Travelling with Heli-X and a USB gamepad controller?

[starryalley]

Hi I've been making progress with Heli-X for the past 3 months and I'm totally happy with it. 3 months ago I still can't invert hover the heli and now I can do half piroflips confidently and do some rainbow and invert hover with piro for 15min without crash. I enjoy this sim a lot every day.

Well I plan to backpack travel next month for 3 months and I apparently can't bring my DX8 and my little heli with me. I'll have my Macbook 12" with me anyway.

My question is, will Heli-X support a general USB gamepad controller like in this post: https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=608490

Have anyone used a cheap gamepad controller to practice? I know a $20 gamepad with analog sticks won't be good but it's better to have something to practice with than none. Thanks.

[Rebel10]

There are youtube videos of people using PS3 controller and even xbox 360. Can't find them right now. Not sure though how to connect, possibly needs an usb adapter?

You can use basically every 4-axis controller that is recognized by your computer as a joystick controller.

[starryalley]

Originally Posted by Rebel10

There are youtube videos of people using PS3 controller and even xbox 360. Can't find them right now. Not sure though how to connect, possibly needs an usb adapter?

You can use basically every 4-axis controller that is recognized by your computer as a joystick controller.

Thanks. I'll try and get back here to update later!

[starryalley]

I gave up after trying 2 different gamepad controllers.

The first being a BT/USB controller: In USB mode my mac simply can't recognize it. In bluetooth mode mac can pair with it but the 2 analog sticks become just like binary inputs. I didn't bother to configure it.

Another 10USD cheap game controller which uses USB can be recognized but also the sticks become binary input only.

With my Android phone both can work with Indoor Heli Sim app, and the sticks now become usable. (not binary now) But it is extremely hard to even invert fly the heli without crash. It's too damn coarse compared to a real transmitter.

So I gave up.... Maybe I just live with it and forget about practicing during these 3 months. Anyone got a better idea please let me know.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykin...em-mode-2.html This looks like a good option but it's heavy and as big as a real transmitter which isn't suitable for backpack traveling. Most importantly, it's out of stock..

[JPCOPter]

Not a mac guy, I started practicing with the wired xbox 360 controller.
Just plugged it in and windows 7 auto downloaded drivers and it worked.
Needed to add some deadband because there is some 'ghost'inputs constantly effecting it.

Maybe mac has some drivers you can download that would get a xbox or ps3 controller to work?

[toadiscoil]

I am using Heli-X as my main sim but I have neXt also installed on my computer. Since I couldn't bring the transmitter with me (I use my DX6 and RX2SIM for wireless simming) and I found an old XBOX 360 USB/PC controller on a box, I brought it with me and decided to use it with neXt so as not to change my Heli-X calibration.The problem with using this controller is that your rudder is not locked and neither is your collective.

You see, when you use your collective on your transmitter, it stays in the same position but the controller is always trying to return to center. This makes for an unreal operation of the collective.

For the rudder, you can "feel" the change in rudder and basically you can do a collective full travel movement and affect rudder minimally. With a controller this does not happen as the stick moves all around and has no locked pathways.

The result is that a coordinated turn will be very hard to do because the rudder will keep on moving whether you want to or not as you move the collective. The cyclic control even though it also is not locked is usually controlled on all directions so the difference is not very noticeable.

In summary you can use it, but it will not help you very much unless you tweak it a lot, which will render your calibration and settings be all screwed up when you return to your transmitter. Also the difference in controls is very different to a transmitter so even if you get it to work properly I don't think you will be able to transfer training over properly from the controller to an actual transmitter.

So it is just mainly for playing around not for real training. And the sim really shines as a training tool, so you kind of defeat its purpose.

Someone should make a travel controller for these types of situations. Just need a small footprint USB controller with gimbals just like a transmitter and a long cord no batteries to not have issues with TSA and airport security checkpoints.

[Rebel10]

Originally Posted by toadiscoil

Since I couldn't bring the transmitter with me (I use my DX6 and RX2SIM for wireless simming) and I found an old XBOX 360 USB/PC controller on a box, I brought it with me and decided to use it with neXt so as not to change my Heli-X calibration.

In Heli-X you can save your calibrations under different names.
I have one saved for my regular USB-Controller, one for my Futaba and one for my DX4e.

[starryalley]

Thanks for sharing these guys.

Yes I agree someone should sell a portable lightweight USB interface controller with 2 good gimbals for SIM and traveling. I'll buy it right away...