FSUIPC with Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant

[Eric Hutchinson]

Pete.....I have a question. I have a registered version of FSUIPC. I use it with FS2004. I am thinking of purchasing the Honeycomb Throttle Quadrant. My question is, can I use the throttle quadrant using FSUIPC settings? Are there settings in FSUIPC that will control the autopilot functions on the throttle quadrant? Hope to hear from you.

 

                                                                              Eric Hutchinson

[John Dowson]

2 minutes ago, Eric Hutchinson said:

My question is, can I use the throttle quadrant using FSUIPC settings?

FSUIPC is device independent, so you can use it with any HID joystick type device.
Note that the Honeycomb Bravo has button numbers outside of FSUIPCs 32 button limit. To program the extra buttons, you will need to use a lua script. There is one available for this for the Bravo from here: 

 

4 minutes ago, Eric Hutchinson said:

Are there settings in FSUIPC that will control the autopilot functions on the throttle quadrant?

FSUIPC just  access to the events provided by MSFS, together with some additional ones that it adds. There are various events to control autopilot functions, some work in some aircraft and not in others. There is a list of available events generated and stored in your FSUIPC7 documents folder.
You just have to try to see what works. There are also additional events/controls that you can use that are provided by the MobiFlight WASM module (together with event files that you add to FSUIPC so that it knows about these events). This adds additional events for the G1000, G3000, GNS530, and KAP140. For details, see 

 and 

 

There seem to be plenty of Bravo users using FSUIPC7, so maybe they can help or advise on how to configure the Bravo for a specific aircraft. But is should be no different configuring it compared to any other autopilot or button box - to FSUIPC its just a collection of buttons and axes

John

[John Dowson]

Sorry, Pete just pointed out that you are using FS2004 and not MSFS, so ignore the above about MSFS and WASM.
You should be able to use the FS2004 events, but having never used that I don't know what AP controls are available.
I'm not even sure if lua is available in FSUIPC3 (Pete can confirm or not) as I've never used it, but if not then you may have difficulty programming buttons outside of the 32 button limit.

John

[Pete Dowson]

1 hour ago, John Dowson said:

I'm not even sure if lua is available in FSUIPC3 (Pete can confirm or not)

Yes. it is, and it even includes the Com/Hid facilities.

But Eric should know that FSUIPC3 is no longer supported, so whilst we can answer some questions, ones like this, mostly we would not be able to help.

Pete

 

[gr8guitar]

Hello. For @Eric Hutchinson (and anyone else stuck in the past - like me :). I just received the Bravo TQ and I do like its looks, feels okay but it has too many buttons for a throttle quadrant. I won't be using any buttons beyond the reversers. Also, when the throttles (4 for a B 747) are at  max forward, the toggle buttons aren't really accessible. But it's an upgrade to the 2 Saitek TQ's I had before. I also thought the reverse throttles were analog but they are just buttons. There is an analog flap lever and a digital flap button - weird. Enough critique, I still like it and will use it - especially for the price. There is another option or "walk-around" the 32 button limit with FSUIPC and that is to use HIDMacros (website is: HIDmacros.eu). The author of that has moved on to LuaMacros but I find HIDMacros very easy to use. 1) It can go beyond the 32 buttons. 2) It's easy to program (much like VBA). 3) It is free as well. The only thing it can't do (unless someone knows how) is read and write to Lvars. But there is a easy work around that. Step 1 is to have the luas files/names listed in the proper places in FSUIPC.ini. 2) Write what you need in HIDMacros (i.e.: in the script tab: HIDMacros.SetFSUIPCInt &H4e0, 2, 1 [command &offset, size, value]. 3) In the actual *.lua, I use:

function BravoTQ(offset, val)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   val = ipc.readSW(0x4E0)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ipc.writeLvar("L:WhateverTheLvar", val)                                                                                                                                                                                                           end                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        event.offset(0x4E0,"SW",BravoTQ)

In the *.xml gauge:

use the (L:WhateverTheLvar, number) as required. 

One more cool thing about HIDMacros, is that it can distinguish between multiple keyboards connected to the same computer, the reason I use it. One caveat about HIDMacros is I couldn't shut it down in Windows 10 and it wouldn't save the work. Luckily, that is not my main FS computer. Also strange, to me, are the lights on the TQ but it looks great and thank you very much to the person that wrote the bravoleds.lua.

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by John Dowson
tagged OP