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Honeycomb Configurator: A "little" instruction for X-Plane 11


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Hello,

 

I've had a little look at the Honeycomb hardware (Alpha Yoke and Bravo Throttle) and especially the Honeycomb Configurator (HC) V 2.01 tool.

Please keep in mind: newer Version of the HC are may be a little bit different.

Please post new Question in this Subforum with a new Topic.

 

The Honeycomb Configurator is available here:

https://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/files/category/126-honeycomb-profiles/

 

And there are also informative video tutorials about the Honeycomb Configurator (HC).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BABKIVwr7xc&list=PL-CM2J7huv9GsJLInEaXS71CKKU_5g3Sl&index=7

 

The Alpha Yoke is easy to configure without the Configurator as usual in the X-Plane 11 menu. The buttons speak for themselves.

 

The Bravo Throttle is of course also configurable via the X-Plane 11 Menu - Preferences - Joystics:
The thrust, prop, mixture axes for example and almost all switches. X-Plane 11 has already provided a lot of commands for this, which you can use.

 

The HC (Honeycomb Configurator) is important in X-Plane 11 for the autopilot (for the left selector button and the right associated knob "increase/decrease"), 
the LED's (illumination of some buttons and the annunciator panel), and maybe for the trim wheel (I'll come to that later).

 

Of course, you can also just program all the knobs with the Configurator.
This is how I did, to get to know the Bravo Throttle better with the HC....

 

The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle.

I describe here once the configuration for General Aviation aircraft in general.


This shall work then e.g. for GA airplanes with the autopilot (AP) Bendix King (e.g. Carenado B58), the S-TEC (Cessna 172, Thranda DHC-2 Beaver), 
but also for simpler AP's like e.g. used in the JustFlight PA-28 Arrow III...

But please keep in mind, there are many other configuration possibilities which you can use for your own whishes... and the AP's are always different...


I am assuming that the Bravo Throttle is set up and connected correctly.
And I assume that the Honeycomb Configurator is installed correctly.
It only has to be downloaded and then the setup has to be executed. Then only enter the X-Plane 11 main directory.
Then a plugin "AFC_Bridge" is installed in the X-Plane 11 Plugins folder. So this is very simple.
Within X-Plane 11 you can now use the plugin to load your profiles (XP11 menu - plugins - honeycomb - BFC Throttle - reload bindings) 
which you have created, loaded and activated with the HC (HC Configurator: Profiles: Load Profile. Actions: Activate Current profile).

X-Plane 11 does not have to be started for the configuration with the HC.

 

Let's go:

Start Honeycomb Configurator.

 

In the start window select the throttle (if you have also the alpha yoke).
Menu Actions - Change selected device.

Then you get a picture of the Bravo Throttle. You can change the view with the mouse to see all the buttons.

Now go to Profiles and load the supplied profile "Default_Throttle". There is already much preconfigured.
Then select Actions - Create New Profile, select the throttle again and then select "Copy From:".
Select the profile Default_Throttle.
At the top under "Name:" name the new profile with a suitable name (e.g. Throttle_Testprofile" ...).
Then click on "Create".
If you have enabled "Selecting profile after creating it", then the new profile will be loaded immediately for further editing.
Otherwise you have to load it again (menu Profile - select profile - Load).

 

So, now we can further configure the new loaded profile according to our ideas without changing the Default_Profile!

 

First I want to assign the 7 buttons HDG, NAV, APR, REV, ALT, VS and IAS of the AP (above) with the appropriate functions.
For this as an example HDG:
We press in the Throttle view with the mouse on the button HDG.
A window "Select Button" appears with a blue clickable field HDG Button.
We click on it.

Now the HDG button appears in the right part of the window under "Profile Editor".
Below you find: Press Event and Release Event.

We click on "Press-Event" because we want to do something when we press the button.


Now there are 2 possibilities:
Conditions (these are e.g. queries for a status. e.g. Is the AP on or off?).
Variables (these are e.g. commands).

 

We click on this Variables button, because we want to enter a command.
Probably nothing comes up, because there is no command yet.
So we press the + sign to create a new variable (command).

Now a field with 3 input possibilities appears: 
EDIT variable 1:
Variable:
Index:
Value:

 

We need the variable field for a command.
There the command must go in. In this case of the HDG button it is "Turn on HDG on autopilot".
How the command must be named exactly, we find out by searching the X-Plane 11 commands.

 

There is a button in the configurator which leads to an internet page with the X-Plane 11 commands.
Menu Actions - Open XPlane Variable List - Dataref and Commands. We click on Commands.
On this web page we search for "heading" in the field "description".
Then we get a small list of availables matching XP11 commands.
We need the command "sim/autopilot/heading" for the HDG button. This switches on the heading function in the AP.
This command must be entered in the same way in the varable field of the Honeycomb Confurator (copy&paste is also possible).

 

hc-hdg-config-1.thumb.jpg.d22fb55d9297d9bfef83f306aca60e60.jpg

 

Then we click on "Apply Changes" at the bottom.
Activate profile on save should be turned on. 
With this we have configured the heading button.

 

Once you have internalized this, it will go faster and faster for the other buttons.....

The commands for these 7 buttons (HDG, NAV, APR etc) I write down here. Of course you can also find them on the mentioned internet page.

 

HDG = sim/autopilot/heading
NAV = sim/autopilot/hdg_nav   (for the G1000 e.g. use the variable sim/GPS/g1000n1_nav)
APR = sim/autopilot/approach
REV = sim/autopilot/back_course
ALT = sim/autopilot/altitude_hold
VS =   sim/autopilot/vertical_speed
IAS =  sim/autopilot/autothrottle_toggle (I'm not quite sure yet ...)

 

The rightmost button "Autopilot" we can define e.g. with "sim/autopilot/servos_on".
or also ... servos_toggle. If we use sim/autopilot/servos_on, then we need another button to switch off the AP.
This is then e.g. the value "sim/autopilot/servos_off_any".
This can also be placed on the red button on the alpha yoke.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

Now we come to the two mentioned rotary knobs.

 

On the left, the selector knob for IAS, CRS, HDG, VS and ALT.
On the right the DECR / INCR knob.

 

They should work like this when everything is configured correctly:
If the left selector is set to HDG, for example, then the right knob should move the heading bug left or right.
If the left selector is set to ALT then the right knob should change the altitude in the cockpit instrument for the desired altitude.
etc....

X-Plane 11 cannot offer this in its own menu at this time.

 

But with the help of the Configurator it is possible.
For this we need the above mentioned "Conditions" (queries).

 

I have made a few pictures to explain this and insert them here.
To configure the left selector button, we need a selector-internal variable.
It is called: INT:FCU_SELECTOR, string 
This means that you can write a text (string) as value into this variable or condition.
We need this later for the variable field of the selector and then also for the condition field of the INCR/DECR button.

We do this for all 5 possible positions of the selector button:
Then we will have 5 Conditions later.

 

Example HDG Selection:

 

hc-hdg-config-2.thumb.jpg.1dbe8f3ea0415c8713a554851895f22f.jpg

Proceed according to the sequence of the digits (mouse click).
This defines the selector (left) for the HDG position.

 

Now:

Pic 3 for decrease:

hc-hdg-config-3.thumb.jpg.11a52cc095d9bff5429cb341e1d97590.jpg

Proceed according to the sequence of the digits. 
 

Pic 4 for Increase:

hc-hdg-config-4.thumb.jpg.7b60d7ec272405ab220f251279061d5d.jpg

Proceed according to the sequence of the digits. 

 

This configures the INCR/DECR knob on the right so, when the selector is set to HDG, it now also moves the heading bug.

If Activate profile on save is ON, then the profile is now also activated immediately when saving.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

And now, as promised, the trim wheel.

 

The trim wheel normally has the function to trim the airplane.
So trim up/down or nose up/down.

With the autopilot (AP) turned off, this is ok.


But if the AP is switched on and you move the trim wheel, then the AP usually switches off immediately, because you intervene.
If you don't want this to happen, then you have to define the trim wheel differently depending on the AP (On or OFF).


If you want to keep the AP switched on, although you move the trim wheel (e.g. to change the altitude quickly), then the trim wheel must switch the AP into pitch mode when you move it.

Therefore we need the condition function for such a configuration.
So we need 2 conditions (AP ON and AP OFF), and 2 variables each for nose up and down.

Butkeep in mind: This will not work with all AP's. Here it is required to search for the datarefs (for the AutoPilots) and test if it is working....

Here again the pictures for example:

 

Autopilot OFF (Value = 0):

 

Pic 5 Trim up:

hc-hdg-config-5.thumb.jpg.92bd956586a64eadee7fdb1a183a4f82.jpg

 

Pic 6 Trim down:

hc-hdg-config-6.thumb.jpg.98f1f8b3ed88c5b1a6e56b91ee82bdd0.jpg

 

 

Autopilot ON (Value = 2):

 

Pic 7 Nose up:

hc-hdg-config-7.thumb.jpg.177f3ae1dba1231f250f9979f0fc828c.jpg

 

Pic 8 Nose down:

hc-hdg-config-8.thumb.jpg.f1607cbe8f81fb01da51c1162e6c3ecd.jpg

 

A littel tip (from BenBaron) if the Trimwheel Sensitivity is to low:

Then please try to set the switch in the HC Configurator "Repeat Activation".

 

I hope this helps for now.....

Feel free to post new Questions in this Subforum with a new Topic.

 

But keep in mind, I am also new with this hardware and the Honeycomb Configurator...

So may be it will take some time for me to answer here... :)

 

Greets Heinz

 

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Thanks so much for this detailed and step-by-step explanation! It does help a lot!

I have one question.

I think not all add-on aircrafts use default X-plane commands or datarefs to control the aircraft, for example, the light control( eg. taxi light, beacon light) or autopilot control.

That's why in some cases although I have entered in "Variable" the command found from the X plane command list, it still does not work when I press the buttons or switches.

Is that right?

So to solve this or to work it out, we have to know the command lines for certain add-on aircraft, right?

 

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1 hour ago, divinglyc said:

 

So to solve this or to work it out, we have to know the command lines for certain add-on aircraft, right?

 


That’s right. So you have to know the dataref / command for that.

Some Addons use the default xplane as much as possible but some use a different data set.

 

JustFlight, for example, uses thranda datarefs. I discovered it via some dataref plugin that discovers the refs used on a switch. 
 

 

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  • Administrator
1 hour ago, Throttlejack said:

Thanks for this tutorial (with pictures). Could you please do another one for the LEDs like gear, AP buttons and annunciator?

Would be very appreciated!!!

Greg

Hello Greg,

yes I can do it... would take some time, but if you load the Default_Throttle profile, then all the leds are defined.

And so you can see how it was configured... Thats how I have not done it at the time...

But I will do it if there is some time ... :)

Greets Heinz

 

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  • Heinz Flichtbeil changed the title to Honeycomb Configurator: A "little" instruction for X-Plane 11

Hi, thanks for posting this. By the way, with the default command sim/autopilot/heading_up or down, there are some problems. First of all, it does not work with every plane. Some payware aircraft have a different command to set the heading knob. The other problem is that the increment at which it increases or decreases the HDG is VERY low for example in the FlyJSim 727-200F. Requiring MANY rotations of the knob to get a specific heading. The work around appears to be to write a custom LUA Script which supplies a command to turn the knob in increments of 5 degrees. This is also a problem for some of the other commands like ALT, VS, IAS and CRS. 

 

Below is an example script I wrote for the concorde that turns the heading 5 degrees at a time. This script can be retrofitted for any plane by changing the dataref field with the dataref for that specific plane.

 

-- set the dataref ALT to read and write the altitude tuned into the autopilot
dataref("Conc_HDG", "Colimata/CON_AP_sw_ap1_hdg_trk_DISPLAY_i", "writable")

-- create a command to increase the HDG value of the autopilot
create_command("FlyWithLua/autopilot/Conc_inc_hdg",
               "Increase the hdg by 5",
               "Conc_HDG = Conc_HDG + 5 % 360",
               "",
               "Conc_HDG = Conc_HDG % 360")

-- create a command to decrease the HDG value of the autopilot
create_command("FlyWithLua/autopilot/Conc_dec_hdg",
               "Decrease the hdg by 5",
               "Conc_HDG = Conc_HDG - 5 % 360",
               "",
               "Conc_HDG = Conc_HDG % 360")

 

 

Also, once a change is made to the honeycomb configurator profile and the profile is activated, there is an extra step of reloading the profile from the X-Plane 11 plugins menu -> Honeycomb Configurator -> Reload profile. This was the problem I was having earlier which I posted about which was why my LUA commands were not executing. They are working perfectly now

 

Cheers,

Yanis

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  • Administrator

Hello Yanis,

please can you post this interesting problems with a new Topic in this subforum?

If you post it here with the general title of my first post, it is difficult to find (also for other users).

Its better to open a new Topic here:

https://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/forum/1066-honeycomb-configurator-x-plane-11/ (with the Button: "Start new Topic").

 

That would be nice.... :)

 

This Topic I will close for now.

 

Greets Heinz

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