toggle switches to fs9

[kiek]

Maybe this is a too difficult task?
One need some basic knowledge of electronics and of programming...
It is certainly not plug and play.

[smartarze]

once told how to do it i'll know for future switches,

[autocadplease]

how do i then assign this to my toggle switch as leo's board doesn't have any software

You use FSUIPC. Open FSUIPC windows, go to buttons. Activate the switch or button, FSUIPC will display what button you are pressing, then assign the offset value.
Leo's controller simply makes the card a HID (Human Interface Device) / joystick.

[kiek]

Ok, thank you for the additional info about Leo's board!

From there (FSUIPC) it is easy, at a button press one should select one of the FSControls that toggles a bit in a byte. Which bit in what byte is what you have defined in FSConvigurator.

[smartarze]

i give up, still can't get my head around it

when you say assign the offset value......where do i get that from?

i am really sorry guys for being a pain....please help me get through this first one.

[davek]

Hi smartarze (luv the name)

Dont worry mate, I should have called myself dumbarze when it comes to electronics stuff.
I will try and explain it as I understand it.. if i get something wrong guys please correct me

The switch is connected to the computer through the Card. There is no software as such associated with the switch or the card.

(think of your switch as a keyboard letter and the card as the guts of the keyboard.) It gets plugged into a USB port. With a keyboard all the letters and numbers are assigned so the computer knows what the key is and what it is supposed to do or represent.

When you connect a switch to a computer through the card, there is an electrical imulse but the computer doesnt know what to do with that.

For example, you want a switch to represent the landing gear lever. On the keyboard you press the G key and MSFS software 'knows' that it is the G key and performs the action.
In the normal MSFS software you can reassign the G key to any function you want and any key to the landing gear function.

This is a simple way to set up the cockpit but you need to be able to tell the computer software about the external switches and what you want the software to do when it receives that information.

To do that you can use FSUIPC. It is the software that interfaces between the switch/card and the computer FS software. If you register for the modest fee, it opens up a whole new world for attaching switches etc. The program can assign a specific keystroke or macro to a switch. Press the switch, FSUIPC reads the input, and then tells the software what the switch input represents, ie cycle landing gear.

An offset is similar to an address. The software needs to know that the switch you just pushed (representing landing gear) where to send that input to what part of the software to make the action happen. Its like sending a letter to your granny in the US and not putting a street number and name... its got no idea where its going or what its doing.

When you download FSUIPC there is an excellent readme file. DL it and print it out. Make coffee and hit the comfy chair and read it, several times, soon it will click as to what to do. There is a list of offsets for the basic FS functions + more in the DL file.

Its pretty complex and I am only just scraping the surface. It might be worth sticking to the very basics like I am doing at first until you get a better understanding of it.

Hope that helps and I havent steered you up the wrong path...
cheers
Dave

[smartarze]

dave, thankyou ever so much for the time you have taken to explain that to me, The problem i have is, with the leveld 767 there are no keyboard commands to flick the light switches on and off (as far as i know) so i cannot use the fs offset values.

UPDATE:

I have sort of managed to figure it out but i am getting the wrong switches flicking or getting 2 flicking on and off at once.

does this sound right?
for instance i want to control the position light:
as FS Control, selected "Offset Byte togglebits"
- in the offset box, entered x8B34
- in the parameter box, entered x01 (for bit 1)

however this flicks the ovrd switch instead of the position lights


what am i doing wrong?

[kiek]

- in the parameter box, entered x01 (for bit 1)

x01 will give you bit 0 which is the OVRD light ....
x02 will give you bit 1
x04 will give you bit 2
and so on ...

And also notice the difference between FSCONV sections 3.2 and 3.3.
There are two implementations possible of lights buttons. You can activate only one of them in FSCONvigurator. Make sure the slider is set to 12, and just experiment a bit, I'd recommend.

[smartarze]

so to continue that

x08 = 3bit
x16 = 4bit
x32 = 5bit

is that right as i'm able to only get a few switches working, still something simple i'm missing i think.

Also when it comes to doing right landing light and nose light they are bits 8 - 11 how does that work?

remember explain as simple as possible

[kiek]

x08 = 3bit
x16 = 4bit
x32 = 5bit

No!, not really:
0x08=bit 3
0x10=bit 4
0x20=bit 5
0x30=bit 6
0x40=bit 7
0x100=bit 8 BUT(!) then you have to use FSControl Togglebits Word!
0x200=bit 9 ..
and so on

Also when it comes to doing right landing light and nose light they are bits 8 - 11 how does that work?

Two possible approaches: either use bit 8 in a FSControl ToggleBits Word at the same offset (as indicated above) OR (recommended):

Note that bit 8 is the same as bit 8 - 8 = bit 0 of the next byte:

So at byte offset 0x8B35 you take bit 0 (is the same as bit 8 of offset 0x8B34 as Word (a Word is 2 bytes))

Bit 9 is of 0x8B34 (Word) is the same as bit 9-8=1 at offset 0x8B35 (as byte)

Bit 10 of 0x8B34 (Word) is the same as bit 2 at offset 0x8B35 (byte)

...

I cannot make it simpler