It would be better to assign the trim to axis rather than buttons, because it is impossible to fine tune the trim.
I have Honeycomb bravo throttle with a wheel. Perhaps it is a hardware limitation…
Checkout my thread here;
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Simple answer is yes. The issue with using an axis on its own is when the autopilot is disconnected the aircraft actual trim and trim wheel position are likely not an exact match. The moment the trim wheel is touched you force the aircraft trim to become what the wheel is set to. If this was a fair way different it will cause a big step. Using buttons in this scenario just commands the sim to increase or decrease it’s current trim so no step. IRL because the trim wheel is physically connected into the aircraft trim system the wheel will move due to the autopilots servo movements when the autopilot is engaged so they are never out of sync.
The sim solution is to use a trim wheel with an encoder but provides an axis output that also monitors the existing trim and is therefore always in sync. This is the best simulation you will find unless you motorise the wheel like the real one. There are a few trim wheels that use an encoder and output to an axis but no commercial offerings that go the extra step and monitor the existing trim position so they will still suffer with the autopilot disconnection step issue. There is some software that can do this but it’s like 3 different apps that need to be installed just to achieve this. I came up with a home brew solution.
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The trim wheel on my Logitech multi panel is wonderful. No push button trim works anywhere as well for me. This wheel is continuous. It has no stop. Because it is not a potentiometer. It’s an encoder. If you spin it fast it makes course adjustments. If you move it slow it makes fine adjustments. The trim is NOT proportional to how much you moved the wheel. It is proportional to both how much and how fast you move the wheel. (I use Axis and Ohs to interface, NOT the logitech drivers. I don’t want the Logitech drivers anywhere near my computer system).
I have a Desktop Aviator brand trim wheel too. It does have a stop (limited physcial travel, it won’t spin round and round like a real trim wheel on a reel plane. But it works way better than any trim buttons. I use it for mixture control. It is only proportional to travel, not to how fast you turn the wheel.
I will only use an axis to trim . Never a button. Because that is crude. Using crude trim I would have to depend on an autopilot to trim. Using a good trim wheel the plane will trim without even turning on the autopilot and will fly straight and true.
Personal Comments
You can. Just be prepared to adjust sensitivity as you may find even a partial spin (< 1 revolution) will input a lot of trim.
I had one, it’s gathering dust. Once I got my VKB, I mapped an up-down toggle hat right under my thumb to emulate electric trim on a stick/yoke, never looked back. Very exact too if the airplane coder accepted the input that granular, which most do. I fly a JT-A version of the Skyhawk a lot, a DA62 and a VL-3 after that. Love the ease of trimming with the thumb control.
This is a hardware limitation unfortunately, as mentioned above they’re not servo-linked as they are IRL.
If we had trim wheels that were freely spinning (no start/end ie: not potentiometer/hall effect sensor) then we could possibly get this to work.
You could build one, using similar sensors to mouse wheels, or old-school track ball type sensors, but encoding that to a sim axis would take some work.
Nice day 
, you solve my issue .
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I don’t think you understand how electric trim actually works. Many aircraft use a trim switch as their primary means of trim. In a lot of cases the wheel is only there as a backup. Additionally you don’t need the autopilot on to use electric trim, quite the opposite in fact.
If you buy a trim wheel, you won’t be sorry on any plane that you fly in MSFS. I’ve yet to find any plane that can’t be made to fly straight and true when trimmed with the logitech multipanel trim wheel. For rudder trim I would suggest using Axis and Ohs and on which you easily set up both a course and fine rudder trim that operates with the exact same two buttons, that will manage to quickly lock you onto your course. A third button sets whether the trim is course and repeats or is fine and does not repeat. You use the course and continuous trim to get close and then use the not repeating fine trim with the same trim buttons.
As I said earlier, Axis and Ohs automatically sets the vertical trim to course or fine based on how fast you turn the wheel. This is not true for other trim wheels that I have used.
With VKB’s programming suite you can also set the encoders on the base, or any pair of buttons, as trimmers for an axis. This can either be a virtual axis, or direct trimming of the X, Y or Z axes (like the old CH Fighterstick trimmers, works even when plane doesn’t have trim). You can select how coarse you want it to be.
If you have a version with the ministick that can also be used as a very granular trimmer by switching it from absolute axis mode to relative axis mode. It then works akin to trimmer and the input governs rate of change of the value rather than absolute value. Add a very fine response curve and you get lot of precision no matter the type you fly.
An axis can be out of sync with the autopilot trim and can cause a big step upon first use after AP disconnection unless it has built in compensation for this. You have to incorporate that bit yourself because none of the commercial units do it by default. You may be able to incorporate that with A&O’s. I did mine with Air Manager.
And we do not have axes for Rudder and Aileron Trims so far. Traditionally for MSFS. I am not able to understand their reasons not to add those axes - every other flightsim has them. Buttons will not help here - for 3 trims we need 6 buttons. Hat is not a big help here as you have to assign a button-hat combination at least for 1 of the trims and in this sim you can use for this purpose only buttons of the joysticks but not the keyboard and this button must be used only in a combination with the Hat because if you press this combination to trim that button may activate another function assigned to that button.
On my G940 I have 5 wheels but I am not able to use them as MSFS does not allow this.
There is also a problem with resolution of controls. I have no problems with this G940 and its sensitivity in other sims. But in MSFS it is simply not possible to change trims or Throttles or anything by 1 degree/persent with the G940. It is always 2 or 3 degrees.
Almost everyone has more buttons/switches than axes which may explain why it’s like this. They could at least give you the choice I suppose.
Choice? Not to use 4 from 5 wheels? Thanks them very much. And now having only one axe I have to install and learn how to use one more application with this non-stable yet Simulator.
Even the motorized trim wheel is not enough without yoke or stick with force feedback.
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Whilst having force applied to the axis gives an extra element to this It’s not absolutely necessary for you to feel the need for trim if your controller is appropriately tensioned to give you the physical feedback that trim is required. I can’t hold my yoke deflected for more than a few seconds without feeling the need to trim it out.
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Casual,
Could you expand on “emulate electric trim on a stick/yoke” with the VKB thumb switch? I just ordered that stick, and good elevator trim is one of my main goals!
Thanks,
Bill
Mate. Coarse vs course. Very important when talking about flying.