F27 & HS748 HPC lever assignment

[mallan157]

For those with a registered copy of FSUIPC it is possible to assign the HP fuel cock levers in the VC of the F-27 and HS748 aircraft to a controller axis (something that's bugged me for years!). The trick is to create a macro file using the two relevant local variables, assign an axis to to each lever variable, then modify the .INI file to get the correct scaling. The variables have a value of 0 at full forward (lockout) and 100 at full aft (feather) which is why the scaling is needed.

I am using P3DV4.5 and FSUIPC5 but I'm sure the process will be similar for other setups.

Step 1: create a text file called something like f27_levers.mcro in the Prepar3D v4/Modules folder (where the FSUIPC files reside) containing the following:-

[Macros]
1=L:f27_leftHP_lever=Set
2=L:f27_rightHP_lever=Set

Note that the same variable names are used for the HS748 - clearly some code was reused!

Step 2: with the sim running, load the F27 or HS748, go to the FSUIPC menu and in the Axis Assignment dialogue box assign one quadrant lever to f27_leftHP_lever Set (from the dropdown box), rescan and assign another lever to f27_rightHP_lever Set. Make sure you have a specific FSUIPC profile defined for the aircraft as these are unusual assignments!

Step 3: open the FSUIPC5.ini file in Notepad (or similar) and find the aircraft profile towards the end. The axis definitions will show something like this:-

0=0X,256,F,M1:2,0,0,0 -{ TO SIM: Macro f27_levers: L:f27_rightHP_lever set }-
1=3X,256,F,M1:1,0,0,0 -{ TO SIM: Macro f27_levers: L:f27_leftHP_lever set }-

These will pass the full axis values +/- 16383 to the sim, but we actually only want 0 to 100 and in the opposite sense! We can achieve this by applying the correct scaling, so add the scaling factors to the end of the parameter strings so that you end up with the following:-

0=0X,256,F,M1:2,0,0,0,x-0.0030519,+50 -{ TO SIM: Macro f27_levers: L:f27_rightHP_lever set }-
1=3X,256,F,M1:1,0,0,0,x-0.0030519,+50 -{ TO SIM: Macro f27_levers: L:f27_leftHP_lever set }-

Please note that the x characters are supposed to be ASTERISKS (the editor here is using them as an italic control). Note too the minus sign after the asterisk. This is essential to reverse the values as required.
Save the .ini file.

Step 4: go back to the sim, open the FSUIPC Axis Assignment box again, and click the 'reload all assignments' button at the bottom. You should now find that the levers in the VC respond to your quadrant axes correctly.

Mark Allan