Differential braking... 2 axes .. one lever.. possible ?

[Gabe_62]

Hi all.

I know brakes can be set as analogue on an axis... but I'd like to use one lever on my spare Saitek throttle quadrant.

Can I set one axis ..  say left brake..  for half the range and the other axis .. right brake .. on the lower range ?

I'm guessing it could be done by using "set range" (+16000 -16000) for the middle to fully forward range... leave a deadzone, then do the same for the mid to lower limit of the same lever ?

 

Thnx.

[John Dowson]

3 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

Can I set one axis ..  say left brake..  for half the range and the other axis .. right brake .. on the lower range ?

Seems a strange thing to want to do, but I can think of two ways you can do this:

1. Assign your lever to an unused axis (i.e. has no affect on the aircraft) with 'Send to FS as normal axis'. Then, use the right hand side if the axes assignments panel to assign various lever positions to Axis Left/Right Brake set with an appropriate parameter. This would give you up to 5 discrete brake settings for each brake.

2. Assign your lever to 'Send to FSUIPC Offset', and have a lua script to monitor the same offset using the event.offset function. In your lua event handling function, you can then convert the parameter to a left or right brake axis value, and then send the appropriate control (again , either Axis Left Brake Ser or Axis Right Brake Set) to the FS. You probably want such a lua to be auto-started.

John  

[Gabe_62]

So, probably easier to use 2 neighbouring levers... one each for left and right brakes.

Basically I don't have rudder pedals and don't want to press keyboard buttons.

Steering is so dodgy in MSFS, that differential braking seems essential for some aircraft.

Maybe I'll just shell out for pedals.

 

Thnx

[John Dowson]

18 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

So, probably easier to use 2 neighbouring levers... one each for left and right brakes.

Well, yes. If you are only using one lever with different ranges for left/right brake, then you would only be applying either the left or right brake, not both, so you will effectively be turning....

19 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

Basically I don't have rudder pedals and don't want to press keyboard buttons.

Whats wrong with using a joystick button? If using a single button for braking, you could try this lua script:

But this really depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want differential braking, i.e. to use left/right toe brakes individually, then you will need two axes (or two buttons).
If you just want to apply the brakes equally, then you can use your lever and assign to both left and right toe brakes, or a single button using that lua script.

26 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

Steering is so dodgy in MSFS, that differential braking seems essential for some aircraft.

Ok, so it is differential braking (only?) that is needed. Then both my previous suggestions still apply.

28 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

Maybe I'll just shell out for pedals.

Pedals would, of course, be better!

John

[Gabe_62]

I don't understand LUA scripts... so buttons are out as I clearly need analogue/smooth progressive braking.

But I'll take a look at it, as I think it may be quite useful in other ways too.

Thanks again. 😊

[Gabe_62]

Update.

Managed to find some Logitech Pro Rudder pedals at Currys !

So, do I assign toe brakes in the same way as any other axis ? And presumably I can also add a curve for sensitivity adjustment?

Please say 'Yes !'.

😁👍

[John Dowson]

47 minutes ago, Gabe_62 said:

So, do I assign toe brakes in the same way as any other axis ? And presumably I can also add a curve for sensitivity adjustment?

Yes! All primary axis can go through FSUIPC 's calibration facilities.

And, of course, you can/should also assign and calibrate the rudder.

John

[Gabe_62]

Excellent. I've had the Logitech pedals before but never used tge brakes really in P3D... and they've pretty good too, especially for 150 bucks.

Cheers. 👍👍👍