Simviation Forum - joystick hacking

May 30^th, 2007 at 4:07pm

Diesel Offline
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Dieppe ,NB,Canada

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Hi!
A question for JB.

I made a home made yoke. I added some push and momentary buttons. They all have 2 poles to connect to. could I connect a wire to the joystick button switch ,from my yoke button switch? Would that yoke button work ?

Man!!! I hope you know what I mean Grin

I had to read it 3 times before I could undertand it Roll Eyes

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Reply #1 - May 30^th, 2007 at 5:01pm

JBaymore Offline
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Diesel,

Hi and welcome to SimV and the Homebuild Cockpits Forum Section.

It is a three part answer. For the momentary buttons you have added .... yes.

For a latching switch directly read in the Win XP joystick interface ..... no.

Joystick button ARE momentary types. The setup of the joystick electronics would read a latching button as constantly holding down the button as long as the switch is set in the on position. This typically would result in repeated "sends" of pulses on that button.

HOWEVER...... it depends on what you are driving with that joystick. For example the payware gauge / glass cockpit program FSXpand has the ability to take a joystick input and read it correctly when using a latching type switch.

So the overall answer summary is "yes and no." You wanted "black and white" didn't you. Wink

Welcome to cockpit building. Wink

best,

...................john

« Last Edit: May 31^st, 2007 at 10:27am by JBaymore »

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Reply #2 - May 31^st, 2007 at 1:34am

Diesel Offline
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I Fly Sim!
Dieppe ,NB,Canada

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Posts: 24

Thanks JB. It was just a thought. I just don't know where to go as far as interface. I'm building a 737NG. I have lots done and i'm at a crossroads in my build Undecided

I have a MIP, Glareshield ,pedestal, and working on my yokes and columns. My MIP has all its switches and knobs. I have slider pots and round pots with lots of Cat 5 wirering.

This is my plan. I will do a dummy overhead. I will take a printed copy of the OH and laminate it to a piece of MDF. Some light switches will work,but thats it. For my pedestal I will have Nav and coms and transponder. For my FMC. I will use a tough screen and hopefuly there will be a FMC freeware some day. I will make my trottle Q.

Back lighting will be done with X-Mas lights that are dimmable. Shocked

The guys in the UK have very nice and easy to use interface systems but the shipping cost are $80.00 to 120.00 to here in Canada.

With what I would like to do. Do you have any suggestions on this interface dilemma?

THKS for your help. You are a wealth of knowlage,and i"m a wealth of questions Roll Eyes

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Reply #3 - May 31^st, 2007 at 10:25am

JBaymore Offline
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Diesel wrote on May 31^st, 2007 at 1:34am:

Do you have any suggestions on this interface dilemma?

THKS for your help. You are a wealth of knowlage,and i"m a wealth of questions Roll Eyes

Diesel,

I am definately NOT a "wealth of knowledge"..... I still probably have more questions than you do. And coming up with more all the time. Wink

I'm just a little ahead of you as we are both traveling down the road to ultimate mental overload and bankruptcy. Shocked

One of the simplest "core" interfaces to set up and use, and the most "bulletproof" in my experience, is a Hagstrom KE-72 keyboard encoder.

With that unit, you can bring a LOT of stuff "alive" for your overhead....don't limit yourself too much in concept just yet. With that encoder you will have 72 assignable keypresses ........ that can be anything from a single keypress to a complex macro that could be as long as the Encyclopedia Britanica. This will cover your yoke button needs too. And a lot of other stuff.

Go here to see and order it:

http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/products/ke72.html

It'll cost you about $120 USD. Spend the little extra and get two of the pre-assembled breakout boards they have for the connections ...... well worth it. With the CDN $ so strong against the US $ right now...... shouldn't be TOO expensive for you. And UPS / FedEx ships regularly and pretty inexpensively into Canada.

I have two of these units in the pit set up on two different computers. Basically, these KE-72s will "power" about 85% of my pit's functions ....with the rest taken care of by some Phidgets, Goflight modules, CH controls, and hacked joystick/gamepad.

The second "must have" item to go with the KE-72 is a registered payware verison of FSUPIC and WideFS. The combo sells for something like $35 USD. As a pit builder, you probably already HAVE that! You need this for a LOT of reasons in simpit work.... but in this case FSUIPC allows you to set up keypress assignments for sim functions which do not HAVE keypress assignments. It does this by allowing keypresses to access "offsets" .........memory locations in the sim.

PLEASE....... post some pictures here of what you are up to. It is nice to have a 737 builder join in here at the SimV Homebuild Forum Section. See the SimV image posting rules on the main image upload page. The upload link is on the top of the forum pages in small print..

Again.... hope this helps.

best,

......................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #4 - Jun 1^st, 2007 at 12:43am

Diesel Offline
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I Fly Sim!
Dieppe ,NB,Canada

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Posts: 24

Ok JB I'll look into that. Thanks for your time.

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