Honeycomb Bravo Throttle - Edit Profiles - P3D

[BobKinSTL 5]

I hooked up my new alpha yoke and bravo throttle quadrant today.  Wow, not exactly plug and play for P3D and the PMDG 737 nor is there nearly as much setup help online as there is for MSFS but after much time I made good progress, downloading an NGXu profile from Aerosoft got me moving in the right direction.  What I'm focusing on right now is trying to edit button functions.  On the auto pilot panel I was able to map the HDG and APP buttons within P3D to correspond correctly to my 737, but the other buttons are not correct.  VS engages LVL CHG; REV engages LNAV;, ALT engages VNAV and IAS engages VS.  Since there are no LNAV/VNAV buttons on the TQ I would at least like to have VS engage VS in my aircraft but I can't figure out the profile editor.  Also, on my yoke the red button disengages the auto pilot.  I prefer the small white button for that, which I mapped through P3D, but I want to disconnect the red button.  I actually use that button to cycle camera views in chaseplane, which I have working, but it keeps turning off my auto pilot.  Fortunately all of my Axis' work fine being mapped through P3D.

I find the user manual, or lack thereof, to be ridiculous.  Am I making something too difficult here?  Any help on the editing profiles would be much appreciated.  

Thanks in advance.

Bob Koehler

 

 

[fppilot 4,371]

2 hours ago, BobKinSTL said:

Any help on the editing profiles would be much appreciated.  

There is a video tutorial at the link below.  It is rather dry but if you stick with it, and use pause, and backup a few times you can sort it out.  Once I had the light go on I got on a roll.  Just takes a bit of time to decipher it all. 

Watch very carefully the difference between Event "Conditions" and Event "Variables" as he moves through the video.  Some items are set as Conditions, and others as Variables,  For Conditions there is a small grayed out slider that has to be slid to the right to then set Condition Variables.  It is confusing because under Events are two groups, one Conditions, the other Variables.  But there is a subsection under Conditions that is also named Variables.  So watch what he does as he makes settings because he does not always mention all of what he is doing.  Look both above and below the blue Close box in the image I am including.  Note the presence of two separate areas for Variables.  Most of the buttons are set as Variables.  Use of the two knobs if I recall correctly require use of Conditions with underlying Variables.

I have another big recommendation here.  Look in the settings for controllers in the simulator (I do not use P3D so cannot point you).  Unbind any that you find for the Bravo for buttons and switches and set those in the Honeycomb configurator.  Eliminate any duplication. 

Also, if you use FSUIPC with P3D I highly recommend you locate the FSUIPC.ini, the associated .log files, and any FSUIPC profiles you have created and remove them to another location.  I was having strange behavior in FSX SE even though I had gone into FSUIPC and had unbound all my button and switch settings, and my axis settings and calibration.  Removing the FSUIPC files I mentioned above, then using the Honeycomb Configurator to set buttons and switches worked.  Same with the yoke axis'. 

Understand that if you have FSUIPC assignments for a yoke or other controllers you will find it necessary to do fresh assignments since you removed your FSUIPC profiles.  I did all but two of those for my Alpha yoke with the Alpha side of the configurator app.  

Everything just came together then.  I did create a single fresh new profile in FSUIPC to help with a couple of obscure assignments that were difficult to find in the Honeycomb app.  Just one or two switches, and they were on the Alpha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMP5Kj3ebA&list=PL-CM2J7huv9GsJLInEaXS71CKKU_5g3Sl&index=1

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by fppilot

[BobKinSTL 5]

Thanks Frank.  I did find this video earlier this morning and it was starting to make some sense but then I realized I was basically building an entire new profile, and that's when I found the profile downloads on Aerosoft.  When I got tripped up is when I tried to edit certain buttons and in fact, I edited VS correctly so that it now selects VS in the aircraft, but when I tried to do the same for programming the NAV button to activate LNAV, I got an error message when starting up P3D and it would immediately close.  So I deleted the variable that I set for NAV because I couldn't remember exactly what the name was, and that "fixed" the problem.  I think I've ended up with a combination of some bindings being in P3D and others in the configurator.  I'll take a fresh look tomorrow.  BTW, I do not use FSUICP.  Thanks very much for your assistance.  

[vtracy 0]

I not only agree with all that was said here about the Bravo (I only have the Bravo), it is IMHO even worse: Aerosoft put a hardware product on the market, thereby insinuating that it is (more or less) complete. NOT SO! Obviously, the ‚software‘ to make it all work with a simulator is not present. I consider the profiles an essential part of the product. First deficiency.

Then, in the face of the obvious difficulty of ‚configuring‘ the hardware, they totally forget the most important part, a user guide! I know that it has become fashionable to not have a UG, but that is usually accompanied by a user interface that is self explanatory (see iPone)! For a product that is so (wonderfully) versatile, it is a shame not to provide a VERY detailed UG. To then ask a/the programmer to author a video in which he, the specialist, explains the set up to non-specialist users, borders on effrontery. He, the programmer, cannot be expected to be able to explain the functions in a way that a normal i.e. non-programmer, user can follow. What they should have done is what other, conscientious, software houses do: put a normal user in front of the screen (and hardware) with a first version of a UG and then watch what is obviously missing in the explanation. That, of course, is very time and manpower consuming... at is therefore often not done. (I know what I am talking about; I did software design - and wrote user guides - in my professional past).

I for example, have so far not been able to make the switches work in P3Dv5. Although i did ‚program‘ them in the Bravo setup, they do not appear in P3D, and do not work. The sliders work, I assigned them in P3D options/controls; as do the gear lever and the flaps lever. I did program the AP buttons and knobs but did not test them yet. More important for me are the switches. I tried them in P3D „options“ and in FSUIPC6. When i throw a switch, it does not register in FSUIPC. The problem is, I do not know how to search for mistakes (I made) or missing settings or inputs, as I do not understand the programming philosophy behind it.

A dissappointed and irate

Volker

 

[gaab 111]

11 hours ago, vtracy said:

A dissappointed and irate

Volker

Are you sure that the driver is correctly installed ?

I suggest you take a look at "Basic test of the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle under P3D with the Honeycomb Configurator"

https://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/159358-basic-test-of-the-honeycomb-bravo-throttle-under-p3d-with-the-honeycomb-configurator/

More useful than ranting everywhere 😉

Gérard

[vtracy 0]

Gérard,

 

a. I am grateful for your suggestion about the basic test, it helped me narrow down my problem, I would wish that test had been mentioned in the video-‚user guide‘;

b. I found that my installation of the configurator/driver software was not complete, apparently; Imhad not suspected that because everything seemed to work, just not the switches; however, I did not know about the ‚reload‘ feature in the P3D add-on folder; I saw that the reload function was not present in my installation;

c. I therefore downloaded the software anew, de-installed the old software and profiles, re-installed the downloaded software/profiles, found the reload function in ‚Add-ons‘, did the basic test: everything seemed to work: lights on the Bravo, green line on screen;

d. I then configured the switches to: battery, alternator, strobe, beacon, nav, taxi, landing lights;

e. when I tested the switches in the (previously loaded) A2A Piper Comanche, theydid not work at all;

f. I remembered having read somewhere that there is a problem with the limit to 32 buttons/switches in P3D, assigned the switches in P3D ‚Options/Controls‘ to the corresponding functions: no luck;

g. I then tried to assign them using (registered) FSUIPC6: I found ‚buttons‘ no. 82 to 89 (with subswitches), assigned them to the above functions: battery and alternator switches jumped up and immediately down again when switched ON on Bravo, of the other switches, only the landing lights worked; the flaps lever only lowered/raised the flaps entirely no increments possible (despite FLAPS_INC/DECR).

I am out of ideas what to do. 

Volker

[gaab 111]

When you make a modification in the Configurator, ensure that

1 - you click the Apply Changes button (should be improved in the next version)

2 - you reactivate the profile in the Configurator (Activate profile on save should take care of that)

3 - you reload it in Prepar3D using the AddOn menu.

Take care that A2A aircrafts and other high end models usually don't use the Standard Prepar3D events...

For example, you can see in the Comanche  profile a "L:BeaconLightSwitch" instead of the usual "K:BEACON_LIGHTS_ON" !

Welcome to the dark side of customization...

For your test I suggest you start with an old faithful simple aircraft...

Gérard

Edited February 20, 2021 by gaab