SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Moderator: AdminGroup
SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Hi all,
I wanted to have 4 different button mappings depending on a selected MODE on SEM. I use it for DCS so my options were to do it directly in VKB software or try to do it in DCS. I tried both solutions and decided that to do it via VKB software is a better one.
I am going to explain both solutions here.
1. VKB config
Button numbers may be different on your device than on mine, you can check them in 'Test' tab on the bottom.
Let's start with a A1 button on SEM (button 1 in my case). By default, when you select a MODE (for example MODE 4) it acts like you press and hold a button (button 16 in my case).
In 'Physical Layer' tab, click on some non used (grey) button.
In popup window set the type to 'Boolean'. Set Operand 1 to '16' (my button 16) and Operand 2 to '1' (my button 1) and close the window.
Switch to 'Logical Layer' tab. You can see a new button here, in my case Button 25. Click 'SET' on top to load our new config to SEM.
Now select a 'Test' tab on the bottom. When I select MODE 4 on SEM, I can see button 16 is pressed. Now if I press button A1 on SEM, I can see button 1 is pressed. But I can also see our new button 25 is pressed.
So now you can bind a button 25 in your appliacation and it will only work if you select MODE 4 and press button A1 on SEM.
With this analogy, you can basically create a new set of buttons for each MODE. Well, actually there is not enough space for all buttons and 4 modes, but there is just enough space to do it for all buttons except the ones on Landing Gear and Flaps lever. Or you can of course create only 3 modes and that way you can fit them all.
Here is a screenshot from my config with 4 modes, each with 13 buttons.
Tip: Use a copy function when defining these buttons, it saves a lot of work!
PROS of this method
- This should now work in any application that supports enough buttons
CONS
- Not possible to create 4 modes with all of the buttons on SEM, not enough space
- You should not use original buttons (1-24)(Excluding Landing Gear and Flaps in my case) anymore, because there will always be original button + virtual button pressed. But you still have 4 times more buttons than before
- Some application let you bind buttons only by pressing them. However, I noticed it registers the default button, so I need to manually select my new virtual button from a list. For example DCS and MSFS allows this, but I think IL-2 does not (don't quote me on that) ---- edit: actually you can disable original buttons in 'Logical Layer', change them to 'No Function' to avoid this problem
2. DCS Modifiers
DCS allows you to setup any button as modifier. There are two types of Modifiers in DCS - 'Modifier" and 'Switch'.
'Modifier' type works like for example Shift button on your keyboard, you need to hold it down and then press another button. But MODE buttons on SEM are by default always pressed, so it's like you are always pressing a modifier and your other binds don't work.
'Switch' works in a way that you need to press a button to activate modifier and then press the same button again to disable it. This is not how MODE buttons on SEM work, but it's very easy to make them work this way. All you need to do is in 'Physical Layer' to change their type from 'Button' to 'Toggle' and uncheck '2 buttons'.
When you do that and select a test tab, if I select mode 4 i can see button 16 is pressed and released. And when I select other mode button 16 is pressed again.
PROS of this method
- Less work
- Theoretically you can have 4 modes with all buttons, including those on 'Landing Gear' and 'Flaps' lever
CONS
- When you load into game in DCS, it doesn't recognize what MODE you are in. You first need to select a mode. But remember, when you change modes it will also press a button of whatever mode you are in right now, because it's set up that way in our VKB config, making the game think you just activated it. So what you need to do is sacrifice one MODE button that you will not use as a modifier and ALWAYS select that one before you load into game. Then you must select your mode. This was the reason I went with VKB config solution.
Hope someone finds this useful, happy flying!
Jan
I wanted to have 4 different button mappings depending on a selected MODE on SEM. I use it for DCS so my options were to do it directly in VKB software or try to do it in DCS. I tried both solutions and decided that to do it via VKB software is a better one.
I am going to explain both solutions here.
1. VKB config
Button numbers may be different on your device than on mine, you can check them in 'Test' tab on the bottom.
Let's start with a A1 button on SEM (button 1 in my case). By default, when you select a MODE (for example MODE 4) it acts like you press and hold a button (button 16 in my case).
In 'Physical Layer' tab, click on some non used (grey) button.
In popup window set the type to 'Boolean'. Set Operand 1 to '16' (my button 16) and Operand 2 to '1' (my button 1) and close the window.
Switch to 'Logical Layer' tab. You can see a new button here, in my case Button 25. Click 'SET' on top to load our new config to SEM.
Now select a 'Test' tab on the bottom. When I select MODE 4 on SEM, I can see button 16 is pressed. Now if I press button A1 on SEM, I can see button 1 is pressed. But I can also see our new button 25 is pressed.
So now you can bind a button 25 in your appliacation and it will only work if you select MODE 4 and press button A1 on SEM.
With this analogy, you can basically create a new set of buttons for each MODE. Well, actually there is not enough space for all buttons and 4 modes, but there is just enough space to do it for all buttons except the ones on Landing Gear and Flaps lever. Or you can of course create only 3 modes and that way you can fit them all.
Here is a screenshot from my config with 4 modes, each with 13 buttons.
Tip: Use a copy function when defining these buttons, it saves a lot of work!
PROS of this method
- This should now work in any application that supports enough buttons
CONS
- Not possible to create 4 modes with all of the buttons on SEM, not enough space
- You should not use original buttons (1-24)(Excluding Landing Gear and Flaps in my case) anymore, because there will always be original button + virtual button pressed. But you still have 4 times more buttons than before
- Some application let you bind buttons only by pressing them. However, I noticed it registers the default button, so I need to manually select my new virtual button from a list. For example DCS and MSFS allows this, but I think IL-2 does not (don't quote me on that) ---- edit: actually you can disable original buttons in 'Logical Layer', change them to 'No Function' to avoid this problem
2. DCS Modifiers
DCS allows you to setup any button as modifier. There are two types of Modifiers in DCS - 'Modifier" and 'Switch'.
'Modifier' type works like for example Shift button on your keyboard, you need to hold it down and then press another button. But MODE buttons on SEM are by default always pressed, so it's like you are always pressing a modifier and your other binds don't work.
'Switch' works in a way that you need to press a button to activate modifier and then press the same button again to disable it. This is not how MODE buttons on SEM work, but it's very easy to make them work this way. All you need to do is in 'Physical Layer' to change their type from 'Button' to 'Toggle' and uncheck '2 buttons'.
When you do that and select a test tab, if I select mode 4 i can see button 16 is pressed and released. And when I select other mode button 16 is pressed again.
PROS of this method
- Less work
- Theoretically you can have 4 modes with all buttons, including those on 'Landing Gear' and 'Flaps' lever
CONS
- When you load into game in DCS, it doesn't recognize what MODE you are in. You first need to select a mode. But remember, when you change modes it will also press a button of whatever mode you are in right now, because it's set up that way in our VKB config, making the game think you just activated it. So what you need to do is sacrifice one MODE button that you will not use as a modifier and ALWAYS select that one before you load into game. Then you must select your mode. This was the reason I went with VKB config solution.
Hope someone finds this useful, happy flying!
Jan
Last edited by Hawk_SVK on Sun Nov 14, 2021 22:25, edited 7 times in total.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Unfortunately, your first method has the disadvantage that two buttons are pressed at the same time.
Assuming the taxi light is on button 1 and switching on the autopilot on button 25. If I now select mode 4 because I want to switch on the autopilot, the taxi light is unfortunately also switched on or off.
Assuming the taxi light is on button 1 and switching on the autopilot on button 25. If I now select mode 4 because I want to switch on the autopilot, the taxi light is unfortunately also switched on or off.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Yes you are right about that. Still you can use the all the buttons from MODE 1, 2 and 3. So you will need to map your Taxi light under MODE 1, 2 or 3 if you already use Button 1 with MODE 4. In my screenshot button 15 (MODE 3) and Button 1 (A1) act like button 51.
I will edit the 'Pros' part of the first method where I mention you can still use buttons independent on MODE switch.
I will edit the 'Pros' part of the first method where I mention you can still use buttons independent on MODE switch.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
That seems quite convoluted. Have you looked at the shift & subshift functions?
Eg you can set the buttons activated by the mode selector to type 'subshift'. Then other buttons can be set to 'ButtonS' and can then be mapped to multiple logical buttons based on which subshift (or none) is activated.
Eg you can set the buttons activated by the mode selector to type 'subshift'. Then other buttons can be set to 'ButtonS' and can then be mapped to multiple logical buttons based on which subshift (or none) is activated.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Yeah I looked at Shift functions but i got a bit confused with those. It sounds straight forward when you say it like that. Anyway, it seems that the result is the same, different logical buttons based on MODE button selected. Your solution probably fits all of them unlike mine. I will check it out when I have time.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Bambers wrote:That seems quite convoluted. Have you looked at the shift & subshift functions?
Eg you can set the buttons activated by the mode selector to type 'subshift'. Then other buttons can be set to 'ButtonS' and can then be mapped to multiple logical buttons based on which subshift (or none) is activated.
Please can you show us, how to configure your solution in VKB config? Thank you!
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
I tried a solution with Subshifts but I was not able to make it work. Can you tell me what is wrong in my config?
I set MODE buttons (16, 15, 14, 13) to Subshift #1, #2, #3 and #4, then i changed button 1 to ButtonS and assigned it 4 different logical buttons (25, 26, 27, 28) depending on Subshift #. (I think?)
But in 'Test' tab I can see only button 1 being pressed, regardless of the MODE selected.
Physical Layer
Button 16 set as Subshift #1
Button 1 as ButtonS assigned to 4 different buttons
Logical Layer
I set MODE buttons (16, 15, 14, 13) to Subshift #1, #2, #3 and #4, then i changed button 1 to ButtonS and assigned it 4 different logical buttons (25, 26, 27, 28) depending on Subshift #. (I think?)
But in 'Test' tab I can see only button 1 being pressed, regardless of the MODE selected.
Physical Layer
Button 16 set as Subshift #1
Button 1 as ButtonS assigned to 4 different buttons
Logical Layer
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
I think you can only assign a physical button to a single logical button with subshift.
Idk how 'Multi' option of ButtonS is supposed to work, but I guess it still works just for a single subshift because there is only one Subshift # input field.
When I select type 'Single' I can make it work, but again it's only one subshift per button, not four.
Idk how 'Multi' option of ButtonS is supposed to work, but I guess it still works just for a single subshift because there is only one Subshift # input field.
When I select type 'Single' I can make it work, but again it's only one subshift per button, not four.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
I figured it out! I think it's bugged. It works only for 3 subShifts max. If you set ButtonS to 'Multi' and 'SubSHIFT #' to 4 or more, it does nothing, it presses the original button regardless of subShift.
I tried with more subShifts, less subShifts, result always the same, it works up to 3 subShifts.
So you can theoretically set up 3 modes and leave the 4th one using the original physical buttons.
If this will get fixed in the future I will update the guide with this method (i created a ticket), for now I think my original solution does a better job.
If somebody wants to try and use the subShift method, you can set it up just like I did in the screenshots I posted, just don't use more than 3 subShifts.
I tried with more subShifts, less subShifts, result always the same, it works up to 3 subShifts.
So you can theoretically set up 3 modes and leave the 4th one using the original physical buttons.
If this will get fixed in the future I will update the guide with this method (i created a ticket), for now I think my original solution does a better job.
If somebody wants to try and use the subShift method, you can set it up just like I did in the screenshots I posted, just don't use more than 3 subShifts.
- fallout9
- Posts: 5222
- Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 20:37
- Has thanked: 208 times
- Been thanked: 1225 times
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
There are some issues with the current firmware and software versions on certain devices. We'll update the website as soon as we'll have a patch.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Has there been any update on getting the SEM mode selector switch working as subshift? I would like to program the entire SEM to have different keybinds depending on which mode is selected. I can get it to work with 1 subshift but as soon as I try to add another subshift everything falls apart.
- fallout9
- Posts: 5222
- Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 20:37
- Has thanked: 208 times
- Been thanked: 1225 times
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Try the latest firmware and software versions. With caution, they're beta.
Re: SEM - Guide how to set up different binds depending on MODE switch
Still the same issues as described in this post - firmware 2.13.3
ButtonS only works with one subshift and ButtonM (Modal Switch controlled Button) only has the option of MSw# 1-4 , V.Button. and 2 physical to logical connections. Seems like this specifically for the mode switch on the SEM but just not working correctly. Thanks for the quick reply though.
ButtonS only works with one subshift and ButtonM (Modal Switch controlled Button) only has the option of MSw# 1-4 , V.Button. and 2 physical to logical connections. Seems like this specifically for the mode switch on the SEM but just not working correctly. Thanks for the quick reply though.
Return to “Manuals and Howtos”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests