What controls can be mapped to a dial?

[PatrickAWlson]

Many controls like flaps, radiators, etc. work from discrete button presses.  I have 3 or 4 dials on my box that I would very much like to map to things.  Any ideas as to what, if any, BoX controls can be mapped to dials instead of button presses?

[LukeFF]

Water radiators

Oil Radiators

Inlet Cowl Flaps

Outlet Cowl Flaps

Turbosupercharger

Prop RPM

Throttle

Mixture

Gunsight Range

Gunsight Wingspan

Horizontal stabilizer and all 3 of the trim settings (but can only then be used on planes that had a handwheel or lever)

[PatrickAWlson]

@LukeFF Thanks

[kestrel79]

I use my button box dials on bomb and rocket salvo changes, gunsight settings. 

[Sybreed]

10 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Water radiators

Oil Radiators

Inlet Cowl Flaps

Outlet Cowl Flaps

Turbosupercharger

Prop RPM

Throttle

Mixture

Gunsight Range

Gunsight Wingspan

Horizontal stabilizer and all 3 of the trim settings (but can only then be used on planes that had a handwheel or lever)

Dials work but not encoders... I tried with my virpil throttle...

 

Edit: a bit confused because I'm not a native English speaker. Are dials and encoders the same thing in this case?

Edited April 7, 2020 by Sybreed

[Lusekofte]

8 hours ago, Sybreed said:

Dials work but not encoders... I tried with my virpil throttle...

 

Edit: a bit confused because I'm not a native English speaker. Are dials and encoders the same thing in this case?

These Luke mentions can be used on analog sliders at least. So encoders as I understand them are analog too. And should work. Make sure you assign them on right place. Some functions as I remember it got key only assignments too 

[BlitzPig_EL]

I have a CH Quadrant with 6 levers, and the unused throttle wheel on my CH Fighter Stick assigned as follows.

 

Quadrant:

Inlet cowl

Outlet cowl

Oil cooler

Water radiator

Engine mixture

Prop Pitch

 

CH Throttle Wheel:

Horizontal Stabilizer for 109, 190, and, the few WW1 kites that have that function.

[=621=Samikatz]

21 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Water radiators

Oil Radiators

Inlet Cowl Flaps

Outlet Cowl Flaps

Turbosupercharger

Prop RPM

Throttle

Mixture

Gunsight Range

Gunsight Wingspan

Horizontal stabilizer and all 3 of the trim settings (but can only then be used on planes that had a handwheel or lever)

 

Also brake levers for Soviet and British aircraft. I have mine on my joystick's (what I assume is intended to be a) throttle and it's really useful having that granular control over braking

[cardboard_killer]

Always depends on what plane I'm flying; each has its own mapping, but generally on my CH 6-quadrant:

 

All get

* Throttle

* RPM

* Mixture

Radial fighters

* Oil radiator

* Inlet cowl

* Outlet cowl

Inline fighters

* Water radiator

* Oil radiator

* Zoom view

 

As you might guess from the above I prefer Allied fighters.

 

What's an "encoder"?

[sparty72]

33 minutes ago, cardboard_killer said:

Always depends on what plane I'm flying; each has its own mapping, but generally on my CH 6-quadrant:

 

All get

* Throttle

* RPM

* Mixture

Radial fighters

* Oil radiator

* Inlet cowl

* Outlet cowl

Inline fighters

* Water radiator

* Oil radiator

* Zoom view

 

As you might guess from the above I prefer Allied fighters.

 

What's an "encoder"?

A Rotary potentiometer

[Vortice]

A rotary, or digital, encoder looks like a standard rotary potentiometer, but can turn continuously in either direction with no stop point. It can be mapped to two button inputs, so when the encoder is turned in one direction each click of the encoder in that direction momentarily presses the first button you mapped and each click in the other direction momentarily presses the second button you mapped. So they can be used for functions like trim adjustment, for example, without having to return the setting to the middle position like a potentiometer to go back to neutral trim. Additionally you can get encoders with a momentary push button function which you can activate by pressing down on it. This could be mapped to the "reset trim" function in the key mapping menu, so whatever trim setting you have engaged by turning the encoder can instantly be returned to neutral without having to turn the encoder back again.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Vortice

[Vortice]

At the risk of labouring the point - if you have an encoder with 20 clicks per 360 degree rotation you can map the left rotation direction to rudder trim "left" and the right rotation direction to rudder trim "right" and the push button function to "center".

 

20 clicks should be more than enough to reach the full extent of rudder trim in either direction. 

 

Once you have pushed the button function to return the trim to center you can start all over again and it does not matter in what part of the 360 degree rotation the encoder is currently situated, it will start from the beginning again as if you had never turned it previously.

 

Hope this hasn't been too confusing for you. They are actually very simple devices, but quite hard to explain in a non-technical way. 

[41Sqn_Skipper]

5 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

Always depends on what plane I'm flying; each has its own mapping, but generally on my CH 6-quadrant:

 

All get

* Throttle

* RPM

* Mixture

Radial fighters

* Oil radiator

* Inlet cowl

* Outlet cowl

Inline fighters

* Water radiator

* Oil radiator

* Zoom view

 

As you might guess from the above I prefer Allied fighters.

 

What's an "encoder"?

 

Is there any aircraft that has oil radiator and inlet cowl? I'm asking because I consider to map them on the same slider.

 

I figured I can assign water radiator and outlet cowl on the same slider as there shouldn't be any conflicts.

Edited April 7, 2020 by 41Sqn_Banks

[Barnacles]

Yes, i16, la5, p47 all have an oil cooler and inlet cowls. There's no planes with more than three cooling controls though.

16 minutes ago, 41Sqn_Banks said:

 

Is there any aircraft that has oil radiator and inlet cowl? I'm asking because I consider to map them on the same slider.

 

I figured I can assign water radiator and outlet cowl on the same slider as there shouldn't be any conflicts.

 

And none with a separate outlet cowl and water radiator control

[cardboard_killer]

57 minutes ago, 71st_AH_Barnacles said:

Yes, i16, la5, p47 all have an oil cooler and inlet cowls.

 

Here's my set up for the La-5 on the CH quadrant. the diagram is backwards as I keep it to my left so that Throttle #6 is closest to me.

 

Throttle 6	Throttle 5	Throttle 4	Throttle 3	Throttle 2	Throttle 1
Throttle	RPM	Mixture	Cowl Inlet	Oil Radiator	Cowl Outlet
Button 10	Button 8	Button 6	Button 4	Button 2	Button 0
Up Elevator Trim	Left Rudder Trim	Left Aileron Trim	Reset Trim
Button 11	Button 9	Button 7	Button 5	Button 3	Button 1
Down Elevator Trim	Right Rudder Trim	Right Aileron Trim	Reset Trim	Engine Boost	Supercharger Mode

[VR-DriftaholiC]

8 hours ago, Vortice said:

A rotary, or digital, encoder looks like a standard rotary potentiometer, but can turn continuously in either direction with no stop point. It can be mapped to two button inputs, so when the encoder is turned in one direction each click of the encoder in that direction momentarily presses the first button you mapped and each click in the other direction momentarily presses the second button you mapped. So they can be used for functions like trim adjustment, for example, without having to return the setting to the middle position like a potentiometer to go back to neutral trim. Additionally you can get encoders with a momentary push button function which you can activate by pressing down on it. This could be mapped to the "reset trim" function in the key mapping menu, so whatever trim setting you have engaged by turning the encoder can instantly be returned to neutral without having to turn the encoder back again.

 

Perfectly described yet I still dislike them on my Virpil CM2 throttle for axis functions due to the lack of step resolution compared to an analogue axis. I believe to copy a mustangs trim wheel you would need a 5 turn axis. My encoder does 24 clicks per 360 degrees which would almost work if I could get even 0.83-1% per click but I get 2-5%. Do you know how to change this? Other then setting up a virtual axis in the VPC software because there only two spare axis available and 4 encoders.

Edited April 8, 2020 by driftaholic

[Vortice]

Erm, that's a bit of a head-scratcher because there are quite a few variables in there, like for instance how much of a percentage of deflection change does just one key press on the keyboard give you in the Mustang? That would be the ultimate limiting factor and if one mapped key press gives you 2-5% deflection change per press and no less then you can't escape from that situation with an encoder, because it only mimics what the keyboard does. Also I don't have a CM2 throttle and I don't know how Virpil implements encoders in their software, so I can't help you with that question, sorry.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Vortice

[mazex]

On 4/8/2020 at 3:00 AM, driftaholic said:

 

Perfectly described yet I still dislike them on my Virpil CM2 throttle for axis functions due to the lack of step resolution compared to an analogue axis. I believe to copy a mustangs trim wheel you would need a 5 turn axis. My encoder does 24 clicks per 360 degrees which would almost work if I could get even 0.83-1% per click but I get 2-5%. Do you know how to change this? Other then setting up a virtual axis in the VPC software because there only two spare axis available and 4 encoders.

 

The trick that works for me on my T50 Throttle (gen 2) is to set them as "EncoderDial(buffer)" - an excerpt from a Virpil Software guide I wrote regarding some tips and tricks:

 

The whole guide is avaliable here: https://sites.google.com/site/mazexx/files/Virpil_Configuration_mazex_edition_v0.6.2.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by mazex

[VR-DriftaholiC]

While I understand how the buffer can help it still doesn't change the resolution per click. While we may (with a firmware update) be able to change the time the encoder presses the button only in IL-2 would be be able determine the resolution per click. We can do something similar by creating a virtual axis in VPC but each device is only allowed 8 axis and we only have 2 available. Buffer just makes it feel laggy and disconnected in my opinion. it just can't replace analog precision. I was hoping there would be a way to set per-click resolution in IL-2.

Edited April 10, 2020 by driftaholic

[mazex]

Agreed. There is the "delayed" option that will send the commands at around 125ms. But that does not work in IL2. But with EncoderDial(buffer) and no delay I have time compression on one of the dials (E3) and it works flawless with that setting. No "double jumping" or missed turns.

Edited April 10, 2020 by mazex