Saitek X52Pro Mfd and Fip how to home

[jay43]

Thanks Algerad3

Just got my new system up and runing which don't ask me what the specs are as i got it off my son its only 6 months old and he just wasn't using it any more so i blagged it of him.

I'll find this note++ and have a play around as i am sure this x52 pro can and will be good.

I like Thrustmaster hotas stick and could easily afford it but to me its unique to the A10 so as new and different aircraft are added i just don't see the point in buying something gimmiky.

I will get to work then.

[Moburma]

Hey Algerad3, I've been watching this thread with interest for some time now so decided to dive in. I've tried to follow your guides to the letter, but I've been getting a problem where it seems the .dll file isn't being recognised, so I must have done something wrong. The output from dcs.log is as follows:

 

 

 

00012.057 ALERT EDCORE: Can't execute Lua file C:\Users\Andrew\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\Export.lua - [string "C:\Users\Andrew\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\Exp..."]:5: module 'saitek' not found:

no field package.preload['saitek']

no file '.\saitek.lua'

no file 'D:\games\DCS World\bin\lua\saitek.lua'

no file 'D:\games\DCS World\bin\lua\saitek\init.lua'

no file 'D:\games\DCS World\bin\saitek.lua'

no file 'D

 

 

 

I've got the .dll in the bin folder for the Ka-50, have LUA for windows installed, replaced the executables with the ones from your achive and then reinstalled it again for the 32 bit version in the lua32 directory, and have tried various export.luas from this thread, but I always get the same message. I noticed someone on chrilith's forums had the same problem, but he just reinstalled everything? Anyone got any insights into what I've done wrong?

[algerad3]

Moburma, which module , KA-50 #1 , Ka-50 # 2/upgrade or Dcs World?

 

Lets take a look at your export file.

Also, did you install the Saitek Pro Flight instrument panel drivers?

They will work for the X -52 pro and the Fip...that driver is required to interface.

 

Cowboy10uk...In the last lua.export example posted I included access to the radios for the Ka-50. Sometimes causes a crash or freezes things up, still working on learning the ins and outs of programming. You should be able to run it as is .

[Moburma]

Sorry, a few more details: I actually had installed the FIP drivers, and did so after my joystick drivers (which I installed ages ago). I'm trying to get the X52 Pro screens working. I'm using DCS World with the Black Shark 2 upgrade version, and put the .dll in DCS World\Mods\aircrafts\Ka-50\bin is that correct?

 

The export.lua I was using was just the one you posted on post 68 of this thread. I haven't tried to do anything "clever" with it yet, I just wanted to see it working first! Is that export.lua ok to use as is, or have I goofed? I'm somewhat new to DCS world and haven't used the export.lua functions before.

 

Someone had basically the same problem here (posted by "Dorian in the comments there) with in this case FSX looking for the same non-existant .lua files instead of calling .dll functions. Clearly I'm doing something wrong but I'm not sure what. I guess I should delete everything and start again. I stuck the export.lua in the my Saved Games\DCS\Scripts directory, I take it you don't need the config.lua file anymore now? Don't worry too much about if if you're not sure, I know from experience how annoying it can be to use time you could spend developing stuff to helping someone who's done something dumb and not read the instructions properly!

[algerad3]

Ah, well now I think I see what you are saying....

Actually the Dll goes in the Dcs world \bin . 4th folder down on the first set of folders. If I understand correctly you put the dll in the mods folder that is why it can not find it.

As for the export lua , you just need to save the original export lua you find in Config\Export(the one just under bin.) Paste that lua that you downloaded in its place ( make ssure you have the original saved somewhere safe in case you need it for reference /replacement etc..

After that you should be good to go.

I have done some work for the a-10 version, just need to hone the math skills and get the radio switches to act right.

any more questions holla.

[Cowboy10uk]

Thanks for the link here mate. Ill give the Dll a go when I finish work tonight. I see that this seems to be for the X52 mfd and Flight display only. Can I ask if anyone has tried it using with the switch or radio panels?

 

I'm hoping to output radio freq to radio panel display and be able to change it using the correct dials.

 

Cowboy10uk

[algerad3]

Cowboy,

THe switch and radio panels ( if I am thinking of the same ones your are talking about) use a different set of drivers and does not have "Directoutput" access.These devices are designed with "DirectOutpt" in mind. I don't have any of those items , but I understand that they have been programmed by some people to interface with Non FSX simulators.

As I learn more skillzz I may have to buy a set and have a go at them and see what I can do.

[Moburma]

Got it working! impressive stuff, only used it for five minutes just now, but your latest export.lua worked perfectly, no flicker on my screen.

 

The reason why it didn't work was a combination of two things; me being an idiot and not reading the example lua file from one of your old archives and renaming the .dll file to "saitek.dll" (duh), and two not using the lua5.1.dll file from Chrillith's original archive. Using just the 64 bit executables from your archive/the official 64bit Lua distribution would NOT work for me, is the saitek.dll hardcoded to use lua5.1.dll?

 

I found this whole process quite confusing, so if you don't mind I'll lay out a little "for dummies" tutorial for anyone who is interested to join the party based on what I found:

 

How to install

 

1) Download and install the drivers for your X52 Pro joystick (you've almost certainly done this already, but this is for dummies!)

 

2) Download and install the drivers for the Saitek Pro Flight Instrumentation Panel from here (YES you NEED this even if you're not using a FIP and only the X52 Pro).

 

3) Download the installer package for LUA for Windows from here. Install it to the default location.

 

4) Download the 64 bit LUA executables (the ones we installed above were only 32 bit, and DCS World is 64 bit). Get them from here.

 

5) Go to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua\5.1 directory where LUA was installed. Delete all the files in the directory after the 7zip.exe (assuming you have usual Windows sorting. DO NOT delete any foldiers). Replace the executables in here with the ones in the 64 bit lua zip file above (e.g. lua52.dll etc). I'm actually not 100% sure if this step is necessary, but algerad3's original instructions included it so so am I!

 

6) If you want to use a 32bit based lua editor you need the 32 bit environment installed as well, so reinstall the file you downloaded in 3) again. This time install it to C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua32\ NOT the default installation directory or you will overwrite the changes we just made!

 

7) Download Chrillith's Saitek DLL package from his site. You can find the download link here.

 

8) Extract the files to a temporary directory somewhere - we only want some of them.

 

9) Open the Install\Saitek\64-bit directory in the files you just extracted. There are two more directories after this, and we need to move the files inside them to different places. Open the "dll" directory, and copy lua5.1.dll to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua\5.1 directory where we stuck the files in step 5).

 

10) Go back and open the other directory that you would have seen in step 9) called "lua". Copy the saitek.dll file inside here to the "bin" folder inside your main DCS world directory. You can now delete all the other files you extracted from the archive to clean up.

 

11) Download the "Export.lua" file from algerad3's post here. Copy this to your Saved Games\DCS\Scripts directory. To get to this directory, you need to open the start menu in Windows 7, and click on your username on the right hand side of the menu. You should see "saved games" listed in the window that will open. Once inside the DCS folder you won't actually have a "scripts" directory by default, so you will have to make it by hand if not.

 

12) Load up the game and start a KA-50 mission. If everything worked then you should be able to use the left dial on the X52 throttle MFCD to bring up info. If not then check the DCS.log file in your Saved Games\DCS\Logs folder, and towards the end there will hopefully be error messages to do with "saitek" in there to give you a clue as to what went wrong.

 

Usage Info

 

Algerad3's currently released Export.lua only functions with the KA-50 module for DCS World.

 

Algerad3's export.lua will create new "pages" on your X52 Pro MFD screen. The MFD will default to the usual screen that shows the current profile that is loaded. To get to the new pages that show you information on radio frequencies, engine RPMs, etc, roll the left dial below the screen (marked with Pg ^ etc). While on the page with the APU information, the LEDS on the joystick itself will reflect the current state of the KA-50s' landing gear (Green for down, Red for up, as on the instrument panel of the aircraft). This does not work while on other pages of the display.

 

The right rotary dial changes the first dial of the VHF1 radio in the aircraft, adjusting the frequency up and down as the real control would. To toggle to the second rotary for this control, PUSH in the right rotary dial. Push it in again to change back. Note that this control is very buggy at the moment, and WILL crash the game if you use it a lot or change frequencies quickly.

 

--

 

This is really cool, and now I've got it working I might see what I can do myself. I'm not much of a programmer but I've done some modding work on other games and I think I have a very basic grasp of how the lua file works. A-10 stuff sounds very exciting!

Edited April 1, 2013 by Moburma

[algerad3]

The reason why it didn't work was a combination of two things; me being an idiot and not reading the example lua file from one of your old archives and renaming the .dll file to "saitek.dll" (duh), and two not using the lua5.1.dll file from Chrillith's original archive. Using just the 64 bit executables from your archive/the official 64bit Lua distribution would NOT work for me, is the saitek.dll hardcoded to use lua5.1.dll?

 

Yes , it is hard coded to use lua 5.1 I actually had to re-install my c drive and I tried to use 5.2(?) the new lua module. It failed and I spent half the day trying to figure it out.

 

Awesome job on the guide.

[Moburma]

Ok, I've been playing with this today and made my own version of the export.lua. This is 99% based on algerad3 and Kurcha's amazing work. In his words I'm just a copy/paste programmer, I'm relying on much smarter guys like him to do the heavy lifting.

 

The file I've attached below does two main things, it merges Kurcha's really great fixes to the flight values so what is reported on the MFCD is now correct (I hope he doesn't mind this), and also includes his tidied up labels (so e.g. the radios are now reported as VHF1 etc). The new changes I've made myself are just fun stuff with the LEDS on the stick. With this version the stick's main FIRE button LED now reflects the Weapon Arm indicator in the KA-50. It will illuminate when that switch is turned on, and will be off when weapons are not armed.

 

I've also added some changes to the landing gear LEDS so that they now work across ALL pages, and should reflect the correct landing gear state if you switch back and forth between pages (previously they'd all go amber due to both LEDS being on). Due to the way I coded this the lights will flicker slightly in a neutral state (i.e. gear moving and neither completely up or down yet), and I think the effect will be broken if you've changed the default LED colour (i.e. not green) in the X52 joystick control panel, but I think it's good enough. Keep in mind that LED effects do NOT work on the default MFCD information page (i.e. the one that tells you which profile you have loaded). I'm not sure how to do this yet or if it's even possible (I tried setting the page to '0' but that didn't make any different, is there a special number for this page, or is it just impossible to change?). The changes I've made will however now mean that landing gear colours will still be correct after you switch from this page to one of the new exported pages unlike in algerad3's original LUA.

 

To install, just rename to Export.lua (I only renamed it to distinguish from algerad3 and Kurcha's releases) and place in the Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\ directory.

 

Feel free to use my crappy code in your own versions!

 

Oh yeah, and I guess this is more of a question for Chrillith, but is it possible to assign the START/STOP and RESET buttons to controls, or are these hardwired to only work using the useless built in stopwatch functions? I didn't see them in the readme for his dll, so I guess you can't use them. Also, is it possible to change the clock area to show information? By the nature of the LCD here you can't do much with it, but I thought it might be cool to be able to show the current local time in the game rather than just the real world time (for e.g. missions that require you to wait at a location until a certain time has passed).

MoburmaExport0.1.lua

Edited April 1, 2013 by Moburma

[Moburma]

I got a very basic export.lua for the P-51 working now. It's nothing exciting, just a single page with airspeed and altitude etc on it. Does anyone know what the device ID is for the radio on the P-51? I'll add that if anyone can give me a clue.

[algerad3]

Moburma,

Took a look at your version of the export and I have to say +1.

I was thinking about how I wanted to adjust the landing lights led to show up on all pages . Never thought of doing it like you did. Excellent job.

That is what this thread is all about. There is very little info on how to work with the mfd and I was hoping to put some info out there so others can use it as they wished. What you are doing and what Kurcha did makes my involvement in this process very worthwhile and rewarding.

Thank you for the feed back and great work.

 

Algerad3

[algerad3]

Oh, I forgot, I know you aimed the question of the stop watch at Chrillith but, I can answer. There is no functions providing access to the stop watch other than within SST program.

The Start , stop and reset button only works with the stop watch.

I wish those buttons were available.

[jay43]

Good work guys liking it still tryimg to get my old head around as i come from an era of computing that was the zx81 ugh.

[chrilith]

I think I missed all this thread... will take a look at all this... :)

[Moburma]

Here's a fixed version of my export.lua I posted above. This is pretty much the same as the last one, only I coded the landing light behaviour differently to stop the flickering that would happen if the lights were off such as from a cold start or when the gears were retracting (was due to bad code on my part). I also set this version to automatically switch to the APU page as soon as the mission starts now.

 

algerad3 - thanks for the stopwatch info. I guessed it was the case you can't control it, but you never know. Shame they seem to have put so much effort into this thing and then just abandoned it.

MoburmaExport0.2.lua

[Moburma]

I've been working on a new framework for these export lua files. At the moment you of course have to rename the lua file for whatever plane you want to fly to export.lua, and it won't work correctly if you then decide to fly a different plane without manually changing the files around. As such I've made an automatic launcher that will detect what aircraft is currently being flown and load the appropriate saitek export lua file. If you want to use this system you will need to rename your export.lua files to fit the scheme I'll lay out below. You can actually use this export.lua to launch any other lua files you want and not just these saitek ones, so feel free to edit it and use this for other projects.

 

Automatic Saitek Export Lua Script Instructions

 

Attached to this post you will find a file called export.lua. Download and save this file in your Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\ directory. If you already have an export.lua in there then back it up first, then overwrite it. Once you've done this, you need to name your old saitek export.lua file in the Scripts directory to one of the following filenames for the game to automatically load it and start outputting the X-52 or FIP screens:

 

[table]DCS Module|Filename

A-10C|saiteka10c.lua

Ka-50|saitekka50.lua

Su-25T|saiteksu25.lua

P-51D|saitekp51.lua

Other|saitekother.lua

[/table]So, to use e.g. the lua attached to my previous post for the Ka-50 (MoburmaExport0.2.lua), simply download it and then rename it to saitekka50.lua and put it in the Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\ directory. This system will also work perfectly with the export.luas created by Kucha and algerad3.

 

With this script you can therefore have a separate exporter lua for each DCS supported aircraft, and even better it will be loaded up automatically for you on mission start!

 

I've also included support for new aircraft. If you're somehow lucky enough to have access to a non-public DCS mod, the script should fall back to saitekother.lua so that file could be used to create a new MFD script for your mod.

 

As a bonus I've included my early exporter for the P-51D Mustang. It doesn't do anything that exciting yet, just two pages showing you altitude and airspeed, and another showing you engine information (altitude goes a bit screwey under 100ft at the moment, I think I can fix that with some maths), but you can use it in conjunction with the existing KA-50 export files to test my script framework. The P-51 exporter is already named correctly to work with the autoload framework. If you don't want to use the framework, just rename saitekp51.lua to export.lua

 

With this system and Chrillith's dll file it is actually possible to have the X-52 automatically load the profile for the aircraft into the joystick itself. I might include this in the next version of my exports, but it will be left commented out as obviously you will need to be using the exact same profile as me for the script to work. The brave can of course edit this to have their favourite profile automatically loaded along with everything else.

 

Enjoy!

Export.lua

saitekp51.lua

Edited April 2, 2013 by Moburma

[algerad3]

Moburma, I just took a brief look at your latest export lua.

Question, where did you get the idea to do it as you did? I remember there were questions on if that could be done for Helios profiles and there was a work around created... Did I miss a post or two somewhere?

 

Kudos are in order in any case.

[Moburma]

I'm pretty new to modding DCS World so I didn't realise it was that new a development. I saw the code at the end of the lua from this thread, and nicked the directory finding code from the instructions for Tacview.

 

Of course you can't inspect devices that aren't present in the current aircraft in a lua, so this seemed like the obvious way around it. As far as I know there aren't any shortcomings to it, and have been playing KA-50 missions all evening with no problems. I can happily load up a KA-50 mission, quit, and then load up a P-51 mission and get my the X-52 exported screens working perfectly and automatically! I've got my joystick profile set to autoload in the KA-50 export now and it's awesome to just load up the game and have everything good to go straight away.

 

I deliberately didn't do any work on an A-10 exporter as I know you were working on one (with cool stuff I don't dare touch yet like radios), but I might try and start an SU-25T one (haven't really flown that plane yet though), and will probably add some cool stuff to the P-51 exporter such as landing gear lights and fuel status etc.

 

I know this is hardly the most popular thread/development, but do people have any requests for data they'd like to see for particular aircraft?

[Moburma]

One more post before bed!

 

I played around with the P-51 exporter some more, and got some cool stuff going. As such, here is a new release.

 

Saitek P-51D exporter version 0.2

 

New Features:

 

-- New page featuring levels of all fuel tanks on board. No more looking under the seat! I'm not sure if the maths here are quite right, but I think it's close (exactly how much fuel CAN the P-51D hold?). Levels measured are Left tank, Right tank, Fuselage tank (empty in most missions), and combined Total in gallons.

 

-- Landing gear indicators are now mirrored on the left and middle joystick toggle lights. The right hand toggle will still be default colour. Should I switch this off or leave it as-is?

 

-- Auto Joystick Profile loading. This is commented out in the release file. To enable it, remove the "--" bit from the start of line 10. The path shown should be the default for the SST software on a standard Windows 7 installation, so you should be able to just change the filename specified at the end to the filename of the profile you are actually using for your P-51. If you set this up then the game will make your joystick automatically load the correct stick profile every time you fly the P-51. Cool huh? If you set it up and the stick defaults to No Profile then you've typed something incorrect.

 

Installation

 

If you're using my autoloader export.lua from my last post (highly recommended), then just save this file as-is into your scripts folder. If not, rename it to export.lua and put it in there.

 

I got an Su-25T profile working as well, but it's very boring at the moment (airspeed, alt, etc). I need to look up how (if?) you can get the indicator lights status from these old Lock On planes.

saitekp51.lua

[algerad3]

Good job, been a bit busy , but I should be able to get back on the a-10.

I was having troubles with the math and the radio switches are still something I have to fiddle more with.

[jay43]

Just looking through some of my peripherals and my logitech keyboard g510 has an lcd display on it which can be sripted to display game information but i have no idea what or how to do it as of yet.

Would be cool though to get both devices to display information that i want at quick glance comes with quite a good tutorial as well on how to program lau and script editing for the display looks like i got some revision to do.

Why do i feel like i am back at school lol ya never to young to learn i suppose.

[Moburma]

I just tried out a cool idea this evening that I think is quite exciting. With Chrilith's dll it is possible to not only add pages to the MFD screen, but also remove them. This might sound pretty banal and obvious, but you can also set a screen as "active" when it is created. This makes it show up instantly on the screen. I've used this in my export files so far to make one screen the "default" one that comes on when the mission is loaded, but I realise now you can do stuff that is MUCH more interesting than that.

 

Basically you can make one off messages flash up on the screen depending on what is happening in the game, and then have them be removed again and not be part of the "regular" set of pages. You could for example, emulate the Ka-50's Ecran this way to report e.g. system failures on the MFD.

 

What I did was set up a new page text string wise, but then didn't declare it in the normal way using addpage. Instead I hid it behind an if statement. In this case I just triggered the conditions to be when the red landing light in the P-51 was on to display a message via saitek.AddPage with the activate "true" argument, and then when the red light was off send a saitek.RemovePage command if the light was off. Pretty basic and arbitrary stuff, but I realise now you could make everything from automatic warning messages to menu systems using this feature set.

[algerad3]

well now , That is kinda cool!!!!! Reminds me of the aha!!! moment when I got the Page change and device change theory together.

That changes things a bit for the better .

Good Catch !!!!!

I sent you a rep but it is not showing .

[jay43]

Got it working! impressive stuff, only used it for five minutes just now, but your latest export.lua worked perfectly, no flicker on my screen.

 

The reason why it didn't work was a combination of two things; me being an idiot and not reading the example lua file from one of your old archives and renaming the .dll file to "saitek.dll" (duh), and two not using the lua5.1.dll file from Chrillith's original archive. Using just the 64 bit executables from your archive/the official 64bit Lua distribution would NOT work for me, is the saitek.dll hardcoded to use lua5.1.dll?

 

I found this whole process quite confusing, so if you don't mind I'll lay out a little "for dummies" tutorial for anyone who is interested to join the party based on what I found:

 

How to install

 

1) Download and install the drivers for your X52 Pro joystick (you've almost certainly done this already, but this is for dummies!)

 

2) Download and install the drivers for the Saitek Pro Flight Instrumentation Panel from here (YES you NEED this even if you're not using a FIP and only the X52 Pro).

 

3) Download the installer package for LUA for Windows from here. Install it to the default location.

 

4) Download the 64 bit LUA executables (the ones we installed above were only 32 bit, and DCS World is 64 bit). Get them from here.

 

5) Go to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua\5.1 directory where LUA was installed. Delete all the files in the directory after the 7zip.exe (assuming you have usual Windows sorting. DO NOT delete any foldiers). Replace the executables in here with the ones in the 64 bit lua zip file above (e.g. lua52.dll etc). I'm actually not 100% sure if this step is necessary, but algerad3's original instructions included it so so am I!

 

6) If you want to use a 32bit based lua editor you need the 32 bit environment installed as well, so reinstall the file you downloaded in 3) again. This time install it to C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua32\ NOT the default installation directory or you will overwrite the changes we just made!

 

7) Download Chrillith's Saitek DLL package from his site. You can find the download link here.

 

8) Extract the files to a temporary directory somewhere - we only want some of them.

 

9) Open the Install\Saitek\64-bit directory in the files you just extracted. There are two more directories after this, and we need to move the files inside them to different places. Open the "dll" directory, and copy lua5.1.dll to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Lua\5.1 directory where we stuck the files in step 5).

 

10) Go back and open the other directory that you would have seen in step 9) called "lua". Copy the saitek.dll file inside here to the "bin" folder inside your main DCS world directory. You can now delete all the other files you extracted from the archive to clean up.

 

11) Download the "Export.lua" file from algerad3's post here. Copy this to your Saved Games\DCS\Scripts directory. To get to this directory, you need to open the start menu in Windows 7, and click on your username on the right hand side of the menu. You should see "saved games" listed in the window that will open. Once inside the DCS folder you won't actually have a "scripts" directory by default, so you will have to make it by hand if not.

 

12) Load up the game and start a KA-50 mission. If everything worked then you should be able to use the left dial on the X52 throttle MFCD to bring up info. If not then check the DCS.log file in your Saved Games\DCS\Logs folder, and towards the end there will hopefully be error messages to do with "saitek" in there to give you a clue as to what went wrong.

 

Guys i thought i followed this to the letter but i must have nerfed something up somewhere between 3 and 5.

Everytime i try to open the Lua download 5.1 program i keep getting an error message saying unable to open am i supposed to be able to open i am not sure.

So i downloaded it again and now i can open it is this ok or not everything on the ka-50 mfd does as you guys say it should so i am unsure what happened any ideas.