Question. Can it handle shifts with buttons?

[BillTheSlink]

Hello:

I am considering purchasing your products on the advise of another flight simmer from another board due to these problems, but want to make sure your product will do what I want and not wast money as I am disabled.

I have the Saitek X52 (not Pro). I wanted to set it up for my jets for pretty much keyboard and mouse free operation. As you are no doubt aware this stick and throttle have numerous buttons and sliders and each operates in six states depending on the position of a mode and pinky switch.

#1 Does your program recognize the different shift states the joystick is in for button assignments? In other words can button A have a different function in each mode?

#2 One of the main reasons (other than the fact the Saitek programming software is a nightmare) I would be interested in your software is that there doesn't seem to be a way to assign your altitude, speed, and heading bug dials to your sliders and wheels on the X52 with the Saitek programming, in other words dial in FL300, 250 knots, 150 etc. Can I do this with yours?

I should mention I am running both FS9 and FSX so I would need both versions, so if you can comment on both that would be great.

William Sinkhorn

[Pete Dowson]

#1 Does your program recognize the different shift states the joystick is in for button assignments?

Probably not, depending upon whether the buttons looks like different buttons in different "shift states". FSUIPC reads buttons from Windows, so it gets them via the drivers you have installed. If Windows "Game Controllers" can recognise them all separately, then so can FSUIPC -- up to 32 buttons per joystick.

In other words can button A have a different function in each mode?

Two answers to that part:

1. As above, if they look like different buttons, and fall into to first 32, yes, because they look distinct. OR

2. FSUIPC does allow any amount of complex button functionality, by either the use of "conditional" actions -- actions dependent upon other buttons, or flags set/cleared by other buttons, or even upon values read from FS (representing states like "on ground" or "over 50 knots" etc). On top of this you can have buttons instigating execution of little Plug-In sequences programmed in "Lua" (a popular game parameter programming language).

But all of the things you can do in (2) are relatively complex, and done by editing files with parameters or program lines, not from simple assignment as in (1).

#2 One of the main reasons (other than the fact the Saitek programming software is a nightmare) I would be interested in your software is that there doesn't seem to be a way to assign your altitude, speed, and heading bug dials to your sliders and wheels on the X52 with the Saitek programming, in other words dial in FL300, 250 knots, 150 etc. Can I do this with yours?

I don't know the Saitek programming software, so i couldn't say whether ambitious use of FSUIPC would be more or less of a nightmare. But you can do all sorts of clever things with Lua plug-ins if that is what you want to do. However, that said, I'm not aware of any normal controls which will automatically set specific autopilot and autothrottle values -- normally you would either use a rotary dial (inc one way, dec the other), or a button or lever to increment and decrement, same as on the keyboard.

Why not download and install FSUIPC in any case and peruse the documentation. I'm sorry, you can't actually try the things you mention before purchase, but you can most certainly read all about them and make up your own mind whether it looks scarey or not. Maybe you can then ask more constructive questions afterwards?

Regards

Pete

[BillTheSlink]

Thank you for the reply so early on a Sunday morning. Good day to you!

As it turned out I had the free version on FSX, but had no idea there was documentation with it until about 3:00am last night and have since that time read it. I believe I can answer my own questions; perhaps you can just verify.

BillTheSlink wrote:#1 Does your program recognize the different shift states the joystick is in for button assignments?

Probably not, depending upon whether the buttons looks like different buttons in different "shift states". FSUIPC reads buttons from Windows, so it gets them via the drivers you have installed. If Windows "Game Controllers" can recognise them all separately, then so can FSUIPC -- up to 32 buttons per joystick.

In other words can button A have a different function in each mode?

Two answers to that part:

1. As above, if they look like different buttons, and fall into to first 32, yes, because they look distinct. OR

2. FSUIPC does allow any amount of complex button functionality, by either the use of "conditional" actions

Basically I would have to program a button (or several) to act as conditional that are currently served by what Saitek calls "a mode switch". By doing so I would multiply the number of buttons, sliders, axis etc on my stick.

#2 One of the main reasons (other than the fact the Saitek programming software is a nightmare) I would be interested in your software is that there doesn't seem to be a way to assign your altitude, speed, and heading bug dials to your sliders and wheels on the X52 with the Saitek programming, in other words dial in FL300, 250 knots, 150 etc. Can I do this with yours?

I don't know the Saitek programming software, so i couldn't say whether ambitious use of FSUIPC would be more or less of a nightmare. But you can do all sorts of clever things with Lua plug-ins if that is what you want to do. However, that said, I'm not aware of any normal controls which will automatically set specific autopilot and autothrottle values -- normally you would either use a rotary dial (inc one way, dec the other), or a button or lever to increment and decrement, same as on the keyboard.

It appears I would have to create a mousetrap and click around on the dials and heading bugs to get it to do what I am talking about right?

I'll probably go your route in a week or two, but this doesn't seem to be plug and play so I'll wait until I have time.

thanks again for your time,

Bill

[Pete Dowson]

As it turned out I had the free version on FSX

There's no difference between "free" and "paid for" (really "unregistered" and "registered", respectively), except accessibility to options.

Basically I would have to program a button (or several) to act as conditional that are currently served by what Saitek calls "a mode switch". By doing so I would multiply the number of buttons, sliders, axis etc on my stick.

Yes, that's what I assumed. If this "mode switch" on the Saitek does change the button numbers it submits, then that is done already -- unless that makes button numbers in execess of 31 (or 32 if you count from 1). FSUIPC uses the interface in Windows which only supports 32 buttons per device. DirectInput can accept up to 64.

If the mode switch is merely another button, or selection of buttons, then you can still do the same thing but then it involves "conditionals" in FSUIPC -- programmed only in the INI file, by editing. This is described in the Advanced Users guide.

It appears I would have to create a mousetrap and click around on the dials and heading bugs to get it to do what I am talking about right?

Erthe mouse macro facilities do extend what can be done with FSUIPC, but you seem to have made a big jump somewhere here. The assorted FS autopilot values, the ones you mention, can be changed by standard controls, assignable directly in FSUIPC. The "mouse macros" tend only to be needed for add-on aircraft which ignore the FS values and do their own thing.

I'll probably go your route in a week or two, but this doesn't seem to be plug and play so I'll wait until I have time.

I don't have a "route". At least nothing you'd recognise. i use Project Magenta, no add-on panels, no default panels, just 8 networked PCs.

Regards

Pete