UPDATE 11 NOV: The instructions below will work for AAO v1.75. Reading further down the thread you can see that Oliver discovered that I was unknowingly compensating for a bug. We’re currently working on that but in the meantime if there’s anyone who wants to get their Xtouch Mini working, don’t feel that you need to wait. My advice would be to follow along with what I did, and when changes need to be made I will update accordingly. Have fun!
Ok, I’ve decided to break my guide into multiple parts, because as I was putting this together it turned out to be a bigger project than I expected. Eventually I hope to gather all the parts into one big Guide that can be put on these here good forums.
This post will seem extra long but that’s because I’m trying to be as detailed as I can. This is definitely one of those cases where it’s much longer to type out instructions than to actually do the thing. I’m confident that once you learn the pattern of assigning functions to buttons on the Xtouch Mini, it will go very quickly.
Some disclaimers:
Like most of you, I’m also figuring this stuff out as I go - 1.5 months ago I didn’t even know the Xtouch Mini existed! Likely in the following screenshots some of you will see something I could do better. I’m all ears when it comes to learning how this stuff works!
The point of this guide is to give raw newbs a place to start learning on their own, not handing out a definitive guide. The layout of my buttons and knobs, and indeed which buttons and knobs I use, all change as I play with and use the systems. Once you learn the patterns of how Xtouch Editor, AAO, and MSFS2020 all work, it’s actually very easy to adjust to your own needs.
Probably the biggest disclaimer is that my guide is for getting the BEHRINGER XTOUCH MINI midi device working with MSFS2020 via AxisAndOhs (AAO). I don’t know a lick about the deeper functions of AAO and at this point I don’t need to. Probably my guide can also apply to other midi devices but I can’t answer to that. Those sorts of questions are best addressed to @LorbySI himself. Read the AAO manual!! Don’t be afraid to experiment on your own or use some simple Googling. This ain’t rocket surgery. That being said, feel free to ask questions. I’m here to help others learn, not gatekeep Sacred Knowledge.
For the sake of everyone’s sanity, I’m going to assume that you have your Xtouch Mini connected, the associated drivers and apps installed, and Windows/Mac/Linux is happy with it all being there.
So let’s start:
TUTORIAL #1 - PITOT HEAT SWITCH
I’m going to show you how to set up a button that will toggle the Pitot Heat. This is a simple On/Off function and thus a good place to start.
Run the X-TOUCH EDITOR. As I type this, the latest version is 1.21. You’ll be presented with this screen:
Click the BUTTONS tab. Set your buttons up like this:
Button #15 is what we’re interested in here. Keep it in mind.
NOTE: I have selected the BT 9-16 tab in the lower left.
Go back to the GLOBAL tab.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!
Click Dump A
Dump A will write the assignments to the Xtouch Mini device itself. The Load and Save buttons to the left are for saving your settings to a file on your computer. Which is also handy, so you might as well save these settings to your computer now. This has tripped people up before so I’m making a big deal out of it.
Close the Xtouch Editor. AAO and the Xtouch Editor can’t be running at the same time.
Ok, with that done, let’s get into the actual simulator.
Run AxisAndOhs, make sure Hardware Devices → MIDI Devices Enabled is checked and then launch Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
Once MSFS2020 is running, select your favourite plane and airport. If you’re a purist you can start cold and dark. I already have a day job so I prefer to start fat dumb and happy on the runway, ready to go.
Alt-Tab back to AAO and select Connection → Connect. While you’re there, you might as well check Connection → Connect Automatically
You should see this screen, with the name of your aircraft replacing “Connect To Simulator”
In this tutorial, you’re going to ignore the “Assigned Axis” column and only worry about the “Assigned Buttons” column.
Under “Assigned Buttons”, press the green + and you’ll see this:
Click the “Key Down Event:” drop down and you’ll see a list of Simconnect variables. Expand the “Aircraft Miscellaneous Systems” group and find the PITOT_HEAT_TOGGLE function:
Double click PITOT_HEAT_TOGGLE and you’ll be returned to the assignment screen.
Click the space next to the green dot/lamp at the Assigned Button/Key section.
On your Xtouch Mini, push the button you want as the switch for Pitot Heat. For the sake of this tutorial, this will be the button on the bottom row, 2nd from the right (this is button #15 in the Xtouch Editor, as setup at the start).
Under Assigned Combo, select the space and click the same button. Check “Suppress Key Down Event” and “Is Toggle”
NOTE:
You’re doing this because there’s actually two button events going on here: Event 1 is the button going down, Event 2 is the button going up. Since Pitot Heat is an On/Off type thing, we don’t want it to turn on when you press the button but then turn off when you release the button. But since we want to it stay on (or off) when we press the button, we also check “Is Toggle”.
You could avoid all this from the beginning if you set button #15 in the Xtouch Editor as “Toggle” instead of “Momentary”. But these settings in AAO are important down the road when we use AAO to control the lights of the Xtouch Mini. For now, just trust me - doing it this way is worth it.
Once your screen looks like this…
…hit “Save”
At this point, you should be able to Alt-Tab back into MSFS2020 and pressing button #15 on your Xtouch Mini should toggle your aircraft’s Pitot Heat switch.
The last thing I would recommend is to Alt-Tab back to AAO and go Template → Save Current Setup As Template and maybe name the save file something significant. For example, I have a general “G1000” template that later gets applied to any aircraft with a G1000 but then as I fine tune the Xtouch Mini for each individual aircraft, I save subsequent templates. Once you Apply Template To This Aircraft, AAO will remember your settings, even through livery changes. Neat!