Setting up Saitek Flight Yoke and Throttles

[Chairman]

QUOTE (Adamski @ May 30 2010, 10:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well ... I think I finally sorted it. ..... The only problem is that sometimes FSUIPC seems to "forget" the axis assignments.

Joynames mate, Joynames - assuming you're not into it already The problem is almost certainly that windows is renumbering the usb devices for some reason and as the axis assignments are tied to the USB device numbers that screws everything up quite comprehensively.

Start FSX then open your fsuipc.ini file (it's in the fsx/modules directory) and scroll down until you see the [joynames] section.

It will look something like this depending on what you have plugged in at the time :

Code: Select all

[JoyNames]
       AutoAssignLetters=No
       1=CH PRO PEDALS USB                                                  
       1.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8004-444553540000}
       0=SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick                                            
       0.GUID={8FD46590-6A00-11DF-8001-444553540000}
       2=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB
       2.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8005-444553540000}

Make sure autoassignletters = no, then copy and paste the entire section under itself so it looks like this :

Code: Select all

[JoyNames]
         AutoAssignLetters=No
         1=CH PRO PEDALS USB                                                  
         1.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8004-444553540000}
         0=SideWinder Force Feedback 2   Joystick                                            
         0.GUID={8FD46590-6A00-11DF-8001-444553540000}
         2=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB
         2.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8005-444553540000}
         1=CH PRO PEDALS USB                                                  
         1.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8004-444553540000}
         0=SideWinder Force Feedback 2   Joystick                                            
         0.GUID={8FD46590-6A00-11DF-8001-444553540000}
         2=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB
         2.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8005-444553540000}

Then go through and for the top set of controller lines change the device number to a logical letter (e.g. Y for Yoke, P for pedals, etc) so it looks like this :

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[JoyNames]
       AutoAssignLetters=No
       Y=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB
       Y.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8005-444553540000}                      
       P=CH PRO PEDALS USB  
       P.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8004-444553540000}
       J=SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick
       J.GUID={8FD46590-6A00-11DF-8001-444553540000}                                          
       1=CH PRO PEDALS USB                                                  
       1.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8004-444553540000}
       0=SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick                                            
       0.GUID={8FD46590-6A00-11DF-8001-444553540000}
       2=CH FLIGHT SIM YOKE USB
       2.GUID={8FE09A90-6A00-11DF-8005-444553540000}

Now close and save the .ini file and restart FSX, open FSUIPC and start to assign a button on your yoke. You should get the controller *letter* not the controller *number* appear as the device. If you did it has all worked so far, so open the fsuipc.ini file again and have a look at the [Axes] section of the file which will hopefully look something like this :

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[Axes]
     0=JS,256,D,4,0,0,0
     1=PX,2292,D,7,0,0,0
     2=PY,2796,D,8,0,0,0
     3=PZ,1806,D,3,0,0,0
     4=YX,256,D,1,0,0,0
     5=YY,256,D,2,0,0,0
     6=YZ,520,D,4,0,0,0
     7=YU,256,D,6,0,0,0
     8=YV,384,D,5,0,0,0

If it does look like that FSUIPC has automagically remapped the axis assignments to the GUIDs instead of the USB device numbers for you. Now it doesn't matter when windows renumbers the controllers because the GUIDs never change and each controller will always get the correct assignments. If the .ini file still uses numbers (e.g. "4=2X" not "4=YX") but fsuipc showed you a device letter not a dvice number when you assigned a button then it has still worked but you need to manually change the axis assignments to their letters, and if you still got a device number when you tried to assign a button it didn't work at all and we'll move onto the next step.

If you had to manually change anything in the file remember to save it then restart FSX to load the new .ini file. I'm pretty sure just reselecting the current aircraft will reload the .ini file, but I always restart to make sure.

Let us know how you get on

Gary

[jastheace]

well i am glad i e help out with the post, that was my intention all along

glad you got it all working, i never use fsx controls, everything is through FSUIPC

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Chairman @ May 30 2010, 11:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Joynames mate, Joynames - assuming you're not into it already
Let us know how you get on

Joynames??? Never heard of them!!! Are they erogenous zones?

Followed your instructions to the letter ... thanks!!! You'll be pleased to see that this is what I got at the end:

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[Axes]
0=PX,16776,F,66387,0,0,0
1=PY,16418,F,66388,0,0,0
2=PZ,256,F,65764,0,0,0
3=JX,256,D,1,0,0,0
4=JY,256,D,2,0,0,0
5=JZ,256,D,4,0,0,0
6=JU,256,F,66292,0,0,0
7=JV,256,F,66291,0,0,0
8=JS,1,D,25,0,0,0
9=JP,0,F,66416,0,0,0

... where "P" = Pedals and "J" = "Joystick". I didn't need to re-calibrate (it had kept those) - I just tested that the axis assignments mapped OK.

What was happening before, was every time I assigned one axis then OK'd it, it had lost the others. I think what I *should* have been doing was assigning each axis, then flipping back to a calibration tab (or whatever) then only OK'ing once at the very end.

Thanks for taking the time to do such a step-by-step .. much appreciated!

I've been running the freebie version for ages, but when I finally bought the thing a month or so ago, I never really bothered to RTFM. I hadn't realised just how complex (and powerful) this little utility is! At last ... *finally* ... I can do my FSFlying School tests without the instructor moaning (and barfing ).

[Adamski]

OK ... I finally did the RTFM dance ... all seems to be *much better* .

*However* - I have a strange problem that my toe brake axes aren't immediately recognised on FSX startup. Simply opening the FSUIPC window and cancelling it fires things up. Seems to me that FSUIPC isn't auto-initialising properly. Any clues?

[Chairman]

Sounds like something you could ask Pete Dowsen about in the support forum - but make sure it's not in the manual or covered in the forum archive before you do, watching people ask questions in that forum is almost a spectator sport

Gary

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Chairman @ Jun 1 2010, 07:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like something you could ask Pete Dowson about in the support forum - but make sure it's not in the manual or covered in the forum archive before you do, watching people ask questions in that forum is almost a spectator sport

I know!!! He can be positively vitriolic, can't he? !!! I think he needs a good dose of Valium (or Viagra)

[Chairman]

Part of the problem is that the user guide takes what most people would spend a couple of paragraphs on and crams it into a couple of sentences with absolutely no extraneous words which either do or don't make sense to you, and even with that level of compression there are 149 pages of user guide spread across 5 pdf files.

It really is a stupendously powerful piece of software, and I actually quite like Pete's "there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people and you are one of them" responses - even when they're aimed at me

I saw someone in the F1 Mustang support forum spluttering about how he was damned if he was going to spend more money on yet another add-on which wouldn't do anything except extend the battery life of his Mustang. I was going to say something, but then I thought that in reality that's probably all it ever would get used for by him.

Gary

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Chairman @ Jun 2 2010, 12:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I saw someone in the F1 Mustang support forum spluttering about how he was damned if he was going to spend more money on yet another add-on which wouldn't do anything except extend the battery life of his Mustang. I was going to say something, but then I thought that in reality that's probably all it ever would get used for by him.

How very true! I wear that T-shirt to an extent. Having waded through the docs (at last) I concluded that 99% of the brilliant stuff FSUIPC *can* do, just sorting out my control problems has improved my whole FSX experience by about 500%.

All I'll be doing, I think, is setting up a few profiles - or gradually working my way through my favourite aircraft and remapping things like the GPS pop-up to always use the same throttle button. I don't (can't!!) fly choppers so I don't need different sensitivities for any of the axes.

I don't have a yoke, so mixture, prop, trim and thrust reverser are all mapped to my Saitek X52 throttle.

[AndrewJamez]

Hi guys, I just stumbled upon this old thread when googleing controller axis programming for fsuipc. I have heard that if fsuipc controls the aileron, elevator and rudder, that the controls work much smoother and are liniar in movement unlike the way fsx works. Can anyone verify this and can you run a default axis setup in fsuipc that works for all aircraft or do you have to do a setup for each individual aircraft?

[Ian Warren]

Andrew , Greg has been playing around with Saitek dual throttle setups using FSUIPC , i'll give you a nudge next online , you have a chat about it on TS , I also have two quads but to hear about other settings would be interesting .

[AndrewJamez]

I managed to set FSUIPC up to take care of basic controller inputs and deleted the joystick controll entrys in the FSX controls setup. I think it feels a little smoother and the external control surface animations definately move more smoothly and the internal control animations dont jitter any more including the throttle. They still however seem to function in a non linear fashion even though FSUIPC has an exponential curve you can adjust. Over all though an improvmemnt I think. I'll fly with this setup for a week or two and then go back to FSX controlled axis and see if I notice any difference.

[Chairman]

*DO* figure out the bit about linking GUIDs to letters so you can refer to your USB devices by a letter instead of device number - it's not hard, and it will save you HOURS of frustration when (not if) your computer decides to renumber your devices because they didn't all clock in in the usual order one bootup.