I have a powered USB3 hub behind my flight instruments that all my flight stuff plugs into. I’ve got it plugged into that.
One thing I both love and hate about the XBox controller - the vibration feedback. I love it when it vibrates due to some in-game action, as it transfers that vibration to the yoke and provides haptic feedback. What I hate is that it rarely ever vibrates for anything outside of getting into a stall condition, which I don’t get into often.
Absolutely genius idea with the Velcro!!!
Thanks for the replies, Dudes! And, the idea if it still moves around to apply some extra side straps.
I wanted to take some time today to map out everything I press, turn, etc. and apply those tweaks to the correct buttons/dials on my controls.
The thought came to me to take a picture of my setup, like Mark did above, invert the image so the controls are white instead of black, and then write on the paper what I want mapped where. If it all works without errors after a few flights “then” I will label the buttons/dials.
Well, I now have mine connected to my powered usb hub, once again following your example. I hope you don’t come up with a new idea that is a crime or anything.
Mark
I’m glad people are finding this idea useful. It was one of those lightbulb moments that hit me when I was laying in bed about to fall asleep. The next morning, I just had to try it out it worked even better than I thought it would.
And I figured if I found it useful, other people would likely as well, hence my sharing it. I’m glad others appreciate it as well.
Have you managed to find any controls for this button, aside from the “standard mouse press”? Especially for the middle push that’s not a twist… 
I’m having issues with it specifically with the Baron inside a VR window. The click area appears to be about 2 pixels by 2 pixels, and if I click just one too many times in the wrong spot (with the mouse anyway), the entire display locks up (the virtual one, not my RL one), and I don’t always notice until it’s too late, in more ways than one.
So I’m hoping there might be a way to map that control to something “not” the mouse that might help me finish a flight properly, and maybe even safely on top of that.
So… I’m open to suggestions, if you have any.
Indeed I have, but it wouldn’t help you for VR since you can’t see outside your HMD.
I use my Stream Deck for that. It takes me 5 buttons (in the blue) to do it though. Top 2 +/- buttons are up down on the outer ring. Lower / smaller +/- buttons are for the inner knob. And the bottom button is the centre click function.
Basically, I have all the functions or my MFD (I have another like this for PFD) I don’t find on my AP panel on the Stream Deck. I never have to use the keyboard or mouse any more.
Obviously, it would be of no help for VR… And there’s currently no way to bind those controls to keys / controller buttons in the sim.
EDIT: On a side note, I tried MSFS in VR for about 30 mins. The sacrifices you have to make in controlling your plane’s stuff with a mouse just kill the immersiveness that the visual (as low performance and “tear-y” as they are) bring to the whole flight experience. As much as I like the visual side of it flight sim in VR, I can’t get over using a ■■■■ mouse to interact with my cockpit. It’s hard enough to do accurately do that in a bouncy cockpit in pancake mode (hence all the outboard gear I bought). I find it nearly impossible in VR.
Now that I think about it, there’s the Knobster. I hear it can be a pain in the ■■■ to get it working with MSFS, but I guess it would work.
Russ Barlow knows a lot about the Knobster too: https://www.youtube.com/user/srbarlow/videos
I created this graphic and am putting it up here for all. If it helps you map out your Alpha and controller then cool!
Right click, open in new tab, print or save as:
THIS!
This is what I need to solve my problem. At least this one particular problem. I’m going to bookmark it because it won’t really become germane until my Bravo TQS gets here (though I suppose I don’t have to wait, assuming it can be made to work with MSFS, etc…), but if this can be made to work, this “problem” goes away completely.
I knew I could count on you!
Be aware you also need Air Manager to get the Knobster working. On its own, it does nothing. MSFS is supported from what I understand, but results can be mixed atm until 3rd party devs get their heads out of the XP / FSX sand.
The devs are going to have to realize that unless these other platforms come into the 21st Century (kicking and screaming if necessary), they are yesterday’s news, and like yesterday’s news, pretty soon nobody is going to care about them at all.
Can you even buy FSX anymore in the first place assuming you even wanted to?
I suppose those older sims have a bit of an advantage, insofar as they’re mature applications with a whole lot of add-ons (both free and paid) that already exist, but that won’t last long IMNSHO.
You can still buy FSX on Steam. And there’s of course P3D and XP as well. Many devs are heavily invested in those older ecosystems.
Yes. Invested, as in past tense. I don’t see anyone putting any significant money or resources into starting anything new, and only maybe finishing things that have been in the pipe for awhile.
At least that’s what I’d do if I was in the business of making money selling addons to flight sims in general. And as an end user, I’m sure not running out to buy anything new in any hurry, either.
For the time being, MSFS is still WAY behind the curve offering features that came as standard even in FSX. It’s basically impossible to build a proper home cockpit with MSFS at this point due to the under-developed SDK and lack of support for much of what’s been a standard in cockpit building for the last 20 years. Not sure how FSX and P3D will fare in the short term, but XP will likely keep steaming along for some time.
Once Asobo get their ■■■■ together and introduce these features that should have been there at launch, we may start seeing that change. At that point, XP will be in trouble unless they do something really drastic.
But that said, there will always be the group who refuse to let go of the buggy whip and will stick with their old XP and FSX right to the bitter end, refusing to adopt the new platform because they’re accustomed to the old one and don’t want to learn a new way of doing things. Some 3rd party devs will likely also fall into this latter category.
Hi zusammen,
ich finde die Idee mit dem X-Box Controller stark. Ich muss mir aber noch einen Controller kaufen. Kann ich einen günstigen mit Kabel nehmen? Oder muss es ein spezieller Controller sein?
Any controller will work.
I have a mini keyboard mounted to my yoke. It is backlit which is great:) I’ve had this setup for a long time and it works really well. I mounted it with a tablet spring mount.
The keyboard is here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DJ20YYW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have one of those mini keyboard too. I use it for my media centre PC in my living room. It would work well too.
I prefer the XBox controller for the analog sticks for camera and drone control. I have a small wireless keyboard I keep to my side in case I need to type something. Actually, I’m using it as I type this!
