Disable joystick throttle axis in FSX ?

[bcs112]

Hi Pete,

The question says it all really. I'm trying to programmatically disable the throttle axis in FSX whilst the A/P of my aircraft is taking control over the throttles.

For that I send "8" to offset 310A every few ticks. But this doesn't seem to have any effect. Am I missing something here ?

I'm using the Saitek X52 joystick, not sure if that may have naything to do with it though ?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Björn

[Pete Dowson]

Sorry for the delay in replying -- as mentioned in the Announcements above, my wife and I were off touring Argentina & Chile (by steam trains where possible) immediately after I returned to the UK from the AVSIM FanCon in Seattle.

The question says it all really. I'm trying to programmatically disable the throttle axis in FSX whilst the A/P of my aircraft is taking control over the throttles.

This is normally done for you by FS itself. You shouldn't need to do it yourself.

For that I send "8" to offset 310A every few ticks. But this doesn't seem to have any effect. Am I missing something here ?

"Ticks" being ...?

For FS9 and before that will intercept and disconnect the generic single axis and most of the controls used for the individual ones. I think that on FSX it may only work for axes processed by FSUIPC. Are you calibrating through FSUIPC?

I'm using the Saitek X52 joystick, not sure if that may have naything to do with it though ?

No idea. Log axes in FSUIPC and see what the joystick throttle is sending.

Please also make sure you are using the latest FSUIPC version. There have been some changes in this area.

Regards

Pete

[bcs112]

Hi Pete,

Sorry for the delay in replying -- as mentioned in the Announcements above, my wife and I were off touring Argentina & Chile (by steam trains where possible) immediately after I returned to the UK from the AVSIM FanCon in Seattle.

==> Hope you had a great time !

The question says it all really. I'm trying to programmatically disable the throttle axis in FSX whilst the A/P of my aircraft is taking control over the throttles.

This is normally done for you by FS itself. You shouldn't need to do it yourself.

==> Yeah, when you use the FS autothrottle it is done by itself. but the FSX autothrottle is so extremely sluggish that I had to reprogram it myself. This means I loose the built-in system off course.

For that I send "8" to offset 310A every few ticks. But this doesn't seem to have any effect. Am I missing something here ?

"Ticks" being ...?

==> FS updates every gauge approximately 18 times per second, this is called a "tick".

For FS9 and before that will intercept and disconnect the generic single axis and most of the controls used for the individual ones. I think that on FSX it may only work for axes processed by FSUIPC. Are you calibrating through FSUIPC?

==> No I'm not, I want the panel to work for the standard user, "out of the box". Off course they need to have FSUIPC installed but that's basically all...

I'll take a look at SimConnect again but I don't think there any features about disabling the joystick axes there...

Thanks for the help !

Björn

[Pete Dowson]

when you use the FS autothrottle it is done by itself. but the FSX autothrottle is so extremely sluggish that I had to reprogram it myself. This means I loose the built-in system off course.

Ah, ok.

FS updates every gauge approximately 18 times per second, this is called a "tick".

Ah, yes, actually a 55 mSec interval, 18.2 Hz. But I didn't know you were an FS programmer then. ;-)

I'll take a look at SimConnect again but I don't think there any features about disabling the joystick axes there...

Not explicitly. You'd have to do it the same way FSUIPC has to do it -- intercepting the axis controls (events) and not forwarding them on when they are to be inhibited.

Anyway, could you tell me which version of FSUIPC4 you've been testing the 310A facility with? Because of problems with axis interception on some aircraft (LevelD in particular) I've had to make a lot of changes and now FSUIPC4 only intercepts axes if it has to -- for calibration or re-direction. I've looked at the code and this also (now) applies to the 310A disabling options. So it SHOULD work, but maybe only with very recent versions. This appears in the History document for 4.16:

Control inhibits (offsets 310A and 310B) were only being applied to axis controls calibrated in FSUIPC4, as in recent FSUIPC4 versions only these are intercepted. Now any controls which are explicitly inhibited via 310A or 310B are automatically intercepted as necessary.

so you should be okay with the current release 4.20 and the latest interim release in the Downloads announcements above.

Regards

Pete

[bcs112]

Thanks Pete, updating to the latest version did the job !

Björn