X56 control/button recognised in options, but not working in flight

[Dangerzone]

I have a strange problem where my X56 throttle pinkie rotating switch (JOY_BTN30) is not working correctly in DCS and I'm trying to figure out why.

 

When I go into the control options for the F/A-18 and roll forward it jumps straight away to the binded control (chaff dispense). However when in game when I roll forward, no chaff is dispensed.

 

I have bound a second button (rolling backwards) to the chaff dispense to see if that works and it's not me doing something silly in the hornet (such as not turning on the dispenser), and those buttons work (As does pressing 'E' also dispenses chaff).

 

So DCS recognises it when I'm in the option screen and jump straight to it - but it doesn't dispense chaff when flying in the hornet.

 

I thought maybe I had the control bound in a second area by accident (such as view, or as a designated modifier, etc that could be confusing DCS) - so I've done a search in the Saitek Pro Flight X-56 directory for all files containing JOY_BTN30 and the only files I can find have it relating solely to this one function.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on where else I could look to see what's going on? Thanks.

 

[Ant0ine]

I think the issue is that the encoder send signal that are as short as possible (0..1ms). DCS (and many other game have this issue) doesn't have time to see them (depending on your machine speed). You could solve that with the Logitech profiler or with Vjoy+Joystick Gremlin by doing a macro, for exemple.

[LeCuvier]

Did you check for "UI Layer" bindings? A switch bound to a UI Layer command can be bound to aircraft commands in Options/Controls, but will not work in the missions.

[Dangerzone]

I think the issue is that the encoder send signal that are as short as possible (0..1ms). DCS (and many other game have this issue) doesn't have time to see them (depending on your machine speed). You could solve that with the Logitech profiler or with Vjoy+Joystick Gremlin by doing a macro, for exemple.

 

Thanks Ant0ine. If this was the case, wouldn't I see the same problem with it not being recognised when I go into DCS controls? It works and is detected 100% of the time in the options side. (Plus scrolling it back the other way also works).

 

Although - now that you mention it, maybe the FA-18 requires chaff to be depressed for a minimum time - so it's a Hornet thing? That would make sense why it's recognised in the control option but not releasing chaff in flight.

 

I guess as you've mentioned - binding the logitech profiler to press 'E' would be a good workaround - I just like to have things as direct as possible instead of using hacks and workarounds to solve a problem if it's possible. Thanks for the tip!

[Dangerzone]

Did you check for "UI Layer" bindings? A switch bound to a UI Layer command can be bound to aircraft commands in Options/Controls, but will not work in the missions.

 

Thanks LeCuvier. I've looked in their manually and saw no binding. (Plus I did a search in the config directory for reference to JOY_BTN30 and only found it in the files I'm expecting. I'm wondering if maybe LeCuvier is right that the F/A-18 has some issue where it's requiring chaff to have a longer button press before release which isn't occurring when using that control (as I roll forward and each indent is a keypress as opposed to pushing a button).

 

I guess there's a difference with the timing required for flares vs chaff?

 

Thanks for the suggestion!