Problem: HELIOS does not send key press from keyboard to DCS

[happysleeper]

I bind a keyboard key press to a button position (example in bindings: position one entered => press key Keyboard to {LALT}1). This should send a {LALT}1 key combination to DCS - but IT DOESN'T! Nothing happens.

I tried to send a single key, tried to change the type of button - nothing works. HELIOS DOES NOT SEND ANY KEY FROM THE KEYBOARD TO THE GAME.

I'm using HELIOS 1.4 and the latest upgrade of DCS.

 

Does anybody have any idea how to even approach this problem?

 

THANKS!

[Capt Zeen]

Open a text document, configure a simple letter key on the helios profile editor ( without combination, just a simple letter), and test if it work.

Make sure you got selected (fucosed) the text document before press the key with helios.

Thats way you can see if the profile is really sending the keys

[Capt Zeen]

I just tested on my version, and yes, it looks like the send keys commands don´t work.

 

Send keys : dont work at all

press key : it works but looks like this just send a key press and do not mantain pressed.

release key : dont know if it works, because press key dont work as expected.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Capt Zeen

[BluFinBima]

HappySleeper, thanks for reporting this.

 

I have only ever used very basic keyboard functions. My testing (simple) indicates the following:

 

Send Keys: seems to work

Press Key: Has the same results as Send Keys

Release key: Same as CZ says - Who knows

 

I've gone back to Gadroc's final code on GitHub and it has the same problem. I get the same results on 10 and 8.1.

 

So I guess Gadroc must have re-written this code and not used the same code as 1.3.

 

I have already looked at the code in 1.4 and there is nothing obviously wrong but clearly there is a problem. I have some guesses about what might be happening, but it'll take a bit of work (and time) to find out what is really going on. Issue 116 opened for this.

 

Cheers, BFB

[BluFinBima]

Happy Sleeper,

A couple of us have pulled apart the Helios Keyboard interface and performed a lot of testing, and we have only concluded that the keyboard interface is working in the way that 1.3.190 was, and as far as we can tell, it is also working as intended.

 

As the Captain says, testing with notepad in focus is the way to perform simple testing. If this all works, and your intended "catcher" of the keyboard commands is DCS, then please ensure that DCS has focus when the button is being pressed.

 

If you are running Helios Control Center on a different machine from DCS, then please be aware that the keyboard interface does not talk across a network and will never be heard by DCS.

 

Cheers, BFB

[Capt Zeen]

Tonight, at home, i made some test in 1.3 and 1.4.

The resoult is that all the keyboards commands work correct with DCS.

so...

send keys: press and release a key

Press key: press the key and mantain it pressed

release key: release the key

 

But i found a possible cause of your error:

If you use capital letter to refer to the key, it don't work. You need to use lower case letters to refer to the key.

For example:

 

"send keys Keyboard to k" : it work

"send keys Keyboard to K" : Don't work !

 

 

Anyway, use capital letter when you refer to the Special Keys, for example:

 

"send keys Keyboard to {LSHIFT}k"

 

Hope thats help you.

 

 

 

..

[BluFinBima]

Anyone got any thoughts on whether making the alphabetic characters case agnostic would be problematic - ie changing any capital letters to lower case? I am conscious that what might seem sensible for latin, might back-fire in non-latin characters.

[LaLa]

Anyone got any thoughts on whether making the alphabetic characters case agnostic would be problematic - ie changing any capital letters to lower case? I am conscious that what might seem sensible for latin, might back-fire in non-latin characters.

 

ASCII codes for upper and lower case characters are different. Programmatically easy to convert from one to the other, but would appear that Helios only responds to lower case. Look at the captured image from Helios here, while not specifically stating use lower case, Gadroc only shows lower case. Computer programs are very selective/specific unless the author foresaw the problem, and programmed accordingly, which in this case he apparently did not. https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4312967/helios-use-of-send-keys-to-control-dcs-cockpit-design#Post4312967

[slicker55]

I will bring this one up again as tonight I tried to continue work on a profile I created some time ago using the original Gadroc version of Helios but I am now using the latest BluFinBima version.

 

Anyway, running the profile, all instruments function correctly but none of the toggle switches are sending their relevant key bindings from Helios to DCS.

 

Testing:

 

Manually pressing keys on the keyboard changes the position of the relevant switch in DCS

 

Clicking any of the switches in DCS using the mouse activates the switch in the cockpit correctly and changes the position of the respective switch in the helios profile accordingly - Therefore, no sync issues from DCS to Helios.

 

I have since determined that simple key bindings limited to one character or one number work but stop working when used in combination with 'special keys'.

 

So, example:

 

send keys Keyboard to k : does work

send keys Keyboard to {LCONTROL}{LSHIFT}k : doesn't work

 

I have reinstalled the latest version of helios (run as admin) UAC to minimum, AV disabled... all stuff I don't normally need to do but just in case...

 

Anyone any ideas?

[Ant0ine]

I never really used Helios, but I used simpler soft such as Roccat Power Grid and now Matric. For DCS it is important that the pulse duration last long enough. How long is needed is probably dependent on computer speed.. And if you need a combinaison, make sure to add a delay between each event of the combinaison. So for exemple Shift + k should be :

 

Press L_shift

Pause 50ms

Press k

Pause 50ms

Release k

Pause 50ms

Release L_shift

Edited May 3, 2020 by Ant0ine

[slicker55]

... just an update

 

everything working again after uninstalling and reinstalling keyboard drivers.

 

will see how things go....

[Prayde]

Hello, I dig up the subject because I have the same concerns.
When I assign a keyboard shortcut to a button, it works in the notepad but not in DCS!
All programs are running in administrator mod and up to date.

Best regards

PRAYDE

[Spiceman]

On 1/8/2021 at 12:40 PM, Prayde said:

Hello, I dig up the subject because I have the same concerns.
When I assign a keyboard shortcut to a button, it works in the notepad but not in DCS!
All programs are running in administrator mod and up to date.

Best regards

PRAYDE

 

Same....

[DudleyAz]

Hi all,

Just a quick addon to this topic.  I was having the same issue while building a new profile to reflect some hardware changes in my simpit.  I was having the similar issue where a simple Helios button trying to send a single character (in my example "p").  I found that if I used my mouse to click the Helios button, it would send the character.  So that proved that Helios was capable of sending the keyboard output binding I had assigned.

However, I was building my profile to allow a physical button press on a new button box to send a key command.  Helios would recognize the physical button press, but wouldn't send the keyboard output binding ("p", "g", nothing) on to anything (IL-2, DCS, or even just to the notepad).  I started to recall I had this issue in the past (getting old sucks).  I was just hunting around in the Helios button INPUT bindings window tried unchecking the "Bypass Cascading Triggers" box and NOW IT WORKED!  This works for simple and complex keyboard bindings.

I hope this helps someone whose been having this issue.

Cheers

Dudley

null

Edited November 11, 2023 by DudleyAz

[cgrxman]

I ran into this problem today after reinstalling DCS.  I'm still unable to fix it.  I wanted to note that DCS is also not receiving simple key events from my Stream Deck either.  The same key inputs entered through the keyboard work fine.  Looks like this may be more of a DCS issue than a Helios issue. 

[cgrxman]

2 hours ago, cgrxman said:

I ran into this problem today after reinstalling DCS.  I'm still unable to fix it.  I wanted to note that DCS is also not receiving simple key events from my Stream Deck either.  The same key inputs entered through the keyboard work fine.  Looks like this may be more of a DCS issue than a Helios issue. 

Update:  I was running DCS in Administrator Mode.  After disabling that, it appears that all of my external keyboard hotkeys work (Helios, Stream Deck, and VoiceAttack).

[DudleyAz]

Update:  Just a little more info as I ran into this problem again after a fresh install of Helios on a new computer.  My issue was related to the 'Bypass cascading triggers' check box.  Just for more clarification, if you are using a physical button to drive a button in Helios that sends a keyboard command to DCS (or notepad, or anything else), then the 'Bypass cascading triggers' check box MUST be UNCHECKED on both the INPUTS and OUTPUTS.  I just drove myself crazy for an hour before I thought to check in inputs boxes.   Once I clear all those boxes, everything worked as expected.

Happy flying!

Dud