Calibration of helicopter specific axes using FSUIPC

[Warmbrak]

Good day

I only recently reinstalled MSFS and purchased FSUIPC to try and overcome issues I have been having with the MSFS controls assignment. While I am able to follow the documentation and get things working, there are some implementations that I am trying to wrap my head around. I removed all my assignments in MSFS and have redone them using FSUIPC.

For helicopters I am specifically using the AXIS_CYCLIC_LATERAL_SET, AXIS_CYCLIC_LONGITUDINAL_SET and AXIS_COLLECTIVE_SET axes to enable use of their specific trim functions. Unfortunately these axes assignments are not visible through the Joystick Calibration page. While I was able to manually edit the FSUIPC.ini file to add a *-1 modifier to change the axis direction of the collective, we are missing basic functionality in the UI that would make this much more easier to do. Furthermore, without these axes showing up in calibration it makes it harder to tweak and even assign response curves.

Assigning the axes is straightforward, but the tweaking and calibration is missing for axes that are not covered under the Joystick Calibration 11 page UI. What would be useful if there was an option to apply modifiers or tweaks to any axis that has been assign through FSUIPC without having to head to the .ini file.

What would be the correct way then to calibrate these axes assigned through FSUIPIC that are not included in the Joystick Calibration pages?

 

[John Dowson]

6 hours ago, Warmbrak said:

What would be useful if there was an option to apply modifiers or tweaks to any axis that has been assign through FSUIPC without having to head to the .ini file.

I understand your issue, but there is no way I could possibly allow calibration for any axis. Calibration is only useful for the main flight control axis, and I fully understand that this is currently not possible for the new axes for helicopter  flight control.

6 hours ago, Warmbrak said:

What would be the correct way then to calibrate these axes assigned through FSUIPIC that are not included in the Joystick Calibration pages?

The only possibilities at the moment are to use the axis scaling functionality, as you are doing, or to write the axis value to an FSUIPC offset and have a lua script pick-up the value and apply any calibration needed before sending to the FS.

I am not prepared to add further calibration pages for helicopter axes at the moment - I just don't have the time for such a large undertaking. What I could do is to map the helicopter-specific axis to the existing calibration sections (i.e. aileron, elevator, rudder, throttle, mixture, prop pitch). As I am not familiar with helicopter flight controls, does this seem reasonable, and if so what would the mapping look like? e.g.
     AXIS_CYCLIC_LATERAL_S -> calibrate as aileron
     AXIS_CYCLIC_LONGITUDINAL_SET  -> calibrate as elevator
    AXIS_COLLECTIVE_SET -> calibrate as prop-pitch
?

[Warmbrak]

Thanks for your reply John. Any access to those would be extremely useful. If FSUIPC can detect if it is a rotorcraft then overriding those could be helpful. I am trying to think of cases where this could be problematic, as some helicopters do have a controllable elevator linked to the cyclic system - but in that case they are not directly controlled by the pilot so it should be fine. I haven't touched LUA in ages and are reluctant to get into that level of effort unless it was absolutely crucial.

I will try and wrap my head around the offset and scripting when I have more energy; I think I understood it back in the FSX days but that is a long time ago. Being able to tweak those three axes through the UI would be very welcome, thanks.

 

[John Dowson]

41 minutes ago, Warmbrak said:

Any access to those would be extremely useful.

Ok, I will look into this next week. Is that mapping I proposed ok? I will also map the following helicopter throttle controls:
      AXIS_HELICOPTER_THROTTLE_SET -> Throttle
      HELICOPTER_THROTTLE_SET -> Throttle
      AXIS_HELICOPTER_THROTTLE1_SET -> Throttle1
      HELICOPTER_THROTTLE1_SET -> Throttle1
      AXIS_HELICOPTER_THROTTLE2_SET -> Throttle2
      HELICOPTER_THROTTLE2_SET -> Throttle2

There is also AXIS_TAIL_ROTOR_SET, but I am not sure about this one....

If you could update to the latest beta at some point (currently 7.4.0b), I will post an updated beta here for you to try this when done. The latest beta is available from 

John

[Warmbrak]

Excellent, thank you very much John! I will grab the 7.4.0 beta in the meantime.

[John Dowson]

Can you please try the attached version - this should allow those helicopter-specific axes to be calibrated, with the mapping to aircraft axes as shown above.

Note that you still have to assign with 'Send as normal FS control', and not with 'Send direct to FSUIPC calibration'.

John

FSUIPC7.exe