I am once again asking for your support

Indiana Beeblebrox · May 1, 2020

Hello, fellow CMDRs!

I just got an X52 Pro (the one from Logitech), I got voice atttack, A.S.T.R.A. voice pack, headphones and a decent mic plugged into an external sound card so that I can have a cleaner experience with my voice assistant.

I'm good to go, you might say! Except that I found myself totally noobing around with settings and tutorials guiding me in every possible direction, sometimes contradicting one another. After trying out a bunch of setups I decided to start over again, because things were getting messy.

My goal is to achieve complete no-keyboard control while in-game. I'm searching for guidance, possibly guidance updated to the newest conditions.

I think what I need is primarly keybinds for my HOTAS; I tried to go with the standard setup and to start tweaking from there, but then I read that the standard setup isn't best suited for VA and Voice Pack usage. Then I need to properly setup VA and voice pack to actually do something.

If someone could list me a bunch of guides to setup everything properly I would be a totally happy 30yo kid, because I've been lost in setup for two full weeks by now and my Sidewinder is covered in webs.

Thank you!

STRONTIUM DOG · May 1, 2020

personally I use an x box game pad and VA
as for setting up everything the proper way there is no proper way as its all down to personal preference (I created my own voice pack from a vast mish mash of sci fi inc hitch hikers guide...……..(my landing gear has the drop ship gear sound from aliens movies)
could try crabs for an hotas setup its old but should still work with some tweaking https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...0-and-keyboard-mouse-reference-sheets.178834/

Indiana Beeblebrox · May 1, 2020

Thank you for the hint, I'll check this Crab guy and see if he came up with something for X52 Pro.

Yeah, I know there's not a proper way, and I'm willing to customise any setup for my needs. Reading about VA and HCS voice packs somewhere I saw that the default X52 Pro configuration isn't going to work, so I tried to make a custom one but I got really confused. This is why I thought to ask for a jumpstart even for basic installation and setup of... well, everything.

I'll try to write down some of the questions that rose in my head in the process, because I realised I've been pretty broad in my first post.

Where should the bindings for HCS A.S.T.R.A. go? On the left column or on the right column of the controls settings?
Then again, I don't know if I should create the bindings for A.S.T.R.A. in VA setup panel prior or before configuring my HOTAS controls in the game settings.
And what about the joy.cpl configuration panel that comes with the Logitech version of my HOTAS? Should I consider it at all or should I just use it to disable the clutch button and never look at it again?

Your personalised voice pack looks awesome, by the way. I would love to do something like it but I went for a premade one just because my work schedule doesn't leave me with enough time and I wanted to be back in my ship quickly.

STRONTIUM DOG · May 2, 2020

as for where the bindings for hcs astra packs should go I haven't a scoobie I have no bindings other than the ones I made from scratch and don't own any purchased voicepacks
my voice attack will run independently of elite it has no binding to elite in any way ,all it does is press a set of key strokes as if I personally was using default keyboard control like keystorke default L for landing gear for eg and play a sound sample I have recorded, if I had notepad running instead of elite it would print an L (and play required sound file) every time I said "gear up" the fact I run elite and this controls my landing gear is purely coincidental

SMcA · May 3, 2020

Indiana Beeblebrox said:
Hello, fellow CMDRs!

I just got an X52 Pro (the one from Logitech), I got voice atttack, A.S.T.R.A. voice pack, headphones and a decent mic plugged into an external sound card so that I can have a cleaner experience with my voice assistant.

I'm good to go, you might say! Except that I found myself totally noobing around with settings and tutorials guiding me in every possible direction, sometimes contradicting one another. After trying out a bunch of setups I decided to start over again, because things were getting messy.

My goal is to achieve complete no-keyboard control while in-game. I'm searching for guidance, possibly guidance updated to the newest conditions.

I think what I need is primarly keybinds for my HOTAS; I tried to go with the standard setup and to start tweaking from there, but then I read that the standard setup isn't best suited for VA and Voice Pack usage. Then I need to properly setup VA and voice pack to actually do something.

If someone could list me a bunch of guides to setup everything properly I would be a totally happy 30yo kid, because I've been lost in setup for two full weeks by now and my Sidewinder is covered in webs.

Thank you!

STRONTIUM DOG said:
there is no proper way as its all down to personal preference

He is right, you know.

My understanding is that the leftmost column is for k/board settings and the RH column is for analogue inputs.
I don't use VA although I bought it (I have the wrong Northern British accent). If the latest VA setup.exe does not create new bindings then it will be a manual job.
As for joy.cpl I still use it to set deadbands and gain outside of Elite. (My X52 pro is old and needs the occasional recalibration)

Indiana Beeblebrox · May 3, 2020

Hi, guys! Thank you for taking the time to answer me!

Yes, I know that I'll have to personalise settings and I definitely will, my use of the term "proper" was more referred to a technical difficulty in doing so. Like, in which order and how should I do things.

I'm sorry if I've been not so clear but English is not my first language (I'm Italian) and I have some issues with synthesis, especially when I'm confused...

SMcA said:
My understanding is that the leftmost column is for k/board settings and the RH column is for analogue inputs.

This is exactly what I needed to know, because I found some confusing statements about it.

SMcA said:
I don't use VA although I bought it (I have the wrong Northern British accent).

Yeah, I'm having the same issues with my spaghetti accent, but I'm training my speech recognition ad nauseam so I hope I'll get it working.

If I understood it correctly:

Go to joy.cpl and disable clutch
Go to the Logitech main control panel and delete the configurations including the pinky finger trigger, so that I can bind it again to wathever I prefer
Go to the in-game control settings and add my analog settings in the right column
Go to VA and shout "PROTOCOL OVERRIDE, CUSTOMIZE MY DAMN SETTINGS!", then calm down like nothing happened leaving my girlfriend in shock
Click on KeyBind Creator then select my custom settings, click on Create, and pray for the bindings creator to do a thorough work
Click on the button to check missing keys and fill in the gaps

That should be all, I guess.

Maybe in future I'll try to associate HOTAS buttons with key strokes. If I got it right, that should allow me to use the profiles wheel to change profiles (the wheel on the upper right of the stick) for different flight situations: Combat/Cruise/Landing, for example. But this will come later because I'd have to match the keys in a very accurate way and I risk to mess up everything again.

SMcA · May 3, 2020

Indiana Beeblebrox said:
Hi, guys! Thank you for taking the time to answer me!

Yes, I know that I'll have to personalise settings and I definitely will, my use of the term "proper" was more referred to a technical difficulty in doing so. Like, in which order and how should I do things.

I'm sorry if I've been not so clear but English is not my first language (I'm Italian) and I have some issues with synthesis, especially when I'm confused...

But English is my first language.

This is exactly what I needed to know, because I found some confusing statements about it.

I think I have it the right way round.

Yeah, I'm having the same issues with my spaghetti accent, but I'm training my speech recognition ad nauseam so I hope I'll get it working.

I think I've memorised the script.

If I understood it correctly:

Go to joy.cpl and disable clutch

Yes

Go to the Logitech main control panel and delete the configurations including the pinky finger trigger, so that I can bind it again to wathever I prefer

I'll mention that you can use the pinkie switch as a modifier. So you can bind the pinkie to a function and bind it in combination with another key.

Go to the in-game control settings and add my analog settings in the right column

Go to VA and shout "PROTOCOL OVERRIDE, CUSTOMIZE MY DAMN SETTINGS!", then calm down like nothing happened leaving my girlfriend in shock

This is new behaviour?

Click on KeyBind Creator then select my custom settings, click on Create, and pray for the bindings creator to do a thorough work

I did not use a 3rd party program as I added my binds incrementally as I bought better HOTAS's

Click on the button to check missing keys and fill in the gaps

That should be all, I guess.

Not quite. You will want to manually backup and change the bindings.
Go to the custom Bindings folder. The first file Elite looks at is StartPreset.start. That file only contains the name of the last binds to be loaded. (Without the file extension.)
To copy your binds file. Copy and paste the file in the same directory. Re-name the file to something useful (My_Binds). Edit the file, I use XML notepad 2007. In the third line from the top. In the field: PresetName="xxxx" change that line to PresetName="My_Binds". Save and start ED. Your new/copied file should be loaded automatically

Maybe in future I'll try to associate HOTAS buttons with key strokes. If I got it right, that should allow me to use the profiles wheel to change profiles (the wheel on the upper right of the stick) for different flight situations: Combat/Cruise/Landing, for example. But this will come later because I'd have to match the keys in a very accurate way and I risk to mess up everything again.

I use that wheel to change the mode to combat/FSS/Combat. Easily done. In the Logitech profile editor, in the third field down enter the keystroke that changes the mode. But as you say that is for the future.

Indiana Beeblebrox · May 3, 2020

You're a life saver, thank you! I'll follow your tips and try to configure everything right away!

For what concerns strange accents recognition...

SMcA said:
I think I've memorised the script.

... I think I'll go cry in a corner.

SMcA · May 3, 2020

Indiana Beeblebrox said:
You're a life saver, thank you! I'll follow your tips and try to configure everything right away!

For what concerns strange accents recognition...

... I think I'll go cry in a corner.

I'm from the same part of the UK as these two chaps.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU

d8veh · May 4, 2020

Regarding the columns for the keyboard binding. You don't have to have keyboard in the left and joystick on the right. You can have two keyboard buttons, two joystick ones, joystick left and KB right or whatever you want. It's two boxes, so two available slots for inputs, whatever valid ones you want to use.

STRONTIUM DOG · May 4, 2020

voice attack tip
I find when va does not understand a word I am saying like "orc" for eg I look in the va window for the unrecognized word or words it thinks I am saying "four"
I then put that word or set of words into my voice attack when I say command instead so hawkeye the noo (that's ok now fa us southerners) this can translate bocce into valid commands so" nay charda sogoody" could deploy hardpoints if you wish
(ship:" I dunno where your hume learned to communicate but it has the most peculiar dialect"

Indiana Beeblebrox · May 5, 2020

d8veh said:
Regarding the columns for the keyboard binding. You don't have to have keyboard in the left and joystick on the right. You can have two keyboard buttons, two joystick ones, joystick left and KB right or whatever you want. It's two boxes, so two available slots for inputs, whatever valid ones you want to use.

Strange, I found plenty of posts and guides talking about the "right column" to put KB commands so that VA can do its job. But maybe I misunderstood, I don't know.

STRONTIUM DOG said:
voice attack tip
I find when va does not understand a word I am saying like "orc" for eg I look in the va window for the unrecognized word or words it thinks I am saying "four"
I then put that word or set of words into my voice attack when I say command instead so hawkeye the noo (that's ok now fa us southerners) this can translate bochi into valid commands so" nay charda sogoody" could deploy hardpoints if you wish
(ship:" I dunno where your hume learned to communicate but it has the most peculiar dialect"

That's some useful info for everyone who's not the Queen of England and wants to use VA.

Anyway, I had no time to try and setup everything because life sucks, but I'll be back once I'm done to share the results!

d8veh · May 6, 2020

Indiana Beeblebrox said:
Strange, I found plenty of posts and guides talking about the "right column" to put KB commands so that VA can do its job. But maybe I misunderstood, I don't know.

There's a lot of misinformation on the forum. people never check. Look at mine. I have keyboard commands on both sides and Joystick commands on both sides.

The "Leave FSS" has two KB commands. Not shown, my "Target ahead" has two separate joystick buttons in the two boxes.

SMcA · May 6, 2020

I’ll hold my hand up and admit I wrote fake news. In my defence I was told it by someone whose 2nd cousin thrice removed works in a pharmacy.

But it goes a bit deeper than that. I have a X52 Pro. On the throttle unit there is a display and a couple of switches for changing the clock and using as a stopwatch. Obviously I’ve tried to bind them but the only success I’ve had is in the Radar Increase/Decrease Range and that is the only switch Elite recognises and only in that area of controls. As far as I can tell.
It is shown as “Function”.

STRONTIUM DOG · May 10, 2020

SMcA said:
Obviously I’ve tried to bind them

would have thought joy to key would solve any joy buttons not behaving as you desire that way the acctual elite bind can remain on the keyboard
if not using voice control https://joytokey.net/en/

SMcA · May 10, 2020

STRONTIUM DOG said:
would have thought joy to key would solve any joy buttons not behaving as you desire that way the acctual elite bind can remain on the keyboard
if not using voice control https://joytokey.net/en/

I downloaded the free version and it doesn’t recognise those switches. Logitech’s version of the Saitek s/ware, besides re-mapping HOTAS outputs can filter out double bounces on some switches.

STRONTIUM DOG · May 10, 2020

ahh ok worth a mention I thought...…………….
the free version is the full version of joy to key btw
strange it don't see the inputs as this works on what windows recognizes as inputs from a control device

SMcA · May 10, 2020

STRONTIUM DOG said:
ahh ok worth a mention I thought...…………….
the free version is the full version of joy to key btw

Worth a mention, though.

J1mb0b666 · Mar 28, 2021

Hi Folks, i've just recently fired up elite after many years away and dragged out my old X52Pro to find nothing works as intended, lol. I have Voice attack and Ripley Galactic but i'm having no end of trouble adjusting commands and have various commands duplicated in VA lists such as flight misc, flight misc kics etc etc... has anybody out there got a cleaned up profile, they are willing to share to help me sort out this mess. Any help would be appreciated

Jezzah · Apr 2, 2021

In a similar "bind" as you here J1mb0

I'm trying to follow a few vids i saw on net, down to earth astronomy content creator did one that's very detailed but generic across the makes.

I'll get there in the end but sheesh so much to bind and Odyssey on top at some point.