ED not recognising JOY2KEY release binding.

[Somarl]

Hi folks. Fairly odd issue but Ill explain best I can.
I have created a custom button box for testing and one of the things hooked up is a 3 way rotary cam switch. (2 states Left, right and off in the middle). With the intention of binding it to left and right panel screens with the "Off" state bringing me back to the front normal view.

Hooking this up in JOY2KEY and binding it to (1) and (2) for left position and right position and same on release (because the switch does hold the button down as long as it is in either the left or right position) works fine when testing in notepad. Left switch position presses (1) on switch, then (1) on release, same with (2) and Right switch position. It does not hold the (1) or (2) keys down, just one press each time.

However this does not work in ED. It refuses to acknowlegde a press on release. It should "re press" (1) on release but it does not. It does work flawlessly in Notepad or other programs. I am aware of the input processing option in JOY2KEY that has to be checkmarked for it to recognise the same key on press AND release hence why it works perfect in Notepad.

If i press (1) twice we go left panel then back to normal view. If I press (2) twice we go right panel then back to normal view. Try it on the switch and it does not acknowlegde it. It would only recognise Left position as (1) putting me into left panel, then nothing on release. Then when I press Left position again, then it comes out to normal view, totally ignoring what has been set up in JOY2KEY.

I could write an Autohotkey script to manage states and button presses and see whats what then take appropriate action based on the button and state but I dont think I need to make it that complicated, this should in all fairness work. I am after all according to my computer pressing (1) when switching left then (1) again when releasing the switch. Also I have no guarantee this would work as Autohotkey would technically be passing in a "false" keyboard key and not actually pressing the keyboard, so why would that work if JOY2KEY hasnt when its effectively the same logic?

Now heres the other part. It actually did work for a few goes at first when I set it up first time. But only left position, not right position. Even though they were set up the same. Then it suddenly stopped working as I was going back and forth between Left panel and normal view and it wont even go back to only one way working. With everything shut down and restarted and rebound. It did for just a few moments, work as intended for just a few goes. How did that happen and what changed, also why ignore (2) which was set up the same, and also worked the same in notepad.

Any help closing in on the issue would be greatly recieved.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

read the lost bindings guide stuck to the top of this pc subforum and rename
that may explain the " suddenly stopped working" else that will prob be a usb power issue
and whilst joy to key is great I rec voice attack which can do j2k plus so much more so watch some ed voice attack you tube vids

 

[Ashnak]

Only from doing roughly similar stuff in AHK:

• did you check your timings and pauses? ED is rather slow in handling keyboard (or any) button input
• any chance you're running afoul of contact bounce on your switch? That could also explain the different behaviour on different switch positions (but, to be honest, should also be visible in np/np++)

edit:
as a workaround - you don't need to re-press the visible screen key to close that screen, there's also a general "close whichever screen is open" key.

 

[Bravo17]

What are you using as your device in the button box?

 

[Somarl]

Hi. Thanks for the replies.

read the lost bindings guide stuck to the top of this pc subforum and rename
that may explain the " suddenly stopped working" else that will prob be a usb power issue
and whilst joy to key is great I rec voice attack which can do j2k plus so much more so watch some ed voice attack you tube vids

I absolutely love Voice Attack and I am going to incorporate that into my "build". I had a set up a very long time ago with lots of custom options and it enchanced my experience tenfold (even had the computer telling me jokes on command )The idea is a custom button box, HOTAS and VA combo to get a full sim experience.

I will take a look at the lost bindings guide and see if it has any relavant info, thanks.

Only from doing roughly similar stuff in AHK:

• did you check your timings and pauses? ED is rather slow in handling keyboard (or any) button input
• any chance you're running afoul of contact bounce on your switch? That could also explain the different behaviour on different switch positions (but, to be honest, should also be visible in np/np++)

edit:
as a workaround - you don't need to re-press the visible screen key to close that screen, there's also a general "close whichever screen is open" key.

I did mess around with timings and delays in JOY2KEY but even with minimal delays it didnt seem to want to respond. Also I cant seem to "catch it out" when using notepad. No matter how fast or slow I try to use the switch or even turning it slowly (which with some buttons causing skipping across certain button inputs as it hates the fact that ground isnt quite engaged) it always returns the exact characters in the right order (or numbers in this case).
I could bind "Release" to the "close whatever screen is open" key but I have not seen what that is in the control bindings, do you know what option I am looking for? Also I would hazard a guess that it might not work due to it still not recognising release no matter what I set it to. But its worth a try incase binding it to a different option makes it work somehow.

What are you using as your device in the button box?

I am using a leo bodnar BBI32. Ive had great success with this board in creating all sorts of custom button scenarios with other games, combined of course with JOY2KEY particularly to get the correct response from toggle switches.

 

[Ashnak]

could bind "Release" to the "close whatever screen is open" key but I have not seen what that is in the control bindings, do you know what option I am looking for?

Had to look for myself - should be this combination:

i.e., set the UI focus mode to "Direction", then UI Back or UI Focus will close the focus window.

Yes, I should set up the secondary buttons - or rather, move the Joystick to the secondary and add the keyboard to the primary. One of those quick and dirty setups that last an eternity...

 

[Somarl]

Had to look for myself - should be this combination:

i.e., set the UI focus mode to "Direction", then UI Back or UI Focus will close the focus window.

Yes, I should set up the secondary buttons - or rather, move the Joystick to the secondary and add the keyboard to the primary. One of those quick and dirty setups that last an eternity...

Thanks for that. I tried this and it worked. My keybind for UI Focus was L-Shift so I set JOY2KEY to press L-Shift on release and it worked. Although I do not understand why as it was ignoring the release input when it was bound either to the same key or if I tried to multi bind the key for that particular panel (So maybe (1) and (2) for the same panel. then setup JOY2KEY to have (1) on press (2) on release) and that did not work. So its something to do with the way ED is reading the release keypress, if it follows the same function it wont work but bound to another keybinding it will do it no problems (well I tested for about five minutes back and forth with no issues).
So while I still cant work out why ED does this I am happy for now I at least have a solution, however I may still need to get to the bottom of this only because other 'toggle' type switches I will want the same type of functionality for and if there is no other alternative as there is for this one then it would have to be set up with the same "press same key on release" which I presume ED ignores somehow on the second keypress.

But once again, thanks folks for the input.

 

[Ashnak]

With my script, the toggle works (most of the times - it sticks occasionally, but not often enough for me to get arxed to reproduce it on purpose) for weapons deployment and cockpit mode switch - but that's the kind of script you wanted to avoid, reading out the status.json in AHK.

 

[Somarl]

I have done further testing mapping the switch the same way with other toggleable items and all seems well. Which is odd.
I would swear ED does not like repeatable keyboard presses coming from a virtual joystick like JOY2KEY but I've just tried it with the lights which is a 1 button, 1 way toggle. There are no fancy options in ED or other button mappings to switch it over to (for lights that is), just button map which cycles on and off. So I tested JOY2KEY with it, resetting the same switch to say "Push 1 on activate and push 1 on release" and gues what, it works fine. Lights toggle on and off in sync with the switch. So it seems that its only the UI panels that the issue crops up in. At least I have a solution for that one so all is well.