FSUIPC and Linda functions

[AFB]

I'm one  of those guys setting out to make a button/switch panel (sans display screen) for the native "GPS500" in FSX.

I have recently procured a 32-switch board from a popular source in England and have tested it with "joy.cpl" and the board's own utility with success.

I have registered FSUIPC for various buttons/switches currently in use on yoke and throttle base and I have 2 more commercially made switch panels and radio stack from Saitek/Logi.

In FSUIPC I am using "Profiles" and naming input devices with "Alpha" so as to preserve them for multiple hardware configurations (Heli, Gen Aviation, commercial, etc.)

If someone could direct me to any tutorials (YouTube or form links) that could help me understand the following:

1. What is the relationship between FSUIPC and Linda when FSX is running?  Are they parallel processes just meant to interface the specific  hardware they are assigned to?  I expect this is the case with the manufactured panels I have that just function once their own "drivers" are installed.

2. I got the initial impression that Linda just generated ".lua" files that FSUIPC can read much like macros.  I am no longer so sure that this is the case.  I need to find out the correct process on this.

3. Would my new GPS panel "Joystick" even need to be known by "FSUIPC"?

4. What little I have read so far about Linda suggests that when I start assigning actions to specific buttons that I have to start with a specific aircraft.  So if a button setup is associated with only one aircraft via "Linda" then how would this play into the "Profiles" capability of FSUIPC?  I kind of doubt that all the other aircraft in my FSUIPC Profile group would inherit the assignments in "Linda"  I need to confirm what is happening either way.  If the answer to question 3 is "No" then I have my answer to this.

In any case I am OK with digging into all this stuff as I am getting ready to do shortly but if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be a time-saver.  So far I have spent a while searching for my answers on the "'net" but getting correct hits on subtle questions is not so straight forward.  Google's AI is still no match for a person with experience.

[John Dowson]

12 hours ago, AFB said:

1. What is the relationship between FSUIPC and Linda when FSX is running?  Are they parallel processes just meant to interface the specific  hardware they are assigned to?  I expect this is the case with the manufactured panels I have that just function once their own "drivers" are installed.

A better place for this question would be the LINDA support forum. But LINDA is a graphical front-end to the Lua interface provided by FSUIPC, providing sets of aircraft-specific lua scripts for making assignments easier for a variety of hardware. FSUIPPC only recognises HID joystick type devices dor direct assignment (i.e. using the UI interface), but other HID type devices can be controlled using Lua.
Usually we recommend first trying windows default drivers when using FSUIPC, but if may be possible to use the manufactures driver, if that enables the device to be correctly recognised by windows. However, I cannot advise for specific hardware that I dom'y know about - you just need to try with default windows drivers and with the manufacturers one to see which will work.

12 hours ago, AFB said:

2. I got the initial impression that Linda just generated ".lua" files that FSUIPC can read much like macros.  I am no longer so sure that this is the case.  I need to find out the correct process on this.

That is the main purpose/reason for using LINDA (a UI on top of FSUIPC'c lua system), but I think it can also do a lot more these days. But again, more of a question for the LINDA forum.

12 hours ago, AFB said:

3. Would my new GPS panel "Joystick" even need to be known by "FSUIPC"?

Not necessarily known as  a joystick type device, but it must be at least seen as a HID device to be used using lua. You can use the HidScanner program (available in the Downloads -> Useful additional programs section of this forum) to determine if the device is recognised.

12 hours ago, AFB said:

4. What little I have read so far about Linda suggests that when I start assigning actions to specific buttons that I have to start with a specific aircraft.  So if a button setup is associated with only one aircraft via "Linda" then how would this play into the "Profiles" capability of FSUIPC?  I kind of doubt that all the other aircraft in my FSUIPC Profile group would inherit the assignments in "Linda"  I need to confirm what is happening either way.  If the answer to question 3 is "No" then I have my answer to this.

Another question for the LINDA support forum, but I think the profile systems are distinct. So your profile would be loaded in FSUIPC, and the LINDA lua scripts associated to the loaded aircraft are available in LINDA. I don't know how LINDA maps the aircraft name to the scripts being used.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but as your questions are mainly LINDA related, you may get a more helpful response on the LINDA support forum.

John

[AFB]

John,

This reply is a bit late but thanks for your insight.  It has been helpful.

I am now finding my greatest problem in getting help on these matters is that there appears to be almost no current activity (or peer level help) due to there being a conspicuous lack of current interest in this subject matter.  Many forum posts elsewhere are many years old!

I am finding a scarcity in LINDA support making me think that I should just begin writing my own LUA code from scratch.  I am certainly capable of it but I was initially hoping to avoid learning yet another coding system which would be of temporary use to me (like Fortran IV, Cobol, Pascal, LISP were.)

If you could possibly direct me to one thing:  I have been searching for a comprehensive reference for FSX Event ID's without having to download and sift through the entire SDK.  I am assuming the default GPS 500 in FSX has embedded within the panel design the various event id's that are triggered when one clicks on a control.  I was hoping to use the LINDA "tracker" window to discover these id's but I am having some trouble getting that application to work.  That is the source of my lament about the lack of current support for that application.

I perceive if I had the list of id's I could use the physical switch state via the Bodnar board's firmware and a lua file to get the job done.

A.

[John Dowson]

11 hours ago, AFB said:

am now finding my greatest problem in getting help on these matters is that there appears to be almost no current activity (or peer level help) due to there being a conspicuous lack of current interest in this subject matter.  Many forum posts elsewhere are many years old!

The LINDA support forum still seems to be active: https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/429-linda-support/
However, most folks have moved on now from FSX, especially since the release of MSFS2020.

11 hours ago, AFB said:

I have been searching for a comprehensive reference for FSX Event ID's without having to download and sift through the entire SDK.

There should be a text document in your FSUIPC4 installation folder called The 2016 List of FSX and P3D Controls.pdf - yjis contains a list of available events and their ids, in both numerical and alphabetical order. For a description of whatthe events do, you need to consult the SimConnect SDK documentation.

11 hours ago, AFB said:

I am assuming the default GPS 500 in FSX has embedded within the panel design the various event id's that are triggered when one clicks on a control.  I was hoping to use the LINDA "tracker" window to discover these id's but I am having some trouble getting that application to work. 

You can use FSUIPC's logging facilities - activate logging for Events (non-axis controls) and Send to console window (both from logging tab) and you can see any event + parameter used when a button/switch is used in the VC.

John

[AFB]

Thanks John.