How To - Assigning toggle switches to DCS using Helios.

[Ragtop]

EDIT: This thread will now play host to any videos I make on this topic. If the demand is there I'll cover things in a little more detail with some proper videos in the future

 

Potentiometers are explained in post #18

 

Here is a list of inputs you will require for your toggle switches, and what type. I have not differentiated momentary or latching so please research this first

 

At the request of a number of members, I decided to write this tutorial for people, who like me, are building panels with toggle switches using USB boards like the Leo Bodnar BU0836X or the Groovy Game Gear GP-Wiz 40.

 

If you're interested in doing this, check out TigersharkBAS' excellent tutorial on it.

This tutorial is mainly aimed at people that want to assign switches into the game, which are not properly recognised. One of the issues I had, was that when I went to use my SPST (ON/OFF) Switches to a switch such as Battery Power, the ON signal turned the Battery on, but of course turning it off did nothing. Turning it on a second time sent another signal, turning the Battery Power off, and switching it back off a second time, of course, again, did nothing. This is because an ST switch only sends one signal, ON. Off is simply seen as a break in the connection, and is not sent to the game. This CAN be fixed by going in and playing with the Lua files for DCS, but a lot of people would rather leave this sort of thing alone, as it can get a bit messy if you're not very good with it.

 

That's where Helios comes in. It is able to distinguish the constant state of the switch, ON and OFF, and assign different values to each state.

 

Those who are using DT (ON/ON) switches should be able to assign their toggles directly inside DCS, but I have included instructions on how to to it in Helios, incase you use a mix, and want to set it all up in one place. (ON/OFF/ON) Will still need to use Helios, again because of the off signal.

 

Sorry it's so quiet, first time I've used my headset mic!

 

 

How to assign toggle switches to switches inside DCS-A10C, using Helios.

 

For those of you that prefer a written guide, enjoy!

 

 

 

1). First we need to create a new profile to set things up in. Let’s go to Proile - New. This will give us a blank profile, in which we can start to assign switches to the DCS panels.

 

2). Next we need to add our interfaces, the USB input board (In my case the Leo Bodnar BU0836X.) Go to Profile - Add Interface. Choose your input board from the list. We need to do the same thing to add the DCS A-10C interface to the mix.

 

3). Click on the tab at the top with the name of your USB board in the list, we’ll just check it’s functioning OK. Try flicking some switches and see what happens. This is what you should see. Light number is irrelevant, as it corresponds to whichever port you plugged each switch into. I will use #1 and #2 for the purpose of demonstration.

 

SPST (ON/OFF) Switch UP = Light #1 on. Switch DOWN = Light #1 off.

SPDT (ON/ON) Switch UP = Light #1 on. Switch DOWN = Light #2 on. (Light #1 and #2 will alternate.)

SPDT (ON/OFF/ON) Switch UP = Light #1 on. Switch MID = Lights off. Switch DOWN = Light #2 on.

 

If there are no surprises here, move onto step 4. If something is wrong, you’ll need to look at your wiring.

 

4). Now we’re ready to start binding some switches. We’ll use the Electrical Panel as our demonstration, because it uses both ST and DT switch types.

 

NOTE: You can use either ST (ON/OFF) Switches, or DT (ON/ON) switches with Helios for DCS. I reccomend ST (ON/OFF) Switches, because you only need to wire the switch to one port on your USB board. If you use DT (ON/ON), you’ll need to use 2 ports per switch. Accordingly, read step 5, then move to step 11.

 

5). With your USB Board tab selected, Navigate to the “Output” tab in the Bindings panel. In the Actions column, click on the disclosure triangle beside “Interfaces”, and then the one beside “DCS A10C”. You’ll now see each panel on the A10 listed. Scroll down and expand the “Electrical” list.

 

6). As long as the USB board tab at the top is selected, the “Bindings” column will list the potential states of each of your switches - Button 1 pressed, Button 1 released and so on. These are the switches connected to your USB board of course.

 

7). Lets start binding! In the “Actions” column, find the command “Set Battery”. Drag it onto the binding “Button 1 pressed”. Some red text will appear saying “Action Value Warning - Value cannot be empty”. Above this text will be the “Action Value” box explaining what each switch position is. Type “1” (Power) into the text box below it. What this does, is tells Helios that when I switch switch 1 ON, it will set the battery to value “1” (Power). Of course the problem here is that your switch only sends ON signals, OFF is not a signal, it’s simply OFF. So what we need to do? Tell Helios what to do when the switch is OFF, make sense? Don’t worry, it will!

 

8). Now we’ll tell it how to turn the Battery power off. In the “Actions” column, drag the same command - “Set Battery” onto “Button 1 released”. This time, you guessed it, we type in the value “2” (Off/Reset).

 

So, to reiterate. We turn the switch ON - Helios interprets this as “Set Battery” to value “1” (Power). When we switch it OFF, Helios sees that it is no longer on, and interprets this to “Set Battery” to value “2” (Off/Reset).

9). Lets do another, just to be clear. We’ll use the Emergency Flood switch. We’ll assume you wired this switch to the port 2 of your USB board. It’s worth writing down where each one goes. Again, just substitute the port with whichever one you used.

 

10). In the “Actions” Column, find “Set Emergency Flood” Drag it onto “Button 2 pressed”. Type in “1” (On). Drag the same command “Set Emergency Flood” onto “Button 2 released”. Type in “2” (Off). Hopefully this is starting to make sense for you now.

 

11). Now we’ll move onto a DT (ON/OFF/ON) Switch. We’ll use the 3 position Inverter Switch as our demonstration. These instructions will also apply if you are using DT (ON/ON) switches for the 2 position switches (Like Battery power). We’ll assume Switch position UP is seen as #3, Middle (if applicable) is off, and position DOWN is #4. Again, substiute #3 and 4 with whichever ports you are plugged into.

 

12). In the “Actions” Column, find the “Set inverter” Action, and drag it onto “Button 3 pressed”. In the “Action Value” text box, type number “1” (STBY).

 

13). Drag the same action “Set inverter” onto “Button 3 released”. Type in value “2” (Off).

 

14). Drag the same action “Set inverter” onto “Button 4 pressed”. Type in value “3” (Test).

 

15). Finally, drag “Set inverter” onto “Button 4 released”. Type in value “2” (Off).

 

What has this done? When we position the switch UP - Helios will set the Inverter switch to value “1” (Standby). When you move it back from UP to MID, it triggers value “2” (Off). When you move the switch DOWN, it triggers the command bound to USB board port 4, which of course is value “3” (Test). Finally, moving it from DOWN back to MID, will again, trigger value “2” (Off).

 

16). Repeat the process for each switch, and you’re all done!

 

17). Finally save your profile, and launch it before you go flying!

 

 

Edited October 14, 2011 by Ragtop

[avlolga]

Thanks Ragtop, :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

great guide.:book:

[TulsA-10]

Nice wright up.. here is a video i made showing how to setup a phidget 1031 led board with helios. It would be great to get all the how to videos in one thread.

 

 

[YOUTUBE]Ku-i859FSrE?hd=1

[/YOUTUBE]

Edited October 6, 2011 by TulsA-10

[Succellus]

This should be stickied cause it server all cockpit builders.

[Ragtop]

Thanks guys, I'm glad it can be of some use to people, I know it took me some time to figure out!

[TulsA-10]

This should be stickied cause it server all cockpit builders.

 

I second that!

[Gadroc]

Nice job Ragtop.

 

If you don't mind I'd like to reformat theses and put them up over on SCSimulations.com Helios support pages.

[Ragtop]

Go ahead, as long as I'm credited! :P

Edited October 6, 2011 by Ragtop

[Strix]

Good job ragtop!!!

Like you any more now :beer:

[HitchHikingFlatlander]

Very cool of you Ragtop! I think Strix is saying he likes you!

 

Gadroc - I might be able to answer this myself but does HELIOS work with boards such as the X-Keys 128 USB encoder? I have one of Cat_101's Matrix boards to go along with mine and to be honest hadn't thought about interfacing yet until now. That project is still waiting to get started on my workbench!

[Gadroc]

Not yet Hitch. I have downloaded their SDK and I'll be working on support for it.

[HitchHikingFlatlander]

Well it just so happens that the framing stage is on hold at the moment for pit construction. And the electronics side of the build can't be started until I build the matrix anyways. Gadroc you are simply awesome for doing this!

[Strix]

Pardon my crappy English :D heheheh....

Now for the tricky question!

How do you config rotary switches and pots in Helios? :helpsmilie:

I got it now with switches, but I need rotary and pots to....

 

I am to old to learn by my self :book:

 

Was the sound a bit off in video? Or is it my age?

 

Greetings from Sweden!

[TulsA-10]

Pardon my crappy English :D heheheh....

Now for the tricky question!

How do you config rotary switches and pots in Helios? :helpsmilie:

I got it now with switches, but I need rotary and pots to....

 

I am to old to learn by my self :book:

 

Was the sound a bit off in video? Or is it my age?

 

Greetings from Sweden!

 

 

I think encoders are the trick but not sure which if any work in Helios. Don't quote me on this.

[Ragtop]

Pots and rotaries work in different ways, but they do work. Fael097 figured it out, I linked to the thread in an earlier post in my thread I think, I'm on my phone so I can't dig out the link just yet! When I've got some to test I'll let you guys know.

 

Unfortunately it is very quiet, that was the first time I used my headset mic, didn't check the level!

Edited October 8, 2011 by Ragtop

[Ragtop]

Here's the link I was talking about. Page 4 towards the bottom, Fael097's post. I haven't personally explored yet, I'll post my findings when I do. Edited October 14, 2011 by Ragtop

[JG14_Smil]

Thank you for this post. I spent hours looking for info on how to use Helios and this was exactly what I needed. This is like Steve Martin getting a new phonebook in "The Jerk". Thank you!

[Ragtop]

 

How to on assigning potentiometers using Helios.

 

I touch on an issue that can occur when using virtual panels that are bound to the same thing as your potentiometers, which Gadroc explained very concisely.

 

1) You move the pot -> Helios sends an update to DCS.

2) DCS then reports the new lighting value back to Helios

3) You have an input binding on the virtual control which does not have "bypass cascading triggers set"

4) Helios sends new value back to DCS (go back to step 2 until DCS and Helios have same value)

 

The jitter is caused by differing levels of granularity. The return TriggerValue/65536 has 65536 different values which can be sent (more likely your joystick has 1024 (10bit) or 4096 (12bit) positions). The DS export scripts only export 2 decimal places to save processing time and bandwidth which translates only to 100 possible values. So when step 1 says 0.103 step 2 relays that back to Helios as .10 and then Helios sends that back. This causes the jitter.

 

You can fix it in two ways. One (which you should do anyways) is open the input binding on the Helios virtual control and click the bypass cascading triggers. This will prevent Helios from going to step 3 in the above process. You should do this on all your bindings into DCS to prevent these kinds of loops.

 

Second you can limit the resolution for the control to the same granularity of the DCS -> Helios export by using this lua scripts:

 

return string.format("%0.2f",TriggerValue/65535)

 

I simply chose to remove the virtual panel because, hey, I have a real one now, but if you choose to keep it, the bypass cascading triggers will solve the issue, which my video covers.

Edited October 14, 2011 by Ragtop

[Ragtop]

First post updated with information on toggle switches needed to build panels.

[grimm0ne]

wow... my mind was just blown to pieces.... and now with Helios... the wife is going to kill me... AHHAHAH

[hog_driver111th]

Ragtop, I need some help (I'll send you a quick PM too). If I put my switch in the DCS setting, it sees it, with the same problem you had of having to switch twice for it to go off. I then followed your steps for Helios. Helios sees my On/Off switch when I switch it, but when I go into DCS (without the toggle in the settings) the battery switch doesn't do anything. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[agrasyuk]

i'm not ragtop, but will attempt if you don't mind. i assume all your bindings are correct, is your export.lua correctly set however? for some reason i needed to reset it after the 1.1.1.1 patch

 

in any case, thanks for bringing the thread up. i didn't even think about it, configuring all the addon panels in Helios instead of assigning in game and then messing with config files for those toggle inputs is brilliant idea.

Edited December 30, 2011 by agrasyuk

[Ragtop]

Replied to your PM, with a similar suggestion to Agrasyuk, and a couple of side notes.

[hog_driver111th]

Woo Hoo, it works! The problem was in the DCS profile. All is good. Even my wife is happy, hehe.

[Ragtop]

Haha, because her husband can finally come to bed? My girlfriend is usually just relieved that I'm not going to be up until 5am swearing at the screen :P