FSX, PMDG, and FSUIPC

[Philhen 0]

Hi, everyone,

Currently, I am running PMDG 747 -400X in FSX on a desktop in Windows 7 (64-bit), with FSUIPC used to control my CH Eclipse Yoke, a CH Throttle Quadrant and its relevant Keyboard Commands.
Can anyone tell me how I can double-up the commands that I presently have available? I have been thinking about using Button 1 on the Yoke (PTT usually) as a Shift Button but I do not appear to be able to program the Shift Key in.  I know that if I program button 1 as a Shift Key, I will lose its availabllity as a PTT, but this is more than compensated for by the extra number oif Commands that I would get as a result of successfully doing this.

I have read Pete Dowson's 'Application Interfacing Modules for MS FSX' etc, (both the normal one and the Advanced one), but do not see how I can do this. Any useful suggestions would be most welcome, but please, please, make it so simple that a 3-year oild could understand it.  I am not a geek or nerd, but I do love flying, and having recently had my PPL taken away for medical reasons, this is now my only way of feeling part of the party again!
Regards and Happy Flying to everyone,

Philhen1943

[Charlie Felix 5]

Hi,

I'm not sure about how to program the button as a "shift key" but I have been able to give buttons multiple functions.  What I did was to program the button to a particular function and then wrote down the line that was added to the FSUIPC.ini file.  I then programmed the button for the second function. This deleted the first entry and replaced it with the new function.  I then edited the the FSUIPC.ini file and manually added the text for the first function. This process can add more functions but remember that only one function will be shown when you go into FSUIPC while running FSX.  Hope this helps.

Charlie

[ark 1,290]

16 hours ago, Philhen said:

Hi, everyone,

Currently, I am running PMDG 747 -400X in FSX on a desktop in Windows 7 (64-bit), with FSUIPC used to control my CH Eclipse Yoke, a CH Throttle Quadrant and its relevant Keyboard Commands.
Can anyone tell me how I can double-up the commands that I presently have available? I have been thinking about using Button 1 on the Yoke (PTT usually) as a Shift Button but I do not appear to be able to program the Shift Key in.  I know that if I program button 1 as a Shift Key, I will lose its availabllity as a PTT, but this is more than compensated for by the extra number oif Commands that I would get as a result of successfully doing this.

I have read Pete Dowson's 'Application Interfacing Modules for MS FSX' etc, (both the normal one and the Advanced one), but do not see how I can do this. Any useful suggestions would be most welcome, but please, please, make it so simple that a 3-year oild could understand it.  I am not a geek or nerd, but I do love flying, and having recently had my PPL taken away for medical reasons, this is now my only way of feeling part of the party again!
Regards and Happy Flying to everyone,

Philhen1943

What you want to do is exactly what FSUIPC (Pete Dowson) calls Compound (or conditional) button programming (pg 24 of the FSUIPC Advanced Users Guide). This makes the function of a button or switch dependent on the state (e.g., on/off condition) of another button or switch. To set up compound button programming you have to directly edit the FSUIPC.ini file with a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++, you can't do it through the standard FSUIPC tabs like Button + switches.  I use a Saitek yoke, and it has a 3 - position Mode switch. I've set up other buttons or switches on the yoke to do different things depending on the position of the Mode switch. Any switch (or button) that FSUIPC 'can see' can be used as the 'condition' like the Saitek Mode switch. Unfortunately, compound button programming is a bit confusing at first and there is a learning curve you have to go through. In fact, because I don't do it very often, I usually have to 'relearn' how to do it each time I want to make a change. I'm not aware of a better explanation on how to do it then the FSUIPC Advanced Users Guide. Although the guide gets into some more advanced compound button programming concepts, I think the more 'simple' compound programming discussed first will get done what you want to do.

Al

[RudiJG1 172]

Another option is to use CH Control Manager, the oft-maligned but very useful controller software that can be freely downloaded from the CH Products website. One can choose what hardware is managed by the software, and to the point, the software gives the user a lot of control and options over the hardware's buttons. One can easily double the number of functions the buttons can be programmed to through this software.