DCS Detent Calculator *Updated for the F-15E and Special Options*

[LanceCriminal86]

Hugely helpful, did have to make some tweaks manually though. Following the guide I landed on a 26 curve for the Tomcat with X-56 throttle and 3d printed detents. Only issue was I think the sensitivity plus some mushiness of my detent meant that bumping up against the detent made the AB start to try and light off. I had to manually tweak one of the values closest to the lightoff up to 18 from the 15 the calculator generated in order to be able to bump up against the detent and not light off the ABs.

 

If I mess with the calculator to match the value that I had to change that one data point to (3rd value on curve chart), that would mean a detent location value of 22.

 

Again I may blame it on my printed detents being a wee bit blown out, but I thought it was worth noting. I may go back and just tweak the calculator values up and down, adjust the whole curve, and see if there's another value that gets the same result but adjusts the whole curve instead of it being 0-8-18-24

 

 

[JCofDI]

@zildacGlad to hear it's back to being bang-on for you! Could not have done it without your help on how inverted and idle detent things were set up, so thank you again! Any other issues please let me know!

 

@LanceCriminal86 Thanks for the kind words and detailed post! Strange issue - I've tested it with the newest patch and the A/B location for the F-14 hasn't changed, so the curves should be accurate if your detent location is in fact 26. Is this detent set up for both left and right throttles, and do both throttles equally touch off burners in this way? If there's a lot of "travel" through the detent you may want to set it later rather than right up against the "start" point of it. Another way to think of the detent location number is that it should be the last position right before A/B lights off. Jostles shouldn't be causing it, but if it's a big enough bump to travel another percent then that indeed would be doing it.

For that reason in the initial testing, some folks did find it preferable to add some cushion to their detent location. Usually subtracting 2 from their calculation was enough to work out for them. From the FAQ portion of the ReadMe:

Reducing the detent like that as you suggested won't change the entire line much, but it may smooth it out enough to match up with the detent and still not be as touchy. Please let me know how it goes.

Edited April 15, 2021 by JCofDI

[LanceCriminal86]

8 minutes ago, JCofDI said:

@zildacGlad to hear it's back to being bang-on for you! Could not have done it without your help on how inverted and idle detent things were set up, so thank you again! Any other issues please let me know!

 

@LanceCriminal86 Thanks for the kind words and detailed post! Strange issue - I've tested it with the newest patch and the A/B location for the F-14 hasn't changed, so the curves should be accurate if your detent location is in fact 26. Is this detent set up for both left and right throttles, and do both throttles equally touch off burners in this way? If there's a lot of "travel" through the detent you may want to set it later rather than right up against the "start" point of it. Another way to think of the detent location number is that it should be the last position right before A/B lights off. Jostles shouldn't be causing it, but if it's a big enough bump to travel another percent then that indeed would be doing it.

For that reason in the initial testing, some folks did find it preferable to add some cushion to their detent location. Usually subtracting 2 from their calculation was enough to work out for them. From the FAQ portion of the ReadMe:

Reducing the detent like that as you suggested won't change the entire line much, but it may smooth it out enough to match up with the detent and still not be as touchy. Please let me know how it goes.

 

 

I did see that, I'll give 25 a try and 24 after that to see if it changes any. Like I said the printed detents may be getting a bit worn so that could be meaning an inconsistent stop point when I was doing the measuring of box to dot to get the detent number. The throttles seem to be accurately paired as far as axes go.

 

My typical fallback was just to tweak the nearest curve point but I'll see if tweaking the whole curve as said works as well.

[JCofDI]

@LanceCriminal86understandable! It's a good line of reasoning but the way DCS auto-smoothes its curves (put one at 100 and the next at 50 and see how it overshoots then corrects), it can end up making situations strange to adjust only one point when we're talking about only one or two percent differences.

 

Also worth noting that with the detent at 26 it's kind of in the no-man's-land between the 20 and 30 sliders, so if just doing singular adjustments to the sliders I'd recommend alternating movements between the two instead of just sticking to one. 

 

Hope that's good to set you towards finding your sweet spot!

Edited April 15, 2021 by JCofDI

[zildac]

9 hours ago, JCofDI said:

@zildacGlad to hear it's back to being bang-on for you! Could not have done it without your help on how inverted and idle detent things were set up, so thank you again! Any other issues please let me know!

 

@LanceCriminal86 Thanks for the kind words and detailed post! Strange issue - I've tested it with the newest patch and the A/B location for the F-14 hasn't changed, so the curves should be accurate if your detent location is in fact 26. Is this detent set up for both left and right throttles, and do both throttles equally touch off burners in this way? If there's a lot of "travel" through the detent you may want to set it later rather than right up against the "start" point of it. Another way to think of the detent location number is that it should be the last position right before A/B lights off. Jostles shouldn't be causing it, but if it's a big enough bump to travel another percent then that indeed would be doing it.

For that reason in the initial testing, some folks did find it preferable to add some cushion to their detent location. Usually subtracting 2 from their calculation was enough to work out for them. From the FAQ portion of the ReadMe:

Reducing the detent like that as you suggested won't change the entire line much, but it may smooth it out enough to match up with the detent and still not be as touchy. Please let me know how it goes.

 

@JCofDI You're more than welcome, and thanks again! Going to try the F14 a little later.

[Kervinou]

Thank you

Even though my curves were already very good, I did them again and it's even better!

[LanceCriminal86]

Went back and followed the suggested "-2" thing, and it's working perfectly now. This tool is definitely a big help!

[JCofDI]

V1015 is now on the User Files site which has options for Inverted axes, X Saturation, and Deadzone changes on the spreadsheet version (still learning to code so that I can update the software version as well - Coming Soon). I've also added a Google Sheets link to the download so spreadsheet software is no longer required to use that version and also ensure the new options are available to all. Do note that a Google account is required and you will need to use the "Make a Copy" feature in order to customize the calculator to find your custom User Curves.

 

Please feel free to reach out with any issues or feedback. Thank you all - enjoy the flights!

[Kervinou]

Great job, appreciated, thanks

[ftmch]

Could this tool be updated to include the throttle gate on the Mosquito please?

[Kervinou]

3 hours ago, ftmch said:

Could this tool be updated to include the throttle gate on the Mosquito please?

 

have you ever seen an afterburner on this plane ?

[MAXsenna]

 
have you ever seen an afterburner on this plane ?

Have you checked the controls/special settings for the Mossie?
Pretty sure that's what he's talking about.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[hasole]

Thank you for this.  Makes it so much easier.

[JCofDI]

14 hours ago, ftmch said:

Could this tool be updated to include the throttle gate on the Mosquito please?

 

I'll be happy to add the Mossie! For right now, from some quick testing, you can use the Su-27/33 page to get pretty close to where the RCtrl+Enter overlay shows the second stage starting, and it "audibly" lines up with my WH detent in practice.

 

The automatic finger lifts of the module currently have me questioning how far you could really get on the throttle without pressing them at all though - as they start to lift about 10-15% before the visible "gate" portion of the axis - so I may hold off on updating the release until those function. Alternatively, if someone can find documentation that would otherwise show where it should be I'd be happy to use that as confirmation of the placement as well.

 

Thanks!

 

[ftmch]

16 hours ago, Kervinou said:

 

have you ever seen an afterburner on this plane ?

Don't need to have an afterburner to have a throttle gate!

[Kervinou]

19 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

Have you checked the controls/special settings for the Mossie?
Pretty sure that's what he's talking about.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

 

OK !

forget my post, I didn't install it

4 hours ago, ftmch said:

Don't need to have an afterburner to have a throttle gate!

okokokokokok !!

[andqui]

This tool worked beautifully for me- except for the F-14 and Viggen. The AB engages too early for me in both of those. I know the Viggen just had an extensive update- did something change with the internal detent positions there that would require an update for this? It's complicated by the fact I'm using a Virpil CM3 with an idle detent (which needs X-saturation of 87) and also an inverted axis.

Screenshots included. With this set up, the afterburner kicks in at full power just shy of the real-life physical detent; maybe Heatblur is doing something internally that the rest of the modules aren't that doesn't play well with the X-saturation?

[MirabelleBenou]

Hello ! Would really love if updated with the new F1

 

Thanks !

[grant977]

F1 needs this big time.

[Rhinozherous]

Yes, this tool looks like made for the F1, she has such a weird AB position. 

[JCofDI]

Hello all! This has now been updated to v1017.

v1.017 – Updates in this release only apply to the Excel and Google Sheets version. When Software is updated, will post a new version.

ReadMe updated to reflect new axis tune page in DCS 2.8.

Added: AH-64 Lockout Detent
Added: Mirage F1-CE (The Idle/cutoff behavior was requested, but was not consistent enough for me to work out how to best make a curve for it, so this is only MIL & AB values.)

Updated: <Aircraft/Old AB Value/New AB Value>
Updated: AJS37 Viggen 18->20
Updated: F-16 Viper 20->24
Updated: F/A-18 Hornet 23->25
Updated: JF-17 Thunder 8->16

To download, visit the User Files link. Thank you all!
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3315617/

Edited October 30, 2022 by JCofDI

[GK61]

First off, can't thank JCofDI and Bailey enough for creating this, what a marvelous contribution this is to the community and it's just what I needed. I have the Warthog throttle (newer model w/updated cursor stick) and fly the Hornet mainly, along with the Viper, JF-17,  A10C II and lastly the F-5E. So far I find the value of 25 pretty accurate for the Hornet, for the F-5E, I'm finding that a value of 16-17 seems dead on, still working on the others. One thing of note I've found, there is a small discrepancy between what the spreadsheet will show vs the calculator regarding the F-18C as shown in the attachment, however for the F-5E the numbers match.

Edited January 24, 2023 by GK61

[Trigati]

The last update was just made to the spreadsheet according to the notes. So for the Hornet I’d expect a small difference until it gets updated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JCofDI]

Thanks for the kind words @GK61!

As Trigati notes, the spreadsheet has some updated values with the most recent release. Every time I've dabbled in computer code I end up as confused and broken as the results I make

The app version won't be wrong per se; it has the initial values I used which were when the engine actually was in afterburner. However, there was some confusion that this location was sometimes visually past a detent in-game despite not being in afterburner, so the newest version in the spreadsheets align the calculated detent location with the in-game detents.

Edited February 2, 2023 by JCofDI

[Bucic]

Subject: F-5E

Hi!

First of all, as many others have already expressed, what a useful contribution! Thank you!

I'm building a set of functional replicas of the F-5E controls and I'd like to ask you how to proceed knowing that F-5E has a certain portion of the throttle movement for the engine OFF function? Do I enter the [throttle OFF max***] value as deadzone in your spreadsheet or is there another way?

I intend to use the following dimensions/angles of the real F-5E throttle quadrant (surveyed mainly from the ModelViewer):

			deg		% of total range
throttle total		90		100
throttle OFF min	0		0
throttle OFF max***	15		17
throttle idle		16		18
throttle MIL		72		80
throttle AB min		73		81
throttle AB max		90		100

See: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/318106-f-5e-simpit-cockpit-dimensions-and-flight-controls/

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Bucic