G940 Joystick

[gfd]

Seasons greetings Peter

I am working my way up the learning curve with FSX, in no small part because of FSUIPC. I am learning how to calibrate my controllers in FSUIPC. Once you get the hang of it, the amount of control one can exercise is excellent. One thing I noticed was that the G940 joystick hits its maximums about half way into the throw in both the X and Y axes. Now you didn't make the controller. I dare say if you did, I wouldn't have to be writing this. The joystick's calibration page calibrates only the hat. Perhaps that is meant to calibrate the main stick. Anyway, I digress. Is there a work around in FSUIPC to compensate for this? I have calibrated the joystick in FSUIPC to accommodate different aircraft. But in order to do so, I have to narrow the centre zone and flatten the slope. Now perhaps joysticks are designed to hit their maximum values early into the throw. If that is the case, I won't bother myself, or you, further.

Thanks for the help.

[Pete Dowson]

One thing I noticed was that the G940 joystick hits its maximums about half way into the throw in both the X and Y axes. Now you didn't make the controller. I dare say if you did, I wouldn't have to be writing this. The joystick's calibration page calibrates only the hat.

Hats don't normally need any calibration. All they signal is the direction you are pushing it in -- 4 or 8 or many points, sent as either a button combination (CH did this in their game port devices) or as a value in degrees or multiples of degrees. If your hat is calibratable it isn't a hat but a mini joystick.

When you say your X. Y axes from the proper joystick 'hit maximum' half way, what do you actually mean? A joystick has zero at the centre and diverges positively and negatively in both directions from there, so "half way into the throw' is rather ambiguous. Half way both ways? In terms of the angle or what? And where are you reading the numbers to verify this?

Is there a work around in FSUIPC to compensate for this?

If the joystick is not sending any changing values after "half way", then no software can do anything because it cannot detect further positions as being different. Isn't that reasonably obvious? If changing values are seen then you should be calibrating your min and max positions to accommodate them.

I have calibrated the joystick in FSUIPC to accommodate different aircraft. But in order to do so, I have to narrow the centre zone and flatten the slope.

That's nothing to do with the range of the axes, but to do with the sort of response, the feel, you prefer. Flattening the centre of the slope will just make the aircraft less twitchy. You'd want a steeper slope for fighter and stunt aircraft and a flatter one for most airliners and light aircraft. The main use of a centre dead zone is to prevent jitter or other small changes affecting the aircraft control surfaces when you don't want them to.

Now perhaps joysticks are designed to hit their maximum values early into the throw.

No, if they provide no further inputs for any of their 'throw' they are faulty. The pot or optical reader should detect the position and supply proper values over the whole range of movement.

If you want any further advice you'll need to tell more, like how you assign and where, and minor things like which version of FS and FSUIPC.

Regards

Pete

[gfd]

Thanks for the reply. Assigned in FSUIPC. Sent to FSUIPC for calibration. Calibrated in FSUIPC. Version 4.7.4.9. I have a return authorization for the G940. We'll see how the new one works. Thanks for your help and thanks for FSUIPC.

Graham

[gfd]

Happy new year. Hope you enjoyed your vacation. I got the new G940. I also had the same issue as described above. It seems that there are 2 different calibration routines for controllers. One calibrates the joystick using the mini X Y hat. The other calibrates the joystick using the actual handle. After finding and using the latter, the X Y axes on the joystick reported values that were correct.