Just purchased a Rhino X55 to take my virtual piloting career to all new heights! What do I need to know?

[cheru2016]

Just purchased a Rhino X55 to take my virtual piloting career to all new heights! What do I need to know?

G'day lads

As the title suggests, I just picked up a second hand (immac) X55 and to be entirely honest, I'm daunted AF looking at the thing.
I've never in my life owned or used something like this before, and it looks nothing like my Playstation 4 controller lol.

As I understand it, there's a ready made profile for this particular HOTAS so I assume I should just roll with that, but I was wondering whether there are any other less obvious things about this particular HOTAS or playing ED with a HOTAS in general that I need to know.

I've also heard that the twist axis on the X55 has broken for a lot of people, so I'm somewhat scared of the same thing happening to me, though the stick and throttle both look and work perfectly (for now).

Anyway, hope to hear back from some of the more seasoned CMDRs on here with any tips or pointers you might have!

Cheers!

 

[Wood67]

Good man. I have the X-52, and pretty much left the button assignments as the default in Elite as these had a profile already. A couple of things I did though:

1. Using the Saitek macro programmer, I set up a binding to request landing. Mapped this to the big RH button under the trigger guard which makes landing requests much less of a hassle. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the LH panel is on the 'Navigation' pane before you press it, otherwise it does odd things!

2. Initially I mapped the clutch trigger to the HMD reset view, but more recently I put this back to the spacebar because it's not used too much.

3. Had to remap the boost button because on my HOTAS the default was erratic - it would work for a while and then just stop.

4. Took away the switch (T6 I think it was) for silent running, and replaced it with retract weapons instead. I kept going silent by accident at critical times.

Also, the default mappings work fine for the Galaxy map using the multiway switch on the throttle and the joystick for direction and rotation. Remember that that secondary fire button acts as a 'shift' to allow you to move the map in the vertical plane - once I discovered that it made the hotas perfectly usable in VR.

So far I've not had problems with the rudder twist giving up - even after a good number of hours in a Vulture which fully depends in it. If it snaps I may go for another X-52 (Pro) as the Warthog is ridiculously pricey, and not sure if it has the same number of useful buttons.

<EDIT> for sloppy spelling...

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

X55 is good, but due to a warranty claim I now have an x56 so cannot send you my bindings file :-(

However I found the initial mappings from the elite x55 profile not intuitive, so I remapped them with the following set up:
Sw 1 Galaxy Map
Sw 2 Left hand panel (Yes I can look at it in VR but I dont always fly in VR)
Sw 3 Comms Panel
Sw 4 Role Panel for SRV / Fighter etc (Yes I can look at it in VR but I dont always fly in VR)
Sw 5 System Map
Sw 6 Right hand Panel (Yes I can look at it in VR but I dont always fly in VR)
Tgl 1 up heatsink
Tgl 1 dn silent running
Tgl 2 up chaff
Tgl 2 dn shield cell
Tgl 3 up cargo scoop
Tgl 3 dn
Tgl 4 up headlights
Tgl 4 dn

On the throttle handle:
K switch (left most side slides up and down) seperate buttons for jump and supercruise (up jump dn SC)
I button chaff
H button Heatsink
knurled wheel, thrust back/forward (great for landing)
RTY3 Sensor Axis
RTY 4 VLC volume* takes a bit of programming will come back to that later...
the slide switch, push to talk on discord (both ED and Discord have to be ran as admin)
H4 Up target next system in route
H4 Dn deploy / retract hardpoints
H4 L & R cycle sub systems
H3 L & R cycle firegroups
E button - shield cell

Púshing Rotary F boost
Pushing Rotary G Landing gear
Rotary F lateral thrusters **this is how I used them on X55 - X56 has additional analogue mini sticks I now use
Rotary G vertical trhusters **this is how I used them on X55 - X56 has additional analogue mini sticks I now use

On the stick, Z(twist) X & Y Axis, Yaw Pitch & Roll
POV Hat, cycle targets, up next hostile, down prev hositle, left next target, right prev target
A button target highest threat
C button secondary fire
D button UI Back
H2 Power Management (pips) / UI direction
B button, target straight ahead
H1, Left, Up, right = Wingman 1, 2, 3 H1 dn = target wingmans target
Trigger, primary fire / ui select
Pinky Paddle, FA off (hold)

galmap, I try to make the hotas fly through the galmap so:
XYZ axis on stick = x y and yaw in galmap
F rotary controls height
all other buttons from ui select as per above

SRV:
Z axis on stick Steer SRV,
Throttle back / forward movement
joystick X/Y = turret pan / tilt
trigger on stick fire SRV gun
secondary fire button = data link scanner
Press button on rotary F to toggle turret mode
Switches for cargo scoop headlights etc same as ship

Programming VLC: (credits to 5an Holo who sent me this by PM

1. I downloaded the newer X-55 Drivers from the Saitek Website. Driver v7.0.55.13. Software v7.0.55.13


2. Install the Driver first, Software second.


3. You will be prompted to reboot after you update the driver


4. Open VLC Player > Tools > Preferences > Hotkeys > Scroll down to Volume Up and Volume Down. Double click the "Global" White Space, and when prompted (I use) Vol Up: LCTL-LALT-UP Arrow - Vol Down: LCTL-LALT-DOWN Arrow
Make sure you have these in Global Hotkeys not Hotkey (Global keys work when VLC doesn't have the focus (i.e. running a game)). If you just use Hotkeys, these only work when VLC has the focus.


5. Start HUD Software > Programming > Select Throttle > Load your profile or create a new one. Click on the RTY4 button so it appears in the right hand column.


6. Rotary 4 > From its drop down menu, select "Directional Axis" Then in the Rotary 4 + (plus) window add your volume up keybinds (i.e. LCTL-LALT-UP) and in the Rotary 4 - (minus) window add your volume down keybinds (i.e. LCTL-LALT-DOWN).


7. Save your profile.


8. Load your profile (right click the Saitek HUD icon in your system tray > select your profile).


9. Start VLC and your Rotary 4 should now control the volume.


10. You can apply the above to any rotary you want, it should work.

- - - Updated - - -

The above wall of text is how I have mine set up, with one exception I forgot to mention, I have set pressing buttons F & G on the throttle together to reset HMD view. Wood 67's idea of programming a button on hotas to request landing is kinda neat, I might set that up next time I'm playing....

 

[cheru2016]

Hooooly Dooley! That's a lot to take in haha but thank you so much for taking the time to share it!

Prior to reading your replies I did a little research of my own and happened across a guide put together by a fellow Aussie bloke and I customized my stick and throttle according to his guide. Honestly, his guide is a masterpiece, even for a complete HOTAS noob like me, it seems immensely intuitive and seems to account for practically everything.

This is it here - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456122613

Out of curiousity, what spring are/did you use on the x55? Mine currently has the red spring on it, and it seems a little loose? Though I've not tried the others to compare.

 

[cheru2016]

Something I just noticed is that my UI screens no longer popup when I look at them :/ Something in the provided config file must have overwritten the look functionality and mapped it to the stick. Any ideas how I can fix that??