SFJackBauer's Saitek X-52 Profile

UPDATED 03/15/2011

I thought it would be good to post here my approach to configure the X-52 in this sim since many people could be new to it and could use it as a starting point.

Attached to this post are 2 files: the Saitek .pr0 profile and the DCS A-10C .lua profile. Also you can see in the pictures below the controls arrangement. Note that the italic commands are executed in conjunction with the pinky switch located in the base of the control stick.

This profile is optimized for TrackIR users. You may want to replace some functions with the camera panning commands if you don't own one.

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW CAREFULLY TO AVOID TROUBLE. All the steps are simple, you just have to pay attention to not screw anything up.

INSTRUCTIONS

1) To load the .lua profile:

• Open up A-10C options screen, controls.
  
• Select any cell in the Saitek X-52 column.
  
• Click "Load Profile" on top and point to the .lua file.
  

Beware that if you leave selected a cell from other controller (e.g. keyboard, mouse, etc) you will overwrite that controller definition with the .lua file, so double check before you confirm the changes. In any case, backup the Config/Input folder, in the case you need to revert the changes.

2) To load the .pr0 profile:

• Copy the .pr0 file to the Saitek profiles folder (in my case is C:\Users\Public\Documents\Saitek SD6 Profiles).
  
• The profile should appear in the right-click menu of the Saitek taskbar icon.
  
• Right click the Saitek taskbar icon and ensure the "SFJackBauer A-10C" item is clicked.
  

3) Configure the speed brake slider:

• Inside DCS A-10C, change the "HOTAS Speed brake switch forward" keyboard key to "N", and the "HOTAS Speed brake switch aft" keyboard key to "B". This enables the use of the slider as a speedbrake controller (check pic below).
  
• If you open up a chat textbox, and it is spammed with BBBBBBB or NNNNNNN keys, then remember to set back the slider to the center position :).
  

Tips

* Use the Cockpit illumination switch (T4) for dark ramp-starts.

* The buttons in the throttle LCD alone give access to the radios. When used with the pinky, are useful to switch between the flight plan and markpoints.

* Use T5 and T6 to light up your engines.

* The mousewheel behind the throttle gives access to the NVG functions, when combined with the pinky.

* You can use the "i" (clutch) button in the throttle to command your voice chat program as I do. To do that you need to disable the clutch functionality in the Control panel -> Joysticks, and assign a key to the clutch button inside the Saitek Profile Editor.

Your feedback and testing is warmly welcomed!

ENJOY!!!! :pilotfly:

SFJackBauer A-10C X-52 Profile.zip

i want to use this but i cant find the saitek profiles folder!

i want to use this but i cant find the saitek profiles folder!

Have the Profiler installed in your taskbar? Open it, then click the Open button in the top toolbar and it will show you in which directory the files are stored.

This is awesome, Thanks. I installed earlier, and ended up just ginning around because there was no starting profile for my x-52.

Users of X52 Pro or any othere Saitek controller may want to take a look at this

and the rest of my sig :)

I tried this but it didn't work. I have the X52 Pro and when I open this profile and go to the grid view, I do not see any commands except the standard options on the drop down. Basically...

1. Download the SFJackBauer profile and put it in X52 Pro profile folder under shared documents.

2. Open the Profile Editor.

3. Select the X52 Pro controller

4. Open the SFJack profile

5. Go to grid view

6. Under mode 1 trigger I clicked the dropdown.

I see no custom options listed.

Any ideas?

I'm assuming your trying to load the .lua file. you need to look in the in-game options not the Saitek profiler.

"Open up A-10C options screen, controls"

I'm glad people are starting to work on their HOTAS profiles and thanks Jackbauer for sharing yours.:joystick: I am just starting to get a handle on the avionics/combat/aircraft flight systems, which i feel you need to have a firm grasp of before you start to build any HOTAS configuration.

In the mean time as I solidify my understanding of this great sim it would be nice to see how others are choosing to setup their X-52/X-52pro HOTASs.

It seems to me that the throttle and stick on the X-52pro lacks some dedicated hat switches and I foresee having to use modifiers in the SST profile program to make up for the lack of hardware buttons.

What are others doing?

It seems to me that the throttle and stick on the X-52pro lacks some dedicated hat switches and I foresee having to use modifiers in the SST profile program to make up for the lack of hardware buttons.

More predominantly is the lack of hats. The real deal have 7 hats, here we have 4 (counting the ministick as a hat).

So the solution I came up is to reuse hats using the X-52 pinky as a modifier (not in the SST, but inside DCS:W itself). So:

- The Coolie and DMS share a hat, since they work on related functions

- The slew hat goes to the ministick, as it feels very natural

- TMS hat and trim are not much related, but both sit on the stick in the real thing, so here they share the other stick hat (also trim is not much used, so it's accessed using the pinky)

- Remaining are CMS and MIC hats. I do not know how much of those you will be using during missions, so expect that I will be tweaking these as time goes. For now the MIC gets the throttle hat since it needs three-way (VHF-1, VHF-2, UHF), while the CMS two most important functions (start/end program) gets into a single button, since the other two functions (change programs) you can reach clicking the virtual cockpit.

Also some things are still unassigned. Rotaries I haven't found a good use for them, compounded by the fact I have one rotary spiking badly. Same goes for the mouse button.

The toggle switches on the stick base I commonly use for flight control systems, like gear and flaps. I haven't found good reasons to fill the remainder of those, yet.

Nice profile! :thumbup:

I wonder if you are getting the sim to recognize short-long button presses and if you had to do any tweaking of key repeat rates to get results?

Nice profile! :thumbup:

 

I wonder if you are getting the sim to recognize short-long button presses and if you had to do any tweaking of key repeat rates to get results?

Thanks! :thumbup:

Since all buttons are being configured inside the sim itself, yes the short and long presses work fine and no need to mess with anything.

More predominantly is the lack of hats. The real deal have 7 hats, here we have 4 (counting the ministick as a hat).

 

So the solution I came up is to reuse hats using the X-52 pinky as a modifier (not in the SST, but inside DCS:W itself). So:

 

- The Coolie and DMS share a hat, since they work on related functions

 

- The slew hat goes to the ministick, as it feels very natural

 

- TMS hat and trim are not much related, but both sit on the stick in the real thing, so here they share the other stick hat (also trim is not much used, so it's accessed using the pinky)

 

- Remaining are CMS and MIC hats. I do not know how much of those you will be using during missions, so expect that I will be tweaking these as time goes. For now the MIC gets the throttle hat since it needs three-way (VHF-1, VHF-2, UHF), while the CMS two most important functions (start/end program) gets into a single button, since the other two functions (change programs) you can reach clicking the virtual cockpit.

 

Also some things are still unassigned. Rotaries I haven't found a good use for them, compounded by the fact I have one rotary spiking badly. Same goes for the mouse button.

 

The toggle switches on the stick base I commonly use for flight control systems, like gear and flaps. I haven't found good reasons to fill the remainder of those, yet.

Thanks for your help, I looked at your .pr0 file and I too did not see anything programed into the SST. Is this a problem with there being a difference between your X-52 and my X-52pro? If you could just tell me what you setup in the SST i could go through and replicate your setup by myself. thanks!

Thanks for your help, I looked at your .pr0 file and I too did not see anything programed into the SST. Is this a problem with there being a difference between your X-52 and my X-52pro? If you could just tell me what you setup in the SST i could go through and replicate your setup by myself. thanks!

You are correct, there is ALMOST nothing in the pr0 (only the speedbrakes and ministick). The majority of mapping is done inside the sim itself, so thats why there is a .lua file in the zip.

What I made in SST is:

- Leave only one shiftstate, without any shift buttons assigned to it.

- Remove all default mappings for mouse etc.

- Set the precision slide as bands, then assign them as it is in the picture on the first post.

- Set also the ministick as bands, then assign them as it is in the picture on the first post.

Please check again the instructions in the first post in case of doubts, and feel free to ask.

I thought it would be good to post here my approach to configure the X-52 in this sim since many people could be new to it and could use it as a starting point.

How did You manage to program 'mode selector' knob on X52? I can't find any wady to do it within SST software, it's just switches between 3 different modes (which by the way i find useless). Same non-program knob as 'pinkie' switch on X52 which also has no-program feature, which I found annoying as those 2 switches I would happily assigned to some direct activated commands (like real A10C nosewheelie button for pinkie or quite convinient A10C Pinky Switch for lights selector).

Check out my DCS BS profile topic (see my signature) - you might want to know that there are some bugs in SST. Plus there are quite some solutions there. Most are courtesy of Slayer. Also...

How did You manage to program 'mode selector' knob on X52? I can't find any wady to do it within SST software, it's just switches between 3 different modes (which by the way i find useless). Same non-program knob as 'pinkie' switch on X52 which also has no-program feature, which I found annoying as those 2 switches I would happily assigned to some direct activated commands (like real A10C nosewheelie button for pinkie or quite convinient A10C Pinky Switch for lights selector).

Just remove those buttons from being "shift buttons" in the SST profile you have loaded. Check the profile I have attached to first post. Then DCS:W recognizes them as regular buttons.

@Bucic

Thanks for all the info man, much appreciated :)

Just wanted to say thanks for this awesome profile. Still memorizing but it is "oh so nice".

Thanks JB!

Just remove those buttons from being "shift buttons" in the SST profile you have loaded. Check the profile I have attached to first post. Then DCS:W recognizes them as regular buttons.

 

Ta! That was exactly what I was looking for. Actually took me a while before I noticed that there's a second 'Grid View' under View bar which I before didn't pay any attention and that is the mode which allows to do those extra things.

Thanks for the profile SFJack!

Hey Jack,

I have some problem loading the profile, I can't load it in any stick and if i try to convert it with this youtube video I can't chose any key combination on the little arrow

could anybody help me, pls

Great little set up here, has made my jump into the Charlie hog very nice until my TMWH gets here!

Thanks very much.

The mini-stick on my X-52 is FUBAR. I'm going to have switch some of the hats around so I can actually slew. If I change around the hat assignments in the X-52 profiler will it conflict with the ingame LAU settings?

The mini-stick on my X-52 is FUBAR. I'm going to have switch some of the hats around so I can actually slew. If I change around the hat assignments in the X-52 profiler will it conflict with the ingame LAU settings?

If you set it in conflict then it will be in conflict :doh:

If you have the most commands done in SST then do everything you can in SST and clear appropriate assignments from in-game GUI.

A tip of the day:

Use windowed mode and throughout the whole process of setting up SST profile you won't have to restart even your mission.

If it works in the built-in SST tester, it will work in-game too.

Hey Jack,

I have some problem loading the profile, I can't load it in any stick and if i try to convert it with this youtube video I can't chose any key combination on the little arrow

 

could anybody help me, pls

Which stick do you have?

How about a profile for the x52 Pro?