USERGUIDE.md

User Guide for Flight Tracker Stream Deck Plugin

Installation

1. Download latest version from https://github.com/nguyenquyhy/Flight-Tracker-StreamDeck/releases
2. Double click the file tech.flighttracker.streamdeck.streamDeckPlugin to install
   • If you manually created the folder tech.flighttracker.streamdeck.sdPlugin previously in %appdata%\Elgato\StreamDeck\Plugins, there will be an error saying "This custom action is already installed." although you won't see it in More Actions list. In this case you will need to manually remove that folder before trying again.
3. Accept the prompt to install the plugin and the profiles. The profile is a special numpad, allowing you to enter COM/NAV frequency.
4. You should now see Flight Tracker group in your list of buttons.

Usage

Notes

At the moment, there are 2 groups of buttons:

Group	Pro	Con
Generic	Potentially work with any SimConnect variables of the correct type	Need to look up the variable's and event's name
Preset	Specifically designed for certain variables, so setting up is just drag-and-drop and select its function Has special functionality such as holding COM/NAV button to open numpad	Require development effort to add more buttons with similar functionality

We will maintain and improve both groups to facilitate the widest audience with different levels of experience in flight simming.

Buttons

Generic Toggle Button

This is the most powerful button in the plugin. It can trigger a SimConnect event, or show a SimConnect variable or both at the same time.

However, with great power comes great responsibility: you have to do a bit of setting up for the parameters.

Parameter	Description	Example
Title	This is the built-in title of any Stream Deck button. We hide this by default. You should consider using the next parameter instead.	Empty
Header	This is similar to title but with a pre-defined font, size and position that looks nice on the button.	HDG
Toggle event	The SimConnect event that triggers when the button is tapped on. You can find the supporting event ID in FlightStreamDeck.Core/TOGGLE_EVENT.cs. Explanation of each ID can be found in Legacy Event IDs.	AP_PANEL_HEADING_HOLD
Toggle parameter	The parameter to pass along with the event. This can be a number or a SimConnect variable. If using a variable, the value of the variable will be passed to the event.	1 PLANE HEADING DEGREES MAGNETIC
Hold event & parameter	Similar to Toggle event & parameter, but will trigger when you hold the button.
Feedback value	The SimConnect variable that indicates if the button is active or not. Active state will show a green light or a green number (if Display value below is set) on the button. You can find the supporting variables in FlightStreamDeck.Core/TOGGLE_VALUE.cs. Explanation for each variable can be found in Aircraft Simulation Variables. You can also use some comparison operators such as "==", "!=", ">", "<", ">=", "<=" between a variable and a value or between 2 variables.	AUTOPILOT HEADING LOCK FLAPS HANDLE INDEX==2
Display value	The SimConnect variable (any numeric unit) to display as a number below the header. You can find the supporting variables in FlightStreamDeckCore/TOGGLE_VALUE.cs. Explanation for each variable can be found in Aircraft Simulation Variables.	AUTOPILOT HEADING LOCK DIR

This button allows you to choose custom button images for active and inactive states. Please check out Custom images section below for more details.

Example generic toggle button that displays the current value of the autopilot heading bug, and syncs the heading bug with the aircraft's current heading when pushed:

Parameter	Value
Title	Empty
Header	HDG
Toggle event	HEADING_BUG_SET
Toggle parameter	PLANE HEADING DEGREES MAGNETIC
Feedback value	Empty
Display value	AUTOPILOT HEADING LOCK DIR

Preset Toggle Button

This button toggles some preset functions without much setting up.

Function Parameter	Display	Tap	Hold
Avionics Master	Avionics Master status	Toggle Avionics Master
AP Master	AP Master status	Toggle AP Master
AP Heading	AP Heading status & value	Toggle AP Heading	Sync current heading
AP Nav	AP Nav status	Toggle AP Nav
AP Altitude	AP Altitude status	Toggle AP Altitude
AP V/S	AP V/S status	Toggle AP V/S
AP Approach	AP Approach status	Toggle AP Approach

This button allows you to choose custom button images for active and inactive states. The image should be of size 72x72 pixel (or 144x144 for higher res decks) and should be in PNG format.

Preset Increase/Decrease Button

This button allows you to increase/decrease certain values in the sim.

Function Parameter	Tap	Hold
AP Heading	Increase/Decrease by 1	Increase/Decrease by 10
AP Altitude	Increase/Decrease by 100	Increase/Decrease by 1000
AP V/S	Increase/Decrease by 100	Increase/Decrease by 100

NAV & COM

This button shows active & standby frequency, allows you to swap standby frequency and enter the frequency with a numpad.

Interactions:

• Tap: Swap frequencies
• Hold: Show numpad to enter frequency.
  • This switches your Stream Deck to a Numpad profile that is bundled with the plugin. If the profile is not installed yet, Stream Deck will ask you to install the profile when the plugin is installed or when you hold this button.
  • This does not work on the Stream Deck Mini due to the limited number of buttons.

Generic Gauge

This button is very similar to Generic Toggle Button except from it does not have an active state, hence no Feedback value parameter is needed.

There are 2 types of generic gauge at the moment: Simple and Custom. Simple allows you to display a value in an arc gauge while Custom allows you to display up to 2 values with customizable colors.

Common Parameters

• Minimum and Maximum indicate the range of the Display value. You can input a number or a SimConnect variable in those fields.

Notes for Simple Gauge

• Sub value shows a small number below the main display value. In my example for Indicated Altitude, the inches of MG displayed by adding KOHLSMAN_SETTING_HG to this setting.

Notes for Custom Gauge

• Having a Minimum greater than the Maximum value will flip the way the value resolves on the graph (see two trim gauges above).
• Setting Display absolute value to 'Yes' will display the value without a negative sign (e.g. right column trim gauges).
• The gauge may be cusom color coded, and knows basic colors from System.Drawing.Colors.
  • The default custom gauge that displays is color coded like the fuel gauge and has all the properties in it for a generic 2 tank aircraft.
• Chevron Size and Thickness allows you to further customize the display.
• If you do not input Header or Bottom Header, the respective value and chevron won't show up. If you want a blank chevron, simply put a blank space in header fields.

Custom Images

Custom active/inactive images should be of size 72x72 pixel (or 144x144 for Stream Deck XL) and should be in PNG format. There are 2 ways to use custom images in the plugins.

Embed	Link
The whole image is stored in the profile.	The path to the image is stored in the profile.
Profile export with custom images works on any PCs.	The importing PCs need to have the custom images in the same folder.
Needs to have the original image or to change back to Link mode to edit	Is easier to edit the image and immediately see the change
Profile is heavier and might reach some limitation of Stream Deck.	Profile is very light.

The plugin also allows you to switch between the 2 modes by clicking on the other mode and click OK on the prompt.

MobiFlight WASM Module Integration

MobiFlight has put some awesome work together to allow MSFS users to have access to some events that we haven't gotten in the SDK yet! One of the most requested things yet has been GPS/G1000/ETC integration with the streamdeck plugin, but the SDK has been lagging behind.

Well, the future is now! MobiFlight put together a video of how you install and setup his app. In order for us to use the events he exposes to interact with the simulator, we need to install his app, update the setting to install beta mode, and then copy the new module folder that gets downloaded to your MSFS community folder. We don't need his app installed or running after we get the wasm module copied into our community folder. It's just how they are distrubting it right now.

Go show MobiFlight some love over in their forum post. Tell them the folks from Flight-Tracker-StreamDeck <3 their work!

Here are the steps that you need to do to get access to the new events:

1. Have MSFS 2020 stopped.
2. Install MobiFlight - https://www.mobiflight.com/en/download.html
3. Run MobiFlight
4. In the Extras -> Settings menu, at the bottom, check "I would like to receive beta version updates"
5. Click "Help -> Check for update"
6. After update, navigate to the install location for MobiFlight on your machine.
7. There should now be a "MSFS2020-module" folder, open that folder.
8. Copy the "mobiflight-event-module" folder to your MSFS community folder.
9. Relaunch MSFS 2020
10. Configure Flight-Stream-Deck with newly supported events, courtesy of MobiFlight! They are like the normal SDK events, except the wasm module in the community folder interacts with the gauges/instruments directly when receiving them.

We've included a quick GNS 530 example for the knobs and basic buttons here

Known Issues

• If you spam the same buttons too quickly, SimConnect will get error and stop responding to any further command. The plugin will try to automatically reconnect.
  • However, if you see the message "Connected to Flight Simulator" flashing constantly in the sim, the plugin might be in a infinitely retry loop. In this case, close Stream Deck software on your PC (which will kill the plugin), wait a couple of seconds for all the SimConnect connections to close, and re-open Stream Deck.
• When you setup new generic buttons or COM/NAV button, the registration between the plugin and SimConnect might get messed up and the plugin stops receiving data. In this case, you'll need to restart Stream Deck software.