Using Inputs vs Mixes
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 3:07 pm
I'm curious about whether I should be using the Inputs screen or the Mixes screen for most the rates, expo, curves work I'm doing.
Originally, I didn't use the Inputs screen for anything, leaving the defaults alone. On the Mixes screen, in addition to mapping inputs to channels, I put all of the modifier lines ("use Weight 70% and Expo 15% when SA-") as well. Basically, Mixes was everything. At some point I either read or saw something that gave me the idea that I should be doing all of those modifier lines in Inputs and use Mixes only for mapping inputs to channels and actually mixing between channels (i.e give a little down elevator output as throttle input increases). This made more sense to me, so I've been re-working my models that way. I've been thinking about it like this:
- The Inputs screen is for transforming a physical input (like "Thr" is the Throttle stick position) into a virtual input value, like IThr. In the "Thr" example case, throttle curves or throttle hold are all done with modifier lines in the Inputs screen.
- The Mixes screen maps virtual inputs to actual output channels (e.g. IThr -> Ch 1). Also, if a single virtual input should affect multiple channels (a little IThr gets mixed into Ch 3 too), that is done in Mixes.
But, I thought I would ask here what the experts thought. What is the intent for each of these two screens? Are there things I can do in one but not the other? Is there an advantage to setting things up one way or the other?
Originally, I didn't use the Inputs screen for anything, leaving the defaults alone. On the Mixes screen, in addition to mapping inputs to channels, I put all of the modifier lines ("use Weight 70% and Expo 15% when SA-") as well. Basically, Mixes was everything. At some point I either read or saw something that gave me the idea that I should be doing all of those modifier lines in Inputs and use Mixes only for mapping inputs to channels and actually mixing between channels (i.e give a little down elevator output as throttle input increases). This made more sense to me, so I've been re-working my models that way. I've been thinking about it like this:
- The Inputs screen is for transforming a physical input (like "Thr" is the Throttle stick position) into a virtual input value, like IThr. In the "Thr" example case, throttle curves or throttle hold are all done with modifier lines in the Inputs screen.
- The Mixes screen maps virtual inputs to actual output channels (e.g. IThr -> Ch 1). Also, if a single virtual input should affect multiple channels (a little IThr gets mixed into Ch 3 too), that is done in Mixes.
But, I thought I would ask here what the experts thought. What is the intent for each of these two screens? Are there things I can do in one but not the other? Is there an advantage to setting things up one way or the other?