I've been away from simming for a couple of years. Just installed MSFS 2024 and the latest AAO (4.54b08) and thankfully was able to import my template from FS20 and then rather than do some control assignments in the sim, as I had done in FS20, I opted to replace those assignments using AAO.

First off, when I opened AAO, my HoneyComb Alpha assignments were all red and the device was not showing up in hardware. It was working fine as the sim has some default assignments for things like the yoke. Anyway, I cleared the in-sim profile, and restarted everything and the hardware was working fine in AAO.

Then, a couple of times when adding an assignment and clicking save, it would remove all assigned buttons and the one I just created would be red. I recall this happening a couple of times back in 2023. Restarting AAO seems to fix it. I was a bit surprised that this is still happening two years later.

AAO is a life saver for custom controls and the StreamDeck plugin is invaluable, but there are still a couple of strange reliability issues - but maybe it's unique to me and my hardware.

One more oddity, is that when assigning an axis to the flap lever, the number of detents defaulted to something like 1600 and could not be edited. Mouse scroll wheel worked but that would take a while to get to 4. I searched and came across a thread from a few years ago about the same issue, and learned if you set the max value to the number of detents before saving, it would work properly. How is that still not fixed?

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by Virtual-Chris

4 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

maybe it's unique to me and my hardware

Yes it is. Never heard of behavior like this before. Assignments turning pale red means that AAO cannot see the controller anymore. This is normal when you transport a configuration from one PC to the next, as Windows will have assigned a different ID to the device on a different computer (it also does that when devices are unplugged and replugged). When this happens in actual operation, a fault occured somewhere (USB driver/connection?). If the fault is severe enough, AAO chooses to ignore the device and may put it on the blacklist. But I've never heard of the app deleting existing buttons - that would indicate that a complete restart of the internal logic happened (without doing the autosave at that!). Theoretically that could be caused by too many or too severe errors in the game controller pickup, but I've again never seen or heard of somthing like this. At the moment there are a low five figure number of active users of AAO, so I imagine that I would know about all systematic errors in the app by now. Not necessarily, but statistically.

I would recommend making sure that your blacklist is up to date. Go to "Hardware->Device Blacklist" and move everything into the list on the right with the "Ignore" button that isn't a game controller that you are using in AAO. Only leave yoke, pedals, joysticks, TQs and MIDI devices in the list on the left. "Ignoring" also includes all mice and keyboards and the StreamDeck, should it show up here. 

Conversely, move everything to the right with "Allow" that should be there. Just be mindful that the app put it on the blacklist for a reason = a severe fault happened with it.

4 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

How is that still not fixed?

Can't remember even seeing that. Apparently nobody else has reported it.
When I assign the "Flaps Handle" item from the first selection box on the axis dialog, after saving the assignment and calling it up again I get the number "10" in the "Flaps handle detents" box, and I can change it just fine with the mouse wheel. From my point of view there is no issue here.

In any case, the MSFS simulators always prefer Events over Axis Variables. So your first attempt at axis assignments should always be the second box from the top on the axis dialog "Select simulator event". The most common axis events are bunched together in the very first group.

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by Lorby_SI

11 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

 

Can't remember even seeing that. Apparently nobody else has reported it.
When I assign the "Flaps Handle" item from the first selection box on the axis dialog, after saving the assignment and calling it up again I get the number "10" in the "Flaps handle detents" box, and I can change it just fine with the mouse wheel. From my point of view there is no issue here.

In any case, the MSFS simulators always prefer Events over Axis Variables. So your first attempt at axis assignments should always be the second box from the top on the axis dialog "Select simulator event". The most common axis events are bunched together in the very first group.

I guess you don't recall this... (thankfully this came up in a search or I would have been at a loss)

 

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by Virtual-Chris

10 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I guess you don't recall this... (thankfully this came up in a search or I would have been at a loss)

I'm sorry, but as I wrote before, I cannot reproduce this. When I select the "Flaps handle" axis variable, Axis Min and Max are automatically set to 0 and 10. Is there a special procedure that I have to follow to get to the situation that you describe?