Mapping Helicopter fuel valve for engine start

[nosecone]

Hi all

I have a push button switch I want to use in my helicopter sim pit to start the engines.

 I  want to assign a function to control the helicopter fuel valve which in the sim starts the helicopter engine but not sure what entry in FSUIPC to use to achieve this 

 

Cheers 

 

Rhys 

[Pete Dowson]

I have a push button switch I want to use in my helicopter sim pit to start the engines.

 I  want to assign a function to control the helicopter fuel valve which in the sim starts the helicopter engine but not sure what entry in FSUIPC to use to achieve this 

 

To find out if the helicopter control responds to an FS control, use FSUIPC's logging. Switch FS to Windowed mode and enable Event logging and the Console log in FSUIPC's logging tab. Then operate the switch in the FS cockpit display. If this invokes a standard FS control it will be logged, by name and number.

 

Pete

[nosecone]

Hi Pete

Thank you very much found the entry for fuel switch.

One more question can I set up the action so I hold the button in for about 5 seconds and release and the engine will start

Thanks once again

Rhys

[Pete Dowson]

One more question can I set up the action so I hold the button in for about 5 seconds and release and the engine will start

 

What is the control? If it is a toggle you'd have to assign it to both Press and Release. If it's an ON with a corresponding OFF, assign ON to Press and OFF to release. But it means YOU holding the button pressed. Without writing a Lua plug-in there are no delay facilities built in to the button assignment itself. You can do it with a plug-in.

 

Pete

[nosecone]

Hi Pete 

Thank you very much, got it working, In fsuipc the mapping comes under Toggle fuel valve. I just assigned the button to press and just keep my finger on the button for as long as I need then release and the engine starts.

Regarding rotary encoders, on my instrument panel I have non detent encoders for ADF,VOR and HSI. I know how to set them up  but when I turn the encoder the gauge moves slowly and I have to turn the encoder quite a few turns to get it to move 

is there a way to to move the gauge faster when turning the encoder

 

Cheers

 

Rhys   

[Pete Dowson]

Regarding rotary encoders, on my instrument panel I have non detent encoders for ADF,VOR and HSI. I know how to set them up  but when I turn the encoder the gauge moves slowly and I have to turn the encoder quite a few turns to get it to move 

is there a way to to move the gauge faster when turning the encoder

 

Most rotary encoders send a "Press" for one click then a "Release" on the next. So you can usually get one iNC or DEC per click by assigning both Press and Release to the same control. That's be twice as fast.

 

You can also use a Lua plug-in to get bigger increment/decrement amounts for faster turns without losing the ability to get a single increment with one click. See the "rotaries.lua" plug-in in the Examples provided in your FSUIPC Documents subfolder (in the Modules folder).

 

It is actually programmed for any HID device, not just a joystick input -- I think it is currently set for a GoFlight RP48 unit which has 4 rotaries. You could either treat your device as a HID device instead of a joystick (joysticks are one type of HID) -- you'd need to look at the scanning part of the FSUIPC log (since version 4.947 joysticks have been logged with the details you'd need), or just re-program the Lua to read joystick buttons instead. There are ipc library functions for that, but, better,  you can use events to call the routine on joystick button changes rather than poll on a timer event.

 

Pete

[nosecone]

Hi Pete 

Thank you, placed the rotaries lua file  into the modules folder but that's as far as I have got not sure what to do (Sorry real newbie ) in Fsuipc I found several entries in the drop down box under lua for rotaries not sure how to get them to work 

 

Regards 

 

Rhys 

[Pete Dowson]

Thank you, placed the rotaries lua file  into the modules folder but that's as far as I have got not sure what to do (Sorry real newbie ) in Fsuipc I found several entries in the drop down box under lua for rotaries not sure how to get them to work 

 

Didn't you look at the Lua code? You have to edit it to address your specific device. As it is,  it only works for the 1st GoFlight RP48 connected. And it is set for the 4 separate rotaries on that device!

 

You can assign "Lua rotaries" to a button or keypress in order to start it for testing purposes, but once you have it working you should start it using an entry in the [Auto] section of the INI, so it just runs in the background all the time.

 

I think you might need to read up a bit more documentation for this. Did you not find the assignment to both press and release sufficient?

 

Pete