Please can anyone explain the What the Mode switch does and the how, why, what for of said switch? How does it work, what other parts of the flight system does it effect, etc? Thank You for any help.
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Newcomer / Intro Mode switch on Saitek X-56
- Thread starter Lester O'nine
- Start date
I think the OP is referring to the actual switch on the Throttle called a "Mode Switch". As I understand it it is the means you have to switch between different profiles you have set up in the control software.
Maybe ask for this thread to be moved (click "report post" and make your request in the next window) to the Hardware sub-forum or just go there and start a new thread asking for help on it. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/41-Hardware-amp-Technical-Forum
Maybe ask for this thread to be moved (click "report post" and make your request in the next window) to the Hardware sub-forum or just go there and start a new thread asking for help on it. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/41-Hardware-amp-Technical-Forum
The mode switch is more for the stick software. You can code the software to trigger different keystrokes for each stick button depending on mode; giving you a different set of functions on the same stick. You can also reportedly trigger a macro on switching mode but I've read conflicting reports on how well that works. ED itself doesn't recognise the different modes afaik.
Aye. The switch does nothing for ED, or at least i haven't found any use for it. I mean, modes are signaled as a high number button in the games joystick setup. It is possible to map them to keypresses via something like vjoy. But i see no benefit there. I haven't had any idea yet on how to use that in-game.
And while what you wrote is perfectly fine, i like to add some more info. I'd like to describe a possible use case for the mode switch: You have frag cannons or shock cannons on your ship. For frags and even more for shock cannons, it's often interesting to trigger shots very quickly.
So you press the button as fast as you can. It wears down the switch, your finger, affects your accuracy and still is not as fast as the weapon could work. So you can go to the X-56 profiler and program the fire button. Instead of being fire, you bind a number of "left mouse click on, left mouse click off" there. You can program that to repeat. So as long as you hold down the fire button, the profiler actually sends many mouse clicks to the game, the game looks at the bindings for mouse control and decides that you click like crazy, apparently you want to shoot the weapon at the maxium allowed speed.
So off you go, your weapon fires rapidly. Awesome. Now you switch ship. The other ship carries railguns. And for railguns you need to hold the button to fire them. No matter how fast you click, they will just start and stop charging in rapid succession and never fire.
And here the mode switch comes into play: you go for mode 1 in the profiler when you program the "rapid fire" button. Nothing changed for mode 2. So when you use the other ship, you turn the button to mode 2 and your controls are back to default. Your fire button will again deliver a constant signal to the game as long as you hold it. Which is exactly what you need for railguns.
There are some other ideas what you can do, but this one is the most obvious and most easy one to explain. I hope this helps.
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I’ll give it a go.
The Mode switch on the HOTAS does nothing in Elite. But you can use the s/ware to pass a keystroke or macro to Elite when you change Modes on the stick.
Below is a s/shot of my ST s/ware screen.
The top field is a text field and when you change modes that text is displayed on the MFD
The next field down is the fallback field for each mode. It is a dropdown and you pick which mode that will be copied unless there is a manual entry in one of the fields below.
The next field down from that is a field that will send a keystroke or macro to Elite. In my setup “N” changes the mode in Elite.
What you can see in the Fire C field is part of a macro that throttles down and enters/leaves the FSS mode.
It is as simple as that and only took me two years to get round to working it out.
Be aware that the ST s/ware will not work properly if you have the HOTAS properties open and/or you have not deleted the pinkie modes.
The mode switch on the Saitek X-56 HOTAS simply allows you to have different button maps on your device within the same game.
Probably more useful for more complicated flight simulation games where a button or switch might have more than a single function, in Elite Dangerous the mode switch's utility is limited although for instance, if a CMDR maps exactly the same functions to all buttons in two modes except the BOOST button, disabling the BOOST button in the second mode, switching modes when entering a space station or landing at a planetary settlement would prevent a CMDR from accidentally boosting their ship into a wall or the ground when he or she accidentally hits the BOOST button.
Like I said, in Elite Dangerous the mode switch's utility is limited and I do not use it but then, I do not use the Saitek profiler software either as for me, the profiler software is too clunky.
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I would like to thank you all for the response's to my question, that has been bothering me for some years now. You all are the first to answer in a way that is understandable! As always you folks here on this forum are tops! I would have liked to use it to have one for regular play, one for exploration and last one for combat. But guess not, oh well. Again Thank you all so very much. Without you folks this old man would be lost in ED!
Well, this old man doesn’t understand why not. :S
I’m not too sure what you would require for regular play. I have one mode for exploration and one for combat. Which are switched between, by the HOTAS mode switch.
SMcA, would you send me the setup for your HOTAS? Regular= (mode 1).
Mode Switch story.
Many years ago when IL-2 First came out I flew with the 369th Fighter Squadron and got my first HOTAS an X-45. That I still have and it works just fine. Anywho it came with a real paper manual. It also if memory is good, came with directions on how to setup and use the "Mode Switch". But that was about 20 years ago now and I don't trust my memory about this. What I recall was you could program the units for whatever you wanted to happen in the different Modes. But it now seems my recall has been wring. Not surprising for me after all these years. Again Thank You all for the responses to my question. You Folks are great!
Seems a 20yr myth about X series HOTAS, for me has been exposed as a not able to do wish.
Many years ago when IL-2 First came out I flew with the 369th Fighter Squadron and got my first HOTAS an X-45. That I still have and it works just fine. Anywho it came with a real paper manual. It also if memory is good, came with directions on how to setup and use the "Mode Switch". But that was about 20 years ago now and I don't trust my memory about this. What I recall was you could program the units for whatever you wanted to happen in the different Modes. But it now seems my recall has been wring. Not surprising for me after all these years. Again Thank You all for the responses to my question. You Folks are great!
Seems a 20yr myth about X series HOTAS, for me has been exposed as a not able to do wish.
It will have to be later today (UK time). I will need to send my binds file as well as it is non-standard. So I might have to do a bit of documentation too.
Hi Lester, attached are my binds file and the most recent working pr0 file.
In the binds file you will have to change the HOTAS device from SaitekX52Pro to whatever your binds device is registered as.
The commands with an entry only in the release field is to stop double bounces. The macro for “Fire C” works better than I hoped. If you tap that button ED goes into FSS mode but if you hold it, it will go into FSS mode then go back into Analyse mode when released. Any problems let me know.View attachment FSS_4.3.0.zip View attachment FSS_4.zip
If my uploads have timed out, PM me and we can exchange emails and I will send them to you that way.
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SMcA, Thank you so much. will look at them later today (California Time), as soon as I get some free time from our Foster Kids. You are the First Person in about 20yrs who has been able to answer this question for me.
Take your time or get your kids to do it for you.
Manually editing the pr0 file will enable you to change what the MFD displays when you press a button. I have made a start on that but I kept on getting my underwear in a twist.
By the bye, Logitech has a download that lets you recalibrate the analogue inputs. My throttle would not zero properly and that was giving me problems. I tried using the bands in the ST.exe s/ware but it was interfering with sending messages. When the throttle was zeroed ST.exe was outputting: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Again, any problems let me know. [where is it]
Do get the Logitech utility software for your controller as I use it before every game as the rudder has a tendency to go out of spec. Very handy and for me a must use.
has some one said, the mode switch is just a toggle between 3 modes, mode 1(red),mode 2(purple). mode 3(blue) on mine,it will save the settings changes to your profiler to what you want to do in each mode.so instead of 1 set of triggers of say eight , you will get 8*3 triggers per mode.
tutorial Adding a macro to profiler.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...5C00AF90035AB8771AA05C00AF90035A&&FORM=VRDGAR
im old too.
tutorial Adding a macro to profiler.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...5C00AF90035AB8771AA05C00AF90035A&&FORM=VRDGAR
im old too.
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