Rotary Encoders (Gear Falcon Trim Box) issue, any workaround?

[Numl0k]

So, I picked up a Gear Falcon Triple Trim box, with the four rotary encoders. It's a pretty slick little piece of kit, and the trim wheels work great. 

 

Unfortunately, BoX has a bit of an issue with the rotary encoders. Seems to be unique to BoX, as other games reportedly work with them as intended. 

 

I'd like to use the encoders as a way to step up and down my Fuel Mixture, RPM, etc. Since the encoder input simulates a button press (For example one of the knobs would register as "Button5" when turned counter clockwise and Button6 when turned clockwise), this *should* work. And it almost does. The problem is that it takes 5-10 "clicks" to move my Fuel Mixture (For example) up by one step, or 1%. Unfortunately these German pilots aren't patient enough to wait for me to spin this encoder several hundred times to get my plane set the way I want it.

 

I've checked in the windows utility and verified that the encoder sends a pulse for every single click. I'm thinking the "pulse" isn't long enough for BoX to register it as a button press. But, the game does register the presses on the first click when I'm setting my keybinds. 

 

I've done some digging around, and it seems that I'm not the only one with this issue, though most folks seem to be trying to get the encoders on Virpil hardware to work. There seems to be a way to get it to work with the Virpil software, but unfortunately I don't think I can use it to modify non-Virpil hardware behavior. 

 

I've seen folks talking about vJoy and Joystick Gremlin and Joy2Key, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get it to work. 

 

Has anyone come up with a workaround to get encoders working? I know I could just use the encoders for something else, and that may eventually be what I do, but I'd really like to get them working for Mixture, RPM, and my radiators. If there's a solution, please explain it like I'm an idiot, because that may very well be the case ?

[SDirickson]

I have the same issue with the encoders on my WinWing throttle. They register just fine in setup, but have no impact in game.

[paul_leonard]

I have the same Gear-Falcon triple trim box with the four encoders.  I’ll test out in my system for you and report back.  DM me with say specific aircraft and controls if you want me to test out specific settings.
Paul 

[Charon]

You may have already seen my post, but this is how I went about doing it with vjoy and joystick gremlin:

 

 

[paul_leonard]

Interesting.  I've had my triple trim box for some time with no issues.  I've been away from BoX for a little while playing Cliffs of Dover Blitz beta VR instead.  Now back in BoX my trim box is seen in the key mapping screen but neither the trims nor the encoders seem to be responding in game.  I'm going to reach out to Gear Falcon and see if something is up.

Paul

[paul_leonard]

Emailed Rob at Gear-Falcon.  His response is below.  That said, my encoders were working fine up until a few weeks ago.  

Paul

 

Unfortunately, BoX does not handle encoders well. As far as I can tell, most other sims treat them as joystick button presses.

There are some third-party utilities that you can try to make them do what you want... check out these threads:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/73420-rotary-encoder-mapping/

 

and

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/il2sturmovik/comments/iqpiyh/cm2_throttle_dials_and_rads/

Cm2 throttle dials and rads : r/il2sturmovik Hey, I just had this problem and thought I would reply with the solution. Create a virtual axis. You need to have 99 or something as the centering button. www.reddit.com

 

Hardware, Software and Controllers - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum There's a rotary encoder on my T.16000, and it works just fine. It's an absolute rotary encoder though instead of incremental, no idea how incremental encoders work in IL2. forum.il2sturmovik.com

Regards,

 

Rob

[Sokol1]

18 hours ago, paul_leonard said:

Unfortunately, BoX does not handle encoders well.

 

Apparently because of this VKB reduce the encoders in Gladiator NXT base for just one.