[EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52 *INFO*

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[EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52 *INFO*

Post by Arei »

Hey!

While trying to learn more advanced combat technics I realized it is possible to use the reverse afterburner... I also realized the Saitek X52 profiler sucks big time. My issue is more saitek related than EL related, but since Vice (or anyone else ^^) may know a solution I'm allowing myself to post here.

My issue is that you have to hold the reverse thrusters key AND the afterburner key in order to use the reverse afterburner which makes sense for a normal mind, but I don't believe that the people who designed the saitek profiler were sane people... ^^' After fiddling with the saitek profiler for a good hour the best I can do is use an advanced command to spam both keys multiple times per second in order to spam the reverse afterburner quickly enough to accelerate which sounds very, very ugly.

How are people with a X52 HOTAS mapping the reverse afterburner to their device? I'm probably overlooking something simple as usual but I can't get the saitek profiler to hold more than one key pressed for the life of me so any help would be apreciated.

Thanks in advance for the heads up! :)
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Re: [EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52

Post by Vice »

There are two ways to handle reverse thrust, one 'on demand' when you hold a button, the other more of a toggle that you can leave on and persistently apply reverse thrust with. Neither option requires the use of an external profiler.

First, you can map the 'Reverse Engine Thrust' control to a button on the X52, then hold that button down while firing the afterburner to use it for high powered reverse thrust.

Second, you can activate (or map) the full range throttle mode, default right shift key, then any time you set the throttle level to a negative number, the afterburner will be used for high powered reverse thrust. Simply move the set throttle level to a positive level or turn off the full range throttle mode to return to forward afterburner control.
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Re: [EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52

Post by Arei »

I think I will go with the second solution (that I overlooked as usual :P ), because I have both my reverse engine thrusters and afterburner buttons on the X52 throttle (D and i respectively) and they can't be activateed at the same time without inducing cramps. I believe it'll be easier to get used to the full range throttle rather than put reverse thrusters or afterburner on the stick, especially since I use the pinky as a shift button.

The thing is I also use the 3 different modes with the switch on the stick so I believe using the profiler is still mandatory to a certain extent... It's really infuriating that it can hold one key pressed, but not two or more. ><

Thank you for your quick and detailed answer! :)
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Re: [EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52

Post by Vice »

Another option, if you'd prefer to avoid having to press two buttons at the same time to engage reverse afterburner thrust, is to enable afterburner on the throttle axis (via the check box next to the throttle axis channel in the axis configuration menu). That will let you activate afterburner when the throttle axis control is set to above about 90%. You'd need to use the reverse engine thrust toggle option at that point, but it would then be only one button to contend with.
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Re: [EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52

Post by Arei »

Thank for all the suggestions ans sorry for the delay (I've been sick the whole week ><). Using the full range throttle works actually pretty well and I'll probably use it so I can free buttons. :)

Also for those interested I found the solution to my initial problem: By default, the profiler counts the tim the key combination is pressed to reproduce that exact time. To fix it and have the key held as long as the button is held; right click on the keys => Quantize time => 0.000
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Re: [EL 1.0308]Reverse afterburner and saitek X52 *INFO*

Post by Sinbad »

When I had an X52 I got around your problem by mapping forward/reverse thrust to the little slider on the throttle... you know the small one by your thumb (can't remember which axis it is called). That way you can easily control your amount of thrust and/or afterburn with the main throttle axis, and just flip the thumb slider back when you want to engage reverse thrust.
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