vJoy Feeder Help Req

[AU_Sniper]

Hi All, firstly please forgive my ignorance as i'm new to LabVIEW, but seeking anyone that may be able to help with getting me started / pointed in the right direction. I'm looking for anyone who may have successfully linked LabVIEW to control a virtual joystick.

I have a NI DIO card (PCIDIO96) which I have successfully been able to control using LabVIEW and DAQ assist. I also have vJoy setup with 96 button interface working with my simulation software. What I need is to link the DAQ assist in LabVIEW to the vJoy. I have the vJoy SDK, but i'm not sure how to convert the LabVIEW into C+ or C#, and i'm not really familiar to either language, hence looking for some sample code or basic help.

[Bob_Schor]

So what we know is that:

• You are new to LabVIEW, and presumably have not taken all of the Tutorials, particularly the DAQmx ones.
• You have a 96-input DIO card that you have "controlled" with the Dreaded DAQ Assistant (more points off ... do a Web search for "Learn 10 Functions in NI-DAQmx", read it, and resolve to Never Again use the DAQ Assistant!).
• You want to do something with "the vJoy", which appears to be software designed to create/emulate/something else a "virtual Joystick".

What we (and by "we", I mean "I") don't understand is what you are really trying to do.  Do you have a Joystick that you want to be able to use with LabVIEW?  What are you hoping to do with 96 DIO ports?  What does vJoy have to do with the actual task (so far not described) you are trying to accomplish?

I confess that when I think about a Joystick (and I've used several in LabVIEW code), I think of a device that produces multi-axis Analog signals as well as a number of Digital signals, usually connected to the PC via a USB cable, and transmitting at modest data rates (<1KHz).  I usually have an application in mind that can use this hardware for some specific task.  It is not at all clear to me what your intended use would be, making it difficult to recommend what you should do, other than develop more complete specifications for your needs and wants.

Final question -- are you looking to develop this project yourself (in which case you are planning to Learn LabVIEW), or is this a "Feasibility" question about LabVIEW?

Bob Schor

[AU_Sniper]

Bob, Thanks for your reply.

Yes I'm new to labVIEW, and whilst I have looked through many tutorials, I cant seem to find anything like what I'm trying to achieve. 

Whilst I appreciate you don't like the DAQ assist, I found it easy for a novice to test the principles of my card, and attempt to get things working. I also appreciate that my original post may have been a bit vague and as such here is a rundown of what i'm looking to do. It is both a personal project that I want to use to learn more about LabVIEW and graphical programming, Its success would essentially lead to me buying more NI equipment in the way of analogue IO cards and counters.

I am trying to build a home cockpit (Boeing 737). As such it requires many physical switches, and press buttons that would control items like lights, hydraulic pumps, fuel pumps, electrical generators, batteries, .etc..... Hence the Digital IO PCI96 board. Whilst I have had some success sending UDP packets to control one simulation software (X-Plane), the Simulation software I'd really like to use is Microsoft FSX and this simulation software unfortunately is limited in accessing too much control. That said I have tested vJoy (Virtual joystick) configured with 96 button inputs to the FSX simulation software and am able to make the software do what I want when a virtual button is pressed. So what am i looking for??? well I'm looking at using LabVIEW to take an input from the PCIDIO96 and map each input to a virtual button in vJoy, from there I'll program FSX to see the virtual button and control the light, pump, generator etc...

Based on the success of this, I'd then be looking at creating links to axis using an analogue card to connect to rotary dials for such things as temperature controls, HDG bugs, CRS bugs, ALT selections etc.....

I have looked at the tutorials and samples of reading a joystick in LabView, but this is not what I want, I need to go the other way.

Hope this helps to explain what im trying to do.

I'm playing around with call fuctions and its doing my head in abit, what I need is some directions, or any sample VIs that someone might have made for a similar task in the past.

[PWilliamssa]

Looking to do the same thing for MSFS2020... Did you get anywhere with this?

Thanks

[Bob_Schor]

Have you tried using an inexpensive ($30) Joystick, or an X-Box Controller, which LabVIEW can "see" and treat as a multi-axis analog input device + 10 "buttons"?  I just plugged in an inexpensive Logitech controller and it showed me 3 analog axes and 10 buttons.

If you need more buttons and switches, you can "build" a "cockpit" as a Front Panel, with switches and indicators of various kinds.  [Seems to me I've seen one or two attempts on the Forum ...].

Bob Schor