Spoiler Calibration for Logitech Quadrant

[Gregory_Douglas]

I have a Logitech G Saitek PRO Flight Throttle Quadrant and have successfully set up FSUIPC to have one of the axis levers control the spoilers in three stock FSX SE aircraft. On the Learjet, the lever is behaving as expected, giving me full incremental spoiler extension from -16384 to +16384. However, with the 737 & CRJ700, the spoiler doesn’t start to extend until -4681. Is there a way to calibrate the spoilers in those two aircraft so spoiler extension starts as soon as I start moving the lever up? Right now, the spoilers on the 737 & CRJ700 don’t start extending until the lever is 1/3 of the way up.

I’m using FSUIPC4 v4.977 on a Windows 10 desktop.
 

[John Dowson]

You can use FSUIPC's axis scaling facilities to achieve this, described in page 46 of the Advanced User guide. You want to scale the range -16384 to + 16383 to the range -4681 to +16383, so you would need to use the following scaling parameter:
      ,*0.6428227,+5851

Just add that to the end of the spoiler axis assignment line in your 737 & CRJ700 profiles.

[Gregory_Douglas]

Adding the scaling parameter lowered the position the lever has to be in to activate the spoiler but not by much. I still have to raise the lever up about 40%. I've attached a screen shot showing the settings when the lever is in the position (40% up) where the spoilers start to extend. 

[John Dowson]

Why do you have a maximum spoiler axis range of only 5851?
As we are scaling the axis, best to just remove the calibration - click the Reset button and try again.

And check that you have those axis scaling parameters in your ini.., using that should send a value of around -4681 when your throttle is at the lowest position of -16384:
   (-16384 * 0.6428227) + 5851 = -4681

If you still have issues, please attach your FSUIPC .ini and .log files (not pictures!).

[Gregory_Douglas]

6 hours ago, John Dowson said:

Why do you have a maximum spoiler axis range of only 5851?

I did not manually change that parameter to 5851; it changed to 5851 after I entered the ,*0.6428227,+5851 code.

Perhaps I’m doing things out of order. Here are the steps I took:

1. I deleted the 737 profile and started from scratch. Here are the steps I took:
2. In the Axis Assignment window I selected “Spoilers” from the dropdown list and selected Send direct to FSUIPC Calibration
3. Went to Joystick Calibration p.6 & & checked Profile Specific
4. Set the calibration for the Spoilers (-16384; -500; +16255)
5. Closed FSX SE
6. Added the  ,*0.6428227,+5851 code to the 737.ini profile
7. Opened FSX SE & checked the Spoiler Joystick Calibration settings and they appeared like in the image above. I did not press the Set button to change it to 5851.
8. I set the far right positive parameter from 5851 back to 16255
9.Checked to see if the spoilers worked but they behaved the same; no movement until about the 40% mark.
10.Went back to check 737.ini profile and the added code was missing.

The files you requested are attached.
 

FSUIPC4.ini FSUIPC4.log

737.ini

Edited August 27, 2023 by Gregory_Douglas
Uploaded wrong file

[John Dowson]

Can you please see the Advanced User guide on how to use the axis scaling facilities. The axis scaling parameters go on the axis assignment line, not in the calibration section.
You need to add profile-specific axis assignments to your 737 profile, then change the spoiler axis assignment to
   3=CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0 ,*0.6428227,+5851    -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-
i.e. change the assignment from, 'Send direct to FSUIPC calibration' to 'Send to FS as normal axis' and also delete/remove the spoiler calibration entry.

[Gregory_Douglas]

Yes, I did read the section on Axis Assignments. It’s rather complex & I’ve spent a couple of hours on this so your patience and help is much appreciated.

I did everything you said to do in your last post and the spoilers are now working the full range of the lever. But… the spoilers are not completely retracting when the lever is in the down (0%) position. How do I tweak this entry so the spoilers retract all the way?

CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0,*0.6428227,+5851    -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-

[John Dowson]

11 hours ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

But… the spoilers are not completely retracting when the lever is in the down (0%) position. How do I tweak this entry so the spoilers retract all the way?

You can first try just decreasing the addition parameter, e.g.
    CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0,*0.6428227,+5200    -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-
This will send a lower value when the lever is in the down position, but the higher value sent when the lever is in the up position will also be reduced, and so the spoilers may not be fully deployed when in this position. If this is the case, you will also need to adjust the multiplier, so try:
    CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0,*0.65,+5733    -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-
or for an even larger range:
    CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0,*0.66,+5570   -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-
or even
    CZ,256,F,66382,0,0,0,*0.7,+4915    -{ TO SIM: AXIS_SPOILER_SET }-

[Gregory_Douglas]

Once I decrease the addition parameter to a value that fully retracts the spoilers and I need to adjust the multiplier, will adjusting the multiplier cause me to have to readjust the addition parameter?

Also... every time I make a change, do I need to restart FSX? Restart the flight? Reload the aircraft?

[John Dowson]

2 hours ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

Once I decrease the addition parameter to a value that fully retracts the spoilers and I need to adjust the multiplier

Only if the spoilers don't fully deploy when the lever is in the up position, as I said...

2 hours ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

will adjusting the multiplier cause me to have to readjust the addition parameter?

Yes. Once you have set the multiplier, you can calculate the addition parameter so that full deflection (lever up) of 16383 gives 16383 once both the scale multiplier (m) and addition (a) have been applied, so
      (16383 * m) + a = 16383
      a = 16383 - (16383 * m)

2 hours ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

Also... every time I make a change, do I need to restart FSX? Restart the flight? Reload the aircraft?

Make the changes with FSUIPC open and the axis assignment panel showing. When you have saved your changes, click the Reload all assignments button to reload the changes.

[Gregory_Douglas]

I decreased the addition parameter to 5200 and the spoilers fully retracted. I didn't notice any reduction with spoiler extension so I don't think there's any need to adjust the multiplier.

So far, I have done two of the three aircraft. In one the profile info was stored in an aircraft name.ini file in the Profiles folder; with the other aircraft, the profile info was inserted into the FSUIPC4.ini file. I have no idea what I did to cause the profile info to be added to two different locations. It must have been things I clicked on or didn't click on when I checked the Profile Specific box on the Axis Assignment page. I searched "Profile Specific" in the User Guide and Advanced guide but could not find the answer. What do you think I did differently for each aircraft?

[John Dowson]

1 minute ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

I decreased the addition parameter to 5200 and the spoilers fully retracted. I didn't notice any reduction with spoiler extension so I don't think there's any need to adjust the multiplier.

Ok....that was the first thing I asked you to try....

2 minutes ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

So far, I have done two of the three aircraft. In one the profile info was stored in an aircraft name.ini file in the Profiles folder; with the other aircraft, the profile info was inserted into the FSUIPC4.ini file.

I don't know how that can happen... if you are using profiles-in-separate files only the aircraft-specific ini should be used. Looking at the FSUIPC4.ini you posted earlier, the following should be removed (or moved/copied) to your F18.ini:

Quote

[Buttons.F18]
0=PB,1,K191,8     -{Key press: /?key}-
5=PC,6,K191,8     -{Key press: /?key}-
6=UC,6,K191,8     -{Key press: /?key}-

 

7 minutes ago, Gregory_Douglas said:

What do you think I did differently for each aircraft?

I don't know - this shouldn't happen., Just manually correct - not worth me looking into this.

John