Brake Problem

[cfelix]

This is a conversation I had on the A2A forum:

 

ME: When I first load the 182 into FSX, the brake button assigned to my joystick works fine. When I apply either of the differential brake pedals and then release it, the brake button no longer works. Both the button and the pedals are programmed in FSUIPC. Any ideas?

 

A2A: This is as intended and consistent with default FSX behavior.

 

ME: I notice that with many other aircraft (e.g., default 172 & A2A Cub) the button assigned to the FSUIPC brake function (65588) will continue to work once all differential braking is released. Is there a setting in the "aircraft.cfg" that is doing this or is it caused by specific programming for the A2A 182?

 

A2A: No, it's not settable. Fsuipc does some things with the brakes differently than stock fsx does and we have to make it that way to keep it compatible.

 

If, as A2A says,  this is caused by something FSUIPC does, why does it function differently with different aircraft?  Is there a way to get the brake button to work with all aircraft even after differential brakes are applied?

 

Charlie

 

 

[Pete Dowson]

This is a conversation I had on the A2A forum:

 

ME: When I first load the 182 into FSX, the brake button assigned to my joystick works fine. When I apply either of the differential brake pedals and then release it, the brake button no longer works. Both the button and the pedals are programmed in FSUIPC. Any ideas?

 

A2A: This is as intended and consistent with default FSX behavior.

 

ME: I notice that with many other aircraft (e.g., default 172 & A2A Cub) the button assigned to the FSUIPC brake function (65588) will continue to work once all differential braking is released. Is there a setting in the "aircraft.cfg" that is doing this or is it caused by specific programming for the A2A 182?

 

A2A: No, it's not settable. Fsuipc does some things with the brakes differently than stock fsx does and we have to make it that way to keep it compatible.

 

If, as A2A says,  this is caused by something FSUIPC does, why does it function differently with different aircraft?  Is there a way to get the brake button to work with all aircraft even after differential brakes are applied?

 

Charlie

 

I've never heard of any issue with brakes like this before. Assignment in FSUIPC to brakes just uses the standard FS brakes controls -- left brake, right brake for differential and "brakes2 for both (same as the . key with default FS assignments.

 

But why does it matter much? Surely if you have brake pedals they are used for all braking purposes except parking brake? When are you needing the default brakes button?

 

Pete

[cfelix]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I have a problem when using the pedals for landing. My setup at home is not the best and sometimes my pedal unit slips causing the aircraft to veer off the runway.  Using the brake button assures that both brakes are applied evenly.  I can get by without it but I still don't understand why, for this aircraft, the brake button stops working after applying and then releasing either of the pedals.

[Pete Dowson]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I have a problem when using the pedals for landing. My setup at home is not the best and sometimes my pedal unit slips causing the aircraft to veer off the runway.  Using the brake button assures that both brakes are applied evenly.  I can get by without it but I still don't understand why, for this aircraft, the brake button stops working after applying and then releasing either of the pedals.

 

Well, as they said, it's something about the way they programmed it. Why not stick something non-slip under the pedals, like Velcro or a rubber pad, or rubber feet even?

 

Pete

[Gypsy Baron]

Charlie,

 

I have a solution to the brake issue you mention.

 

I, too, have a button assigned on my stick for Brakes and as you noted, after the first time the toe brakes are used that

button no longer fuctions.

 

What I did, instead of setting up the toe brakes on my CH Pedals in the 'traditional manner', I instead used the Axis Assignment

to define a 'range' of -16384 to -4500 , both 'up' and 'down'  'repeat whilst in range'and assigned the Brakes Left and Brakes Right

from the FSX Controls menu.

 

This works fine now as the toe brakes will give you differential braking and if both are bressed, the normal Brake control. The

joyswitch button also works to allpy the Brake control and if there is any rudder input, that becomes a differential brake control.

 

The toe brakes are either full on or full off but this solves the issue with the A2A brakes.

 

Here is the entry from my C-182 Axis section of my FSUIPC4.ini file:

10=BX,BR,-16384,-4500,65720,0
11=BY,BR,-16384,-4500,65721,0

 

My CH Pedals are 'Joy B' and the toe brakes axis are X and Y.  These lines, with the line numbers and Joy name changed to

match your hardware, can simply be added to the aircraft's Axis section in the INI.

 

     Paul

[cfelix]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'm having a problem getting it to work and I have a few questions:

• On the FSUIPC "Axis Assignment" page, how do you have the "type of action required" section set up (send to & assignment)?
• Would you show me your entire "[Axis]" section of your 182 "INI" file? 
• Did you make any changes to the "Right Brake" & "Left Brake" settings in the "[JoystickCalibration]" section of the "INI" file?

Charlie

[Gypsy Baron]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'm having a problem getting it to work and I have a few questions:

• On the FSUIPC "Axis Assignment" page, how do you have the "type of action required" section set up (send to & assignment)?
• Would you show me your entire "[Axis]" section of your 182 "INI" file? 
• Did you make any changes to the "Right Brake" & "Left Brake" settings in the "[JoystickCalibration]" section of the "INI" file?

Charlie

 

 I disabled/cleared the brake settings in the Joystick Calibration tab.

 

In the Axis assignment tab I cleared the assignments on the LEFT side of that screen....no assignments for brakes on the "This side to send axis values" section.

 

On the RIGHT side of that screen, "This side to send button controls", I set the left brake "From"- "To" values in Range 1 to -16384 and -4500. I checked both the UP and DOWN boxes and set the "Control sent when range entered" to "Brakes Left"  and checked the box "Control to repeat whilst in range".

 

I then did the same thing for the right brake. You must, of course press the appropriate toe brake so that the Joy # and Axis # entries appear for the axis in question.

 

I do have a check in the "Send to FS as normal axis" box but NO check or selection in the boxes below that area on the left side.

 

On the Calibration Tab screen,  both left and right brake areas show "Axis not processed".

 

Here is my C172 Axis section from my INI. NOTE: I use "ShortAircraftNameOk=Yes" in the General section and "AutoAssignLetters=Yes" in the JoyNames section.

 

Thus my Axis Joy# entries are A, B, C and D. The Rudder Pedals axis  are BX and By for left and right toe brakes. If you still use the default numbers for Joy#, then your INI entry will be something like 3X and 3Y or whaterever your Rudder Pedal Joy# is.

[Axes.C182]
RangeRepeatRate=10
0=CU,256,D,28,0,0,0
1=CT,256
2=CT,BR,-10444,-1638,65607,0
3=CT,B,-16384,-11468,65706,0
4=CT,BR,2023,10113,65615,0
5=CT,B,11529,16383,65706,0
6=DZ,256,D,5,0,0,0
7=DU,256,D,6,0,0,0
8=AZ,256,D,4,0,0,0
9=BX,256
10=BX,BR,-16384,-4500,65720,0
11=BY,256
12=BY,BR,-16384,-4500,65721,0
13=BZ,256,D,3,0,0,0
14=BR,256,D,3,0,0,0

This is really pretty straignt forward if you just follow the steps above. You are substituting 'button assignments' triggered by the axis entering a defined range for the axis value being sent to the sim via the axis assignment/calibration sections.

 

This would be the equivalent of using whatever keys are assigned on your keyboard for the right and left brakes.

 

 Paul

[cfelix]

Paul,

 

Thanks. I finally got it to work. I had to manually enter the' "Delta" settings (256) for each brake axis.  In your case, those are lines 9 & 11.  For some reason FSUIPC did not automatically add those lines when I created the range settings and I'm really not sure why they are needed.  

 

Thanks again,

 

Charlie

[Gypsy Baron]

Glad you got it working. You can cut & paste those lines into the Axis section of other aircraft that need to be 'adjusted', leaving the normal toe brake settings for the default aircraft and others not affected by the 'brake button stops working' issue.

 

I have all the A2A Accu-Sim aircraft so I did a lot of cut and paste operations  :)

 

That delta of 256 is probably not required but I had those lines in SOME of my Axis sections and not in others. I believe they

are only used to determine how much of a change is required to cause a new output of data when using the normal axis assignment and calibration settings.

 

With this implementation we are just looking for the axis data being within the specified range and there is such a large change between toe brakes off and the entry into the defined range that the small delta value is moot.

 

  Paul