Will trim ever be good?

Using authentikit i find the trim on the dc-3 to be really good. I do have to turn sensitivity up for it though compared to other airplanes.

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You can implement that outside of the sim now using an existing trim wheel that uses an encoder or with buttons/switch. Yes an external app is required but in my case it’s one I already use anyhow, for many other things.

Yeah, I noticed you mentioned that on another thread. How did you do it? I could for example make a custom autopilot on-off script with AAO that checks the present position of the trim and then inputs that trim position to the custom axis script I made, but that still wouldn’t modifiy the position of the actual axis I bound to drive the custom axis script.

Das have the exact same problem. It is really unresponsive and unpredictable. I heard that in some SU they fixed a bug where the heading was changed only in 10 degree steps instead of 1 degree and this change also affected how much the trim will change. Therefore I believe the bravo trim wheel was designed with this 10 times input and probably was good at that time. But now after the fix unfortunately the trim with the bravo is not good anymore. Several other threads exist about this issue and Jayne said it was supposed to be fixed in SU10 but I think it wasn’t :frowning: source: [BUG LOGGED] Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant trim wheel suddenly very insensitive (as of World Update 4) - #186

I’m on Xbox, so no way around this issue with third party apps.

You are almost there. I don’t bind the trim in the sim. I write directly to the trim variable.

I do know how to manipulate simvars with buttons/encoder clicks. I also know how to manipulate the sim variables with an axis, which is exactly what I described above. I’m instead interested in knowing how to manipulate them with a relative axis in autopilot compatible way, since relative axes are IMO most promising trimming solution.

In other words, I want to make it so that if I press an analog ministick (not a hat switch, an axis based one, like the two hats on Xbox controller) down a bit, then the trim starts being adjusted nose up slowly until I stop pressing it and if I press it down further the trim starts being adjusted nose up faster proportional to how much I’m pressing the stick down. If I want to center the trim from there I need to push the ministick up to do so (or press a pre-set button that neutrals the trim), since returning the controller to neutral position only stops the trim adjustment rather than returning the axis to neutral. This allows super fine axis resolution on short throw axis, without sacrificing fast slew.

I can set up a relative axis with either VKBdevcfg or Joystick Gremlin, but in that case the actual axis being modified by the ministick is still contained within the VKB or vJoy device and I don’t think I can make AAO communicate with it (or maybe I can in case of vJoy, not absolutely sure). If I set it to custom axis that acts at a setter for e.g. the settable simvar for elevator trim, it has the same shortcomings with autopilot as the default elevator trim axis. If the relative axis was contained within AAO itself (or MSFS) then it would be easy for it to communicate with the autopilot. Or else it could be so that that I directly adjust the simvar with the ministick, as if the simvar itself was the relative axis.

Sorry to disagree. Within X-plane the Honeycomb trimwheel works perfect.

That is interesting. I hope they provide a fix for it then so it works properly. Can’t be so hard to do after years.

As some others have already pointed out, the trim worked flawlessly before a certain update. One update (can’t remember which) made Trim super sensitive and basically very difficult to trim any plane.
Add this one to the ever growing list of bugs “Asobo is aware of” and wait for a fix which will never come.

Is it true you have to program the Honeycomb trim wheel using the “Elevator Trim Up (Nose Up)” and “Elevator Trim Down (Nose Down)” bindings? I could never use those bindings when I used them with buttons because the plane always wanted a position in between presses to truly trim up. I imagine the same would be for their use in the trim wheel, as shown by the picture in @BeardyBrun’s post.

I use a CH Pro Throttle quadrant which frees up the analog throttle control on my Logitech Extreme3D Pro Joystick which I have assigned as a trim wheel using “Elevator Trim axis (-100 to 100%)” instead and it works great. Granted it’s got a pretty short throw, but I love using it, it makes trimming actually usable.

The Honeycomb Bravo’s trim wheel is exposed to USB as two buttons, one up and one down. It is not an axis, and you cannot map it to an axis without using additional software.

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That’s the problem right there. Trim is impossible to use as buttons in my experience. The buttons don’t have the resolution required for proper trim operation.

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Same. I use the authentikit software to map it to a virtual axis but it’s still poor, chunky, Inputs. Might have to try and repurpose my old throttle or something for an axis.

People complain when trim peripherals work as an axis. People complain when they work as buttons. LOL can’t win!

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Who complains when it works as an axis? What’s the complaint?

There is a trim axis choice which doesn’t work Elevator Trim 0 - 100%, you have to use the -100 - 100% version.

Unfortunately, I believe what’s going on with the Honeycomb device is that MSFS is reading the digital encoder directly and doesn’t interpolate between points. I imagine software which works properly treats it as an axis and interpolates between points.

Trim peripherals are not motorised so in some cases, like autopilot or AI assistance and perhaps others, the in-game trim wheel and the peripheral become out of sync, position wise. Once you’re back to controlling things, first touch of the wheel will instantly revert the in-game position to the peripheral’s. Not sure if I’m explaining it well.

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Oh, yes, right. I could see that being annoying. I don’t use AP very often, so I don’t get that issue.

Just note that this is not a fundamental issue with relative axes, see my previous post. With relative axis it’s theoretically possible to have axis based control of trim that is also autopilot compatible, since the axis is not based on absolute position of the controller axis. That it currently isn’t possible (or I haven’t found a way, at least) is 100% software limitation.

Proper support for relative axes would make Xbox controller attached on top of your yoke (as some people like to do) a precise, granular and fully featured trimming tool.

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Can’t remember if it was this thread or another one but it’s definitely possible to create and control a virtual axis and have it keep in sync with whatever the AP does while it is handling trim. I’m just not sure that the method of control you described in another post is possible without having messed with that particular cool option setup.

What’s missing is a way for an analogue device to only alter the rate of change of the trim axis, not directly set the absolute position.

The Warthog throttle’s friction lever would be perfect for this. Move it slightly in either direction to slowly adjust trim, and move it further to change it faster. Returning it to centre (where there’s an obvious detent) would neutralise any inputs from it, but trim could still be changed by auto pilot or even other manual inputs.

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