Impossible to map some cockpit controls?

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

Hey; I’m new to FS2020 and trying to get up to speed.

I’d like to be able to start engines “properly” (i.e. without using autostart), but I’ve encountered what seems like a few cockpit controls involved in the startup procedure (per the in-game checklist) where you can click them in the virtual cockpit using a mouse, but I can’t work out how to map them to physical controls.

For example: in the Cessna Citation CJ4 the procedure involves:

  • Setting avionics to ‘Dispatch’ in the initial phase. The controls listed in the mapping section seem to only allow on / off and not this 3rd position.
  • Hitting the stop/run button for each engine. Again I think I’ve tried all the mappable controls (e.g. “engine 1 master”) but none seem to correspond to this button.
    is this a general property of the simulator, that you can’t map all the virtual controls to physical ones? Even just those required for basic start procedure? Or am I missing something?

I have Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick, throttle and TPR pendular pedals plus a Saitek Pro Switch Panel (which has an on/off avionics switch) and a Elgato Media Streaming Deck XL for random extra buttons. Having to use the mouse as well to navigate the cockpit is a bit awkward…

Many thanks!

2

I’ve been trying to find this as well.

3

I have made some progress on this since my first post. Basically: I bought SPAD.neXt, which is a utility which allows a lot more customisation of peripherals than the native drivers or FS2020 allow. The killer feature it has, though, is something called ‘Event Monitor’ which shows what signals the simulator is generating. You can set this running, then go and toggle the switch in the cockpit using the mouse, and it will show what ‘event’ the switch is sending. Once you know that, you can often find the event in FS2020 and map it directly. If not, then SPAD.neXt can actually be configured to do it for you.

There are some gaps e.g. the buttons on a G1000 don’t seem to send any events, and sometimes you have to do some creating guessing as the event lacks fidelity, but still it is a powerful method.

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