Throttle with Reverse (Throttle Decr) on Lower Throttle Lever?

[kronovan]

Hello all, 1st time posting here. My apologies if this has already been covered somewhere else in this forum, but my search-foo didn't come up with anything.

I have a single Saitek ProThrottle (model with red, blue and black handled levers, w/6 rocker switches & 3 detents) which has increments of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% marked on its levers.  I've gotten Throttle Decr working via a button assignment to the detent button below the throttle lever, but what I'd instead like to have is Throttle Decr be controllable in a range beginning at the 25 increment mark and ending at 0. I've tried this by creating 2 ranges for the throttle axis; 1 for Throttle Incr with a From at the 25 increment and a To at 100, and 2 with a Throttle Decr with a From at the 0 mark and a To a the 25 mark. It doesn't seem to work however, with the Throttle lever still effectively having Throttle Incr from 0 to 100?  I did notice that the From and To values flipped for the 2nd Throttle Decr range I set. I didn't find much in the manual about the "Up" and "Down" check boxes and I'm not really sure what they should be set to for these 2 ranges;  wondering if that's where I'm going wrong? Or is this just not possible to do for such an input device as ProThrottle?

If anyone could give me any feedback or suggestions for doing what I hope to achieve, I'd appreciate reading about them.

On another note, I have FSUIPC version 4.794 installed with FSX:SE, but I'm not running the beta branch. Do I need to upgrade to 4.795a? I'm nervous about any upgrading procedure that's done by installing over the top of an existing version - too many problems with other such approaches to updating in the past. So if my version is current enough please let me know.

[Pete Dowson]

19 minutes ago, kronovan said:

I've gotten Throttle Decr working via a button assignment to the detent button below the throttle lever, but what I'd instead like to have is Throttle Decr be controllable in a range beginning at the 25 increment mark and ending at 0. I've tried this by creating 2 ranges for the throttle axis; 1 for Throttle Incr with a From at the 25 increment and a To at 100, and 2 with a Throttle Decr with a From at the 0 mark and a To a the 25 mark. It doesn't seem to work however, with the Throttle lever still effectively having Throttle Incr from 0 to 100?  I did notice that the From and To values flipped for the 2nd Throttle Decr range I set. I didn't find much in the manual about the "Up" and "Down" check boxes and I'm not really sure what they should be set to for these 2 ranges;  wondering if that's where I'm going wrong? Or is this just not possible to do for such an input device as ProThrottle?

It sounds like you want to use the throttle with a full forward thrust to full reverse thrust range, and a centre (or offcentre) idle zone.

To do that you need ot assign calibrate on the 4 throttles tab  ieither by using the map to 4 on the first tab, for a single throttle, or by assigning 2 or more levers to separate engines in the first place). On the 4-throttles calibration page you can make sure "No reverse range" is unchecked, then simply do yuor proper calibration for a max reverse, centre, and max thrust position.

If by 'To" you mean trying to calibrate a specific place for Take Off thrust, surely that's normally max, or very close, with a desired N1% which varies by conditions (weight, weather, runway length & condition).

Pete

 

[kronovan]

2 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

It sounds like you want to use the throttle with a full forward thrust to full reverse thrust range, and a centre (or offcentre) idle zone.

To do that you need ot assign calibrate on the 4 throttles tab  ieither by using the map to 4 on the first tab, for a single throttle, or by assigning 2 or more levers to separate engines in the first place). On the 4-throttles calibration page you can make sure "No reverse range" is unchecked, then simply do yuor proper calibration for a max reverse, centre, and max thrust position.

If by 'To" you mean trying to calibrate a specific place for Take Off thrust, surely that's normally max, or very close, with a desired N1% which varies by conditions (weight, weather, runway length & condition).

Pete

Many thanks for the reply Pete. I didn't really grasp all of the explanation in the manual about the different throttle tabs, such as 4 throttles, so I'll go back and reread that section. Indeed the To for the Throttle Incr (full forward thrust) would be the max for the particular lever.

I'd dearly love to assign more than 1 lever for engine control, because some of my aircraft such as Aerosoft's DHC-6 Twin Otter are next to impossible to fly without 2 quadrants. Alas I only have a single throttle quadrant with 3 levers; throttle, prop & mixture. I also use a joystick instead of a yoke, as I also fly a number combat flight sims and keeping my GA configuration similar helps me be more effective in those. That of course means I don't have many levers on my stick to use and the 1 throttle axis I have gets assigned to elevator trim.

I could afford to buy an additional quadrant or replace with a 6 lever quadrant, but they're all out of stock in my city and web-stores that have reasonable shipping to my region in Canadian appear to be all out of stock too. I'm guessing that this is a result of the pandemic disrupting supply chains and forcing some manufactures to temporarily shut down.

[Pete Dowson]

4 hours ago, kronovan said:

Alas I only have a single throttle quadrant with 3 levers; throttle, prop & mixture.

Depends on what you fly. For a jet you don't really need Prop and Mixture, so you can control 3 engines (maybe a 727? 😉 ).

For a single throttle lever, don't mess with complications in the Assignements tab. For reverse zone calibration with a single throttle, check "map to 4 throttles" on page 1 of Calibration, then go to the later page, the one for 4 throttles, and calibrate your throttle with "no reverse zone" unchecked. Just follow the numbered steps in the Calibration chapter in the User Guide.

Pete