hi, all
Besides having lots of issues with the flight training not advancing and so on, can anyone tell me if they have the button 6 (brakes) working??
FS does not recognize the button press, while on the LCD i get the pinkie button confirmation and on the logitech software the same thing, so the button is ok.
thanks…
I also have this same problem. I don’t have a solution yet, so I’ll be following along.
I too have this problem. I came to the forums for precisely this reason. Same joystick; same problem. Following along as well to see if anyone’s found a proper solution.
There is a known issue with the X52 driver that prevents the pinkie button (6) from being recognized by windows. I’ve experienced the same issue with Elite Dangerous and FS2020. There is a work around. Before you launch FS2020, hit the windows key and start typing “USB Game Controllers.” You should see the control panel applet in the start menu, launch it. Next, click on Properties. Leave both windows open and launch FS2020 as you would normally. Button 6 should work correctly.
Outstanding! I confirmed that solution worked. Thank you kindly, Electric Blues.
Thanks! Gonna try it.
Do you know if theres any way for the FS to recognize the mouse joystick in the throttle as a normal axis? id love to use to rotate the cockpit view…
it worked! cheers
if you guys have any profile that you could share, id love to see how you mapped the x52 
Had this problem with button 6. “It’s a feature not a bug” as they say. To fix this you need the Logitech programming tool installed from the Logitech dowload page: https://support.logi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360024838173--Downloads-X52-Professional-Space-Flight-H-O-T-A-S-
Open up the programming software by double clicking the the icon in the system tray (looks like a little joystick). Then click the big blue “PROGRAMMING” button at the top right.
Create a new profile by clicking the first icon on the menu bar. Then click the ‘Views’ item on the menu bar to switch to grid view.
You’ll get a series of columns, starting with ‘Mode 1’, ‘Mode 2’ and ‘Mode 3’. You need to get rid of all the columns to the right of ‘Mode 3’, i.e. ‘Mode 1 Pinkie’, ‘Mode 2 Pinkie’, etc. Just click the little cross icon at the top of each of the unwanted columns.
Note that if you don’t remove the extra columns then the Pinkie button will never be seen as Button 6 by any application since the driver reserves it to enter the shift states for those columns.
Now scroll down the list of buttons to find the ‘Pinkie’ row. Hover the mouse over the ‘Pinkie’ box in the ‘Mode 3’ column and a little right-pointing arrow will appear in the top right corner which opens a context menu when you click it. If the only option you see on the menu is ‘Latched’ then you haven’t deleted all the shift-state columns as required above.
You need to select ‘Fall Back’ in the ‘Mode 3’ ‘Pinkie’ box, and also ‘Fall Back’ in the ‘Mode 2’ ‘Pinkie’ box. This means that when you are in mode three (using the dial at top right of the stick to select the blue mode LED), pressing the pinkie button will do whatever is programmed for mode 2. Similarly selecting mode 2 (purple LED) will do whatever is programmed for Mode 1.
Now in the ‘Mode 1’ ‘Pinkie’ box, select ‘Unprogrammed’ from the context menu (NOT ‘Button’ as you might think!)
Finally use the save icon to save your profile to a sensible filename, e.g. ‘MSFS’. Note that this is not the X52 profile within the Filght Simulator controls screens, it is a separate driver profile external to Flight Simulator - you still need to load or program your X52 inside MSFS as well.
Whenever you are using Flight Simulator, just go to the system tray icon, right click and choose the MSFS profile. MSFS should be displayed on the third text line of the LED display on the throttle.
Button 6 will now be available and function as the brakes in the simulator.
Whilst I am here I’ll also cover off ‘Button 31’, i.e. the button marked ‘i’ on the bottom right of the throttle grip. This is the ‘Clutch’ button and also needs a few steps to be usable as a normal button.
With the ‘MSFS’ profile you previously created loaded in the programming software, firstly you need to do the same as for the Pinkie button in the Logitech programming software. Set the ‘Clutch Button’ entry under the ‘Mode 3’ and ‘Mode 2’ columns to ‘Fall Back’.
Then set the ‘Clutch Button’ entry under the ‘Mode 1’ column to ‘Unprogrammed’.
Save the profile again to keep your changes.
There is an additional step necessary for this button though. Open the Windows Control Panel and switch it to ‘Small Icons’ or ‘Large Icons’ mode and open the ‘Devices and Printers category’.
Right click the ‘X52 Professional Space/Filght H.O.T.A.S’ device and choose ‘Game controller settings’ from the context menu.
In the ‘Game Controllers’ dialog, click the ‘X52 Professional H.O.T.A.S.’ entry in the list and then click the ‘Properties’ button.
In the ‘Properties’ dialog, click the ‘MFD’ tab, then un-check ‘Enable Clutch Mode’ at the bottom right. Click ‘Apply’ and then close down the dialogs and control panel.
Button 31 will now be usable as a normal button in the Flight Simulator X52 configuration page.
Note that by changing these buttons to be used as normal buttons you are potentially losing functionality that might be useful in aircraft with lots of extra controls:
a) The Pinkie button can be used as a ‘Shift’ key in the Logitech programming software, by assigning keystrokes or whatever in the ‘Mode n’ ‘Pinkie’ shift state columns that we deleted above. So potentially every other button can be used for two different purposes (one without Pinkie pressed and one with), multiplied by the three different mode selections.
b) The Clutch button allows you to change profiles in the programming software on the fly using the HOTAS. You can make and save multiple profiles in the Logitech programming software (either for a complex aircraft requiring multiple control configurations, or a profile per aircraft or indeed both).
Press and hold the clutch button and the Hat Switch LED (top of the stick) will begin to flash. Use the Up and Down directions of the hat to scroll through each profile you have created; the name will change on the throttle MFD as you do. The hat Right direction will activate the profile displayed on the MFD. The hat Left direction will unload the currently loaded profile and make the X52 behave as default. Thus you can change profiles and control settings on the fly.
Probably the best way to use these extra settings (in modes, shift-state or by loading different profiles) is to program buttons in the Logitech programming software to send whatever keyboard presses the given Flight Simulator command is assigned to in the MSFS controls screen. You’d just select any mode and shift state (if applicable) box in the programming grid and choose the ‘New Key Presses…’ item from the context menu.
You can also use macros, advanced commands, mouse clicks and so on to automate more complex sequences of actions. For any buttons that you don’t want to change behaviour between Modes and/or Shift States, you just choose ‘Fall Back’ in all the columns except ‘Mode 1’ and then set the behaviour you want (or leave as default) in the ‘Mode 1’ column.
I don’t believe you can use the mouse axis stick as anything other than a mirror for the normal mouse. You can reprogram the mouse button, mouse wheel button and mouse wheel up/down behaviours using the programming software as you can for the other controls.
The only thing I’d say is that it was an incredibly poor choice to map Button 6 to something important like Brakes given it is needed early on in flight school and you have to jump through hoops to actually get it to work out of the box.
I followed your instruction and was able to create a new profile, name “1234”. From the system tray, right clicked on the X52 icon showed 1234. But when I launched FS and went to the control panel, squeezing the button #6 doesn’t do nothing.
It definitely works if you follow all of the instructions in the first section, and assuming you’ve done that I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t be visible as a button that can be bound in the MSFS controls setup screen. Check you’ve deleted all of the shift states and that the remaining column has button 6 set to unprogrammed.
I double checked and I did follow your instruction.
Where I don’t understand is how to bind the profile with FS. I got into option and click on the x52 control (on the left, there was keyboard and mouse). Under the x52, there was some profiles (default, x52 HOTAS profile 1, etc.). But 1234 isn’t there.
As I pointed out in my original post, the profile in the X52 programming software is nothing to do with the X52 profile in MSFS.
First you need to set up and activate your “1234” profile in the programming software. Once done you then go in to MSFS and under the controls settings you choose the X52 controller and bind button 6 to whatever command you want. In the default MSFS X52 profile, button 6 should already be bound to brakes.
The problem is that button 6 is only visible to MSFS if you make the necessary changes in the X52 software first. You can’t choose 1234 profile in MSFS since it is nothing to do with MSFS.
Simply put, the X52 programming profile tells the hardware what signals to send to MSFS, and the MSFS profile tells the simulator what action to perform when it receives that signal. By default button 6 doesn’t send any signal to MSFS and that is what your 1234 profile is changing.
You are the man. If anyone ever tells you that you are the man for this post, they really mean it. Bro, really, you are THE MAN!!!
Although this is a feature, its over most peoples heads the way the software lays out the functions of the pinky button. This is how it should be default.
Again, you are the man Mr. Amonynous!
Gan somebody buy this guy a beer?
With reference to Button 6 on the X52 I followed all of Amonynous’ instructions in the programming software and saved the file. The name of the file did appear on the third line of the LED display on the throttle as it should. I went to Controls in MSFS and after several attempts (the first few times nothing happened) I finally got the button 6 indicator to light up when I pressd the pinkie button so I thought my problem had been resolved. However, when I take a plane out on the runway and try applying the brake it doesn’t work. Any thoughts on why that happens? A pilot with no brakes is not a happy pilot!!
In the X52 profile that you have loaded before launching the sim, the clutch setting must be toggled from the default value. (That may not be the issue if the button activates in the controls.) Did you save the profile, and is it selected?
Hi rkl1242
I did save and select the profile and it does appear as MSFS on the x52 LED display. After launching the sim and going to CONTROLS I verified that button 6 gets highlighted when I press the pinkie switch and all seemed fine. When I tested it on a plane on the runway I noticed that when I press the pinkie switch to put on the brakes the MSFS saved profile on the LED display switches to NO PROFILE and the brakes don’t work.
I went back into CONTROLS and decided to allocate BUTTON 1 to the brakes instead and then tried that out on the runway but it doesn’t work either. Hope you can help!
What do you mean by the clutch setting must be toggled from the default value…how do I accomplish that?
Try this with MSFS closed:
Now before you fire up MSFS, this profile must be loaded, as evidenced by right clicking the X52 HOTAS icon in your taskbar. (Mine is in the hidden block.) This is true even though you are not using any other settings in the Logitech software.
I’m not sure the above is the root of your problem. I only know it works for me. You did find the X52 default MSFS profile to begin with, right? Any change you make to that should be saved to a new profile. EDIT STRIKEOUT (see below) I’m wondering if you’ve done that, since you say no profile appears loaded when in the sim, or at least when triggering button 6./Strikeout
If you search my posting history, you’ll find other X52 threads that may be helpful. There’s a long history of confusion using this HOTAS. General consensus seems to be to use as few settings in the Logitech software as possible for any given sim. For MSFS, the Logitech/Saitek software is not needed at all, except to ensure - I believe - that the pinky switch is unlatched.
Good luck,
-Ron
EDIT - Thinking more, the profile you see referenced in the X52 window is the Logitech profile, not the MSFS profile. If you get the “no profile” message within the Sim, it tells me you need to load one as I described above.
EDIT2- I hadn’t read the thread from the top. Anonymous’ procedure is much more detailed than mine, and I don’t see anything wrong with it, so make sure the status of button 6 and the clutch are “unprogrammed” as well. I think it’s simply a matter of your X52 profile somehow getting unloaded by the time you are in the cockpit. Don’t have an explanation for that.
Hi Ron
Thank you for taking the time to respond. Unfortunately, I’m still unable to fix the issue.
The profile MSF referenced in the X52 window is actually the Logitech profile (I just named the file MSF)
It continues to show in the X52 window while I program the number 6 Button in CONTROLS in MSFS and remains showing until I attempt to apply the brakes on the runway by pressing Button 6 and it immediately changes to NO PROFILE. It seems as if pressing the Pinkie switch wipes out the profile in X52.
I tried to re-program the brake function to button # 1 as an alternative and it seems to be working while in CONTROLS but when I test it on the runway pressing Button 1 does absolutely nothing.
It’s frustrating because the X52 worked perfectly in FSX but it’s a nightmare in MSFS2020. The one I have is about 10 years old and I wonder if a new one would work better or if my issues would remain.
Having had similar problems I just uninstalled the Saitek/Logitech programming software. Now I can assign button 6 to whatever I want. The downside is having no shift funktion and just the profiles within MSFS. By the way: the rotary buttons on the throttle have never worked correctly. They just jump to full deflection with minimal turns.