Command Keys

[Tom007]

I have set up a switch box to control various aspects of the Piper Comanche 250
(eg bat master, pitot heat, strobe light etc etc) but I can,t find any way
of controlling the Landing lights or beacon light.
Does anyone know of any command codes that would work, that I could assign in FSUIPC to a couple of switches,
or any other method for that matter.

Thanks in advance Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Hello Tom and welcome.

You should be able to assign the left and right landing lights to hardware controls via the A2A Comanche Input Configurator (available from the Windows Start Menu). As you say, FSUIPC is another option and a list of useful L:Var controls for the Comanche can be found here.

Please also note that if you have an FSX or P3Dv3 installation, you should run the Accu-Sim updater to make sure all functions are present. P3Dv4 installations are already up to date at the time of writing.

Thanks,
Nick

[Lewis - A2A]

Yes, Nick has you pretty much sorted, you can play with the input config or go all out with the LVar list, (which is btw the same as how the professional sim builders build the sim pits for training).

thanks,
Lewis

[Tom007]

Hi Nick and Lewis

Thanks for your replies and kind welcome.

I did check the input configurator but it doesn't have any entries for the lights
in question that I can assign a command key to.

I'm hoping I'm missing the obvious

Cheers Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Tom,

Have you checked the Comanche is properly updated as mentioned above? If so, "landing lamps left" and "landing lamps right" should appear towards the bottom of the list. If you're still having problems, please can you let us know which base sim you're using.

Thanks,
Nick

[Tom007]

Hi Nick
Made a mistake here see next post oops

[Tom007]

Hi Nick

Correction to above post

I have just re checked the input configurator and since I have re booted the pc
having carried out the update the left and right landing light options have now appeared, brilliant

so I just need the beacon light switch if that is possible.

Thanks again for your help

Kind Regards Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Aha! Good stuff Tom - I think the landing lights were added to the input configurator post-release which is why I mentioned the updater. If you've got a registered copy of FSUIPC, assigning the beacon lights to a button/key is certainly possible too. However, I believe it'll involve creating a simple text macro using the "L:BeaconLightSwitch" local variable (L:Var). This is pretty straightforward but have you used L:Vars before?

Cheers,
Nick

[Tom007]

Hi Nick

I'm afraid I haven't, although I am usually quite quick to pick things up.
My FSUIPC4 is a paid for version so I do have access to all the bits, and would love it
if I knew how to do that bit.

Many Thanks again

Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Hey Tom - you're very welcome.

When it comes to creating a text macro for the beacon light, the first step is to create a new text file in the “Modules” directory in FSX (this is where the FSUIPC4.dll is located). Open the text file in Notepad and add these exact two lines of text before saving it.

[MACROS]
1=L:BeaconLightSwitch=TOG

Once you've done this, you need to rename the text file so that it has a .mcro rather than .txt extension. (So something like “1_A2A_LVARS.mcro”; having a 1 at the beginning puts any functions it contains at the top of the list in FSUIPC.)

The next step is to start FSX, load the Comanche, and then open FSUIPC. In the “buttons + switches” tab of FSUIPC, you should tick the “profile specific?” box and ideally create a profile for the Comanche (if you haven’t already done so).

Then just select whichever hardware button you wish to use for the beacon light switch. To do this, press the desired button and then tick the “select for FS control” box. Then open the “control sent when button pressed” drop down list where—if you’ve saved the *.mcro file correctly—you should see your single custom macro listed at the top “1_A2A_LVARS: L:BeaconLightSwitch Tgl”.


The simple TOG command (as you may have guessed, “TOG” is short for toggle) means it's just like assigning any other function in FSUIPC and you don't have to worry about parameter values and so on. If you prefer to use a keyboard shortcut instead, access the same macro via the “key presses” tab instead.

I hope that all makes sense! One tip is to make sure you have file extensions shown in Windows so that you don't end up making a macro file called “1_A2A_LVARS.mcro.txt” by accident.

Let us know if you have any problems. The same L:Var can be adapted to something like a two position switch with the line L:BeaconLightSwitch=SET (instead of TOG) in the macro and a parameter value of 1 for the switch's on position and 0 for its off position.

Cheers,
Nick

[Tom007]

Hi Nick

Just to let you know, I've followed your instructions as above and it works a treat.
I can't thank you enough. you have been brilliant.

Many thanks for the time you have taken, and your prompt replies.

Kindest Regards Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Cheers Tom - you're welcome!

Now you've started with text macros, there are various other L:Vars you can utilise if you wish. A2A have helpfully provided a list of some of the most useful ones for the Comanche (see the link in my first post above).

All the best,
Nick

[Tom007]

Hi Nick

Just one last quickie, when I selected the Lvar for the beacon light and assigned it to a switch via FSUIPC it works great, but the next time I Run FSX, the switch is no longer assigned to anything.

if I then reassign it to the switch, it works fine again until I close down FSX and the next time I run It, its gone again.

Interestingly what I didn't realise previously there is an existing entry in FSUIPC called "Toggle Beacon Lights"
so I tried assigning that which works, but does the same as above. All the other switches that I have assigned are fine.

I have used FSUIPC for setting up switches. key presses etc for quite a while and have not come across this before.

I'm hoping I'm missing something simple.

Sorry to be a pain

Cheers Tom

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Tom,

Hmm - that's something I haven't come across before with FSUIPC. I'm away from home with work for a few days now, so can't really experiment or try to reproduce the behaviour at present I'm afraid.

What sort of switch are you using though? Is it a push switch or is it a two position kind that you're using with the "=SET" command instead?

Other than checking your installation of FSUIPC4 is fully up to date, I can't think of much to suggest at present. Might be worth dropping into the FSUIPC support forum if the issues persists.

Cheers,
Nick