Hiya! Welcome to AH!
Are you talking about the new Help Files package from the Download page? Have you installed it?
First of all, you need to manually assign the corner views in the Stick Mapping setup. Click View keys mapping, and assign the DL button on the 1st hat to function "Look Back Left" by clicking the DL button, and then clicking the "Set button" button. Do the same for the other corner views, and you can also repeat for each stick set by selecting the stick set by clicking on their column title.
Then you have two choices: you can configure your stick from AH setup, or you create a SGE (Saitek Gaming Extensions software) config file for AH (and only need to configure the 4 corner views from AH). Most users do that, or use a config file from someone else; there used to be a stick config from RangerBob on the download page.
Using a SGE config file is best IMO because you can't use all the stick functions without the SGE. (In my case, I'm running Windows XP and there is no Win2k/XP version of the SGE, so I have to use the AH setup, and I can't use either mode switches, rotaries and rudder rocker - the last one because I have pedals for rudder control.)
SGE programming
I don't know if you're familiar with SGE programming. If not, the principle is to assign a key to buttons. For example, "N" fires all guns and secondary weapons, "F" fires only primaries and "B" fires secondaries. So you could assign "N" to the trigger, "F" to the X36F button A and "B" to X36F button "B". You need to check the Key mapping setup from AH in order to program a SGE profile for AH.
Stick setup from AH
Even if you use SGE, you need to assign stick axes to the right functions in AH. You do that from Joystick setup, "Select joystick button". If you have more than one controller, like X36 and CH Pedals, that's where you assign, say, X and Y axes and throttle to the Roll, Pitch and Throttle AH controls. Or you can select the controller and then click the "Set all inputs" buttons so AH does it for you. (For a second controller, you have to assign controls manually.)
If you want to configure your stick from AH instead of creating a SGE profile, then this is how it basically works.
The X36 has many hat switches, but only one acts like one. All other hats are really 4-way hats that are considered as 4 DirectX buttons each; only from SGE can those hats behave as 8-way hats. From stick mapping, as for the regular buttons (A, B, C, D, Launch, "Mouse" button, Pinkie) you can assign each one to an arbitrary "button number" in the AH control window; that's where the "undefined button # options" you speak of come in.
The rotaries and rudder rocker are axes.
The mode switch and auxiliary switches act like 3 buttons each, one button being always stuck on. The mode and auxiliary switches cannot really be made useful without the SGE, so there is no use assigning them in Stick mapping.
Same for the rotaries, unless you want to use them to control RPM. With SGE, you could make them act like buttons though, so you could have for example flaps up / down with the rudder rocker or a rotary dial.
You're really better off by using SGE than configuring the stick from AH setup.
Suggestions
My main hat switch serves for views, and I use the front hat on the throttle (beside the "mouse" button) for Up and Down views, and for Zooming. Most people use the Pinkie switch for the Up view, but I like to have the Down view as well, and I use the pinkie switch for switching Zoom on and off.
For trim, you could use either the rear hat on the throttle, or the second hat on the stick. Most people have found that the rotary dials, which were meant for trim control, are not well suited for fine trim control, because AH does not have axis control for trimming, only increments. So most people use the rotaries (in SGE) in banded mode, with two functions: flaps up / down, or Clipboard and Damage, etc.
The D button on the throttle can be used for talking (RogerWilco); I used to use the "mouse" button for my voice recognition software (GameCommander), until it stopped working.
It would be a good idea to assign the Check 6 Call function (global keys) to a button; I assigned one of the throttle's rear hat positions to it (check 6 selects the player at the center of the screen, and after a second a check 6 call is heard by that player; you can cycle through all the players on screen by clicking on the check 6 key - " ' " by default). I use the stick's second hat for trimming ailerons and elevators.
Finally, you can use the mode switch from SGE to have up to 3 different functions on the same button. You could have, for example, one stick "set" for each mode, one for fighters, one for bombers and one for vehicles.
[ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: DrSoya ]
