Can anyone tell me if its possible to make a working flaps lever with detents for each degree setting without an EPIC CARD, mabe using key emulation?I am currently working on a A320 AIRBUS cockpit and have already built a throttle, trim wheel.Any tips or ideas are surely welcome!Thankslineman55

You could put a handle on a multi-pole rotary switch and have each conductor trigger a different keystroke via a keyboard emulator. Then, with the newer version of FSUIPC, you can define hotkeys to match the keystrokes assigned to each flap setting and have FSUIPC change the flap value accordingly. I think that'll work. Worst case scenario is that you'd have to write a program to set the flaps value via FSUIPC but I think the latest version will take care of it since it can directly trigger lots of FS events.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator[table border=2 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1][tr][td][table border=0 cellpadding=8 cellspacing=0][tr][td bgcolor=#540000]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75t.gif[/td][td align="center" bgcolor=#FFFFF6]Bush Flying Unlimited"At home in the wild"Looking for adventure? Come join us! * [link:bfu.avsim.net|Web Site] * [link:www.cafepress.com/bfu,bfu2,bfu3,bfu4|BFU Store] * [link:bfu.avsim.net/join.htm]Join!][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table

Hi Peter,Thanks for the response, but can i use my existing joy stick cable(15 pin) and utilize any button control pins for this action with the multi-pole rotary switch.As you can see i am already using this for just throttle and i would like to try to us it being that it is already there.What do you think?Does radio shack sell these?Any type of specs i should know?

I'm not sure if FSUIPC can map a joystick button that way but it might. Check the latest version to see. As for the rotary switch, it doesn't matter too much which one you get as long as it has enough position so that your flap level moves as much or as little as you want. I'm guessing that about 10 positions might be good for flaps with 4 positions. Something like that.Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator

Thanks Pete, Will give it a try...sounds promising..:-walksmile

Have you considered using an "axis" as Flaps control ??This works much easier than "buttons".Since I have my own throttles, I'm using the Throttle lever of my CH Yoke as Flaps control. And if you don't want to use a potmeter, use a rotary switch with fixed resistors to simulate a potmeter with fixed positions.Suppose your aircraft has 5 Flap positions: you need a switch with 5 positions (one common contact) and 4 resistors:Pos.1: 0 OhmPos.2: 25 KohmPos.3: 50 KohmPos.4: 75 kOhmPos.5: 100 KohmAfter calibration of this "axis", you now have 5 Flaps positionsYou need FSUIPC to control the Flaps with an Axis.Rob Barendregt

if you're using a keyboard encoder like hagstorm's you can use the rotary switch and program the input keys;IN1:&l;F5&r; IN2:&l;F5&r;&l;F7&r;IN3:&l;F5&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r; IN4:&l;F5&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r; IN5:&l;F5&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r;&l;F7&r;IN6:&l;F8&r;&l;F6&r;&l;F6&r;&l;F6&r; IN7:&l;F8&r;&l;F6&r;&l;F6&r; IN8:&l;F8&r;&l;F6&r;IN9:&l;F8every input is a position on your flaps.F5, F6, F7 & F8 are FS assigned keys for flaps.if not, use a microcontroller(PIC) to controll the switching of buttons using the formula above.Hope this helps.:-kewlRyan

>Suppose your aircraft has 5 Flap positions: you need a >switch with 5 positions (one common contact) and 4 >resistors: >Pos.1: 0 Ohm >Pos.2: 25 Kohm >Pos.3: 50 Kohm >Pos.4: 75 kOhm >Pos.5: 100 Kohm >>After calibration of this "axis", you now have 5 Flaps >positions >You need FSUIPC to control the Flaps with an Axis. Sometimes the most easy thing wont come to mind...Great i mean really great idea!Best regards

Sounds like a good idea.I've been using a 100k pot from a Gravis USB joystick for about a year to control flap positions. Using FSUIPC to calibrate. The pot solution works, but I sometimes get jumping from one flap position to the next. Probably caused from the quality or tolerance of the joystick pot. Using hard resistance values might cure that problem. Thanks,Richard

I remember that for joystick calibration in FSUIPC, you specify ranges of values. If that's what you do for flaps, can you leave gaps between flaps settings (i.e. dead zones) to prevent jitter from interfering with flap position?Peter http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/PeterR.gifBFU Forums Moderator

But guys...?How will this work if you have a flap lever with detents? (I guess they are not equaling the different rotary switch positions?)Wouldn't it be better to have a pot and to adjust the span for each flap position via FSUIPC?Just a thought... ;-)

>But guys...? >>How will this work if you have a flap lever with detents? (I >guess they are not equaling the different rotary switch >positions?) >Wouldn't it be better to have a pot and to adjust the span >for each flap position via FSUIPC? >>Just a thought... ;-) You use switches,wired with resistors in order to appear as a step-pot...But then a question comes to my mind:if you bind flap positions to this setup...How does FS respond during the transition phase of the so-built flap lever?IE: you have 25kohm for flap 1 and 50kohm for flap 5...When you move the lever from flap 1 to flap 5, the resistance seen by the pc is zero or infinite...How does FS respond to such a thing?

>>>How will this work if you have a flap lever with detents?>You use switches,wired with resistors in order to appear as a step-pot...Ahhh... Ok get it I think :-) Not a rotary switch but just switches!

Since I feel somewhat responsible :-) for the discussion, a few more remarks.1. First of all, when I was talking about a "rotary switch", I meant a rotating switch with e.g. 5 discrete positions (1 center contact which connects to 1-of-5 outer contacts.Not a rotary switch that gives contact "pulses" when rotating it :-).2. Secondly, a 100K potmeter has my preference over the solution with the 4 resistors.Why ?The obvious advantage of a switch over a potmeter is, that the swich has nice fixed positions (corresponding with the 'notches' on the Flaps lever). However, the FlapsAxis is not really a contigious axis like all the others (since Flaps have x discrete positions). That's why FSUIPC chops up the full flaps range into x areas, where x depends on the number of flap positions of the aircraft, as detected by FSUIPC).Now, if you use external resistance areas (like with the 4 resistors), it will only work correctly if the resistors give output values that fall exactly in the center of the areas defined by FSUIPC.If they don't, "jitter", or a third sampling effect like the A/D conversion when using a gameport-to-USB convertor, may cause that FSUIPC sets another flaps position than the one indicated by the switch position.This explains Richards problem (Post8).And another obvious advantage of the potmeter is: it will work for all variations of flap position, where a switch with 5 positions will only work for aircraft that have 5 Flap positions.So, it can be done with discrete resistors, but you may have to finetune there values.3. About the "switching problem" (Post11: infinite resistance spikes when rotating the switch between two positions). This could give problems, especially when you use the axis in combination with a Gameport-to-USB convertor (or the electronics of an old USB joustick).But there's an easy solution for this as well :-)DOn't switch 5 resistors (0,25,50,75, 100 Kohm), but only switch 1-of-4 values in parallel with a fixed resistor of 100 Kohm.So: when the switch is in between positions, the value is always 100 Kohm max (i.e. the 'spikes' give a value of 100 K)I.e: Pos1: 100K // infinite = 100 KohmPos2: 100K // 300K = 75 KohnPos3: 100K // 100K = 50 KohmPos4: 100K // 33K = 25 KohmPos5: 100K // 0K = 0 KohmBut again, choose the resistor values such, that you get values that are in the center of the FSUIPC position areas.You can easily check this by slowly rotating a 100K (LINEAR) potmeter, and measure the resistance where FSUIPC goes to the next Flap position.Yes, another great idea :-) ...Cheers, Rob

>3. About the "switching problem" (Post11: infinite >resistance spikes when rotating the switch between two >positions). This could give problems, especially when you >use the axis in combination with a Gameport-to-USB convertor >(or the electronics of an old USB joustick). >But there's an easy solution for this as well :-) >DOn't switch 5 resistors (0,25,50,75, 100 Kohm), but only >switch 1-of-4 values in parallel with a fixed resistor of >100 Kohm. Anyway, with all the possible wiring, without using a microcontroller, the so-built step-pot (which has the pro of haveing a perfect center, when well calibrated) in transition phases will give a full-flap / no-flap command.That's not good...So the idea is really good for easiness of building,but is anyway affected by some problems...Solveable only with intense electronic usage: microcontroller, or some descreet thing i cannot even think about.