[simpits-tech] Interesting keyboard/mouse/joystick emulation software.....

[Matt Bailey]

I'm sure the more advanced builders have all simulator hardware/software
inputs worked out and wouldn't have any use for this ;) but for fellow
amateurs such as myself, it looks handy. :)

I was trying to find a generic equivalent to the input mapping software
that often comes with joysticks but only works for that particular
joystick.......ran across this package:

http://www.autohotkey.com

It's a whole scripting language, actually, and looks very powerful
indeed. It's obviously not really designed with simulator inputs in
mind, but looks like it would be up to the task. My main mission here
was to find something that would allow me to use toggle switches on
keyboard and/or joystick inputs. This thing handles both, but getting to
joystick buttons isn't quite as straightforward. I was quickly able to
set things up so that when one key is pressed, it outputs another key
but does not repeat.........just what is needed for using toggle
switches. The main issue with this, of course, is that the physical key
remains depressed, potentially locking out certain keys. The obvious
work-around is to use joystick buttons instead, which I've yet to
seriously look into (I just downloaded the thing minutes ago).

Another neat thing about it (for me), is I could have this thing running
on a separate machine with Python, so I could have "absolute" commands
instead of trying to keep switches and stuff "sync'ed" with what the sim
software is doing........for instance, I could run an on/off toggle to a
physical key input (aka hacked junk keyboard) and then through
Autohotkey I could have this trigger one key and then "enter" (enter
would be for sending the command to Python) when the de-ice toggle is
put in the "on" position, and my Python app would check to see if de-ice
is on in the sim.......if not, it would set it "on", otherwise it would
do nothing. Then a different physical keyboard input would be hooked to
the switch's "off" position, which, when selected, would run though a
similar process to ensure the de-ice is off.

Why am I not using KeyBoard Studio? Well, it doesn't appear to actually
emulate keystrokes under Win9x (although all the software looks to be
functioning ok), and Leo reported that the On press/release stuff didn't
seem to be working in my sim of choice (X-Plane) anyway (although if
everything else worked it would probably suit my current needs). Plus
AutoHotkey does keyboard mappings.

For WinXP/2k users, there's also some interesting mouse stuff........it
looks like you can specify XY coords for mouselicks (might be handy for
some of those not-so-home-cockpit-builder-friendly sim titles).

Anyway, this thing has a whole lot more potential beyond making toggle
switches work. :)

	-Matt Bailey