crab

Not sure how you programmed but I did mine in the GUI (advanced) and left the rudders out and everything was fine, no conflicts, and TARGET didn't affect anything, I have one virtual controller with stick and throttle and the pedals separate. Maybe an update in the software since you tried it?

Yep. I have an X56 at work and my home HOTAS was my beloved Cougar which suffered a rather unfortunate encounter with gravity. And yeah, it's a bit to swollow in one bite so I"ll offer up some things that I wish I knew before I started my freshly completed profile. 1 Do not use the basic editor, if you do you're missing functionality that you're going to need. Instead go to the advanced profile immediately and you will see what appears to be almost the exact same thing which is no harder to use but has those options you're going to need. 2 Take it in small steps and check your progress. I'd start by setting up your axes and going into free flight to check them. Once you get that sorted out move on to another manageable group of commands. This way if you have some wackiness when you test you have a limited group of suspects to troubleshoot. 3 This is related to #2; before you go make that progress check save the profile under a unique name before you run it and enter the game. Doing this may prevent you from losing an hour of work after having to hard reboot because you had a stuck key in the profile. You'll still hard reboot but you can open up the saved profile and fix the offending binding without losing an hour of work. Yes, I tested this personally. Don't be me. *heavy sigh* 4 You may need to increase the default pulse time to get commands to work reliably. Mine starts a profile at a default of 32 milliseconds and I had to change that to 50 to get things working properly. This will depend on your hardware so don't adjust it unless you need to but if you do don't be afraid to change it. The behavior you'll see is intermittent function and if you can see the switch gear move in the cockpit you'll see it do a tiny flicker but the command wont work. You see that it's a good chance you need to increase the pulse length. Edit... One other thing, decide how many axes you'll be using, if more than 8 you're going to have to drop something off or leave hardware out of the profile so you can have more available with what will then be two devices. I left the pedals out of my profile (for example) to get the total of 10 I needed across both devices. In DCS you'll have two controllers (using my example one virtual controller with stick and throttle and one separate controller which is the rudder pedals) and whatever hardware you left out will be taken care of in DCS for programming. 5 If you get some wackiness where things don't function when you hit the switch but do when you release it you've probably programmed it accidentally as an on release command instead of an on press. Go back and change it to a press and you''re living. 6 If you have off/idle and you want to get that working in game you will use the release command, not the press. Then when you move the throttle from off to idle the command gets sent in the game. Make sure it's a pulse and not a hold, release, or press. 7 If you want a set a timered switch where it will be held for a certain time and released remember that you will use two press commands, not a press and then a release. The first command instead of a pulse will be a press and the second command will be a release where you add the time delay. Sounds confusing but when you do it you'll see what I mean. Any command will start out as something that happens when you either press or release a switch. As an example... What you're going to see in the GUI is two boxes that will let you select whether the action occurs on press or on release. You'll hit the press box to highlight it. Then you'll name your command, for this example we'll call it APU start. Then you're going to add the key binding for apu start in on the field under that. You'll change the type to press and add it as an event. Then you'll stay in the field and change type to release, add the delay in milliseconds in the box underneath, in this example the APU switch needs to be held for two seconds so you'll give it a 2000 millisecond delay, and add event. Now you've got the switch on a 2 second timer defined by the delay you added. In general I'm new at this scheme myself and I cant comment on whether it's better to go to scripting first or not. I didn't because I'd rather take it in small bites but the folks proposing that may well be right. However that may be I'd advocate a perusal of the guide before you dig in. Good luck

For others who might have found their way here in a search trying to figure something related out: Skip the basic configuration and go straight to advanced. It's the same thing with a few more options, example follows: So getting that boat switch to work with air to air mode only required me to set a pulse when the switch is rocked over, then as soon as adding that command and while still in the field simply switching to the newly available release option gained when going to advanced and give it a pulse on release. In the right pane you'll now see Air to air with a keyboard command of 1 set to pulse on press and directly below that will be the second command you put in as a release which is another pulse of the keyboard command 1. And problem solved. So, to sum up, go straight to advanced. It's basically the exact same thing with a few more options you can select if you're of a mind. Like a command on release... O_o

Ok, lets see; I took the joystick out of the configuration because I needed more axes than I had and that one can be fully programmed in DCS. I got the engine cranks to work by setting the command as a hold to spring loaded side of the eng operate swithc. The master modes started working when I upped their pulse length to 50 milliseconds. What I'm trying to do now is get the boat switch (center switch) to also cancel the mode by going back to center. In other words rock it over to get to air to air and when I'm ready to leave air to air simply center the switch to cancel air to air mode. Any suggestions?

Sigh, It's hard on an old man, all this learning. I've got most things working but ran into a couple trouble spots... I was trying to put AA and AG master on the throttle but it doesn't seem to want to work. Works when you press the keyboard but not on the throttle. I've tried mapping it to DX button and to a keypress. Ideally I'd like this to be a pulse when I move the boat switch over and pulse the same again to turn if off when I move it back to center. I had some trouble getting the apu start working but got it going by changing the pulse from the default 32 to 50. The engine cranks on the other hand are not working with the same settings. The command is being sent and the switch visibly does a little twitch but doesn't flop all the way over. Suggestions?

I like doing my own. Flying the configuration, modifying it. For me it's a part of flight sims and as strange as it seems, I enjoy the process. At this point I have made all the axis assignments, adjusted them so they work properly, added all the switch gear commands for the throttle/stick, and all work well. The base remains difficult to program correctly, as near as I can determine, impossible with the in game editor. I don't see myself diving into editing DCS files to make it work so I'm setting it aside and going back to TARGET. Again. O_o I've not found anything in TARGET that allows me to control LED states until I start a profile, I'll look again the next time I pick it up Frederf.

Thanks for tips folks. I've got plenty of experience at deciding what I want on the stick/throttle and I've got a handy picture with the real world assignments. The DCS editor has been ok gut I've run into trouble with the base assignments. As examples I cant get a command on center with the flaps switch, the EAC switch will give me button 24 in both positions and the same with the other two position switches although with different DX commands. I also wanted to slow down the view panning and couldn't see any way to do it in the DCS editor. I only see a way to turn off LEDs in an active profile, with no profile loaded I get the LEDs at the default brightness setting which on mine is two from the left. I don't want them on at any time. Ever. So that's what I was trying to figure out, no LEDs at any time. I'll check out going to axis for view.

I've had the Warthog for a few days but didn't feel like dealing with learning a new programming methodology so I set up the most crucial keys in DCS for F18 and went flying so up until now I haven't played with TARGET. That would be up until a few hours ago actually, I've dug in and found some questions right off the bat... First: Is there a way to turn off the LEDs permanently? Even the lowest setting is too high for daylight use let alone night flights. I figured how to turn them off in an individual profile but I'd like to never see them again. Second: In TARGET I only see a 4 way hat for the POV/trim switch. How do I make that an 8 way as it should be? Third: I am using that hat for view and I'd like to slow it down, how is that accomplished? Mods, please move over to the thrustmaster section. My bad, I was searching all over and thought I was there when I posted. I've a few other questions but I'm pretty sure I saw the information somewhere and I'll try to scrounge that up again on my own. Thanks.

My next door neighbor flew the A6 and we became good friends over the years. He moved back to his home state when he retired but we still see each other on occasion. At any rate back when he was still flying he rolled by for a beverage and I was flying such as it is for me and he wanted to give it a go while we sipped our beverages. He responded much the same as you see in the video here: For him it was a bit of fun but he did not equate it with flying. He was at least positive enough to give in to my insistence that it wasn't a game, it was a simulation. His words were something like, "Yeah, I can see they're trying to do it right so I could allow as to how it's maybe a little more than just a game as you've been saying." lol At any rate I think it's fair to say that this is entertainment, not the real world. I think it would also be fair to say it's not really a game per se either in that our pleasure derives from trying to experience as best we can an accurate depiction of something we will never do. To me it's not just semantics even if it is a somewhat nuanced view.

The latest version has significant updates that were done by Logitech to reduce warranty costs, make sure you get it if you're going to purchase and not an older version. Logitech changed the model number after updating the product so you can go there, get the model number, and compare that with what you're seeing on Amazon and other retailers to verify what you're getting. This isn't just an off possibility, there are not only older X56's out there, you can still find X55's, pay attention when shopping. This HOTAS is not a replica of any existing HOTAS. At it's price range it manages to be best in class simply because it is the only one of it's kind at that price. I own this stick as well as a Cougar and just recently, a Warthog. I can tell you that it isn't bad for what it is but it is also not comparable to the good stuff. In this instance you will pay significantly more for Thrustmaster and particularly the stuff from the East but that money is actually getting you something. IMO the X56 is best suited to a certain group of users. The first would be those who want a HOTAS and simply do not have any more money to spend on the venture. In this case it works and greatly improves flying as compared to trying to use a gaming joystick and keyboard. My use case is that I use the X56 at work where I need to pull it from a locker, throw it down and fly, then pick it back up and throw it in the locker again. It's light weight and ability to use the twist for rudder so I don't have to pick up a third piece and stow it makes it suitable for that task. So if you're gaming at the dinner table or some other temp location on a laptop you may find that it's easier to deal with in that scenario. The last group might be (I don't space sim so know little about it) those who fly space sims. I would do a search here and read about the X56 before purchase to get fully informed on what it is you're thinking about buying.

Carpet spikes totally work if you're pedals are on carpet, for those that haven't seen them they are very aggressive, these things are meant to stabilize tower speakers that can be very tall and tipsy. They'll go right through the carpet, pad, and into the wood if you get the good ones. The man speaks the truth, if you're on carpet you will not be able to push your pedals away with spikes in.

To me it looks like he's right, if I hit short and touch down on the first portion of the deck I explode every time. In external view you can see this is not a ramp strike as the wheels are touching down on deck or at least if calculated in the engine as one it doesn't show that in the external. I did this a bunch of times when I was first failing to land. In my case I can say for sure in my early attempts I was attempting to horse it down when I thought visually that I was going to go long. It always looks like that to me even now and I had to make a mental note to stay on the ball and mostly ignore the boat or I feel the pressure to push it down every time. I'm now at maybe a 2/3 success rate with case 3, haven't tried anything else yet at the boat. One thing I've figured out is if I blow the setup and I don't roll out on final in the right groove I may as well go around because trying to get it in there at that point means I'm going to fail most of the time. So from one explodified pilot to another:If you pay attention you may note that you're trying to push it in there because you feel like you're gong long, I stopped exploding bug or not when I got away from that. Lastly I'd say many of these guys make it sound easy, for them maybe it is easy. For me it was a lot of practice and not a little cussing just to get to where I am which is a long way from 100%. If you're seeing the same you're not alone.

It's all in the title gents, this is an FYI. For my own purposes that's about as low as I've seen it so I jumped it.

I use a service which is authorized to sign for my mail so I never have to worry about a package, they're always there and nothing gets stolen or rained on. More, they give you an address instead of just having a box number which derails the above "wont deliver to box" outfits. You've probably got something similar near you and the pricing (around here) is similar to a PO box.

Make sure you delete all the defaul axes in DCS. Turn around afterwards and add them back in and it should be working. This happens with other controllers as well BTW, common issue with the default mapping.

Actually it wouldn't be considered good service there either, they would however expect the service to be bad because anything else would be unusual.

What he said, there is no good option for a quality HOTAS right now. The X56 is maybe a notch above entry level and a decent HOTAS wouldn't cannibalize any sales from it as they're two different markets. Meanwhile in the quality market you've got an ancient design from TM which is handily outdone by goods from the East that buyers cant get unless they want to wait forever; dogs are born, live, and die, before your VKB stick shows up and Virpil is little better. The market is wide open for the taking by anyone who simply puts out a half decent product you can actually buy.

Apps &features does not have an entry labeled X56 H.O.T.A.S or it did and you deleted that and reinstalled the software?

I'd backup your profiles and then uninstall/reinstall, you'll find it under X 56 HOTAS in the programs and features app.

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, forgot about this one. I'm talking about a hold on the command, not the rotary itself. It sounds like you may have a continuous key press. I'd consider watching Frugal's vid on common programming schemes for the X55, most of it is applicable to the X52 and works there as well on switch gear of the same type.

It sounds like you may be sending a hold instead of a press/release?

Because of the subject matter in this section the thread title will almost invariably tell you what hardware is being discussed. As it wasn't busy by forum standards here in the input/output section it wasn't at all hard to keep up with and that makes me the odd man out; I find the new sub-sections simply creates an extra click that didn't need to happen. No worries though, I wont annoy by bringing up my disagreement ad nauseam. :)

They are charging what they think the market will bear and the market has already spoken, the pricing is not too high. This isn't to say I disagree with you, only the utter lack of competition allows for the pricing and lets them get away with an incredibly poor customer service and buying experience. If there was anything else out there VKB and Virpil would be cease to exist if they operated as they do now. Words that have earned me ire when posted here before but that makes them no less true. Even in this thread right here, right now, people speak of the VKB throttle as a competitor and yet they have said no earlier than the holidays and if their track record tells us anything it is that they will be much later and you wont be able to get one anyways. That and the ancient Warthog with much lower quality internals are the competition to the Virpil. I don't count the Logitech or other cheaper offerings because at less than half the price for both stick and throttle they are not competitors in this up market price point. It's not a buyers market and Virpil could sell a lot more if they had them to sell. They don't but that's grist for a different thread.

They don't have it on the stick either so the set isn't going to give it to you. The Virpil stuff isn't being sold as entry level and you're going to get some criticism when you fail to deliver price point expected features; like a slew control. Agree the review was good. Also agree with the reviewers conclusion, despite the flaws this appears to be the best consumer grade throttle available. Well... Available was admittedly a poor choice of words. :)