Device Listing Order

[cegull]

I have an F-16 combat stick (usb) and pro-pedals (usb) and when using the CH controller utility on the puter the devices get listed in the control panel/game controllers backwards. This is not a big problem for warbirds in setup but in IL-2 you cannot select the separate devices as 1 or 2 so they cannot be adjusted. The tech at CH said to make a simple map listing the combatstick as 1, then download it- I tried that but it did not work. Any ideas?

[Revvin]

I think perhaps what the tech guy at CH meant was to make a profile and combine all devices into one device recognised by Windows. Run the 'Map Wizard' (fourth icon from the left in the top menu) after you've selected the controllers you want to incorporate in your profile it will ask you if you want to combine the controllers into one device, if you click yes you will then get to choose how many axis and buttons you want to have on this 'single device' just keep the default values of 8 axis and 32 buttons and click okay, it will then ask you if you want to include CMS capability which is not necessary to start with and can be added later anyway.

Sometimes Windows gets confused by old registery settings so it will re-order the controllers or not reconise the controlelr if you plug it into another USB port. When you plug them in they will show up as CH Fighterstick, CH Pro Throttle etc etc in the Windows game controllers window. Once you program they will change to say 'CH Control Manager Device 1' ,2,3 etc or just device 1 if you combine all controllers into one device.

[Postal_3]

Revvin,

I have a similar problem where I have a map for IL-2 but my controllers (FS, PT, PP) are not showing up as a single device in Control Panel/Game Controllers. When in mapped mode, Control Panel shows *two* devices, CH Control Manager Device 1 and CH Control Manager Device 2. In my map I notice that some of the DirectX buttons are assigned to Device 1 and others to Device 2. Not surprisingly, my controllers are not working properly (for example, throttle's not functional) and I suspect the conflict between Device 1 and Device 2 may be the problem.

Would you please confirm whether *all* my Direct X buttons should be assigned to the same CM Device within a single map? Also, assuming that's the case, how do I get rid of the other Control Manager Device in Control Panel? (I'm running XP.)

Thanks.

[Revvin]

Zip all your profile files (.map .cms .cmc) and attach them to a reply to this topic and I'll take a look for you :salute:

[Bob Church]

Just to clarify a little. The Control Manager software creates as many devices as you reference. It's just as was mentioned, you've got Control Manager Device 1 and Control Manager Device 2 because your map is assigning something to each device. If you assign so much as a single button to Control Manager Device 2, you'll get a second device in Game Controllers.

It just depends on what you want to do. It's that mapping that the CMsoftware looks at to decide not only how many Control Manager devices there are, but also how many buttons and axes you've got. It has to create everything "up to" the highest you specified. If you make a map with just a joystick and everything assigned to CM Device 1 for example, then move one of it's buttons to CM Device 2, Button 32 and download. You'll get a 32-Button CM Device 2 because it can't create Button 32 without running through Buttons 1 through 31 first. The first 31 won't do anything, but they'll be visible in Game Controllers. You'll also get non-operating X and Y axes on CM Device 2 since you can't make a stick without an XY.

You can even end up with no devices at all if you need to. Start a map, just add your stick. Walk through every button and axis and assign it to send characters. Don't forget to do the POV. If you get them all assigned and download it, you'll have no Control Manager Devices at all in Game Controllers, it'll be completely empty, but the stick will still send the characters you programmed. It's even a useful trick sometimes. If you wanted to use an analog stick and a USB ProThrottle together in Falcon 4, for example, you could program the ProThrottle to send characters and get it to completely disappear, leaving you with just "Joystick 1" for Falcon to gnaw on yet still having some functionality on the ProThrottle.

The number of CM devices can be more, less, or the same as the number of real devices. I know one fellow that set up a map for a Yoke/ProThrottle/Pedals for Flight Simulator. To make it easier to keep track of, he just put different CM devices up for each of the 3 ProThrottle modes. Ended up with Flight Sim seeing a total of 9 Control Manager devices. Seemed a lot, but he knew then that CM Device 5, for example, was actually the ProThrottle when the map was in Mode 2.

Anyway, it's not right or wrong. Just flexible. :)

- Bob

The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com

[Postal_3]

Man, talk about great response! Thanks to Revvin and Bob.

Bob, you've cleared up a great deal for me. Seemed to me that the explanation of devices and their uses was a little sparse in the help materials in CM3. I'm starting to understand.

Weds is "flight night" for me and I'm going to take another pass at sorting this out in light of this new information. Revvin, I really appreciate your offer (and I may take you up on it) but I don't want to take your time unless I really need to. :salute: I'll follow up as necessary.

[Bob Church]

You're more than welcome, I'm glad it was some help! I know it's not really obvious what the rules are when it comes to the assignments, I should probably expand that a bit in the manual, but once you know how it does things you can really pretty much set it up however you want. Anyway, good luck with it.

- Bob

The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com