Setting up the throttle axis for the Huey (VPC rotor plus)

[harf4ng]

Hi,

I use a VPC rotor plus and I wonder what is the best way to setup it for the huey throttle. This hardware has an idle zone, but when I'm at minimum throttle with my hardware I'm at about 50% power, to be at minimum I have to use the idle button on my collective and turn the throttle more.

I thought about setting up curves or deadzones, but in DCS you can put them only symetrical, not only at one end.

Thanks

[MAXsenna]

2 hours ago, harf4ng said:

Hi,

I use a VPC rotor plus and I wonder what is the best way to setup it for the huey throttle. This hardware has an idle zone, but when I'm at minimum throttle with my hardware I'm at about 50% power, to be at minimum I have to use the idle button on my collective and turn the throttle more.

I thought about setting up curves or deadzones, but in DCS you can put them only symetrical, not only at one end.

Thanks

Make sure you set EVERY axis that is not a stick to sliders. Collectives, throttles etc. are supposed to go from 0 to 100, unlike sticks that go from -100 to +100. Then you can have deadzones at both ends. Don't have the rotor myself, so I'm not sure how others have tackled the "realistic" setup. Polychop did this in a very nice way in the Kiowa.

Cheers! 

[harf4ng]

Thanks it works.

Btw is there a way with the vpc rotor plus to mimic the way the throttle is supposed to work in the real Huey? As the Huey has this big issue it does not work well for that, as when you're at 0 power you have to click on the idle button then use page down to cut down the engine. In a real Huey you just push the button then continue turning the power down.

Would be great if ED could fix that but I dropped all hope for that to work well one day

[MAXsenna]

Thanks it works.
Btw is there a way with the vpc rotor plus to mimic the way the throttle is supposed to work in the real Huey? As the Huey has this big issue it does not work well for that, as when you're at 0 power you have to click on the idle button then use page down to cut down the engine. In a real Huey you just push the button then continue turning the power down.
Would be great if ED could fix that but I dropped all hope for that to work well one day

It has been wished for. I use the mouse to rotate throttle out of cutoff. Like I wrote, the Kiowa has a better solution.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[harf4ng]

Yes but the Kiowa is only an attack/scout helicopter. I like more civilian solutions

I will probably buy the Kiowa one day though...

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

17 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

Like I wrote, the Kiowa has a better solution.

Yes and no. It's good that you can set the collective range yourself, but when going over the detent you still need to click the detent button in the cockpit AND your own physical detent on the collective. I wish they'd give us the option to go over that detent automatically for people who have the hardware for it.

Edited Tuesday at 11:53 AM by Raven (Elysian Angel)
Seems I was wrong and/or didn't know.

[MAXsenna]

Yes and no. It's good that you can set the collective range yourself, but when going over the detent you still need to click the detent button in the cockpit AND your own physical detent on the collective. I wish they'd give us the option to go over that detent automatically for people who have the hardware for it.

Instead of pushing the lock pin you mean? Like on the Warthog throttle from cutoff to idle with the need for ie. fingerlifts? Of course that would be nice.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

Yes but the Kiowa is only an attack/scout helicopter. I like more civilian solutions
I will probably buy the Kiowa one day though...

It was just an example of how PC have solved it vs. ED.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

On the VPC collective, that physical button is not linked to a logical button so you can’t programme it or bind it to a function.

So in that sense yes: fingerlifts are generally not tied to a logical function either, and you need to define a range of motion of the axis in software to act like a virtual logical button. I suppose I could test if that works in the Kiowa but it will be finicky and prone to errors if the movement doesn’t exactly (and I really mean exactly) line up between your physical hardware and the virtual controls in the cockpit.

To get idle/cut-off detents to work reliably is a pain in the behind, at least for Virpil (as an example: sometimes shutting down one engine also shuts down the other even if the 2nd throttle hasn’t passed over the detent yet). Most of the time it works flawlessly, but not always.

Edited Tuesday at 11:53 AM by Raven (Elysian Angel)
Seems I was wrong and/or didn't know.

[harf4ng]

1 hour ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Yes and no. It's good that you can set the collective range yourself, but when going over the detent you still need to click the detent button in the cockpit AND your own physical detent on the collective. I wish they'd give us the option to go over that detent automatically for people who have the hardware for it.

With the virpil rotor plus collective, the button to go over the detent is recon as a button so I guess you can setup it as the cockpit button.

Now what I wonder is if you can setup that so that the axis position of your real hardware will match the kiowa position for the detent. Maybe with curves...

39 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

On the VPC collective, that physical button is not linked to a logical button so you can’t programme it or bind it to a function.

It is on my vpc rotor plus collective. I remember seeing a button being pressed when I pressed this physical button.

[MAXsenna]

41 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

To get idle/cut-off detents to work reliably is a pain in the behind, at least for Virpil (as an example: sometimes shutting down one engine also shuts down the other even if the 2nd throttle hasn’t passed over the detent yet). Most of the time it works flawlessly, but not always.

Interesting, I don't have that issue at all with the Warthog. I wonder why TM's solution haven't been copied by others. It seems to me that solution would work well even in a collective.  

[Vakarian]

13 hours ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

On the VPC collective, that physical button is not linked to a logical button so you can’t programme it or bind it to a function.

You sure about that? I've completely reinstalled windows few days ago and redone all of the cockpit which includes updating firmware to the VPC peripherals. Flashing new firmware clears all config and once I've done that I still had the button functionality meaning it's not something I've added on my own.

One thing to note is, that button (Button 1 in VPC software) will register only when you need to unlock the full travel back to the off position as that's the only point where it depresses enough. If you are anywhere else in the travel range, it won't reach the button.

Bottom line is, that is a logical button by default. If it's not on your end I'd double check the firmware.

---

EDIT: As far as Kiowa goes, it works out of the box with absolutely no fiddling in software both on VPC or DCS end. Just ensure that the special options for the throttle for Kiowa is set to fuil range (don't know the exact wording by memory)

On 7/13/2025 at 12:04 PM, harf4ng said:

Hi,

I use a VPC rotor plus and I wonder what is the best way to setup it for the huey throttle. This hardware has an idle zone, but when I'm at minimum throttle with my hardware I'm at about 50% power, to be at minimum I have to use the idle button on my collective and turn the throttle more.

I thought about setting up curves or deadzones, but in DCS you can put them only symetrical, not only at one end.

Thanks

Make sure to check this post out. I haven't checked Huey lately but unless something's changed in DCS since then, this tutorial is the way to set it up for the Huey

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:31 AM by Vakarian

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

2 hours ago, Vakarian said:

Bottom line is, that is a logical button by default. If it's not on your end I'd double check the firmware.

---

EDIT: As far as Kiowa goes, it works out of the box with absolutely no fiddling in software both on VPC or DCS end. Just ensure that the special options for the throttle for Kiowa is set to fuil range (don't know the exact wording by memory)

Ooooh I should check that then. Odd though that I never noticed (I did check originally when I bought it).

I’m using the very latest firmware now as it was needed for my pedals.

*EDIT*

Holy cow this actually works! Thank you so much, @Vakarian! 

*EDIT 2* 

2 hours ago, Vakarian said:

As far as Kiowa goes, it works out of the box with absolutely no fiddling in software both on VPC or DCS end.

No it doesn't. You still need to bind "throttle idle release" but you *can* actually bind it, which I did not know.

Edited Tuesday at 12:48 PM by Raven (Elysian Angel)
Mind blown!

[harf4ng]

On 7/15/2025 at 12:29 PM, Vakarian said:

Make sure to check this post out. I haven't checked Huey lately but unless something's changed in DCS since then, this tutorial is the way to set it up for the Huey

 

 

Thanks this was the post I was seeking. It is not perfect though and I had better results using joystick gremlin but at least it does not need another software.

The problem I find with virpil software is that you cannot add an axis to button different if you comes into the range from the top or the bottom. Joystick gremlin allows that.