New customer, some questions

[GregH]

I have just purchased FS Force to "re-activate my old Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick that has been sitting in the shed gathering dust. Came across this option after it was recommended over on AVSIM. I plan to use the joystick with the A2A T6 Texan and other stick controlled aircraft in Prepa3d v3.2.3. My questions before I proceed to install and setup:

1. I also use a non-force feedback CH products yoke, rudder pedals and throttle quadrant for those aircraft that have jokes such as PMDG NGX and Majestic Q400. Can I use my MSFF stick along with the rudder pedals and throttle quadrant, on stick controlled aircraft by just unplugging the yoke, plugging in the stick?

2. I guess I can disable the rudder twist axis on the stick if this is possible and use the pedals rather?

3. I presume there will be conflicts if I leave the yoke and stick plugged in together due to laziness ?

4. I understand that some settings are applied to all aircraft in the simulator for "trim" on installation of the program. Considering that I will not use the stick when flying (for example) the PMDG NGX, will there be any issues created in those aircraft where I will continue to use the yoke and not the stick? Alternatively, is it possible to know what these edits are (I presume .cfg files) so I can remove them from those aircraft otherwise. Some of my key presses are set using FSUIPC and would not want to mess with these.

5. What about the MSFF stick driver - do I plug the stick into a USB port and let Windows 10 (Pro x64) install it's own drivers first, before running the downloaded FS Force software?

Thanks in advance

[RussDirks]

1. Yes

2. You can if you want, but no need to ... as long as the controller you are NOT using doesn't get jostled accidentally, it will have no affect on the sim.

3. Probably ... see #2

4. Each aircraft's panel.cfg file is modified to install a special gauge. Do not use FSUIPC to program trim buttons. It conflicts with FS Force.

5. Windows will install appropriate drivers when you plug it in.

[GregH]

Thanks Russ,

I got everything installed and more or less set up correctly last night. Just one thing seems to be wrong' with my setup. In the control panel, under Options I think, there is a button to test the joystick. If I click this I get a message No Forcefeedback Joystick found (or something similar). However, it seems to work fine inside the simulator and I am getting force feedback. Am I maybe doing something wrong here?

[RussDirks]

Normally that would indicate a problem with your MSFF2, but if it works well in-game, I wouldn't worry about it. To be thorough, you might want to download my ForceTest program to test out all the FF functions.

[GregH]

Yes, thanks, I did run that test program and all the test forces appear to work perfectly.

Only thing I can think of is that when I initially installed the FS Force software, the joystick was plugged into a USB slot but the power plug to drive the forces was not plugged in.

Definitely seems to be working OK though, although I am not sure exactly what to expect.

Thanks!