Hi,

I am new to AAO so please bear with me. I have started to setup a new C172 configuration on MSFS 2020 using AAO instead of MSFS default controller mappings. I have the basics for my Warthog joystick and throttle working well now and the sensitivity difference is much better (I am an ex-private pilot) ;)

I have just acquired an X-touch mini for the purposes of controlling my TBM-930 autopilot and radio/van comms.

It has been added to my windows 11 PC; I have it working with Ableton Music software separately sending and receiving midi signals.

I have been following the setup tutorials on youtube by 'Flight Sim and other stuff' and have the panel setup for one control (switching NAV on).

The X-touch button when pressed is NOT responding at all. When I press the virtual instrument in AAO (the battery button that is), it sends the command from AAO to MSFS successfully.

It appears to be that my x-touch H/W is not setup right?

I have checked that MIDI is activated; I can see it on the IN and OUT channels in AAO. Is there something else I need to do in scripting terms to get the H/W to issue the command like the virtual instrument in AAO is doing?

If there ais any more information I can provide/logs etc, please let me know. I know this will be worth it in the end.

Thanks

 

Just noticed an error. It should say NAV button (not battery button). Sorry for the confusion!

6 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

When I press the virtual instrument in AAO

? What do you mean? Which "virtual instrument" are you talking about? 

6 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

If there ais any more information I can provide/logs etc, please let me know.

Load your aircraft normally, start and connect AAO as usual. Press the green "+" to add a button in AAO. Press the hardware button on your XT. The associated MIDI event should appear on the dialog's input panel, like a Joystick button would. When this happens, your XT is working normally.

Edited July 2, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

I have this working. It was because I was using HTML variable assignments within the necessary lorby hooks in place in the community folder. 

It worked with direct button assignments but not with variables.

The 'virtual instrument' I was referring to, is a visual popup of the X-Touch panel (like an AAO Virtual instrument) which I intend to use in VR as a 'button template'. Apologies for the confusion.

1 hour ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

It worked with direct button assignments but not with variables.

Sorry, I don't understand. What does that mean? Which "variable" did you assign how and where, hoping that it would do what with which aircraft exactly? in MSFS, assignments are potentially different for every single aircraft, you cannot rely on any variable or event to be valid for the plane you are currently assigning it to. In many cases RPN scripts are required.

A few SUs ago Asobo established "Input Events" as the new default. They are specifc for each aircraft too, and they only exist, when the aircraft developer has made some. Make sure to check for the event group "MSFS Input Events" first thing, before trying to do anything else.

Thanks for the response. I am a in software in my professional life but find this whole domain (or mapping controllers) a bit bewildering at first so bear with me 🙂

I mean't HTML Variables and MSFS Input Events. I fly the TBM 930 and the G1000 C172 (hope to learn the A320 Neo next) and a C172 in real-life too 😉

I purchased AAO specifically to improve the axis and trim activities (which is much more realistic and controllable now - especially trim) and, so I can use the X-Touch MIDI controller for the purposes of autopilot and NAV/COM control.

On the TBM 930, I am simply trying to control the autopilot panel in the centre top of the cockpit. I have managed to get the buttons to work (for switching on AP, NAV, ALT, HEADING modes). With the rotary dials on the X-Touch, I am trying to create Increments and Decrements with the Heading, Alt, Speed dials themselves unsuccessfully so far.

2 Problems

1) I can only seem to find INC events in AAO for the autopilot rotary dials (Maybe the stock TBM930 doesn't expose every event? Not sure)

2) The Rotary switches on the X-Touch are NOT being detected in both directions. I can't always detect a 'turn right' event with this midi controller.

When I setup the X-touch, I assigned a unique CC number to every button and rotary. This appears to be working OK as AAO is seeing most of these events; it seems to be INC/DEC of the rotary where I have issues. This may be an issue with how I have setup the buttons/rotaries in the X-touch Editor software. Not sure!

 

When I was talking about the 'virtual instruments' before I meant this Gauge below.

X-Touch Mini Gauge for use with AAO (Axis and Ohs) for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

Apologies for the confusion and thanks for your help and the great product which I know once I have it working well (per aircraft) will make a huge difference to my IFR immersion in VR in MSFS 2020!

 

4 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

This may be an issue with how I have setup the buttons/rotaries in the X-touch Editor software. Not sure!

1. Reset the device to factor default (unplug the cable, hold down Layer A and B buttons, plug in the cable, hold down the buttons until everything stops flashing
2. Make sure that the device is not in "MC MODE" (the little LED on the right must be OFF)
3. Do not use the X-Touch Editor unless you have to (you won't)

I am pretty sure that the gauge you mention will expect default hardware too. Did you contact the author? I am pretty sure that Funatic is providing installation instructions and a manual for the gauge.

4 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

1) I can only seem to find INC events in AAO for the autopilot rotary dials (Maybe the stock TBM930 doesn't expose every event? Not sure)

1. A concrete example would help. There is no reason why you shouldn't find the DEC events too, they are definitely in there.
2. Do not rely on the lists in AAO. Initially they only contain the simulator events from the MSFS SDK. That is not enough, since especially in MSFS aircraft developers (including Asobo) rarely use them. All developers do basically what they want, they use Input Events, LVars, BVars, HVars, entire RPN scripts. With some, you cannot control certain things from the outside at all.
How do you go about assigning something:
- Search for a template and/or script package for AAO and this specific aircraft on flightsim.to. Many talented simmers invest a lot of time into figuring out aircraft specific controls.

When assigning stuff yourself:
- When assigning events, first look for and into the group "MSFS Input Events". If the aircraft developer chose to implement them, they are the first and best option for external controls.
- When they don't work, try the default events
- When they don't work, use the MSFS developer mode to check the behavior code of the button and figure out how it needs to be operated. (Activate developer mode, open "Tools->Behaviors", click back into the sim, hover the mouse over the control that you are interested in and press Ctrl - G. This will usually bring up the behavior code, and in there (usually at the bottom of the component tree) you will find the mouse interaction components, which contain the code that you have to replicate in AAO.
- You will have to create RPN scripts occasionally. For example with the default autopilot events - MSFS has several "slots" now, and instead of the default K: event you may need K:2 etc. That can only be done with scripts.

When in doubt, ask here. Name simulator, the aircraft in question and ideall post a screenshot of the item that you want to operate.

4 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

2) The Rotary switches on the X-Touch are NOT being detected in both directions. I can't always detect a 'turn right' event with this midi controller.

See above, reset the device.

Also be mindful of what MIDI is. Yes, it is still the same Musical Instruments Digital Interface established in 1980-somehting. It was never meant to control a flight simulator. The rotatry encoder is sending velocity values between 0 and 127. The only chance AAO has to figure out what you are doing is to compare the current value received as a MIDI message with the value before that. Naturally that won't work so well at the extremes. Once you have configured the assignment in AAO that won't be a problem, because then the app knows what it is looking for. But it can be problematic when assigning the encoder. Make sure that the device is set to factory defaults. Keep the encoders in the middle of the value range when assigning them. Make sure that MC MODE is off.

Edited July 10, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

4 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

On the TBM 930, I am simply trying to control the autopilot panel in the centre top of the cockpit.

Do not expect "simple" with MSFS and external controllers. We have no way of accessing the controller assignment logic that exists in MSFS. We can only go through the SimConnect API (and use a few dirty tricks occasionally). Unfortunaltey, probably due to the unclear state of the MSFS SDK back in 2020, everybody started to work around it. And that is the situation we are currently in - working around the work-arounds.

Sounds like a software developers nightmare? It is. Most definitely.

TBM930 X-Touch Mini gauges (AAO): Basic Layer-File (OfA) for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

Thanks Lorby for the detail in your response. I have definitely 'messed' with the X-touch editor so will revert to default and try again. Will report back with any 'event assignments' I cannot find to the community with screenshots as suggested.

Once I have completely mapped one aircraft, I am sure I will be OK.

AAO is a great investment just for the primary flight axis and trim (especially with the option to create negative curves); everything feels better. I just need one of those new force-feedback yokes to complete the immersion 😉 

Hi,

so I have about 70% of the TBM-930 autopilot working with the x-touch and AAO.

The problems are the dials. I can find the event to increment using a midi rotary but NOT to decrement. 
 

Example.

To set the heading on the G3000 autopilot in the TBM-930, the simulator event in AAO shows as:

[AUTOPILOT_HEADING]: 0 (>IE:AUTOPILOT_Heading)

In AAO, if I search under MSFS Input Events, I find:

AUTOPILOT_Heading|1

if I assign this to a rotary increment (Turn Right) IT WORKS!

BUT.

i see no way to do a decrement on the same rotary?

Am I missing something.

Other functions such as the heading bug on the G3000 have an increment and decrement event which works perfectly.

My question is how do I assign the rotary dials to heading, course, speed and altitude for increments and decrement events?

Thanks in advance!

 

10 hours ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

i see no way to do a decrement on the same rotary?

Am I missing something.

You have to create a second assignment to the Left Turn action of the encoder, sending the same IE with the value for the DEC action. The value is set with the small numerical box to the right. You will have to use trial&error to find the correct value, there is no telling what the aircraft developer intended for this IE. In this case it is probably either 0 or -1

There are always multiple ways that a control can potentially work, depending on what the aircraft developer has implemented

- You can have different events for INC and DEC
- You can have the same event for INC and DEC requiring different values to be sent with it for each direction
- An event may require specific values to work at all, like the default AP ALT events that require the actual increment as a value, i.e. 100 or 1000
- Or there are no INC/DEC events at all and you have to write RPN scripts.

...and many other situations, there is no limit to how complex this can become.

Edited July 12, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

I have got all the autopilot functions of the TBM 930 (buttons and rotaries) working using pure AAO button assignments and, by assigning 0's and 1's to each decrement and increment event within AAO itself; not successful using downloaded templates/OfA

The only issue now is that the rotary has to be turned really slowly to register the increment. If I 'spin' the rotary too fast is goes a bit crazy.

But getting closer. 

As to getting the basic layer file and Funatics scripts working with the x-touch; Not so lucky at this point as it seems to be configured for different midi channels etc. I reset the X-touch mini to defaults and when these basic layer templates were applied they had different numbers/channels for the buttons and rotaries. Can try this again later.

Is there a good guide somewhere to writing your own RPN scripts?

7 minutes ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

The only issue now is that the rotary has to be turned really slowly to register the increment. If I 'spin' the rotary too fast is goes a bit crazy.

That doesn't sound right. Never heard of behavior like that. Maybe there is something about those IEs. When in doubt, switch to BVars instead (same name, slightly different syntax).

7 minutes ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

Funatics

He would be the one you should ask - I doubt that he is reading AVSIM forums, never saw him around here. If you have more than one MIDI device, then the IDs will be different, no doubt. But I would expect that this is covered somewhere in the XT Gauges' setup files? No idea though.
You can use the "Hardware change" dialog in AAO to replace incorrect MIDI-IDs with your own in all scripts and hardware assignments.

Edited July 12, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

12 minutes ago, PrivatePilotC172 said:

Is there a good guide somewhere to writing your own RPN scripts?

RPN starts here:

Reverse Polish Notation (flightsimulator.com)

and continues in the AAO manual, chapter "Scripting"

You could also use JScript or VBScript instead.