Saitek Rudder Problem

[John Veldthuis]

I was trying to install my new Saitek rudder pedals but was having some issues. I removed my old CH Products pedals and installed the new ones. Removed the allocated assignments in FSX and then tried to set them up in FSUIPC. Brakes went fine and I assigned the rudder axis as well which showed up as 0,R. Now the fund began. I went to calibration page and went to the rudder but when I moved the pedals nothing happened. The axis page showed proper movement though. After quite some time I was about to give up and ask for help when I suddenly thought to check the ini file. For controller 0 it had 4 entries and it clicked that it was looking at the wrong one. It had X, Y, Z and R.

I removed the lot but realised I only needs to remove Z and tried again and this time everything worked as it should.

Thought I would share this in case anyone else happens in the same boat.

[Pete Dowson]

I was trying to install my new Saitek rudder pedals but was having some issues. I removed my old CH Products pedals and installed the new ones. Removed the allocated assignments in FSX and then tried to set them up in FSUIPC. Brakes went fine and I assigned the rudder axis as well which showed up as 0,R. Now the fund began. I went to calibration page and went to the rudder but when I moved the pedals nothing happened. The axis page showed proper movement though. After quite some time I was about to give up and ask for help when I suddenly thought to check the ini file. For controller 0 it had 4 entries and it clicked that it was looking at the wrong one. It had X, Y, Z and R. I removed the lot but realised I only needs to remove Z and tried again and this time everything worked as it should.

Thought I would share this in case anyone else happens in the same boat.

Thank you, but I'm not clear as to what was wrong nor why? Was Z not an active axis? What was Z before? Are you saying the rudder was previously Z (from the CH driver) and now R (from the Saitek driver)? And that somehow the Z assignment was interfering, giving a reading?

Since FSUIPC only acts on CHANGES to axis inputs, then if Z was interfering by changing you should have been seeing it turn up in the axis assignments and therefore be able to simply unassign it. If it wasn't changing and so not showing up, I don't see how it could interfere?

Regards

Pete

[John Veldthuis]

Thank you, but I'm not clear as to what was wrong nor why? Was Z not an active axis? What was Z before? Are you saying the rudder was previously Z (from the CH driver) and now R (from the Saitek driver)? And that somehow the Z assignment was interfering, giving a reading?

Regards

Pete

With the CH Products one FSUIPC was seeing the axises as X, Y and Z. Z being the rudder axis originally from the CH pedals. Also I do not use the product drivers, just the Vista built in HMI drivers. However with the Saitek one it was seeing X, Y, and R. The X and Y because they were the same worked the same and after calibration performed well. While the R on the other hand showed up and allowed me to direct it to the rudder did not work because Z from the CH products was still assigned to the rudder as well and in the list before R so was not working. In the ini file it looked like this

[Axes]

0=0X,256,D,7,0,0,0

1=0Y,256,D,8,0,0,0

2=0Z,256,D,3,0,0,0

3=0R,256,D,3,0,0,0

As you can see both Z and R are assigned to the same thing but Z was first. Ideally I suppose I should have removed the entire 0 assignments manually when I removed the other pedals but did not think of it.

[Pete Dowson]

[Axes]

0=0X,256,D,7,0,0,0

1=0Y,256,D,8,0,0,0

2=0Z,256,D,3,0,0,0

3=0R,256,D,3,0,0,0

As you can see both Z and R are assigned to the same thing but Z was first. Ideally I suppose I should have removed the entire 0 assignments manually when I removed the other pedals but did not think of it.

Yes, I understood all that from the earlier post. But I don't understand how the assignment of a non-existent axis, Z was preventing the existing one, R, being seen. FSUIPC allows multiple assignments to the same control, and arbitrates between them for maximum deflection. I can only assume that the non-existent axis was somehow providing a fully-deflected value somehow, which is rather odd. Even if it did, as soon as the new assignment exceeded it it would take over assuming the other (the non-existent one) wasn't giving continually changing values.

Maybe, because the axes are all on the same device (0), and all are read together, the Saitek driver provides some impossible-to-reach value for those axes not supported for that device. If you have time I'd like to see what the values being returned actually are. Maybe one of the attached programs will show it (DiView is using DirectInput like FSUIPC4, Joyview is using the older Windows "joy" interface, like FSUIPC3)?

If I can distinguish between a "not connected" value and a true value maybe I can improve FSUIPC to avoid these problems automatically.

Regards

Pete

joyview.zip

DIView.zip

[John Veldthuis]

I tried both programs and the CH pedals do not show up at all anywhere. It shows the Saitek pedals all working fine.

I did have CH pedals plugged into a different USB port than I now have the Saitek pedals plugged into.

[Pete Dowson]

I tried both programs and the CH pedals do not show up at all anywhere. It shows the Saitek pedals all working fine.

Sorry, you misunderstood or I didn't explain too well. I didn't expect it to see CH pedals as they are not connected. I wanted to know what values they reported for the Z axis. If neither of them even show a Z axis then I really don't understand how it could possibly interfere with the R axis!

Regards

Pete

[John Veldthuis]

Okay I get you know.

DIView showed that there was 3 axis. X-X, Y-Y, Z-Rz

Joyview showed 3 axis active and giving results. X, Y, and R

[Pete Dowson]

DIView showed that there was 3 axis. X-X, Y-Y, Z-Rz

Joyview showed 3 axis active and giving results. X, Y, and R

Hmm. So, it is still a puzzle as to why the unconnected non-existent Z axis from the CH unit was interfering with the new R axis.

Pete