Re: [Flightgear-devel] auto-coordination broken

[Stuart B. <stu...@ya...>]

Ron Jensen wrote:

> > > Are you sure you don't have some noisy input 
> > > device like a joystick or pedals connected that might affect the 
> > > rudder axis?
> > > If two input axes are bound to the same control the last write wins.
> > 
> > Thanks for the hint.  That helps.  It makes sense from 
> > a developers' point of view.
> > 
> > However ... we still have a bug from the users' point of 
> > view.  The documentation explicitly mentions the case 
> > where the user has a rudder input device but lacks the 
> > skill to "handle the proper ratio" ... and recommends
> > --enable-auto-coordination in this case.  
> > 
> > If users are required to have zero-noise ailerons and
> > zero-noise rudders, this is quite a serious restriction.  
> > This should be prominently mentioned in the documentation.  
> > Users will not be pleased.
> 
> 
> O.K.  I guess the documentation should say to remove your rudder pedals
> when auto-coordinating, or perhaps joysticks configs could pick up on it
> and not try to drive the rudder.  

I think all that is required is that we make clear that auto-coordination is 
designed to help people without any rudder control axis, and that a proper
rudder axis (or even a twist axis on a joystick) is preferable.

I'll do that in the documentation. 

However, to hijack the thread further ... ;)

There was some previous discussion about the fact that we have manual controls
and some autopilots all mapping to a single set of control properties
 (/controls/flight/[aileron|elevator|rudder]). This is realistic, but because of the limitations
of the simulator environment, this can cause them to "fight" for control - the 
classic example being someone moving their joystick while the autopilot is switched on.

I think if we every fix that, we should consider auto-coordination as another "channel" into
that control mixer.

-Stuart