I thought I'd snap a picture of my X-keys Pro keypad to share with everyone as I get closer to completion.



My goal was to have just about everything I need on this keypad, on the HOTAS, or easily clicked in the cockpit.

I've still got 3 empty keys that I'm sure I'll fill up. The labels that are there now are simply .58" x .5" paper sandwiched between the key and it's clear cap. Once I've got the final layout I'm probably going to replace the paper with a laser printer transparency. I've got the whole layout in a MS Word table with the necessary extra cells to facilitate easy cutting in my paper cutter.

The top 18 keys are used for views, coms, and the top row of ICP buttons. The left hand chunk of keys are from the left side of the cockpit. The Master Caution is actually 2 keys and I've taken the opportunity to use that "hidden" key as a layer shift key. That's allowed me to place all of the TS keybinds into the top row of keys for on the fly channel selection. The center chunk of keys are the ICP keypad and the switches underneath. The right side keys are miscelaneous cockpit keys that I might need rapid access to. In particular I've placed the pitch override switch and ejection switches on the lower row for quick access.

It was fairly easy to program and only required me to modify one macro for separate key down and release macros. The first time I tried to punch out all I got was the "clunk" you hear when you grab the handle. After splitting the key down and key up events the desired behavior was obtained.

The other thing I noticed last night is that when using keystroke based programmed controllers in combinations or with voice commands you can sometimes end up with undesired behavior if you're doing several things simultaneously. Case in point I was flying formation with PolishBoogieman last night and using the autopilot to maintain altitude. Periodically I would have to disconnect the AP using the pinky switch (Ctrl-3) and climb up to his altitude again. If I did anything that used a shift key I suddenly found myself in the Flight 3 channel on TS. The good thing is it looks like I can fix that by using different Ctrl and Shift keys with TS than F4.