Trying to use automotive pedals - need to reverse direction. how?

[BrianK]

I'm working with a high-end automotive pedal set - which is to say it's not the Logitech pedals that seem to be mentioned on these forums on occasion.

 

I was following this guide to use the clutch and throttle pedals as rudder controls: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=877393&postcount=7

 

That guide almost has me with functioning pedals, except for the fact that the action seems to be reversed. When I push either pedal all the way to the floor, the rudder is centered. When I let off, the rudder goes full right or left (depending on which pedal I was pressing at the time). If I click the "reverse" option, it just swaps which pedal controls which direction, but the problem still exists - pedal up -> full rudder; pedal down -> rudder centered. I can't seem to adjust the settings such that letting off both pedals leaves the rudder in the center.

 

What I *think* I need is for the slope of the curve in the picture below to start at 50 (middle) on the left and end at 0 (top) on the right (and vice versa for the other pedal), but I can't seem to do that. It will only ever start at the top or bottom on the left.

 

I tried a "user curve" to force the line to do what I want... which works fine except for the very end of the motion - full on or full off is still incorrect, but everything in between is correct.

 

With that, is it possible for me to reverse the direction of the pedals on the DCS side? I'm not afraid of scripting if I can be pointed to a place that shows how to affect controls via scripts (I'm a DCS newbie, so any and all direction would be appreciated). What I don't want to do is adjust the hardware -- I want to be able to switch back and forth between driving and flying without making hardware changes.

 

[Art-J]

Nope, the guide is 100% correct, at least for standard PC gear. I was using this trick for a long time to make both my Logi G25 and later Thrustmaster T500 clutch and gas pedals to work as rudder, only added some curvature to make them less responsive near center (curves had to be applied in such a way that both lines for left and right output would be tangent to imaginary horizontal line crossing the middle of the screen, i.e. 50% Y saturation point). I started from the other post on the subject, but the base idea is obviously the same.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1459873&postcount=3

 

I use dedicated rudder pedals now, but I recall rudder going full left/right was a symptom of me forgetting to switch from combined brake/gas axis (each pedal controlling 50% of combined output) into two separate axes. Are you sure yours are split as well (each pedal controls 0-100% movement of a separate axis)? Double check. Also, remember, that only one of them must to be set as "reversed", so that red line for one goes up, while the line for the other goes down.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Art-J

[BrianK]

I don't doubt that the instructions are correct - but I think my hardware may be different.

 

In any event, to further explain what's going on:

 

If I setup just one pedal, and don't use the "slider" option, then when the pedal is fully out, the the rudder is full left; and when the pedal is fully in, the rudder is full right. Pedal in center means rudder is in center. This would be correct if they were rudder pedals, but they are car pedals, so we have to use the slider option to control the endpoint (as the tutorial suggests).

 

As a slider, I change the pedal endpoint (Saturation Y) from 100 to 50. This then makes the pedal have 50% the effect that it previously did - so instead of going from full left to full right, it goes from full left (pedal out) to center (pedal in). Therein lies the problem.

 

I don't have any sort of setting for combing or splitting axes like you do with the Logitech. I only have access to the values as they come out of the pedals. The mapping I think I have access to in DCS does the opposite of what I need.

 

With that, the question still stands. I'm looking at third-party solutions to change the mapping before it gets to DCS, but the settings in DCS get me so close, that I'd like to think there's a way to simply change the start point and the end point in the graph, rather than just the end point... either that, or reverse the pedal action so pedal out = center and pedal in = full rudder.

[Art-J]

I see.... (uh... actually, no, not quite :D). The first part of your post is clear allright, but something fishy happens with your pedals output before it gets to the game indeed. If you've got access only to raw values out of pedals, let's forget about "combined/split", because If I undestand correctly, that just makes them equivalent of "split" anyway and the aforementioned instruction should work. Unless your DIY pedals give some strange, reversed signal output to the Windows itself, with pressed = 0% and released = 100%. Is it even possible? Can't imagine how they might work, so I can only try to help by showing how they should work in DCS if they were "normal" ;).

 

Just for a test I plugged in my racing pedals to unused 1.5.7.OB copy, the old assignments from the era when I didn't have rudder pedals were still there. The screenshot below shows what the correct result of the instruction should look like, as in two separate-axis type pedals, both going from released = 0% up to pressed = 100%.

 

Left pedal on the left screen, as in released position. When pressing, both red input dots go all the way left, black output square starts in the middle and goes left.

 

Right pedal on the right screen, as in released position. When pressing, red input dots go all the way right, black output square goes to the left and stops in the middle.

Edited September 26, 2017 by Art-J

[BrianK]

Thanks for the help, thus far, Art. Much appreciated.

 

Here's what I'm seeing...

 

First, using DIView, I can see what values are coming out of my pedals. The clutch pedal is the X axis, so...

 

here is the clutch out:

(value = 0)

 

and here is the clutch in:

(value = 65535)

 

In pedal assignment, I'm just assigning the one pedal for now:

 

If I don't "tune" the axis, then the clutch pedal makes the rudder go from full left (out) to full right (in), as can be seen here...

pedal out:

 

...and pedal in:

 

 

Now if I go into axis tune and change to a slider with limited range, my settings look like this (note the location of the dots to show how its reading values - does not look the same as yours for some reason? This seems to be the root of the matter):

 

pedal out:

 

pedal in:

 

 

which then does this to the rudder:

 

pedal out:

 

pedal in:

 

If I click "invert", then it simply does the same thing to the right instead of the left.

 

I hope I'm overlooking something simple, but I can't, for the life of me, find it. If I could get my black dot to be in the center when the pedal is at rest, then I'd be all set. Any more thoughts?

Edited September 27, 2017 by BrianK

[Sokol1_br]

Now if I go into axis tune and change to a slider with limited range, my settings look like this (note the location of the dots to show how its reading values - does not look the same as yours for some reason? This seems to be the root of the matter):

 

pedal out

 

pedal in:

 

 

which then does this to the rudder:

 

pedal out:

 

This pedal don't has calibration software with option for invert axis there?

 

 

 

pedal in:

 

If I click "invert", then it simply does the same thing to the right instead of the left.

 

The above seems OK. MINUS the detail that pedal out - 0 in DView - leave rudder full left. !?

 

Test with joy throttle axis and see in this behavior remains.

I test there with joy throttle and throttle full back DView read 65535 (rudder centered), throttle full forward read 0 (rudder full left) - opposite of your clutch pedal, assuming that "out" mean pedal not pressed.

 

If you 'fix" this, set the other axis (brakes) for control "right side" of rudder (center to full right), this time tick the box Inverted if need.

 

Clutch = Center to full left.

Brake = Center to full right.

 

Your pedal software don't allow invert axis?

Edited September 27, 2017 by Sokol1_br