The Hitec Laser 4 FM radio can be connected to FS using a USB
interface that hooks up the trainer port. The early RCJoy USB
Interface is used. The radio and interface are from the early 2000’s.
This is an example of bringing old equipment back to life, and how to
hook up using only 4 channels. Beyond the 4 channels, the remaining FS One control inputs are done using the keyboard.
As described below, Joystick Gremlin will be used to create a
remapping. Joystick Gremlin forwards your control inputs to vJoy which
is what you will select as your USB interface in FS One 2022e.
If you have already installed vJoy, installed Joystick Gremlin, and made
a virtual joystick, then skip the block below to
connect and test your transmitter.
Install vJoy
This makes a virtual joystick for FS One (or for anything else).
Unplug all USB gamepads, joysticks, TacCon, and other “R/C” controllers.
Download and run vJoySetup.exe.
This downloads from github.
You set up vJoy (image below) one time. This completes your vJoy Device setup.
vJoyConf configuring a virtual joystick with 8 axes, 0 buttons, and 0 hat switches.
This is vJoy Device #1 indicated by the light green tab labeled “1”.#
Remaining Instructions
The remainder of these instructions include using Joystick Gremlin
to remap your controller inputs to vJoy.
Connect the RCJoy USB interface to your computer. The connect the
adapter cable (for Hitec Tx’s) to the RCJoy USB box. Finally connect the
plug into the trainer port on the back of the Hitec Laser 4. The
radio will turn on. The USB joystick name will appear in the Windows Game
Controller gadget on your PC, and the 4 of the sliders will move in
responds to your sticks. The remaining 4 axes will not be used, the
buttons will not be used in this setup. The name is shown below.
JG’s top row has tabs for USB controllers, your keyboard, and the vJoyDevice#1 that you created. Generally, the USB controllers are the
inputs to the output that is the virtual joystick vJoyDevice#1
which is used by FS One. The keyboard appears, but it will not
be used here. Other USB controllers will appear if you have others
plugged into your computer. Disconnect any extraneous USB controllers
for this setup.
Tip
When you are finished remapping, follow these steps to use the controller:
In Joystick Gremlin, click the gamepad icon to change it from black to green so that Joystick Gremlin
is Activated. Use JG’s
Tools->InputViewer to confirm that your inputs are going to the vJoy Device joystick
as you expect.
When running FS One, select the vJoy Device virtual joystick that you created.
Do not select the RCJoy interface name.
Before running FS One, it is recommended that you run the Windows Game Controller gadget
to see that vJoy Device is indeed active, responding to your controller inputs.
Each section below remaps a single control to one axis for FS One, starting with Ailerons.
First, you move a control to select an input.
It will gray highlight on the left side of JG’s main window.
Then you will define where that control is mapped using the right side of JG main window.
Then you can test each axis mapping with the JG-viewer window to see that it is correct.
To create your remapping to the standard axes order for FS One,
these steps are performed in JG’s main window.
To start, the JG gamepad icon should be black (not green).
If it is green, click on it.
In JG’s main window, click on the tab for the RCJoy interface.
The left side of the window lists the RCJoy interface axes and
buttons driven by your Hitec radio.
The last moved axis or button will be highlighted gray.
The right side shows what each axis and button does (what will define the remapping).
This right side is initially blank.
The left side’s labels for the axes (e.g., X Axis, and so on) are
the Windows terminology for joystick axes and buttons and not meaningful to FS One.
Yet, the left side names will be used in the instructions here.
Map the Aileron Stick to vJoy Axis 8
First you may need to move the sticks around to ‘wake-up’ the main
JG window. It can go into a “sleep” mode.
Again, the last moved axis or button should highlight gray as you move each control input.
Move the aileron stick (conventionally, for Mode 2, the right stick, horizontally).
In JG, the left side’s highlight jumps to XAxis .
On the right side, into Action Description type “Ailerons”.
On the right side, next to the first dropdown (it will have Remap selected), click Add .
Inside the gray Remap box, change the lower dropdown from XAxis to Dial (vJoy Axis 8).
See image below. Click to enlarge.
Test your mapping:
At top left, click the JG gamepad icon (“Activate”) to change it from black to green.
Move the aileron stick.
Now JG-viewer’s vJoy Axis 8 reacts to that movement.
Your first axis remapping is complete.
Click the JG gamepad icon to make it black again.
Click to make it green to review your mapping at any time.
This screen shot below also shows results of the remaining instructions. Click for full size image.
Map the Elevator Stick to vJoy Axis 7
Move the elevator stick. The left side’s highlight jumps to YAxis .
On the right side, into Action Description type “Elevator”.
On the right side, next to Remap , click Add .
Inside the gray Remap box, change the lower dropdown to Slider (vJoy Axis 7).
Map the Rudder Stick to vJoy Axis 6
Move the rudder stick. The left side’s highlight jumps to ZRotation .
On the right side, into Action Description type “Rudder”.
On the right side, next to Remap, click Add .
Inside the gray Remap box, change the lower dropdown to ZRotation (vJoy Axis 6).
Map the Throttle Stick to vJoy Axis 5
Move the throttle stick. The left side’s highlight jumps to Slider .
On the right side, into Action Description type “Throttle”.
On the right side, next to Remap , click Add .
Inside the gray Remap box, change the lower dropdown to YRotation (vJoy Axis 5).
Save Your Work
From the menu, File->SaveProfileAs and give it a name, e.g. My-Hitec-Laser-4.xml .
After you have saved it once, you can File->SaveProfile at any time, of course.
Activate and Test
When the JG gamepad icon is green, the JG-viewer window should
show vJoy axes 5/6/7/8 reacting to your Hitec controls defined above.
Finally, your transmitter inputs mapped to vJoy should match the standard axes order
below which also shows the axis directions (via showing the result of
full stick, knob, and switch throws in the specific directions).
In this case with only 4 channels, you can ignore axis 1/2/3/4 below because those
will be controlled via your keyboard keys.
The mapping order, generally, was discussed here.
In this diagram, the “Axis 8” for vJoy is “8. Ailerons” for FS One, etc.
To achieve the proper directions of the JG sliders on left, the channel reversing switches were used
on the Hitec transmitter (switches in the batter compartment). Alternatively, for any axis that needs
reversed, you can add to the remapping (right-side in JG). Specifically, to the axis you want to reverse
in software:
Below the Remap box for a given axis, change the dropdown Remap to ResponseCurve . Click Add .
Within the Response Curve box, click on Invert to reverse the axis.
When you finish this guide, return back to the last part of Getting Started: Part I to continue your
setup and run FS One.
Click image to enlarge.
Standard axes order in FS One with sliders at full deflections for the controls indicated.
