Hi, everyone ... plus controller-setup problems..

[1Sascha]

Good day, everyone!

 

Just returned to DCS after four years or so (played A-10C a while ago), so my knowledge of the sim and the controller-options is a bit, err, rusty.. :)

 

Anyway.. here's my problem:

 

Bought the Dora yesterday and instantly ran into problems in the controller-mappings. My pedals' toe-brakes aren't recognized properly, so I'm taxiing with a tiny bit of brakes applied the whole time - not good. I know this is what's happening by simply looking at the in-cockpit rudderpedals and by the plane's behavior on the ground: 1500 RPM (as stated by the tutorial) isn't nearly enough to make the plane start to move/roll.

 

I'm using a pieced together HOTAS-setup:

 

MS Sidewinder FF2

CH Pro Throttle USB

ancient CH Pro Pedals (gameport-version running through a GP-to-USB- converter)

TrackIR 5/ProClip

 

Now before people will start bashing the gameport-pedals: They do work in other simulations because the keymappers of those sims will let me assign half-axis - or simply because they automatically recognize the range of travel of the brakes as the full axis? Not sure. The thing is that the brakes register (in Windows) as the negative/left half of the X-axis (left brake) and upper/positive half of the Y-axis (right brake).

 

I've tried fiddling with the "tuning"-options in the axis-mapper, but so far it's no good. I've tried deadzones from 0 to 50, I've tried user curves with the lower half all set to "0", but I'm still getting spikes for some reason (spiking in Windows Joystick info-box is there, but minimal) plus the game seems to assume that my brakes are constantly sending input.

 

Here's what the mapper looks like for me:

 

Not sure how it's supposed to work, but I suspect that the input indicator resting in the middle of the response curve with my feet off the pedals might be the culprit. Shouldn't it be in the lower left corner with the (physical) toe-brakes *not* engaged?

 

I'm pretty sure that if I could get the game to recognize half an axis as the *full* range of travel on the brakes, I could get them to work. Is there any way to do this?

 

Note: Since they're not USB-Pedals, I can't use the CH Control Manager to fiddle around with them. As you can see in the video, the pedals are recognized both by Windows and by the game as a generic joystick. Because that's how the USB-converter identifies itself.

 

Thanks for your input!

 

 

Cheers

 

Sascha

Edited May 2, 2016 by 1Sascha

[Sporg]

Have you tried calibrating the pedals in Windows?

So that they might start to utilise the whole axis?

 

Otherwise, my best suggestion is to use user curves with half of the sliders set to zero.

 

By the way, an important peculiarity in DCS:

In most modules, you need to set the brake curves to inverted.

Otherwise you will get full brake when you let go of the pedal and vice versa.

 

That might also be part of your problem?

[Rangi]

Have you tried a third party calibration tool like diview? It is much more powerful than the standard windows calibration.

[1.JaVA_Platypus]

First, calibrate the pedals in windows. Second, set the axis in DCS as "Slider" and with a fair amount of deadzone.

 

I hope this helps. But I think your pedals need new pot-meters.

[1Sascha]

First, calibrate the pedals in windows. Second, set the axis in DCS as "Slider" and with a fair amount of deadzone.

 

I hope this helps. But I think your pedals need new pot-meters.

 

They could probably use some cleaning or new parts, yeah.. :)

 

I've got it to work somehow..

 

1. I've set the axis to "slider"

2. I've inverted the axis

3. I've made user-curves with only the first five sliders set to any input .. the rest are on "0". Leftmost slider is set to "100" and the next four to increasingly smaller values.

4. I set a small deadzone to deal with the spikes. Currently it's on "7".

 

 

The pedals are calibrated correctly in Windows, BTW and they work in other games just fine (with a bit of tweaking :D). The left one has had a bit of spiking for years, but nothing too serious.

 

Thanks for the help! I might break out my Saitek "Pro Flight" pedals again just for this game, although I prefer the CH's layout - I'm not a huge fan of having to constantly "man-spread" on the wider Saiteks.. ;) plus even with the detent removed, they still feel a bit weird around the center and make smaller corrections harder than the CH-ones.

 

But first I have to try and learn to get to gripes with DCS's handling of FF. I love the Sidewinder's "centering spring"-action you get in games that don't support FF. In FF-games you either have that floppy, no centering-spring feel when you turn it off, or only get spring tension once you have sufficient airflow over the control surfaces. Very hard to get used to having to handle a stick that feels like a CH Fighterstick on the ground (read: with no centering spring whatsoever).

 

 

S.

Edited May 3, 2016 by 1Sascha

[Sokol1_br]

CH still selling replacements pots:

 

http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/index.php/topic/7609-replacement-pots/

[DieHard]

I would contact them and ask them:

 

http://www.chproducts.com/13-28464-Home.php

 

If no luck, see if you can find an electronic technician and/or an engineer and pick their brains and see if they have a good electronics parts source?

 

Seems to me somebody out there in the manufacturing environment must have something similar as a replacement.

 

http://www.apem.com/9-29181-Home.php

 

Ask 531-Ghost , he seems to be a quite knowledgeable guy and he has the same gear.

Edited May 4, 2016 by DieHard