Hello everyone. 

 

I just updated My AxisandOhs to the current version.

 

I was at work earlier and was browsing for a way to discover what variable was at play when a switch in sim was thrown.  AS an example, if I was in the Baron 58, and wanted to turn on the Pitot heater, how would I discover that variable would trigger the pitot heater to turn on?   I had found a thread on it while at work, but for the life of Me, I cannot find that thread.

I realize that the pitot heat is a very common FS variable and works well in normal bindings.  I am using it as an example.  

How would I go about discovering that variable if I were to mouse over it and click it on?  Will Axis then read it and display the name of the variable to Me?

 

Edited December 22, 20241 yr by CWHeadley

According to the "Simulation Variables" chart for the Flight Simulator X SDK, the aircraft variabiable you need to find is (A:PITOT HEAT, bool), specifying that it's an aircraft variable A:, the pitot heat variable: PITOT HEAT, and that the variable type is boolean, only having two states known as 0, off, or false and 1, on, or true.  Setting G: or  L: (Gauge or Local) variables to put the current (A:PITOT HEAT, bool) value in is up to you as to what you call them.

Hope that helps.

7 hours ago, CWHeadley said:

How would I go about discovering that variable if I were to mouse over it and click it on?

That depends on what simulator we are talking about? You can do something like that in MSFS 2020 and 2024, but not in FSX, P3D, DCS or XPlane.

Disregard LVars for the time being. They are not "input assets" of any kind and they aren't meant to be (by the SDK). Only a handful of aircraft developers use LVars for the purpose of external control.

Quote

Will Axis then read it and display the name of the variable to Me?

"variable": in many cases that is not how this works. There are endless possibilities how a certain switch must be operated in a certain aircraft. Every aircraft developer does this differently, and in the more modern MS sims (MS2020 and 2024) the developers also no longer care a lot about the SDK. In many cases finding out the inner workings of a switch and replicating it is real detective work. 

Edited December 22, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

7 hours ago, CaptSwan said:

Setting G: or  L: (Gauge or Local) variables to put the current (A:PITOT HEAT, bool) value in is up to you as to what you call them.

In the legacy sims, the rule is that A: variables are changed by K: events. Some AVars are read only, and the K-Event is the only way to change them. In this case (K:PITOT_HEAT_ON) (K:PITOT_HEAT_OFF) (K:PITOT_HEAT_TOGGLE) etc.

All A: variables and K: events are in the respective AAO lists by default.

In reality, there is no telling what a specifc switch "wants" as trigger in a specific aircraft. All developers do this differently, especially in MSFS2020 and MSFS2024. 

Edited December 22, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI

Okay, thank you.  Sorry for the delay.  I've been busy with holiday stuff.

 

I was really just looking for a means to discover what variables will work in FS2024 to bind to My Honeycomb Alpha/Bravo hardware.

 

I think I may have found a solution.

 

If you go into Developer mode and then click --> tools  --> Behaviors and then hold your mouse over the control you want to discover, you can then press CTL+G and it will display in the behaviors window. 

3 hours ago, CWHeadley said:

If you go into Developer mode and then click --> tools  --> Behaviors and then hold your mouse over the control you want to discover, you can then press CTL+G and it will display in the behaviors window. 

Sometimes that is the only way, yes. 

But before you go there, make sure to check out the "official" way: the MSFS Input Events. Developers don't have to implement them, but if they do, they are by far the easiest way to operate buttons and axis

The InputEvents are only visible, when AAO is connected to the sim and you are sitting in the cockpit. IEs are individual assets for each aircraft, and AAO reads the existing IEs at runtime.
If they exist, you will find the IEs in the usual event selection treelist (red markings)
IEs can be observed too, when you operate the control in question with the mouse. (green markings)
The correct workings of an IE depends on the input value that you assign to it (like 0=off, 1=on)

Finally, in a pinch, IEs can be written as BVars too. The benefit of using a BVar is, that it denotes a deterministic "action" and doesn't depend so much on the input value (action being for example _Toggle, _INC, _DEC, _ON, _OFF etc.).
Example:
(IE:SF50_PRESSURIZATION_OXYGEN_MASTER) ! (>IE:SF50_PRESSURIZATION_OXYGEN_MASTER)

and

1 (>B:SF50_PRESSURIZATION_OXYGEN_MASTER_Toggle)

do exactly the same thing. The BVar is just more convenient.

Edited December 26, 20241 yr by Lorby_SI