Mapping levers and dials

[PatrickAWlson]

Is there a way to map levers and dials to controls.  I am now the proud owner of 4 levers and 4 dials.  One is for throttle.  The rest?

 

I would love to map them to engine and flight controls: flaps, trim, radiators, etc.  Things that have either a continuous range of motion or several discrete intervals.  Any ideas?

[Archie]

I use a lever for cowl flaps on aircraft that have them, another lever for prop pitch. 

[PatrickAWlson]

I am playing with a dial and lever trying to map it to flaps up and down.  No luck.  Tried same with FW190 stabilizers.  No luck.  

 

I can get the settings to see the lever or dial and it recognizes it as an axis.  It just doesn't really respond

[Sokol1]

You are somewhat limited in assign controls in axes in BoS.

 

You can't use axes of dial/rotaries, lever for control flaps.

 

Are not option for this in Controls for this, and not all planes will benefit of this if allowed, some, like Stuka and Fw 190 has flaps in predefined steeps.

 

Fw 190 stabilizer trim is assignable only in buttons/keys - in real plane this command is done by electric switch, but this is not necessarily a rule, real Russian planes of the game have trim adjusted be turn a wheel, but game don't allow use for some technical reason.

 

Trim that is possible set on axis (dial/rotaries), is "Stabilizer Adjust" used by Bf 109 and Mc 202, and Ju-52 (this I am not sure).

 

If your throttle has rotaries with encoder instead potentiometer - encoder press one button when turned clockwise and another when turned counterclockwise - can use this for example for pitch/rudder trim  that have not option for set in axes.

 

What you can map in levers (axis) is propeller pitch, mixture, radiators... for some planes.

[unreasonable]

I sort of understand why the developers went the way they did with this philosophy but I have come to the conclusion that it is a mistake.  Firstly because it makes mapping so complicated, which in turn makes adjusting the controls on keyboard, HOTAS etc far more complicated and hard to remember that actually flying the RL aircraft!

THis is alright when you fly one type a lot - but I am actually quite reluctant to try new aircraft, because it is such a PITA to check all the bindings to align with the developers' idiosyncratic choice of what is allowed. Spitfire radiator using only buttons grrrr!  Particularly annoying when we do not have RoF style mappings by plane type, making the key mappings page even more confusing.

 

As long as the in cockpit controls can only turn/switch at realistic rates, I do not see that it matters much how we as virtual pilots instruct our avatars to press/rotate the various levers and buttons in the cockpit, anymore than it matters that some people uses VR, some TiR and some snap or mouse view to change the direction of view of their avatars' heads.

Edited January 28, 2018 by unreasonable

[PatrickAWlson]

Unfortunate.  Without getting into what we wish would have been done - what can be done?  What controls are actually assignable to a dial or lever?  

[Stig]

Kanttori has a 'diagram' for his Metal Throttle Console with axes and dials.

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/28738-metal-throttle-consoles/  

[Sokol1]

Kanttori has a 'diagram' for his Metal Throttle Console with axes and dials.

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/28738-metal-throttle-consoles/  

 

But not all knobs (dials/rotaries) in their console use pot' axis, but encoder, eg. Pitch, Rudder, Roll trims.

 

http://www.kanttorinkone.com/console/fighter_console.jpg

 

In this video I test encoder and potentiometer for trim Br.20 (CloD) using MJoy16 (same controller of Kanttori consoles).

 

 

Encoder (upper dial labeled  Profonditá) result in a less "wild" adjust.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Sokol1

[kestrel79]

I have a few DSD Button Boxes with some dials on them. I use them to cycle between how many bombs/rockets I want to release when I press the drop bomb button. Those 2 commands work great on dials.

 

In other sims that let you control radios they work great for that.