trouble with odd conflicts and spikes. Will FSUIPC help with that at all?

Thanks again for your support and for all your amazing work.

PR

[Pete Dowson]

Does the facility that takes only the controller sending the largest deflection mean I can just leave the settings in MSFS so that *both* the stick and yoke are mapped to pitch and roll, and just use which ever one is appropriate?

Well yes, they are both controlling the pitch and roll, but you don't assign them both that way in FS. You have to find two spare axes which you aren't otherwise using 9e.g Prop Pitch 3 and 4, perhaps, or some others). Assign the second set to these in FS. Then you find the reference numbers for those two axes (in the FS Controls document I supply) and tell FSUIPC about these, editing the FSUIPC INI file as described in the section I referred you to.

FSUIPC sees both sets of control inputs and sends only the "largest" deflection on to FS. That's it. They are still both connected all the time. You do need a good central "null zone" so that when one is left alone tit doesn't interfere with the other being central too.

When I've done this in the past, I had trouble with odd conflicts and spikes. Will FSUIPC help with that at all?

You shouldn't get conflicts as they are different inputs. If your controls generate spikes (they shouldn't) you may find the FSUIPC flitering removes them. In any case a good centre null zone should stop any interference if the other controls are left alone.

Regards,

Pete