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controlling TM warthog hotas backlight with pinky switch?


fael097

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Hi, I downloaded the TARGET software thing to try and set the pinky switch to control the throttle panel backlight, all I wanted to do was to use it to set pinky fwd and aft to have backlight on and pinky middle to have it off, but I have no idea how to do so, I thought the software had a graphic interface for people that don't know how to script, but I guess I was wrong.

 

so anyone has any idea on how to do so?

 

also, does anyone use the 5 led lights and the programmable friction axis for anything? I'm playing the A10c and soon will move to the f18 btw.

 

thanks

 

Rafael

Rafael

 

Ryzen 7 1800x @ 4ghz | MSI GTX 980ti | 32gb DDR4 Ballistix 2400Mhz | Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (wi-fi) | 480Gb Kingston NVMe ssd | Western Digital 1TB x2 | EVGA 850w PSU | Noctua NH-D14 | NZXT S240 | Windows 10 Pro 64bit | 4k 50" Philips android TV | Dell P2418D | Oculus Rift S | Thrustmaster Warthog Hotas

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First... Regarding the Throttle Friction Control and the 5 separate LEDs, I have used them many times for various things. On the Huey, for example, I used the Friction Control to adjust the missile ripple number for rockets since this is a multi-position dial in the Huey. Though the LEDs are hard to see much of the time (the throttle levers block them), so they are of limited use - not front and center where you can see them at a glance.

 

 

Regarding the back light intensity...

 

The TARGET GUI has the ability to assign LED backlighting intensity at startup by clicking on "Control LED State" (on the tile for the Warthog Throttle), then enable backlighting and set the intensity with the slider. But that isn't what you want.

 

As for mapping to a button or switch, in the event dialog, you have to use the Virtual keyboard/mouse dialog to select LED Backlighting and set the intensity. You may have to select an advanced configuration to get the virtual keyboard/mouse dialog to become available. Read the section titled "LED Management" in the TARGET GUI manual. It gives complete details on how to manage LEDs.

 

But in summary, select the Pinky Switch forward or backward position (called PSF and PSB respectively) and for each position, use the Virtual keyboard to set the LED backlight to full bright. Make sure you set the event type as "Press" to turn the LED backlight on (intensity at 255). Then do the same for PSF and PSB again, but set event type to release, and for each set the backlighting to 0 intensity. Then when you move the switch to the middle position, the backlight will turn off because you have "released" the PSF or PSB switch position.

 

If you are curious to see what TARGET GUI did to make this happen, press the "View Script" button. The TARGET GUI just creates a script in the background and runs it for you. You could run the same script in the TARGET Script editor.

 

 

 

To do the same in the TARGET Script editor...

 

Look for the section of the TARGET Scripting manual (target_script_editor_basics_v1.5_eng.pdf) titled "LED and backlighting control". It fully explains how to do this. Here is how I would map the PInky Switch to do this:

 

MapKey(&Throttle, PSF, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 255));     // Pinky Switch Forward - backlight on
MapKey(&Throttle, PSM, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 0));       // Pink Switch Middle - backlight off
MapKey(&Throttle, PSB, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 255));     // Pinky Switch Back - backlight on

 

The difference with the TARGET script editor vs. using the GUI is, in the GUI, you had to set the press and release commands for each switch position, PSF and PSB (turn backlight on and off), but in the script, I can use the pinky switch middle position (called PSM) and just turn it off in a single command.

 

The GUI probably did something like this - which uses MapKeyR() for the release events. The following has the same result as my example above.

 

MapKey(&Throttle, PSF, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 255));     // Pinky Switch Forward - backlight on
MapKeyR(&Throttle, PSF, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 0));      // Pink Switch Forward Release - backlight off
MapKeyR(&Throttle, PSB, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 0));      // Pink Switch Backward Release - backlight off
MapKey(&Throttle, PSB, LED(&Throttle, LED_INTENSITY, 255));     // Pinky Switch Back - backlight on

 

If you want the back lighting to be somewhere in between full and off, just use a number between 0 and 255. For the Warthog Throttle, there are 6 levels of intensity, so any number from 129 to 171 will set medium intensity (or level 3 as explained in the manual). The GUI has the same limitation.


Edited by Drakoz
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that's a really detailed response, thank you for that!

 

gonna try this asap.

 

as for the 5 led lights, I was wondering if it's possible to get some sort of interaction from dcs, like idk, display the fuel percentage, or actual flaps position, or something like this, get information from the sim and display it in the physical panel.

 

I know those light's aren't placed greatly but it would be nice if something like this was possible.

 

cheers

Rafael

 

Ryzen 7 1800x @ 4ghz | MSI GTX 980ti | 32gb DDR4 Ballistix 2400Mhz | Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (wi-fi) | 480Gb Kingston NVMe ssd | Western Digital 1TB x2 | EVGA 850w PSU | Noctua NH-D14 | NZXT S240 | Windows 10 Pro 64bit | 4k 50" Philips android TV | Dell P2418D | Oculus Rift S | Thrustmaster Warthog Hotas

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There is no simple way to get interactive info from DCS to TARGET.

 

There may be a complex way to do it with an external program to tie into DCS's export.lua script, or DCS-BIOS as it has already done a lot of the hard work, and TARGET, perhaps using sockets as TARGET seems to support this. It is on my list to try it one day. Maybe someone has already done it. I didn't find anything in my quick search, though. I have seen others do similar things to control the LEDs on some Logitech and Saitek gear (like the G940 throttle LED buttons or the Saitek joysticks with displays and LEDs). If sockets works with TARGET, it is probably easier to do it in TARGET than the efforts with the Saitek and Logitech gear I just mentioned.

 

One of the more prominent users of DCS-BIOS is DCSFlightpanels. It creates an interface to the Saitek Pro line of flight panels (the radio panel, multi-panel, BIP which has multi-colored LED's to display information, and the switch panel). Sadly, the BIP is no longer offered for sale, but you can find one on eBay eventually, though likely at an over inflated price. I use the Multi-panel to display information like distance to next waypoint and my current heading and other information that is not always easy to read on the analog gauges at a glance.

 

DCS-BIOS could be used to communicate with custom made Arduino display panels as well or other custom electronics. That is what it was originally designed for and it is often used by people making custom sim-pits. If you are into that kind of stuff (electronics and such), go read up on DCS-BIOS. They give some examples of how to do it.

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I skimmed quickly to an LED example I gave in this video. I know there is one at 45:20 but there is more. It's worth a watch. I use all 5 LEDs and the backlight as 6 warnings today.

It's an older script.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJv1pLWyxuE

Win 10 pro 64 bit. Intel i7 4790 4 Ghz running at 4.6. Asus z97 pro wifi main board, 32 gig 2400 ddr3 gold ram, 50 inch 4K UHD and HDR TV for monitor. H80 cpu cooler. 8 other cooling fans in full tower server case. Soundblaster ZX sound card. EVGA 1080 TI FTW3. TM Hotas Wartog. TM T.16000M MFG Crosswinds Pedals. Trackir 5.

"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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If you are using the GUI to make your script, Make sure you use the "Type" field to control the LED on and off. Press in this field turns it on and Release in this field turns it off.

The intensity is the intensity for all the LEDS. set it and forget it. Don't try to use it on individual LEDS. I set mine at the 3rd notch.

Just pick which one from the virtual keyboard to save into the Key Command Field and then assign it a press to turn on or a release to turn off.

This is not the Press and release from the control fields beside control:

Win 10 pro 64 bit. Intel i7 4790 4 Ghz running at 4.6. Asus z97 pro wifi main board, 32 gig 2400 ddr3 gold ram, 50 inch 4K UHD and HDR TV for monitor. H80 cpu cooler. 8 other cooling fans in full tower server case. Soundblaster ZX sound card. EVGA 1080 TI FTW3. TM Hotas Wartog. TM T.16000M MFG Crosswinds Pedals. Trackir 5.

"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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A lot of things in Target will run fine in Parallel with DCS without the need to share info.

If YOU send the command by a switch or a button, there is no need to go through DCS and then back to Target. Just send it once. Both are listening.

For LEDs it seems to be ok to do this.

 

An example would be my friction lever is for my analog brakes which is set as that axis in DCS.

 

At the same time in Target I have that Axis turn on the LED 1 at anything above 1% and I turn the LED OFF at anything below 1%

I imagine the same holds true for switches.

 

They get along fine that way.

Win 10 pro 64 bit. Intel i7 4790 4 Ghz running at 4.6. Asus z97 pro wifi main board, 32 gig 2400 ddr3 gold ram, 50 inch 4K UHD and HDR TV for monitor. H80 cpu cooler. 8 other cooling fans in full tower server case. Soundblaster ZX sound card. EVGA 1080 TI FTW3. TM Hotas Wartog. TM T.16000M MFG Crosswinds Pedals. Trackir 5.

"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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Hi, I downloaded the TARGET software thing to try and set the pinky switch to control the throttle panel backlight, all I wanted to do was to use it to set pinky fwd and aft to have backlight on and pinky middle to have it off, but I have no idea how to do so, I thought the software had a graphic interface for people that don't know how to script, but I guess I was wrong.

 

so anyone has any idea on how to do so?

 

also, does anyone use the 5 led lights and the programmable friction axis for anything? I'm playing the A10c and soon will move to the f18 btw.

 

thanks

 

Rafael

 

Target GUI is the graphical interface. Start /programs /thrustmaster /Target GUI (not Target )script editor.

Win 10 pro 64 bit. Intel i7 4790 4 Ghz running at 4.6. Asus z97 pro wifi main board, 32 gig 2400 ddr3 gold ram, 50 inch 4K UHD and HDR TV for monitor. H80 cpu cooler. 8 other cooling fans in full tower server case. Soundblaster ZX sound card. EVGA 1080 TI FTW3. TM Hotas Wartog. TM T.16000M MFG Crosswinds Pedals. Trackir 5.

"Everyone should fly a Spitfire at least once" John S. Blyth

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