Setting up dual joysticks

[barrykensett]

I have dual joysticks in my home cockpit which I can set up and calibrate in FSUIPC.

For reasons I don't fully understand the handling of the aircraft is not good; if I fly FSX on the desktop with one joystick it is pretty smooth. In the cockpit however it has always been twitchy. I think one of the reasons is that there is interference between the two axes. If I disconnect one stick things improve but still not good. In similar vein I find that the steering tiller inputs are dreadful unless I disconnect one wheel and even then control is not smooth.

I have tried amending slopes, I also set the minimum delta to give a null zone and I always cycle the sticks before use, I have even tried changing effectiveness in the cfg file.

The only time I got smooth control was in the dark ages using FS9 and FS Communicator, the latter will not work with P3D.

Has anybody anything to share on this topic?

Barry

www.a320sim.com

[Pete Dowson]

I have dual joysticks in my home cockpit which I can set up and calibrate in FSUIPC.

For reasons I don't fully understand the handling of the aircraft is not good; if I fly FSX on the desktop with one joystick it is pretty smooth. In the cockpit however it has always been twitchy. I think one of the reasons is that there is interference between the two axes. If I disconnect one stick things improve but still not good. In similar vein I find that the steering tiller inputs are dreadful unless I disconnect one wheel and even then control is not smooth.

I have tried amending slopes,

 

If both sides are assigned AND calibrated in FSUIPC, then FSUIPC will arbitrate between them. It will take only one of the competing values -- the one with the greatest divergence from "normal" (i.e. centred for yoke and steering, idle for throttle). If one is interfering with the other it must be because of some serious jitter, I suspect that the more likely thing is that you have multiple assignments from the same devices, possibly in FSX,  You need to disable controllers altogether in FS.

 

Have you tried usng the FSUIPC logging facilities to see what is going on? If you enable the console log and temporarily run FS in Windowed mode, you can see the axis events as they occur.

 

Pete

[barrykensett]

Thanks for the reply Pete.

The FS controllers are not enabled.

I ran the log and noticed that there were no spurious inputs, I had made the wrong assumption there. I find that it is using the Delta function that is causing most of my problem, I had been using that in the belief that it sets up a null zone and I did this because I thought I was getting inputs in the neutral positions. However this was giving me the effect that when I moved the stick the movements were not smooth and proportional. I have now cancelled the Delta setting and things are a lot better.

I will do some more experimentation and testing, your input has set me on a better track.

Thanks again.

Barry

Www.a320sim.com

[Pete Dowson]

I find that it is using the Delta function that is causing most of my problem, I had been using that in the belief that it sets up a null zone and I did this because I thought I was getting inputs in the neutral positions. However this was giving me the effect that when I moved the stick the movements were not smooth and proportional. I have now cancelled the Delta setting and things are a lot

As I am sure you will find the User Guide clearly explains, the Delta value is simple the smallest CHANGE in the value from the joystick which will have any effect. For example, with the maximum range a joystick can provide, 32768 (ie -16384 to +16383), the default Delta of 256 gives 128 different positions. That's about normal for most consumer level devices. The whole point of the Delta is to prevent minor unreliable changes (jitter), usually caused by small electrical, temperature, humidity or just plain dirt changes affecting the otherwise smooth flow.

For software controlled inputs the Delta is usually changed to 1 so that the software has precise control. But it sounds like you increased it, so giving fewer different axis positions and thus apparent jumps.

Null zones are produced by correct calibration, following the numbered steps given for this in the User Guide.

Pete

[barrykensett]

Well I spent many hours setting up again and again, reading the manual again and again and I never got the aircraft to handle properly. It is far too twitchy to be realistic, it's as if the the aircraft has no inertia to damp down the movements. I then followed some tips on a couple of other posts on this forum and went the route of a lua script (based on "liar") to fool FS communicator that I am in fact flying FS9. It is now flying like a dream just like the olden days! The tiller is not working so am having to steer on the rudders at the moment so more work to do.

I was worried in case this solution upset some other programs but they all still work, mostly I think they now use simconnnect rather than WideFS.

Thanks for the time to post some tips Pete.

Barry

www.a320sim.com