Instrumentation exports, XInput, Arduino, HOTAS, making a minimalist throttle control

[plate-of-shrimp]

Hello flyers.

I roll with just a 360 controller but managing a throttle with it isn't very pleasing and after this many landings at incorrect speeds I am in great arrears on account of all the burning wrecks littering the airfield.  So, I wanted to drive throttle with one or two sliders (I'm lounging inside an A-10 usually) or perhaps a rocker pedal.

After looking at what DCS-BIOS affords I get the impression that what it relies on is focused on inputs for instrumentation and specifically does not include inputs for control surfaces or engine control.  Is this correct?

I took a different approach, that of making an Arduino microcontroller masquerade as an XInput device, which is well documented.  Attaching a potentiometer, mapping voltage to a stick in C and mapping the stick to the throttle in World works nicely (apart from some axis wraparound that is surely fixable).  Was this the most expedient approach or did I make this overly complicated?

Edited September 6, 2022 by plate-of-shrimp

[crash test pilot]

Mind having a look at mmjoy? It makes a HID-joystick from a leonardo or pro-micro and is really easy:

 

https://github.com/MMjoy/mmjoy_en/wiki

[plate-of-shrimp]

I think that mmjoy, which you point out, or FreeJoy, which I just saw here on the forum, are good evidence that this general approach is well established.  They both seem good for big projects where you might have a lot of controls to keep straight.  Once you wanted more than a couple of controls, my approach would start becoming a PITA and using these frameworks would be better.  More importantly, you should not have to maintain code.  Most signal transformations won't need unexpected code.

Edited September 6, 2022 by plate-of-shrimp

[No1sonuk]

For "self-build" control inputs, have you considered a Leo Bodnar board?
They have 12-bit ADCs, so better resolution than the standard Arduino 10-bit.
There's no coding to deal with - just plug it in and the computer sees it as a game controller.
They can also be configured to operate with rotary encoders.
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94&zenid=266e90cd3c9323cbc52e5bb4a111beb8

Oh, BTW, total-lossing an A-10 while trying not to takes talent!