VKB-SIM

Hello,

This is a continuation of a request for assistance. I have downloaded and loaded every profile on the VKB website. None of them seem to activate the hat switch. I even tried the ones that did not activate the hat switch in the description of the profile. In the VKB JoyTester the hat switch is dead. If I depress the pinky button, I it will light buttons, but not the POV hat switch indicator.

Any help from VKB is appreciated.

Show a screenshot of the Global tab and Profile-> Buttons from the configurator. And what profile was loaded?

Thanks for responding Ron61. A few questions, however...

What Global Tab? What program is that in?

Profile buttons? I should take a screenshot of the buttons? Should the screenshot show them depressed or not?

The profile question I can answer. I tried ALL of them. The hat switch was dead in them all - even the ones that said there was a POV in them.

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this. I obviously know very little about computers and this joystick. I'm coming up on 30 days of trying to get it to work correctly and, although I've gotten closer, a combat stick without a POV is kinda useless. From your posts it's obvious that you know your stuff and have helped a lot of folks. But your response required me to have knowledge that I don't.

nh170914 wrote:What Global Tab? What program is that in?

Let's begin with the basics then.
Please refer to this post: http://forum.vkb-sim.pro/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2762.
Here you will see what information we need to help you, and also links to the programs you might (and should) find helpful in diagnosing your gear's problems.
There is unfortunately no shortcut, and it is important every pilot makes himself familiar with the software utilities that are purposefully created for situations like the one you have with your joystick.
Please take your time. Please do not skim across the surface of the utilities. The time you invest into learning these aides will return to you sooner than you expect.

One thing I neglected to say earlier.

The pov switch does light up some buttons in the vkbdevconfig program, but ONLY if the pinky switch is depressed.

Will spend tomorrow trying to fix it following the directions.

Thanks!

To VKB

I saw your posting freezing my last posting. A few things I'd like to mention.

1. While Ron tried to help, he isn't an employee of VKB. As such, I have to take his offering with a grain of salt. Besides, his response was above my technical level, asking me to do things that I have no knowledge or expertise of or in. I'm sure he meant well, but if the recipient doesn't understand the advise, they can't give it a try. Besides, do you people at VKB really want to turn over your technical support to the masses? How does one know which ones are good sources and which ones are trying but not giving good advice?

2. While your link shows three emails, you failed to include the 18 previous emails requesting assistance. At the time, I just figured you were trying to wear me out and run down the warranty period.

3. At the time of the last email you responded to I just put the stick in the closet. I was effectively worn out. So yesterday I decided to give it another chance. One press of button A3 and it stayed depressed and won't return, indicating a broken spring. So, the stick really was defective. Your response to the locked email also neglected to mention that either.

I will stand by my "review" of the stick (which you locked - frankly I'm surprised you left it up) and the technical support. The stick has a great feel and is smooth. Quality is poor and the stick doesn't have a long life. You've turned over tech support to the masses. Perhaps this is an "advanced" stick and should only be used by programmers and hard core players who love to figure these things out. I just wanted a decent stick to fly.

nh170914 wrote:1. While Ron tried to help, he isn't an employee of VKB.
2. I just figured you were trying to wear me out and run down the warranty period.
3. One press of button A3 and it stayed depressed and won't return, indicating a broken spring. So, the stick really was defective.
I will stand by my "review" ... frankly I'm surprised you left it up.

I have no intention, nor I have time to get involved in anything longer than a busy q-a-q-a-style tech support routine.
This will perhaps be the only exception - just because I _want_ other forum visitors to enjoy the show.

1 - Who is an employee, and who is not - you have no way to know. However, employee or not, Ron61 is one of the oldest and most experienced VKB forum members. Which an inquisitive forum visitor could easily deduct by checking his post number (705 at this moment) and number of thanks given (129). Besides, Ron61 was not the only one to request information from you: I did it as well. Did you provide any to me? - No you didn't bother. So, were you really looking for help?
2 - Emails are emails, forum is forum. We're on the forum, and here is where tech support is normally requested and provided. The warranty period is way too long to be run down this way, anyway.
3 - If the stick was defective, the only thing you had to do to get a replacement was to request it.

We do not delete critical reviews as we a) do not oppress free speech (although we don't feed trolls and delete them with no inhibitions); and b) are confident about our goods, their quality, and our customer support. Who wants to get helped, does get helped. Fast.
You are free to keep your opinion.
At the same time our support is given to all customers no matter what they think and/or say about us. When/if you decide you're ready to provide all information requested by Ron61 and myself, you will be given help. When/if you decide you're ready to formally request help with the supposedly broken spring, you will be given help.

Hi nh170914, I actually had the same thing happen to me regarding the A3 button and it was an easy fix for me. Chances are that it'll be easy for you too. There's a plastic pin on the buttons that sometimes pops out of place and you can fix the button by just inserting the pin back in its hole. Gluing it in place might help prevent if form coming out again but glue at your own risk. Below is screen shot showing the plastic pin out of place. You should be able to access it by just removing the base-plate with a Philips head screwdriver.



Now that that's done. I'm actually having this same problem. My hat switch isn't being recognized by any of the games that I play and I've tried loading several different profiles. I've somewhat familiarized myself with the VKBDevCfg tool and when "polling" the hat switch on the profile>buttons tab, I see it light up; so I know the switch is sending data and my PC is receiving it. Thus, it's probably just a config problem.

Here are screenshot of my Global and Buttons tab, if it helps.





I'm also trying to learn how to make changes to each of the buttons. Currently, I'm just poking around but there's still a lot I don't understand. Like what the different types of button, shift tick boxs, etc do.

Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

I've been reading the manual for the VKB Device Config tool and playing around with different button settings but I'm stumped as far as getting the Hat Switch working again. As far as I can see, it should be working just fine. I have #Hat = 1 and all of the hat registers set to their corresponding directions. I'm not sure what's wrong here..





Any ideas?

I have tried your settings for line#41. Works. HAT down in both modes without Shift. 16 or 23 lines if Shift pressed.
What do you suppose to see?

Hi Victorus, thanks for testing.

I see something strange when I go to the test panel. The joystick log immediately prints "POV #1 Release" (as shown below) and it doesn't pick up any non-shift "hat-down" events. The "button #23" events show up when I use shift + hat-down.

I think there was something wrong with the actual firmware on the device. So I flashed the controller with the latest version that I saw on http://ftp.vkb-sim.pro/Firmware/Gladiator and that seems to have done the trick. I was running 1.85 before and now it's only 1.817 but I don't care, as long as it works I'm happy.