Sprool

is this any use? http://www.captzeen.com/helios/F18.asp

Thanks - I thought it was enough just to comment out the countries choice in the lua description, which I do manually for the liveries I want to use, only its not working for the ka-50, - but isnt that only what this mod does anyway?

I have 4 rotary encoders now working really nicely, in a matrix wiring button board, using code adapted from a race sim button box build. It all works fine in DCS - 32 buttons, 4 rotaries, but I had to edit the code to work with my Teensy 2.0 board. I'll share the code used if its any use to you, its the only code I managed to give good stable rotary encoder results with.

Bought the KA-50 a couple of days ago, I found thees loads of livery folders (around 30) in my DCS Bazar folder but only options for 6 or 7 to use in game. I tried copying some of the folders over to my saved games/liveries/ka-50 folder but they still dont appear for me to use as a rearm/refuel option - it works for other aircraft but not the KA-50. How can I access them to allow client use in-game?

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Ive just completed a button box based on this - and adapted the code for use with a £16 Teensy board. Works great - 12 push-buttons, 5 on-off-on momentary switches, 4 rotary encoders all on a matrix wiring system - good for improving your soldering skills

Rotary encoders need a lot more coding to get them working sweetly. They are best used (IMO) as controllers for functions allowing increase/decrease level (instrument lighting, volume level) rather than axes. Pots are easier to use and better suited to axes. DCS allows either/both for many functions. I have wired up 5 on-off-on momentary switches in my buttonbox array, so for any control allowing an up or down increment they work fine, eg: FLIR in Hornet, Dispensor switch, flaps, the middle off button will remain passive with momentary switches which DCS prefers as they are more like standard joystick switches.

Heres some code from a guy making a button box for racing sim, with 4 rotaries, you can see theres quite a lot of coding needd to get them to work ok I finally finished editing this to work off a Teensy 2.0 this evening, I have a 4 x 6 button matrix and 4 rotary encoders all working now. Using one of the buttons as a modifier allows me to give dual functions to each rotary encoder (mostly for lighting levels & radio vols). The code irons out jitter, bounce and latency so they work really smoothly with Windows Joystick COntroller. Only thing I didnt end up using is the push-button switch functionality of the rotaries. rotaries.txt

Yep, C:/users/yourname/saved games/dcs.openbeta, I dive in there so often I have a shortcut to it on my desktop ;)

yep thats a very poorly description.lua file! can you post a screenshot of the 4 main texture files you used - F18C_1_diff, F18C_2_diff, and the 2 corresponding RoughMet textures?

Can you get windows joystick controller to recognise the rotary encoders cleanly without chatter or interference?

Great simple and effective idea!

In your saved games folder there will be a file called options.lua in the config folder. Copy that over to use in dcs.openbeta and it should mimic the display settings you had before.

Great, thanks - found it - I was looking in the main config folder :/

On the early slopes of the learning curve here so thanks for your patience. I have a teensy 2 board and a load of pushbutton switches working ok in game but have 4 rotary encoders (with push-button switch facility) to control cockpit stuff like lights, radio volume, etc. I can get windows game controllers to recognise the Teensy board and the rotaries but they are unusable as theres so much 'chatter' when they are turned they cannot be mapped within dcs. On some of the example programs in Teensy/Arduino they work fine and are precise but I cant get them working well enough to use in game. Maybe I'm lacking the right code or the wiring is not right? Any advice/help gratefully received.

My default.lua for the Hornet does not have any mention of iCommandEnginesStart (or stop) - can I confirm location of the original default lua file to edit?

No thats very useful to help adopt the right terminology when asking techy questions ;)

I read late last night the encoders accuracy is much better if the 2 sensor pins A & B (to detect clockwise or counterclockwise rotation) are wired into the controller board pins that have interrupt capability - on the teensy 2.0 thats pins 5 to 8. If there's not enough pins available (ior too many rotaries) then you can get 2nd best performance by wiring one of the rotary pins to an INT pin, the other to a standard analog pin. If youre just doing the knob for lighting level or radio volume then they dont need to be super-accurate. Having just started playing with R/E's on a teensy 2 board i have same issue with too much chatter & interference when buttons are picked up in the windows game controller. Maybe I need some better specific code

You sir are a star - thats exactly what I want to achieve, a standard 2-pole on/off switch (not a momentary switch) for the quick start.

@LeCuvier I'll want to add it for the F-18, Yak, Huey, BF109, P-47, F-5e, then a different combo for the Flaming Cliffs 3 planes that dont have the same autostart

Is it possible to assign the (cheat) quickstart keypresses (using LWin+Home) to an on/off toggle switch? I cant find ref to in in the controls/keyboard lua?

My control config files are kept in user>saved games>dcs.openbeta>config>input, not the main DCS directory, does that mean they will remain safe and untouched when the next version emerges? Other settings in there (skins, aircraft mods, helios, srs, etc.) seem to remain intact.

I think I found the info I was needing: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=89226, Dcs needs some lua code editing. Virtually all joystick buttons are momentary, they dont stay switched on, DCS needs to be told some switches are going to stay open, so you can use standard 2-pole on/off switches.

I'm going to have a go at putting together a switch/button box using the Teensy 2.0 interface to USB into DCS. Thinking of one potential problem which is all joystick buttons are momentary push or toggle switches. How about if I add a few straight & simple on/off switches, how can I tell DCS its not a momentary switch? Esp for turning on power, starting engines, that sort of thing?

its a safety feature to stop it burning out