Dtango, I'm going to take your questions in reverse order if thats ok.
Damping decreases the sensitivity overall. If your getting spikes, or if it is way too sensitive "everywhere" then set the damping up a bit. I suggest about a half an inch at a time, then fly with it.
Deadband deals with the slop in the center.
lightly grasp the top of you stick in 2 fingers, now twirl it around in a circle, but softly so it "bumps" up against where the return springs engage. With some sticks as they wear that "slop" in the center gets bigger & bigger.
Keep setting your deadband up 1/4" at a time for both pitch & roll till you can wiggle your stick "Gently" about the center without seeing movement on the graph. Ussually only pitch & roll need this.
Sliders, again we'll use pitch for an example. Pull your joystick straight back from the center as far as it can go. The sliders electronicly slice that distance from center to far limit into 10 "slices". One slider for each slice.
The range is for 0 input (slider at the bottom) to 100% of possible input (slider at the top)
If you want full total control from the very center of the stick all the way to the outside, set all your sliders to 100%. However, if your stick is at all sensitive this will be VERY difficult to fly with.
Or you can set the sliders to give you varying control. Low on the left, slowly stepping up to the right. This gives you "some" input close to the center slowly building as you pull the stick farther back.
Typical is the stairstep pattern, personally I use a combination of the two.
My first slider starts at about 75%, stairsteps up for 4 slices, then goes to 100% across the board.
This gives me a bit finer control in the center of the stick, with max possible responce throughout the rest of the range.
If your having problems blacking out, useing too much stick you may want to set your sliders lower. Limiting the possible control input.
I strongly recomend that you save your stick.cfg file to a safe places before doing major experimenting with the sliders. (Actually its a good idea to have your whole settings folder backed up)
Also make your changes small at first, make sure you click on apply, then ok, then test fly after each change.
I set my roll very close to 100% across the range, pitch has a small "step" and rudder a slightly bigger "step".
I also set my rudder deadband up, as I fly with a MS Sidewinder this helps keep me from kicking in rudder inadvertantly.
Hope this helps, if you still have questions give me a yell. bill69@qwest.net or give me a yell if you see me online.
