169: One Press, Two Actions

FSUIPC by Peter Dowson is no stranger to flightsimmers.  But many of us might have no idea of what it really is, even though we are all very likely having a copy of it installed in our systems.

Part of the reason is because the unregistered (free) version of the program is merely to provide necessary I/O communications between FSX addons (either software or hardware) and the simulation system.   And the process works hiddenly in the background.

The unlocked version, on the other hand, is indeed very powerful and comes with many sophisticated functions for the building of an advanced system.   However, these features are not designed for average users.

Here is a simple workout on how to add a second function to virtually any button on the flightsim yoke or TPM with the help of it.

I usually fly with TrackIR.   However, keying in the keyboard command regularly to center the Eye Position is quite awkward.

On my flightsim yoke, I have already set the A2 button to perform eyepoint resets.

Via the FSUIPC (the registered version), I further appended the keyboard command of the TrackIR Centering [Ctrl-F10] to it, so that pressing the button once will trigger two functions simultaneously (Eyepoint Reset in FSX and Eye Position Centering by TrackIR) at the tip of my thumb.

Here’s how to do it:

1) Load up FSUIPC Options and Settings screen during any flight session.

2) Select the [Buttons + Switches] tab from the menu.

3) Press the A2 button on the yoke once to include the corresponding button number to the program.

4) Check the [Select for key press] option.

5) Key in the keyboard command for the second function (Ctrl-F10 in my case).

6) Press [OK] to save and exit.  It’s done.

Followings are just three of the buttons I include a second function to them using the steps described above.

Yoke	via FSX	via FSUIPC
Button-01	Break	SimRate Reset
Button-02	View Next Category	TrackIR Pause
Button-A2	EyePoint Reset	TrackIR Cenering

And there are a lot more to explore to make FSX better matching different needs.