Hello. I’m new to using SPAD NEXT because I recently got the Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo. However, I’m doing pretty well with SPAD NEXT but I am facing an issue, for my yoke elevator trim on the Cessna 172, the elevator trim switches/buttons they DO work in MSFS 2024 and move adjust the trim accordingly. But visually the switches do not move on the yoke, however it does show the trim wheel moving.
Here’s my SPAD next events for one of the buttons
I did use SIM CONNECT for both of these events inputs.
Here’s the switches that aren’t visually moving when I move the trim buttons on my Honeycomb Alpha.
Again, the trim inputs ARE working and adjusting the trim.
AND the trim wheel is moving when I press/hold the buttons but they do not VISUALLY show the switches moving on the yoke.
I’m not great with SPAD next so I think I’m doing something wrong, but I don’t know. Any help will be appreciated.
Welcome to the forums, and to Spad!
I’m not sure if I’ve seen any plane actually move the switches on the yoke when I’ve moved my elevator trim on my physical yoke. I usually have the yoke hidden on most planes, however, so maybe I’m not paying enough attention.
Note that I use the FS2024 in-sim mappings for the basic things like rudder/aileron/rudder, trims, throttles, etc. I use Spad for the custom mappings for individual planes.
That said, it might be possible to make them move, but you’d have to find the animation associated with the control, which is an advanced topic, done using FS2024 developer mode.
Maybe I’ll play with this a bit. But those are the Events I’d use if I used Spad for elevator trim, so you’re not wrong on that point.
I also use a hybrid of in-sim and Spad. For trim though I always just use the in-sim, it is simpler that way for me. For the in-sim control, on my CH Yoke, left handle rocker for elevator trim, I use the ELEVATOR TRIM UP (NOSE UP) and ELEVATOR TRIM DOWN (NOSE DOWN) bindings and it trims the aircraft and moves the switches and trim wheel together just fine.
While I have not tried to bind this specific action in Spad, a quick look at the dev tools lists an animation of: (O:XMLVAR_HANDLING_Yoke_Switch_Animation_Position)
Trying to bind an animation in Spad is not something I have attempted before, so I can’t point you in the right direction, it is currently beyond me. I am similar to you in hiding the yoke once I am in the cockpit. Lastly, in addition to asking the many Spad experts here on this forum, you can also pop onto the Spad discord and search it out there and if you don’t find anything, ask over there as well.
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Yeah I just figured, on the C172 the autopilot knobs actually don’t move either I’ll probably just do a hybrid also and switch to the in game because I don’t think it really matters for some of the things like that. Thanks!
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Not everything will animate when controlled externally via sim connect. It all depends on how the aircraft is coded. If they use an interval variable for the animation then external apps can’t access that. As long as the particular action is performed I wouldn’t worry about the animation, especially with something like trim where you have a trim indicator that shows where it’s at and you should also be able to tell when flying if you are out of trim. It’s more of an issue for controls that could do with the visual feedback.
I use ‘SIMCONNECT: ELEVATOR TRIM POSITION’ (Radians) on my Bravo trim wheel (which is really a rotary Button Up/Down control.) The trim wheel in the virtual cockpit moves to reflect the physical trim wheel movement.
Decrement and Increment on the Up and Down buttons by the same amount.
You will need to adjust the amount for your individual aircraft.
Normally it will be 0.002 - 0.005 depending on the plane, as seen in this screenshot:
I use the Left/Right buttons on my Alpha Yoke to similarly control rudder trim. I don’t see those buttons move in the virtual cockpit. But in my case I map a button in my Streamdeck to display the position.
