FAQ » This is a very big problem

I shouldn't be writing now because I am very upset. I've been using NEXT sim for at least 6 months now. I remember how hard it was to set up the transmitter but I got it to work. Today I wanted to make ONE small change and be able to make the landing gear on the Gaui R5 retract. It is now about 3 hours later and the pitch channel doesn't work anymore (got the landing gear to retract). I have tried everything 10 times. The way NEXT is programmed to make it easy to setup makes it very difficult. Unchecking boxes, moving switches, calibrating over and over and over with NO INSTRUCTIONS that are current to the current version and only incomplete old old small sample of instructions. The last time I figured out how to setup, same as this time, I have to dig and dig through posts on web sites like helifreak hoping to find some little shred of information that will help me to figure out why I can't just input THIS is my throttle channel and THIS is my pitch channel and so on. I see the last post on this forum is January?? I love flying this simulator. It's awesome, but the setup needs a LOT of debugging. Just let me setup the channels and functions myself the way I want them instead of sensing what changed and going, OH, there it is! I reset the TX setup and started over only to get the same result. And you better be sure you want to reset when you click the button cause there isn't any confirmation or explanation just BAM there ya go! I'm using Windows 10, rx2sim with spektrum sat and DX20. I'm limited to 8 channels but I can make that work. I don't know if I should go into some Windows joystick calibration function or not. I haven't because it's been working for 6 months and I don't want to mess anything else up because I don't have any INSTRUCTIONS. Thank me I left out the swear words. Do the best of my knowledge (a guess of course) I've done everything right numerous times but I still can't program the pitch channel to be the pitch channel. I would help you writing English instructions but I don't know how everything is supposed to be setup.

Well... after 6 hours I finally got the pitch channel to work. I think the "self leveling" box being checked on the "training" tab had something to do with it. It wasn't a problem before.

The one thing I notice now is always before when cutting the throttle to minimum after landing the helicopter blades would spin a really really long time. Now just the opposite; they stop almost immediately. If I turn the engine off using the space bar the blades spool down at a normal speed. I don't know how to fix that but obviously that is not nearly as important as being able to calibrate and program the pitch and throttle channel without instructions for the current version of the software. Nowhere in the instructions does it say you have to use throttle cut to disable the throttle channel while going through the calibration steps so the software can tell the difference between the pitch channel and the throttle channel.

Thank you very much for the response Klaus. First I want to thank you for how beautiful the NEXT simulator is. It is a joy to use! I just purchased a Gaui R5 because I enjoy flying it in the simulator. I also bought a Trex 700X partly because it looks and flies so good in NEXT! Just a great looking simulator that flies nice.

The problem I was having was mostly that I had checked the self-level box on the training tab. I thought I had to do that to enable the function to be available when activated. I didn't know that would turn it on permanently. That was the big problem.

The other problem is the detection of the throttle channel and assigning it to the pitch channel. I had forgotten that the throttle channel had to be disabled during calibration so the pitch channel of the transmitter would be assigned to the pitch channel in the simulator. That isn't mentioned in the instructions and I had to find, again, a post on helifeak that explains that. I used to use Phoenix simulator where channels were configured manually and I found that to be much easier.

The other thing is since I'm limited to 8 channels since I use a channel for rescue (self leveling activation) and now I use another channel for landing gear; I'm out of channels for other things like throttle hold. When the throttle channels is reduced to minimum value after landing the simulator stops the rotor blades immediately instead of a normal spin down. Obviously this is a small cosmetic item in the simulator. The other cosmetic thing I noticed is the model jumps a bit when starting up on the ground.

Thanks for your help, George