Mapping the Saitek X52

[mtnman]

What is the RPM? I know what RPM is, but not sure what you are controlling in the game.

You're changing how many rotations per minute your prop makes.  If you look at your control panel, and see the RPM, you'll notice that it stays the same whether you are at full throttle or at idle.  What you don't see is that although the prop is still spinning the same speed, the angle of deflection for the prop is different.  It isn't taking as big of a "bite" out of the air, and/or producing as much thrust at a lower throttle-setting as it is when the throttle is maxed...

max throttle and max RPM is where you want to be while fighting (it's where you'll get the best speed and acceleration), but you're burning lots of fuel at that setting.  Once you're level and "up to speed", you're not really gaining that much speed, and don't really need much acceleration, so for traveling back and forth between fights you may want to reduce throttle and RPM to get better mileage.  Reducing throttle helps, but not as much as reducing both.  I generally only reduce my settings while RTB low on fuel.

To see the "best" settings, just open your clipboard and click on E6B.  Looking down, you'll see the max cruise, max power, etc, settings.  You just adjust your RPM and throttle to those settings...

Another way to use RPM is to reduce RPM to a minimum on a multi-engined plane if one engine stops (damaged).  A propeller spinning fast creates more drag than one spinning slow.  Er, rather, the drag is what makes the prop spin faster...  Taking this a step further, say you find yourself in a fighter, RTB, and your engine quits (but the prop is still spinning).  Reducing the RPM to its minimum setting will allow you to glide quite a bit further...

[ink]

Mtnman I could never get my rotary wheels to work with or without the SST,
hope ya dont mind I stole your pics and revamped to reflect my set-up

[Agent360]

To get the rotary keys to work you have to set them to a "band". In SST with your current profile opened find the rotary key and right click. Pick "banding". Use your mouse to click on the edges of the band to drag it up or down making smaller or larger. A band can be set to very narrow (0-10%) or wide (0-45%). A three band set up would be band 1 0-25%, band 2 26-74% and band 3 75% - 100%. You can make as many bands as you want. Each band corresponds with a key or control input.

After you have say 3 bands then double click and enter the key for what you want to do. Leave the center band set to nothing. You use the center one as a dead band. Now if you roll the wheel one way it will trigger that key.

Elevator trim uses "K" and "I" so you could set one band to K and the other to I. You could also set the middle band to combat trim on. This way if you roll the whell to K and then want to reset you roll the wheel to the mid point. I set the middle band to nothing and use another key on my stick to turn combat trim on and off.

[ink]

To get the rotary keys to work you have to set them to a "band". In SST with your current profile opened find the rotary key and right click. Pick "banding". Use your mouse to click on the edges of the band to drag it up or down making smaller or larger. A band can be set to very narrow (0-10%) or wide (0-45%). A three band set up would be band 1 0-25%, band 2 26-74% and band 3 75% - 100%. You can make as many bands as you want. Each band corresponds with a key or control input.

After you have say 3 bands then double click and enter the key for what you want to do. Leave the center band set to nothing. You use the center one as a dead band. Now if you roll the wheel one way it will trigger that key.

Elevator trim uses "K" and "I" so you could set one band to K and the other to I. You could also set the middle band to combat trim on. This way if you roll the whell to K and then want to reset you roll the wheel to the mid point. I set the middle band to nothing and use another key on my stick to turn combat trim on and off.

cool bro, I am gonna try that, that would open up the 4-way hat on throttle.

well i tried but it still would not work so I re-downloaded the SST software, and it works, BUT the rotaries are horrible, I open up the control panel and they keep sliding without me touching them,  so screw it I am just gonna stick with how I have it set-up now.

[Agent360]

Ink,

You have to calibrate them in game just like your sitck and throttle. The become like an axis control and have to be calibrated.

In game under options - calibrate joystick move all the controls and the rotaries full on and off. That should fix the prob

[Mace2004]

To get the rotary keys to work you have to set them to a "band". In SST with your current profile opened find the rotary key and right click. Pick "banding". Use your mouse to click on the edges of the band to drag it up or down making smaller or larger. A band can be set to very narrow (0-10%) or wide (0-45%). A three band set up would be band 1 0-25%, band 2 26-74% and band 3 75% - 100%. You can make as many bands as you want. Each band corresponds with a key or control input.

After you have say 3 bands then double click and enter the key for what you want to do. Leave the center band set to nothing. You use the center one as a dead band. Now if you roll the wheel one way it will trigger that key.

Elevator trim uses "K" and "I" so you could set one band to K and the other to I. You could also set the middle band to combat trim on. This way if you roll the whell to K and then want to reset you roll the wheel to the mid point. I set the middle band to nothing and use another key on my stick to turn combat trim on and off.

This is totally dependant upon what you are trying to map to the rotaries and bands don't usually work very well for things like trim.  When you set them to bands they can act as digital inputs (i.e., as the "K" and "I" keys) but it's much better to use the analog controls as analog inputs otherwise, unless you keep moving the control back to the dead band, you'll get continuous key presses which can do bad things like lock up your controller.  You can set the analog controls as straight analog (Pitch, Roll and Yaw, Throttle, Trim, views, brakes and RPM), or as both (as I wrote about regarding using the throttle to control engine On/Off and WEP).  Another advantage to using analog inputs is that you can pre-set them.  For instance, you can go ahead and roll your rotary to give you full up elevator trim.  While flying around with combat trim on everything works normally but toggle CT off and the elevator trim will move up.  This works well for airplanes that compress as you just toggle trim off when you get too fast in a dive and the trim will bring the nose up.  You can also pre-set your trim to your preferred settings for a turn fight and just toggle CT off when you get in a knife fight.

I use Rotary 2 for Rudder Trim and Rotary 1 for Field of View (Zoom).  Since I use TrackIR I use my POV coolie hat for pitch/roll trim (this is what the actual coolie hat on a real stick is used for)  To set the Rotaries for analog open SST and make sure that these analog controls are unprogrammed.  (You only have to do this if you use the SST software, otherwise you can just map the rotaries in AH)  Then, open AH and go to Map Controllers.  Rotary 2 is called "Y Rotation" and Rotary 1 is "X Rotation" (Trip's post shows this).  Spin your rotaries and you should see the value next to the names change.  Also, the Slider can be mapped but it's a crappy control and I've found it to be very "spiky" in all my X52's so don't use it for anything.  After you map the analog inputs you must calibrate them as Agent360 mentions.

Also, another trick that works real well is to set the X and Y axis of the throttle mouse switch to three bands.  Since the stick is momentary (i.e., it's spring loaded to return to center) you can set both axis to bands and not have to worry about continuous key inputs as long as you leave the center bands unprogrammed as Agent360 mentions.  Mine are set as: Up=flaps up, Down=flaps down, Forward=WEP, and Back=Dive brakes.  Using SST you can also map "shift" functions for those four settings and use them for something like gunner's positions.

[mtnman]

Mtnman I could never get my rotary wheels to work with or without the SST,
hope ya dont mind I stole your pics and revamped to reflect my set-up

No problem Ink, I stole them from someone else, hehe!

I use the rotary wheels the way Mace explains.  I haven't used the SST programming for several years.  

I also do the pre-set thing like Mace explained for the trims.  I trim (combat trim off) for straight/level at about 275, and leave the trims "there" while I fly around with CT on.  When I want manual, I just turn off the CT, and my trims move to where I had them pre-set.

And, like Mace says, you must calibrate them, as well as the RPM if you have that set on the slider.

[ink]

ya I have been messing around but my rotaries are shot, it the Saitek control panel they are not only "spiking" they completely drain all the red, I  am tired of the damn thing, I want to go CH as soon as this stick dies that's the route I am going, or maybe the "couger" definitely  not interested in these new "pressure sticks" that don't move.

[RTHolmes]

ya I have been messing around but my rotaries are shot, it the Saitek control panel they are not only "spiking" they completely drain all the red

my big rotary (which i use for rpm) has started doing the same thing, although not spiking - after a while the rpms just drop off slowly, although a quick nudge resets it. annoying

[Tigger29]

Here's mine... some are mapped from within AH (And left blank in the SST software) while others are programmed through SST.

For example, my EJECT command.. well I have to hold down the shift trigger, then hold down the encased button for two seconds.. then it sends the "ENTER ENTER ENTER" command.  When I release the button, then it sends the "O" command.

It's still a work in progress and I have some stuff programmed that I almost never use and may have omitted it from here... but all the commands listed in my charts get used quite regularly:

[LCCajun]

how is it u got the slide and rotary 1 mapped for some reason it won't let me map them

[Rich46yo]

How did you mp the mouse controller for trim up,down,right,left? In SST or in AH ? And how ? Thank you.

[morfiend]

how is it u got the slide and rotary 1 mapped for some reason it won't let me map them

 Yes plz answer this for me aswell,other than using the SST program I cant seem to make the scroll wheel work either.

   

[Mace2004]

How did you mp the mouse controller for trim up,down,right,left? In SST or in AH ? And how ? Thank you.

That must be done in the SST software but it's easy.  Open up the profile using the SST Profiler and find the Mouse X and Y Axis (they're at the bottom).  Set both Axis as "bands."  It will default to three equally spaced bands for each axis and you assign your trim buttons to the upper and lower bands leaving the center band unassigned as a deadzone.

[Tigger29]

Yeah what mace said... have to do it from SST software... like I said... many of my commands are left blank in SST but programmed from within AH... but some (including all of my shifted commands) had to be done from SST.