Potentiometers with Flight Sim
Can MobiFlight handle Potentiometers?
Man this blog post was easy!
Fine. I’ll elaborate.
MobiFlight used to not support analog potentiometers, a lot of the developers really feel they aren’t necessary, given the software already supports digital rotary encoders. Sometimes the debates get pretty heated, which is cool because it means they seriously care about the product.
Why MobiFlight Potentiometers Are the Best Thing Since Self Driving School Buses.
Users don’t have to be stuck between 2 programs, one for potentiometers, and one for everything else.
Air Conditioning can be simulated using these potentiometers.
Greater flexibility can be achieved instead of the simple options given with joystick configuration.
Experiments can be done allowing these to control fun things: Time of day, or Weather.
If these get good enough, these could replace costly LeoBodnar cards for yoke controls.
Why MobiFlight Potentiometers are the Worst Thing Since the Creation of the SAT
Configuration could be difficult for new users. Users might have to write their own code.
MobiFlight works best with the Mega, but the Mega can not be used as an HID Device (Human Interface Device), unless the user changes this using a Bootloader.
The Arduino Mega is not compatible with the Joystick_H library, which already uses Arduinos to simulate a joystick.
This would probably work with an Leonardo/Micro, but the Leonardo/Micro have significantly less pins than the Mega.
There isn’t a need for custom offsets with potentiometers. The vast majority of users won’t use potentiometers (probably).
This system could tax the software (Readouts would need to constantly be made, multiple times/second)
Other systems already exist.
Other Solutions
LeoBodnar Cards These currently cost $70.50 USD + Shipping overseas.
Joystick controllers:
Hack old game controllers, and replace their potentiometers
Use MobiFlight’s Rotary Encoders instead, which kinda not really works for everything.
How to customize them:
FSUIPC stands for Flight Simulator Universal Inter Process Communication.
FSUIPC is a program that basically “Steals” data from the sim, and more or less passes it under the table to you the user. You can use this data to configure keyboards, joystick buttons, and joystick axis. You will need the registered version of FSUIPC to configure buttons and joysticks, however.
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