Push-To-Talk Button

[flightdeck]

Don't bash me, if the answer has been already given in another forum thread ... I really tried to find an answer via the "search" first

I am going to install a "push-to-talk-button" in my yokes, the question is, how to emulate a key press, so that this button can be designated via FSUIPC as "Transmit On" and "Transmit Off" when connected with VATSIM!

Thanks guys!

[sas550]

Well that depends on what type of yokes you have and how they talk to fs.

If you have a yoke with buttons connected with a program interface (like ch) it 's easy. Just open fsuipc (need reg version) and go to the button's tab. Press the button on the yoke ment for PTT and then tick the box that shows fs controls. Scroll down to PTT transmit on and for release choose PTT transmit off

[flightdeck]

Thanks Anders for your reply!
But I don't have a ready made product, like CH.
I have a Boing style yoke, where I am going to drill a push button in.

So, the question is, how FSUIPC realizes pressing the button (like a key stroke) without a keyboard. A friend of mine gave me a tip, I should emulate a key stroke, but don't know how!

[Suggy]

Just wire up your push to talk button to a 'hacked' joystick. Get the cheapest USB joystick you can find and pull it apart. Cut the wires to the pots and the joystick buttons. With one of those joystick button wires you have just cut, solder it to the push to talk button in your yoke. Plug the joystick (probably just a curcuit board now!) into any computer (doesn't matter which one but it needs to be running WideFS if you are connecting it to a non FS computer). Start FSUIPC and assign the ppt command to it. Easy!

Regards,

Darren

[flightdeck]

Thanks Darren, that's exactly the information I needed!
Have a great day!

[mauriceb]

Just wire up your push to talk button to a 'hacked' joystick. Get the cheapest USB joystick you can find and pull it apart. Cut the wires to the pots and the joystick buttons. With one of those joystick button wires you have just cut, solder it to the push to talk button in your yoke. Plug the joystick (probably just a curcuit board now!) into any computer (doesn't matter which one but it needs to be running WideFS if you are connecting it to a non FS computer). Start FSUIPC and assign the ppt command to it. Easy!

Regards,

Darren

Hi Darren,
Just to expand a bit on your answer, I am currently building linked rudder pedals on my deck and I was also wondering if the easiest way to interface them with FS would be to take the existing circuit board in my USB CH rudder pedals, cut all the wires to the pots and connect the new potentiometers to the circuit board.
I'm also wondering if the potentiometer values make any difference. My guess is no since calibration should take care of that, but if you or anybody else knows the answer, confirmation that this is feasible would be nice .

Thanks,
Maurice

[Suggy]

Hi Maurice.

It seems a shame to take apart your CH rudder pedals. You never know when you might want them again! Again, as I mentioned earlier, why not use a cheap USB joystick curcuit board that you dismantled? Callibrate the axis in FSUIPC as rudders. However, unlike the solution regarding the ptt buttons, the joystick would have to be plugged into the Flight sim computer. Whilst FSUIPC can detect joystick buttons pressed over the network, it cannot detect joystick movements over the network.

regards,

darren

P.S. Not too sure on the value of the pots. You never know, they may be stamped on the pots tha tcame with the joystick\CH Pedals

[Michael Carter]

I K-balled my CH yoke for my Boeing yoke set-up. The PPT button that I use on the Boeing yoke wired up perfectly on the CH card in place of the button I was using.

I didn't even have to reprogram the CH card when I hooked up the Boeing yoke. I just used all of the switch points for the same functions that the CH yoke was using.

[mauriceb]

Thanks Darren. I think you are quite right about not destroying CH rudder pedals & instead buying a cheap USB joystick. What was I thinking?

Thanks again for the tips,
Maurice

[Kennair]

I agree, get an old USB joystick and hack it! It'll give you at least 4 axis as well as 8 or so buttons. Remember if you don't use all the axis, some joysticks don't like it if there are no resistance connected to any one, so attach a dummy load of the same value or an unused pot to avoid jittering of all axis. A really good joystick controller is HERE. It will set you back $45 USD delivered but you get 8 axis and 36 buttons. It's been a great addition to my sim and it doesn't care of there are unused axis. It's own controller just ignores them.

And as for the pot values, it's been my experience that most joysticks will accept between 10K & 100k values. As you say, the calibration takes care of most things. The most important thing is to use Linear pots, not logarithmic. Log pots are used for audio volume controls as the human ears don't detect sound in a linear fashion, but joysticks want to see linear changes in resistance.

Hope that helps,

Ken.