Bodnar slow encoder problem may be fixable...Lua help needed please!

[AK Mongo]

Builders,

We GA folks have a bit of a problem. When using Leo's board for encoder operation, there is no way to differentiate between a slow turn and a fast turn. Because of that, the encoders are practically unusable for hdg, and obi adjustment.

Other i/o solutions (opencockpits, goflight) apparently have a way for fsuipc to differentiate between a slow turn and a faster one and allow for a faster instrument response. I.e. one detent on the encoder turned slowly =1 degree of adjustment. When turned quickly it is 10 degrees.

On the FSUIPC forum, Pete said it may be possible to do this through FSUIPC with their new HID facilities and LUA. The text is quoted here:
"You could do it with a Lua plug-in. You'd need to time the gap between each signal. Check, for example, the "tripleuse" lua example provided.

However, I have doubts that FSUIPC's button polling rates and Lua load-compile-test rates would be adequate for a dial instead of a button being pushed by a finger. I'd recommend looking at the new HID facilities for joysticks, just released today. FSUIPC 4.704 or 3.992 feature these (and WideClient 6.88). Download (from "Download Links" subforum) the latest Lua plug-ins documents and examples and see the "HidDemo" lua plug-in. That does a lot more than you'd need. You'd only need to read certain "axes", those corresponding to your dials. The rest could be left to normal methods."


Are there any developers or programmers out there that could help figure this out?

Reid

[AK Mongo]

Pete Dowson who is the creator behind FSUIPC has offered to help me out with the programming. If it can be done with FSUIPC, he is the man who can do it. May have something by early next week.

Stay Tuned....

Reid

[AK Mongo]

Making progress Rhys! Pete has built a LUA file that now has FSUIPC recognizing 4 discrete signals coming off the encoder so that a fast turn can be assigned to fast increases. It is going to take some tinkering to get it right for your system, but it is happening. Great looking helo cockpit btw!

[737NUT]

Making progress Rhys! Pete has built a LUA file that now has FSUIPC recognizing 4 discrete signals coming off the encoder so that a fast turn can be assigned to fast increases. It is going to take some tinkering to get it right for your system, but it is happening. Great looking helo cockpit btw!
Will this LUA file be made available to the rest of us?
Thanks,
Rob

[AK Mongo]

Will this LUA file be made available to the rest of us?

Absolutely. If you want to try it now, the file is available at the FSUIPC forum: http://forum.simflight.com/topic/68260-rotary-encoder-input-speed/

Pete is being very gracious with his time and patience helping make this happen!

Reid

[AK Mongo]

There are no silly questions with me and Lua. I saved it in notepad, but word may work if saved as text. I am trying to understand the workings of what he posted now so I can modify it intelligently if needed. I can verify that it is sending cw fast, cw slow, ccw fast and slow signals that are able to be set to different commands in fsuipc. I am experimenting with controlling my vor1 obi. Fsuipc allows you in this case to have a normal(1 degree per click) or fast (I think 5 degrees per click). The tricky part is determining how fast it needs to turn to give a fast reading but still give an accurate slow reading.

Figuring out which settings to use may be variable based on your system.

Fsuipc and Lua seem incredibly powerful, if you know how they work. I do not...yet.

Reid

The full version will allow you to do a lot with your pit, and is worth it for more than this. The extra fs controls it adds and controller programming are also crucial.

[AK Mongo]

That's it. The program is only set up if your encoders are wired into buttons 31 and 32. So hook your encoder up to those for now. I have not figured out how to set other buttons yet, but will be asking for more help from Pete on a few questions.

[AK Mongo]

Hi Reid
Rotary encoders have arrived. How are they wired up?,the encoder as three pins and the board has two connections
Rhys,
Check out this thread:http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php/21043-connecting-rotaries-to-leo-bodnar-car

[AK Mongo]

Attach it to b32. Then set b31 and 32 as encoders in the encoder utility the last thread mentioned.

[AK Mongo]

Rhys,

Not sure about the detentless question. I think that the number of signals sent per revolution would be the only difference. Will leave it to others to prove me wrong though.

As far as the rest of it goes have you:

1. registered FSUIPC?
2. Copied the LUA file and saved it as ipcready.lua in the modules folder inside your FS main directory?

If the answer to both of the above is yes, then start a flight in flight sim. Once in the cockpit, hit alt to get the windows menu across the top. Go to the add ons menu(far right in fsx), choose fsuipc out of the options.

FSUiPC will open up with about 8 tabs in a popup window. Choose the buttons tab. Spin the encoder slowly in one direction, then faster in the same direction. The button window should change between joy #64 0 and 1 or 2 and 3, spin the other direction slow then fast and see if the buttons show the other set. If this is working, then all you have to do is assign the correct button to the correct function. i.e. slow cw=vor1 obi inc and fast cw =vor1 obi inc fast.

Let me know if you need more help, or are not getting the 4 different button presses.