So, here we have a toggle switch that stays put, not spring loaded, up (ON) or down (OFF).

1) If we assign TOGGLE PARKING BRAKES to it, then it will cycle between brakes on and brakes off as long as the toggle is up. Therefore if the switch is up, then you don't know if your parking brakes are on or off as you land your plane by looking at that toggle. Same thing if the switch is down, you don't know by looking at the toggle.

2) But if we assign SET PARKING BRAKE to it, then when the toggle is up, the parking brake is on. When the toggle is down, the parking brake is off. Now you know by just looking at it.

That's the difference between TOGGLE and SET for any assignment, not just parking brakes.

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There is one caveat, suppose the toggle is down (off) and then we drag the brake handle on the instrument panel out with the mouse. Now the toggle shows off but the brakes are on. Out of sync. To correct, just move the metal toggle up and down once or more than once, it makes no difference. and it's back in sync. So to resync, just jiggle the switch a bit, up and/or down. It will go back in sync.

The logic behind all this is that SET turns something on by pressing a switch, button, hat, keyboard key, etc. And it turns it back off when released. It doesn't just keep changing state while it is pressed, like the TOGGLE command does.

Is this something new your pointing out???

As far as I know this has been the case since the launch of the game.

So I'm not sure why this is suddenly being pointed out. Has something recently changed???

 

 

True but many folks are still confused by it.

Good explanation!

7 hours ago, tpete61 said:

Is this something new your pointing out???

As far as I know this has been the case since the launch of the game.

So I'm not sure why this is suddenly being pointed out. Has something recently changed???

 

 

He’s only helping. It’s a good explanation.

Excellent and surely VERY USEFUL explanation!

Thank you @Fielder

I certainly didn't know the difference and hard wondered about it quite a few times. Thank you @Fielder!

I wondered for three years. I'm a slow learner...

Of course what totally confuses matters is real world "toggle" switches do NOT toggle, they select and set.

It is unfortunate confusing term.

42 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

It is unfortunate confusing term.

That's what happens when French try to speak English 😜

The issue is that many developers do not take the time to understand, and then give us what we experience, which is inconsistent application.  Then that leads to confusion. If only we could get developers to write to a common standard.

There's a tiny info box for each DX command in MSFS Options Controls screen. But we could look up a more detailed explanation for each command in an Official MSFS Online Users Manual. If there was one.

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

That's what happens when French try to speak English 😜

lol -probably true of anyone attempting to speak a non-native language.

Regardless - in the real world, physical "Toggle Switches" typically will Select and Set (rather than Toggle despite the name)  whereas "Buttons",  especially on a touch screen, often tend to Toggle (but not always, some buttons are not momentary and stay depressed until pressed again).

You can of course make a Toggle Switch actually toggle when using more than one switch, for example hallway lights with switches each end of the hall. In this scenario flipping either switch toggles the state of the lamp to the opposite of what the current state is and neither switch has a preset ON or OFF position.

Edited September 13, 20232 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

thanks a lot, very usefull for me 😉

Totally makes sense with the panel lights button assignments.

The description for set panel lights read " set panel lights on/off" and I really thought I was saving a free button by using Set over Toggle🤣

So yes this thread is actually very helpful...

Thank you very much! I wondered so many times...