Hi Rick,I posted this over at AvSim in response to a fellow who'd asked about using the Control Manager shift function with FS2K2 and thought I'd copy it over here in case you were still interested....
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You don't really need to combine the devices to use the shift function, you just need to create a map. The shift will act across all devices, combined or not, though I don't suppose it makes a lot of difference for a yoke/pedals comination. Using a combined device is generally only needed for sims that only recognize "Joystick #1", in Flight Sim it's really not necessary.
What creates a lot of confusion when trying to use the Control Manager with Flight Sim is the way that FS2K2 handles joysticks. There are certain devices that it "knows" by name. Those are included in the "Devices.cfg" file along with sets of default assignments for the buttons and axes on those controllers. The Devices.cfg file includes default settings for the CH Yokes and Pedals, so when you plug them in and run them in Direct Mode, the assignments get made automatically for rudder, toe brakes, etc. and things generally fall right into place.
For controllers not listed in Devices.cfg, FS will fall back to a set of generic assignments (also defined in Devices.cfg). The generic assignments cover 4 axes and 10 buttons and are applied to any device that's not specifically listed in Devices.cfg.
The problem comes when you create the map. If you go into Control Manager, "Add" the yoke and pedals to the map, then click the "Activate Map" button, the device names get redefined. Go to Game Controllers in that situation and you'll see that rather than having a "CH FlightSim Yoke USB" and "CH ProPedals USB", you've got "Control Manager Device 1" and "Control Manager Device 2". It's done because, in the general case, there is not any real relationship between the actual devices and the devices that the Control Manager creates for Game Controllers. If you had the yoke and pedals combined into a single 6-Axis/10-Button controller, calling it a CH Yoke or CH ProPedals wouldn't really make much sense.
When FS sees a "Control Manager Device", it falls back to the generic mapping for both devices. That means that it assigns ailerons to the X axis on both devices, elevators to the Y axis on both, etc. The yoke still pretty much works normally with the generic assignments, but you also end up with the toe brakes (X and Y on the pedals) controlling elevator and ailerons, the rudder action (Z axis) controlling the throttle, etc. It all seems a bit chaotic.
What you need to do is to manually make the assignments using Flight Sims Control Assignment options while the map is active. Try creating a map as above, i.e. just "Add" the Yoke and Pedals in the Control Manager, then click the "Activate Map" button. Next go into your Flight Sim folder and rename the FS2002.CFG file, FS will rebuild it the next time you run the sim and that will clear out any old assignment you might have made. You can always rename it back if you want to and get back to where you started.
With the map active, start Flight Sim and go to the Control Assignment page. You'll see the two Control Manager devices there and they'll both have the same assignments. Basically you want to clear the assignments from Control Manager Device 2, then make the assignments that you actually want to use. For the ProPedals USB, you need to assign the toe brakes to the X and Y axes and check the "Reversed" box. Have a look at the default assignments that FS is making without the map running to see how the pedals should be set up. You'll probably want to tweak the assignments for Control Manager Device 1, too, so you can get the prop and mixture controls working, etc. One of them will probably be assigned to "Rudders" by default.
Once that's done you should be able to do pretty much whatever you want to with the map. Shifts, characters, whatever. You do need to remember to activate the map before you start Flight Sim or FS will go back to the CH Yoke/CH ProPedals defaults. Some quick tests seem to indicate that this doesn't cause any problems with FS2K2, but earlier versions of FS used to wipe the .CFG file when that happened. It's mainly a problem after Windows restart since the CM will come up in Direct Mode initially. You need to start the CM and click the "Enable Mapping" button. There's no real need to reload and re-activate the FS map if that was the last one loaded. It's still there, it's just not turned on. There is a utility that can be installed in your StartUp folder that will kick the Control Manager back into mapped mode when Windows starts. I don't think CH has posted it yet, I can't find it on their site anywhere, but it should be up soon.
One other note that's caused some confusion. When you create a map, say you want a particular button to send a character or something, you have to add all the devices to the map. Not just the one you want to program. If a device isn't in the map, it won't show up in Game Controllers, either. It's a little counter-intuitive. "I want to have button one on the yoke send an "A", so I'll map the yoke". You need to add both the yoke and the pedals to the map or the pedals will disappear. It's done that way because the map is intended to define the whole control system. For example, if you had a yoke, pedals, a FighterStick, and a Pro Throttle, you'd probably want to use the yoke and pedals for FS, the stick, throttle, and pedals for perhaps CFS. Letting the map define the control system lets you create two maps and only have the devices that you want show up in Game Controllers. No need to unplug anything.
Also probably worth noting. The devices will get "Joystick IDs" in the order that they appear in the map (once the map is activated), no matter what ID they might have had without the Control Manager. The device on the left-most tab in the Control Manager will be "Control Manager Device 1" and will be seen as "Joystick #1", etc. If the sim is sensitive to Joystick ID and you're using multiple controllers, CFS1 and earlier versions of FS would fall into that category, then when you create the map you need to add the Stick/Yoke first to get it to be seen in the Joystick #1 slot, etc.
Anyway, maybe this will demystify some of the CMs apparent quirks. Hope it's of some help.
- Bob
The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com
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