After a decade of not flying almost any sim (been invested in RC FPV insetad) I tried a buddy of mines Oculus Rift and DCS. After the first flight I was completely sold, the immersion was incredible. I immediately ordered a new rig and started searching for a set of CV1 Rifts (I was really lucky and got a set within a week).

After not much flying with my setup I realized a major problem with my current HOTAS+keyboard setup is that the keyboard is virtually unusable while flying VR. So, what to do, well more buttons, switches and knobs for the HOTAS of course. The Leobodnar BBI-32 seemed perfect for this and now I have designed and 3d-printed some control boxes and installed them with BBI-12, push buttons and momentary toggle switches.

The front controls is for controls needed often, but which I have not placed on the HOTAS itself. The left knob is to meant to control the communications dialogue F1-12 using a comms initiation button and a BBI-12 connected in series with another push button. The right knob to select modes (NAV, A2A, A2G etc) and uses a BBI-12. The front toggle switches is not yet decided upon. The rear switches is for basic airplane functions not often needed during flight like startup, landing gear, lights etc. The rear box also holds the BBI-32 card and a thin 10-ribbon cable is used to connect the front box.

My BBI-32 control boxes use up to 56 inputs wired as follows;

• INPUT 1 for my first BBI-12 (programmed as input 33-44)
• INPUT 2 for my second BBI-12 in series with a push button (programmed as 45-56)
• INPUT 3-32 is used for various push buttons and toggle switches (I only use 19 of these right now)

Now I need to remap joystick buttons 45-56 to keyboard F1-F12. The reason why I need to remap to keyboard buttons is because some functions, more specifically the communication dialogue is done using the F-buttons. I have not found any way for DCS to change from F1-F12 to joystick buttons.

Now for the problem. All remap softwares I've found is limited to joysticks with only 32 buttons, since my control box have 56 inputs this is a problem. Anyone know how I can do this?






SOLVED: I use SVmapper to map my buttons to keyboard.

Don't remember exactly where, but you can remap the communications functions from F1-F12 for other keys editing LUA file.

SVMapper allow program buttons above 32, but don't recognize axis inputs, only buttons/HAT, work OK for DSD 64 controller board (similar do BBI32 but with 64 buttons).

And recognize more than one controller (don't know how many) in same profile.

Not sure about HIDMacros but this too recognize buttons above 32.

Thanks, I'll try them ASAP.

You can try a voice-control software to handle your comms. I've tried VAC and Voice Attack before and both work relatively well. It does feel odd saying "One, three" instead of the actual phrase you need to say, but it's better than reaching for the mouse/keyboard.

Also, thanks for confirming that while VR does wonders for immersion, it does nothing for any other "cockpit work" needed.

You could actually set it up so that you say the word or phrase, and just have the voice recognition program output the 1 & 3, of F1 and F3, to work through the comms menu system.

@Sokol1
Thanks! I've tried SVmapper and it works quite well. In fact I seem to be able to remap up to 128 buttons + 8 axis, that's enough.

@-Ice
Yes, I now also use VoiceAttack which also works. I haven't yet decided which solution I'll go for. However, I do not agree with you 100% regarding the cockpit work. Many dials in RL cockpits aren't necessary looked at by the pilot when he uses them. For example the expanded HOTAS setup I have now works very well and I don't have to see any of the control to know what they do. I could probably expand a lot but for now this will have to do. And also, the added immersion is so totally worth it. That alone is why I got back into PC simming. Dogfighting is a whole new experience when you actually have to turn not only your head but your body to check your six.