So I bought a couple of more panels (again) for the flight sim addiction.
This time 2 panels from Winwing, the PTO2 and the 18UFC.
Using the PTO2 in MSFS isn’t gonna be much trouble.
Yet with the 18UFC I made a little miscalculation :
I thought that with using Simapppro you’d be able to “change” the potentiometers (aka axis) for the volume, brightness and the other 2 turn dails to rotary turn dials (the same as what Virpil offers in their software)
Turns out : it ain’t possible.
Thing is :
I would like to use the volume, brightness and other 2 turn dails as input for heading, altimeter, vs and ais.
We all know MSFS doesn’t do axis for input on these bindings
So I need a 3de party software to change the axis to “rotary dails”
There are different 3de party software how have this capability :
spad.next
Axis & Ohms
Gremlin
I have experience with no of these programs
Which one is the most easu to use, idiot proof one for some one how has no experience with this stuff ?
If someone has other idea’s how to change a axis/potentiometer to a rotary dail : I’m all ears.
Spad by far in my opinion. None are Idiot proof and all having a learning curve. An axis is not going to work for the things you mentioned unless you are going to be setting some very specific values. Rotating all those knobs you mentioned (Alt, HDG, VS…) increment and decrement with no end. A pot rotates from end to end going from finite value to finite value.
I use SPAD. I’ve used it for a year. I now consider myself an ‘advanced beginner’ even being no stranger to this type of programming. There is still much to learn. That tells you something about the depth and ‘ease of use.’ I put the latter in quotes because, in reality, the SPAD software is designed to do what you need it to do - assign conditional events to the variables the sim uses to make the virtual cockpit controls do what you want them to do.
My goal with all my aircraft and controllers (Alpha/Bravo, Streamdeck XL, Streamdeck+, Class Echo) is to eliminate (as much as possible) mouse clicks, and also, eliminate (or at least really reduce) bindings in the sim’s own control option presets.
The commands are not that complicated. What can be complicated is figuring out what variables the developer used for particular actions. SPAD has some tools to discover those variables. Sometimes they’re easy to discover, sometimes not.
One of the things I repeatedly request is that developers publish a complete list of variables, and what they do. For example: What is the variable assigned to the panel lighting dimmer? One might use a SimConnect variable called ‘Panel_Light_Dimmer,’ while another might use an Lvar called ‘L:Light_Potentiometer_38.’
It can be frustrating at times, and sometimes I have to dig in deeper using Dev Mode tools to figure it out. I suspect this is the same regardless of which programming software you use.
A few things I REALLY like about SPAD.
There’s an active and helpful Discord channel, with users who have helped me learn, and solve problems. There’s a Discord member named Les O’Reilly who publishes a lot of YouTube videos that can help you learn how to use SPAD.
The SPAD software developer has included a lot of device-specific sections. I can see the button/switch/axes layout of all the aforementioned gear, and it’s easy to assign events to all of the individual elements in a logical and intuitive manner (once you know what the variables are that need to be assigned…)
I don’t know about your specific controllers.
Users publish profiles and snippets of the code they’ve created for many aircraft and peripheral combinations. Very helpful.
You can sign up for a trial, which will at least let you see whether your devices are natively supported, and whether you feel comfortable diving into the granularity and functionality SPAD has to offer.
For free you can test this app wich convert joystick moves in keyboard or mouse inputs. https://joytokey.net/en/
It should work if your pots are recognized as axis in Widows.
Another solution is to sell the 18UFC and buy this:
It may be more expensive, but it’s easy to set up in MSFS and to use.
The mind free solution.
I don´t think you will be able to turn an axis into a encoder via any built-in application. If I´m not wrong that´s not possible at Virpil´s case either. What Virpil´s application offers is to turn a encoder into a virtual axis, which is the opposite.
The problem is that your physical rotaries have a min and max limit (because they are a slider or an axis) so you can´t turn them infinitely in one direction or the other as an encoder would allow. On the other hand MSFS does not allow to map axis to all commands except for the most common control surfaces and some levers. Indeed most commands in game are expected to work as discrete inputs or push buttons actions.
However you can still generate increments or decrements in a custom axis assignment defined with Spad.Next using ranges, so that any increment or decrement in your rotary within those ranges can send a discrete input to game (a push button action). In fact this will turn the axis into a pair of push buttons than can optionally repeat the commands while rotary is inside those ranges and a neutral area in between them that will send no inputs to game, acting as if it was a three way switch. But this will still have the limitation of the min and max rotary positions, meaning that you can make this work decently only while your rotary is kept at the middle position (neutral area) and it frequently returns to it after any input, so you are less likely to find the physical limits constraint. You can define several ranges so that the closer ones to neutral position send just a single input to game (like a button push event) and the closer ones to min or max limits send a repetition (like a button held event). That can allow to rotate knobs in game in steps or endlessly but will require that your rotary returns to neutral position after that.
This approach is most likely possible with any other programming software, not only Spad.Next, as it´s quite standard. It´s not the cleaneast solution but it works.
However you can still generate increments or decrements in a custom axis assignment defined with Spad.Next using ranges, so that any increment or decrement in your rotary within those ranges can send a discrete input to game (a push button action). In fact this will turn the axis into a pair of push buttons than can optionally repeat the commands while rotary is inside those ranges and a neutral area in between them that will send no inputs to game
This is what I mean.
Does Spad.next has a manual or explanation on how to do this ?
You can check this video tutorial where custom axis assignment is explained:
The “one time” setting allows you to switch between generating a single action (like a button press) or a repeated one (like a button held). You can add multiple assignments to the same axis allowing you to define different ranges.
That video channel contains several tutorials. Full documentation is also available here:
I really really really want to buy the FMS-GA… just don’t have space for it on the deskmounts.
Need to figure out were I want to put the FMS-GA when I’m back home.
I’m going on the assimption you own a FMS-GA :
Could you tell me the dimensions of the mounting holes on the back of the FSM-GA ?
(How far apart they are in lenght and width)
