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Programming RMU Pins and Buttons

(Original thread started on 02-20-2012 by Will Sasse)

Mark, I am connecting both RMU's using your Utility software through a single PoLabs 55 USB card. Windows only sees 32 buttons as a joystick emulator. FSUIPC does not see pins above 32 (at least on my system)

Does your Utility allow use of pins above #32?

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 02-20-12)

Okay, sounds like some clarifications are needed for all. My utility requires no assigning or programming as a joystick button period.

 

To use my utility with a Pokeys 55 or 56U series card, you simply attach the wires designated for the encoders to the pins on the pokeys card. Since it's a 'beta' release, preferably attach the encoders from the pilot RMU to pins 1,2,5 & 6 as I know this works. Connect the remaining wires from this RMU to the Pokeys card and then repeat for the Co Pilot RMU, I used 34,35,36,37 for the Co-pilot encoders. Then go into the Pokeys POConsole software and set pins 1,2, 5 & 6 to digital inputs, select encoder and the appropriate settings for A or B, 4x sampling. You should end up with for example the A1 and B1 and A2 and B2 for the encoders on the Pilot RMU, repeat for the Co-Pilot side. These are really the only pins you have to take note of.

 

The remaining pins where you connected a input wire, need to be set to 'digital input', [b]select nothing else[/b]. No macros, no key assignments and definitely no Joystick button assignments. Now save by clicking 'Send to Device', exit the software and run my utility and configure the buttons. Press a graphic button on the screen to trigger a timer window that waits 30 seconds for you to press the corresponding button on the actual RMU. Do not do any button or key press assignments in FSUIPC either! My code writes directly to the Jet45 software offset assignments, nothing else is needed. Doing so will only create possible problems.

 

If you click the screen to configure 'SQ' for example, there is no pin to respond, so hit cancel or wait for it to timeout as you will never be able to set it. I probably should have blocked those out, but if down the road it were possible to use them, then it's there.

 

Please note, that currently only PGE and DIM are modeled of the buttons on the bottom of the RMU's, you do not have to connect these wires to the pokeys, it won't do anything and most importantly! There are not enough pins on the Pokeys to handle every button for both RMU's anyway as I stole some for this version to operate the gear indicator display. See my main thread for which pins these are.

 

I am currently working on a new interface board and software that will allow us to connect and operate all the RMU's and DU's with a single Pokeys card and hope to have within a month or two. In the meantime, it's possible to just barely have enough pins to run the buttons that matter from 2 RMU's on a single Pokeys card.  I hope this helps to clarify some things.

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 02-21-12)

Thanks Mark, when I connect the Pokeys USB card to my Win7 PC it is automatically installed as a joystick device (with the 32 button limit). This limits seems to affect FSUIPC seeing pins above #32.

 

I have 3 Pokeys55 USB cards (trying to find the other 'fix') and all install this way.  Should this 'device' be removed? Or is there a setting I need to change?

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 02-21-12)

On a side note, with your new software interface will we be able to connect [b]all[/b] buttons for the two RMUs to one Pokey card so in the future if JET45 models them we will be ready?

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 02-21-12)

Alan, the only buttons that we plan not to interface is the ID and SQ as they can never be modeled as I see it.

 

Will, Just because there are 55 pins, doesn't mean there will be 55 joystick button assignments. I'm not sure why you want to see them all as Joystick buttons. Use the 'Joystick settings' in the PoConsole to set which pin to which joystick button. Still a 32 button limit.

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 02-23-12)

Thanks Mark, an update: I have some success - In PoConsole I 'disabled' pins 1-2 & 5-10 in joystick settings (These are for my RMU encoders). I hope to use pins 11-13, 20-47 and 50-51 as joystick buttons 1-32. I deleted all button assignments in FSUIPC relating to the RMU's.

 

Now when I run your utility - I get correct up/down movement of the frequencies relative to the turn of the encoders. Its not smooth, and its not one unit per click, the display still oscillates slightly between changes. I find I get slightly better action with 4x selected in PoConsole for the encoders. Its not what I am hoping to achieve as a final result, but it is at least usable.

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 02-23-12)

Sounds good Will. The 2x to 4x, increases the resolution of the encoder so it can make it better or worse depending on processing speed of all components involved I would imagine.

 

Still not sure why you are setting the pins to joystick buttons. It takes 56 pins to wire both dual encoders and all the usable buttons, plus another 6 for the Gear Indicator LEDs to run both RMU's from my utility. Obviously not enough, which is why I'm a lot closer now to having this support not only both RMU's but both DU's as well with a new interface board that goes between the RMU's, Du's and the Pokeys card.

 

The utility takes care of the button press actions (updating the offsets) without having to assign joystick buttons and map in FSUIPC. Is there something different you are doing here, like only mapping a couple buttons in the RMU utility? Sorry, confused as to what your goal is here.

 

I mentioned in a earlier post that the ID button is not modeled, while that may be true for now, it does have an available offset. The buttons with no offset available are SQ, 1/2, STO, TST and DME. Thought I'd better clarify my mistake on that.

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 02-23-12)

Thanks Mark, okay, I will not set any pins as joystick buttons, standby to see what happens next!

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 02-23-12)

Here's a screenshot of my setup in PoConsole of my 55T running the RMU's. If you can't see all of it, there's a external link at the bottom.

 

Arrows pointing to the outside of the pic are Outputs and Arrows pointing to the center of the pic are Inputs. Note on my card, pins 13, 48 and 49 don't work so are not used.

 

Encoders are on pins 1,2,5,6,34,35,336 & 37. Gear Indicators are 14 thru 19. Pins 43 - 47 that are available as analog are configured as Digital Inputs only Nothing more has been done to configure these pins outside of 'Digital Input' or 'Digital Output' and the extra minimum info needed for the encoder pins. Zero Joystick buttons are configured:

Markl 3

 

With the next version with the interface card, you hopefully won't have to do anything outside of connect the cables, install and launch the software and it's running. Since it will only be supporting the DU's and RMU's, it will be basically a hard coded configuration and I will set the Pokeys card for you, there will be nothing to configure.

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 02-23-12)

Again, Thanks Mark.  A lot of the issues seemed to be solved when I finally understood what you meant by "not" programming joystick functions. I would still like to know how to set it up manually using FSUIPC, but that can wait, I've got other fish to fry. Your new utility sounds like it might even remove that item from my to-do list.

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 02-24-12)

Mark, can you please explain what the SQ and ID functions are? Seems SQ maybe squelch but would not be a button function but a knob. I hope ID is not Squawk as this is necessary.

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 02-24-12)

SQ is squelch and is a function that in the real unit has a preset signal to noise ratio threshold, so no need for a knob and that's why it's a button. However, it wont be modeled in JET45.

 

ID is to enable the IDENT function of the transponder and works within Squawkbox. The LSK below the transponder 4 digit line is where you toggle between Active and Standby on your transponder.

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 02-24-12)

Yes, since I posted, I've been updated by Eric and Jason that SQ is the only button that won't be modeled, so we will ensure that inputs from all the other buttons can be addressed with the new version of the software (my utility) and interface board.