Editing control axis neutral point in X-Plane 11?

[MD11Captain 0]

Hi folks

I’ve recently bought a yoke off eBay and whilst it works great, the neutral point of the pitch axis is considerably off centre. There’s considerably more up elevator resolution available, and so with the yoke neutral a considerable nose down input is detected by my PC.

This hasn’t proved a problem with either P3D or FS2020 because after calibrating it with the default wizard in device manager, it shows as being nicely centred.

X-Plane however seems to ignore this calibration and after running its integrated calibrator, the neutral position remains unchanged despite me leaving the controls centred and letting the timer elapse as directed. Furthermore, the response curve editor is of no use so far as I can see because it exposes only half of the curve and mirrors it. Therefore it doesn’t seem possible to alter the neutral point, only create an enormous dead zone.

Does anyone know of a function in the UI that I’ve missed, or alternatively a config file I could edit to fix this?

Many thanks

[Murmur 3,941]

If the UI can't calibrate it, try manually editing the file:

"X-Plane 11\Output\preferences\X-Plane Joystick Settings.prf"

 

[mSparks 2,086]

in the joystick control there is an option to edit the curves, calibration just makes sure it covers the full range of motion - not how that translates into control inputs.

[MD11Captain 0]

4 hours ago, Murmur said:

If the UI can't calibrate it, try manually editing the file:

Thanks Murmur, I’m struggling to understand the format, but I’ll take another look at this tomorrow.

1 hour ago, mSparks said:

in the joystick control there is an option to edit the curves, calibration just makes sure it covers the full range of motion - not how that translates into control inputs.

Thanks, whilst I do understand that, I’m reasonably sure the purpose of leaving the controls at their neutral point whilst a timer elapses is to adjust the apparent centre. The dialogue box in the X-Plane wizard says as much.

 

Whilst I agree adjusting the curve would be the ideal solution, this isn’t possible when the axis is set to pitch so far as I can tell. The response curve dialogue only exposes half the curve in this case, so you just end up with a massive null zone.

[Murmur 3,941]

However I just tried, and I can adjust the apparent centre using the calibration screen.

[Janov 2,383]

Game device interfacing is - just like sound device control - one of the last enigmas that the hardware/software industry has to solve 🤪.

I think it is important to have Windows recognize and calibrate your controllers correctly before attempting to do the same in X-Plane.

My personal experience with any controller software issued by the hardware manufacturer has been "is mostly not necessary" and will only complicate the situation needlessly.

Good luck - and sometimes just trying again with fresh eyes the next day has brought the solution for me 😉

Cheers, Jan