Programming FSM LEDs

[moewillie]

First request:
Want suggestion on how to get FSM LEDs to behave like NXT LEDs in SHIFT mode. For example when AP button is pressed and released LED turned on persistently (like alternative mode SHIFT button press behavior) then after second time AP button pressed LED turns off. Would like any/all buttons on FSM to be programmed like this. Is this behavior possible to program?
Second request:
How are the five SEM LEDs initialized on green color for buttons A1, A2, B1,B2, and B3? I'm guessing its in firmware setting and not accessible for programming? I would like to program specific FSM button LEDs to be initialized the same way. I could use this behavior to indicate which FSM buttons have been bound to respective MSFS control. Is this behavior possible to program?
My additional comments:
I have successfully programmed NXT joystick LEDs with SHIFT behavior and I have also successfully converted the SEM Flaps control to a 4th axis in my controller setup (I caught the hint about turning on En and Vs on profile/Axes page from another topic in this forum).

Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

My VKB Setup

Gladiator LEDs

SEM Axes

SEM THQ FSM cfg

SEM THQ FSM LEDs

[fallout9]

The LEDs on FSM-GA should show up the same as the ones on the SEM. If they're off check the A1 jumper on the back of the PCB.
There is a way for a button to hold position when pressed until a second press, but not sure if you could program this behavior in game. In case you can, then the function is called ButAlt and it comes with 2 default states, for On and Off. Setting a button as ButAlt lets you set up the related LED to keep/change color, like this:
- first click the module button you set up when in Profile/Buttons/Physical Layer, then click mouse on the cell that lights up, let's say it's cell 43;
- set up that button as ButAlt with Off default state and close that dialog box;
- go to Global/External/LEDs and look for the LED activated by button 43;
- you'll see it's a Physical Button, set it up as Logical;
- change the color of that LED if you want;
- press Set under Action tab.

[Ron61]

Do not forget that you can find out the number and possible colors of leds in the Test-Misc tab. In the lower right corner, entering a number and holding down the Fast Test button, we will see the location of a specific Led. After working in this window, in order to return Leds to work, you need to restart the controller, you can use the Restart button.

[moewillie]

Thanks fallout9 and Ron61 for your quick responses that were clear and understandable which I implemented.
My actions taken:
I performed the A1 jumper setting as suggested and behavior is now normal as the SEM.
I used FSM AP button (#41) as test case and set it to ButAlt with OFF as default.
I set the LED to logical (didn't change color for test case).
Set the changes into the module.
Results:
The behavior of FSM LED is as desired for the test case. Push once and LED is changed to red. Push again and LED is back to green.
Unfortunately, most of the Autopilot MSFS controls are of the type TOGGLE. So output from pressing ButAlt type button #41 sends a continuous on/off to the TOGGLE control which drives it crazy in MSFS.
FSM simple BUTTON type works well for these TOGGLE controls, but I must have the MSFS autopilot avionics screen in view to get feedback of the TOGGLE state.
I may have to be satisfied with this unless you know of a way to get the FSM LEDs to behave as desired without sending inputs to MSFS (behavior like a SHIFT button which is local to the FSM module only.)

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions.

MSFS autopilot control sample.

My VKB Setup with correct jumper setting.

[tiberius]

Hi moewillie,

Received a mail about your YouTube comment but it didn't show up on YouTube, so I reply here.

My script is using Python-SimConnect to get status from MSFS periodically (~5 times per second), then update it to FSM-GA via USB HID (pyvkb). It's not using predefined rules in VKB Device Config. The LED rules defined in VKB Device Config can only derive from joystick status like button press, status shift, axis location etc.

I'm not good at packaging Python scripts so it could be a little bit difficult to try my scripts yourself, I'll try to improve packaging, and probably someone would come up a better program doing this as how to achieve the effect is now known.

[Jerzeef]

Hi i have found a way to get this working in msfs2020, but spad.next is needed. You configure your buttons with AltButton and and set the corresponding LED. In spad.next you have to configure the button to ON/OFF switch. After this you can assing different behaviors for the ON and OFF state of the botton.

[moewillie]

Thanks Jerzeef. I'll have to familiarize myself with spad.next since its new to me. I think there are plenty of YouTube videos about it.

[moewillie]

I just discovered a YouTube video that demonstrates the desired LED behavior I have described in this thread for any simple button that acts like a toggle.
see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQE9DIrHn7U
Configuring the desired physical button as p-alternate function (inverted) it a very simple solution. Kudos to the poster "anahanah" for this.

[FlyingLoafOfToast]

Hello,

I have been trying to do just this with my SEM and my FSM. I followed the instructions to the letter, and it works flawlessly on the SEM. However, on the FSM, it *only* works for the HDG button. I can't figure it out.

The only thing I can think of is that I programmed just the HDG (button 1, LED 10) as a test, and it worked. Then I added the rest in. HDG continues to work. All of the other ones refuse to, no matter how many times I reprogram them or clear the lines between such efforts.

Anyone have any ideas?

Regards,
FLoT

[FlyingLoafOfToast]

Hello,

Further input: any light on my FSM will work properly, but only if the commands are at or above LED line 5. If I add a line before line 5 and try to program a new light, that one will work, but the one which *had* been working (and had been pushed down the LED list) will then stop working. Weird.

Could this be a firmware issue? My FSM is on version 2.08... hmmm...

Best,
FLoT

[JPVann]

Amazing to me this is so frigging complicated. Love VKB but sometimes I feel their software support is glued to the 1990s....

A simple led function takes python scripting to hack. Amazing.

[JPVann]

moewillie found the SOLUTION in this Video.

Just go into VKB Config, LED section on the FSM/SEM and change the physical buttons to "P-Alternate", click the invert box and 'SeET" to device. Now I have all LEDS RED until they are pressed where they switch to green and stay in their state until being pushed. Doesn't link to status in -game, but that can be accomplished using Joystick Gremlin I think - viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7351