FFB joysticks

[Panzerlang]

2 hours ago, Monkeey said:

Did you report this to Propeler3D, he might know his software too well to think about it and your input might help him see the issue?

I did but I might have hurt his feelings, he's not replied. Lol.

[GVL224]

11 часов назад, Panzerlang сказал:

There is/are a combination/combinations of malarkey that appear able to make the hardware/software combination lose its nut, possibly triggered by IL2's output having a bug in it (as pointed out to me by prop).

In my case the most dangerous setting is the "Invert Force Output" checkbox. This causes forces to be either 'To Center' or 'To Peripheral'. Guess what happens when the checkbox is NOT checked? Yes, the stick tries to launch itself at max velocity out of its base. Apart from potential physical injury it also twice nearly gave me a heart attack.

The other dangerous setting is "Force Calibration". If that's not on a minimum of 10 on the slider the stick appears to not calibrate correctly which, I surmise, is what allows it all to lose its nut.

If the documentation was correctly done it would show screen shots of the setup panels showing safe initial setups AND safe in-game use setups. Maybe also with red-text warnings saying to be cautious/aware of the "Invert Force Output" and "Force Calibration" settings. As it is right now, setting up this stick from scratch is dangerous, due to a lack of clear and easily understood instructions.

The parameters you listed are set once during the initial setup of the device in the Setup program, and do not require any more changes!
All other settings are in the Configurator.
The developer's website has descriptions of the initial setup https://ffbeast.github.io/docs/en/ffbeast_setup.html
and subsequent effect settings.
I also have instructions in PDF format, but it is in Russian and is already a little outdated... I once saw it in English.
I can't get the new version if it exists, I was banned from the FFB devices telegram channel for supporting Ukraine, not Russia...

[Panzerlang]

9 hours ago, GVL224 said:

The parameters you listed are set once during the initial setup of the device in the Setup program, and do not require any more changes!
All other settings are in the Configurator.
The developer's website has descriptions of the initial setup https://ffbeast.github.io/docs/en/ffbeast_setup.html
and subsequent effect settings.
I also have instructions in PDF format, but it is in Russian and is already a little outdated... I once saw it in English.
I can't get the new version if it exists, I was banned from the FFB devices telegram channel for supporting Ukraine, not Russia...

Unfortunately the parameters all reset to zero or full-left (sliders) by themselves, hence my needing to redo everything myself. Major software glitch, possibly caused by the afore-mentioned IL2 output bug.

The documentation on the dev's website lacks clarity (for me at least).

Edited August 14 by Panzerlang

[GVL224]

16 часов назад, Panzerlang сказал:

Unfortunately the parameters all reset to zero or full-left (sliders) by themselves, hence my needing to redo everything myself. Major software glitch, possibly caused by the afore-mentioned IL2 output bug.

The documentation on the dev's website lacks clarity (for me at least).

This is the first time I hear from you about resetting the settings!!!
I also flew in Il-2 for more than a year, the settings were never reset!
Now I've been flying in DCS for a month, nothing is reset in the settings...
Maybe you have a ban on recording on files...

[Panzerlang]

9 hours ago, GVL224 said:

This is the first time I hear from you about resetting the settings!!!
I also flew in Il-2 for more than a year, the settings were never reset!
Now I've been flying in DCS for a month, nothing is reset in the settings...
Maybe you have a ban on recording on files...

Well, as I said, it seemed like a combination of things I did tripped up the software. Initially I noticed one of the joystick forces went soft while playing, so I was alt-tabbing into the FFB Commander to try and see what was going on. Prop told me that IL2 has a bug where telemetry output will just suddenly pause or outright stop and maybe my 'poking around' in FFB Commander while the game was still running made things worse. At one point I was no longer able to switch the power on BEFORE activating the software without the stick going mental. That went away but I still now turn on the software before the power, I don't need any more heart attacks or bruised legs. Lol.

Anyway, occasionally now it takes a few seconds for the forces to activate in the game when I first fire it up (didn't use to do that) but otherwise it's all working well.

[GVL224]

8 часов назад, Panzerlang сказал:

Well, as I said, it seemed like a combination of things I did tripped up the software. Initially I noticed one of the joystick forces went soft while playing, so I was alt-tabbing into the FFB Commander to try and see what was going on. Prop told me that IL2 has a bug where telemetry output will just suddenly pause or outright stop and maybe my 'poking around' in FFB Commander while the game was still running made things worse. At one point I was no longer able to switch the power on BEFORE activating the software without the stick going mental. That went away but I still now turn on the software before the power, I don't need any more heart attacks or bruised legs. Lol.

Anyway, occasionally now it takes a few seconds for the forces to activate in the game when I first fire it up (didn't use to do that) but otherwise it's all working well.

Strange situation.
Another important thing is that the firmware version of the controllers must match the software version (Setup and Commander).
I think that with reinstallation of Windows and all software this problem should go away.

[Panzerlang]

1 hour ago, GVL224 said:

Strange situation.
Another important thing is that the firmware version of the controllers must match the software version (Setup and Commander).
I think that with reinstallation of Windows and all software this problem should go away.

Yeah, I always update both.

[Aapje]

Virpil has a survey about their upcoming FFB base, so you can influence their decisions if you want:

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNLTT98lZSD-SPFshZ25poXSUpFnlrlaI3rVAmNVW8jPSfXg/viewform