Keyboard shortcut for lights?

[Aleks]

Are there keyboard shortcuts to handle lights (taxi, strobe, landing, etc.)?

If not, is it possible to get these in the next update?

Thanks.

[Hardy Heinlin]

There are no keys for the lights nor for any functions on the overhead panel. Almost all keys are already assigned. Maybe there are some CTRL+ALT combinations available for future assignments. But there are certainly not enough keys available for all buttons on the flight deck, so if we add more, we need to make a priority list ...


Regards,

|-|ardy

[Will]

I don't have the expertise to do this, but someone should make a utility that allows the keyboard to send network commands to PSX, ideally via something like Spad.next that can tie multiple actions to one keypress. The landing lights are Qh171-174, strobe is Qh180, etc. Spad.next can collect keypresses and tie them to macros, e.g. Shf-Alt-Ctrl-L sets Qh-171-174 and Qh180 = 1, or something like that.

Better yet, StreamDeck supplies dozens (hundreds, with sub-pages) of physical buttons. So Spad.next can capture a "Lights" button on Streamdeck, and then send any relevant Qvars to the PSX network. Or the Streamdeck user can make one button for each light, or for that matter, one button for every button in the cockpit.

We just need an injector that will capture the Streamdeck buttons and translate those actions into network injections for PSX.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Can these applications see keypresses even when PSX has the desktop focus?

Note: The shift key shouldn't be used; the release of the shift key will activate the respective CDU keyboard mode.

[Will]

Streamdeck is a USB device that has physical buttons, and the buttons can be configured (within Streamdeck) to do anything: send key presses, run scripts, etc.

Streamdeck can be used while PSX has the focus.

The missing piece is a way for Streamdeck to inject network events into PSX.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Can a button run a program with an argument? Say, the equivalent of:

C:\> poke_psx gear_down


/-/

[brian747]

Hi, Hoppie!

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say "run a program with an argument", but it's possible that what Stream Deck refers to as "the hotkey tool" or else "the open tool" might be useful in that respect? You can find more details in my post here.

Cheers,

Brian

[QuadFan]

I don't have the expertise to do this, but someone should make a utility that allows the keyboard to send network commands to PSX, ideally via something like Spad.next that can tie multiple actions to one keypress.

Will, if you are in the Spad.next Discord, could you express your interest in PSX support in #feature-ideas-improvements ? It's on the authors list somewhere, but the amount of interest will drive the priority

[Will]

Henrik, I'm not on Discord, but maybe I should be.

If the makers of SPAD.next wanted to do this, it would be great. But maybe SPAD.next isn't needed? I bet Streamdeck could turn a button-press into the type of input that PSX would accept. We just need a "poke" app (call it "PSXBOX") to receive a string input from the Streamdeck physical controller, and pass it to the PSX network.

Press "STROBES ON" on Streamdeck
Streamdeck sends "Qh180, 1" to PSXBOX
PSXBOX injects "Qh180, 1" into the PSX network

Press "STROBES OFF" on Streamdeck
Streamdeck sends "Qh180, 0" to PSXBOX
PSXBOX injects "Qh180, 0" into the PSX network

If someone can come up with PSXBOX, I'd be happy to make and share a Streamdeck button layout with pretty digital labels for as many Qvars as I can... I shouldn't over-promise here, but it should be pretty straightforward. [Edit: I can't literally do this, there are too many variables, and too many benefits to customization. But I can help make some samples to share.]

Streamdeck has "pages" of buttons, so there could be an initial page that has fire controls and buttons for other sub-sections, like the electrical panel, hydraulics, wipers and ice protection, pressurization and air conditioning, exterior lights, and so on...

On the other hand, the advantage of SPAD.next is that you aren't limited to just Streamdeck buttons... you could take input from any keyboard or hardware controller and send Qvar strings to PSXBOX.

Something like PSXBOX plus Streamdeck (with or without SPAD.next) might make it much easier for potential home cockpit builders to get started.

[Gary Oliver]

Happy to have a look at what we can do on streamdeck.

I wrote something a few years back to drive psx from streamdeck.

I'll take a look