Can I swap yoke & joystick depending on plane?

[macwino]

I have the CH USB Pro yoke and pedals and am using a map for the yoke button assignments. I fly in Flight Simulator 2004. Some addon planes are designed for a joystick instead of a yoke, and I was wondering if it's possible for me to swap the yoke for my MS Sidewinder force feedback joystick when flying these planes?

I assume in order to do this I'd have to install the Sidewinder software. Beyond that, I'm not clear on what I'd have to do. I'm reluctant to try this without some further advice since I'm very happy with my present yoke and pedals setup and I don't want to do anything that might mess it up.

Some of my specific questions - apart from the general procedure - are:

1. Can I leave both the yoke and joystick plugged in to USB ports, or must I unplug the one I'm not going to use?

2. If I must unplug one of them, must I use the same USB port for both or should I use different ports?

3. Do I have to switch any settings in Flight Simulator 2004 as part of this swap?

Just to be clear, I'm not looking to use both the yoke and joystick at the same time. I would just like to be able to choose which one I use when I fly certain planes.

Thanks for any assistance, Robert

[MichaelCHProd]

If the stick was CH this would be really simple, but alas it is not :(

I think the fool proof way would be to launch MFS 2004 with only one or the other connected. This way only the device you want is seen and it's assignments can remain unchanged.

The bite is that when you want to use the other controller you would need to exit MFS 2004 and then unplug controller A and plug in controller B.

The only other "simple" answer would be to remove the axis assignments on the controller you are not using at the moment. This woudl let you keep MFS 2004 loaded and swap between controllers that are both plugged in.

[macwino]

Thanks Michael. I can live with having to close FS9 before making a swap, as I usually only fly a single plane during any one flight sim session. I appreciate the prompt response and will give it a try tonight.

Robert

[Update] It's a little more complicated than I thought. If I start with the yoke, I can switch to the joystick by shutting down fs9, unplugging the yoke, plugging in the joystick, and restarting fs9. However, to go back to the yoke, I'm finding that I have to reboot my machine after unplugging the joystick and plugging in the yoke. Otherwise, fs9 freezes on launch. So a bit more hassle than indicated - for me at least - but still doable.

[MichaelCHProd]

odd, but then again it is a Microsoft app :(