JonathanC

Update : new beta build out that hopefully fixes that crash issue. Get it at https://ffb-bridge.com

For those who had crashes - try a different USB port. Try plugging directly into your motherboard, try different ports. A user reported success with a simple replug into a new port - the crash went away and it all works great

Very close to launch! Just trying to track down an annoying crash that is affecting ~5% of users on windows. Once that's fixed, v1.0 should formally launch. But it's pretty much at a 1.0 state for the majority of people, so go ahead and try it out. Even if you don't have the stick, I would very much appreciate feedback on the total user experience, from the website to the email to the download to the actual app. And of course, it is, and will remain, totally free. My website is built with a very strong emphasis on privacy. Basically, I built the app, website, and support experience that I would like. I'm glad I have been able to contribute in a positive way to the flight sim community. I've had a lot of fun with this project, and have many ideas for new products with the same level of polish, ease of use, great documentation... and generally, that feeling of quality. And first class Linux + Windows + MacOs support. That's the goal for any new app I create 🙂 I got a lot of feedback from many of you, and that was very very encouraging. Thank you all! https://ffb-bridge.com

Yeah I have never flown helos in the sim so have zero clue on what's right or wrong here, or even how to set it up for a helicopter! Happy to tweak stuff if you know how to do it.. if you can tune a profile that is mostly ok on a helicopter and send it to me, i can investigate

FFB-Bridge 1.0.0-beta.6 is out. Quick update with one new physics effect, a much faster way to get your stick polarity right on first install, and it's much easier now to do tuning as per-slider and per-section reset to defaults has been added. New: Stick drop Real GA aircraft have a forward-pulling bias when the elevator is unloaded — gravity + cable rigging pull the surface down, which pulls the yoke forward. You feel a steady forward pull while parked or taxiing, and it fades out once airflow loads the elevator. Now modelled. Find it at Tuning → StickFeel → Stick drop. Defaults to a Cessna-class feel (Force 0.25, fades by 30 kts) — the stick will rest roughly halfway forward against the default spring. For jet/heavy profiles, drop the Force toward 0 to silence it. (Thanks to IceManDBB for the report that started this.) New: Live polarity test on Doctor There's a new Hardware compatibility card at the top of the Doctor page. Click Start, drag the puck around an X-Y pad, the stick follows in real time. Click Stop, answer "Did the stick follow the puck?" — Yes (no change) or No (auto-invert). Done in 30 seconds. Quality of life Per-slider and per-section reset arrows on the Tuning page. Click the arrow next to any slider to revert just that one. Click the arrow on a section header (Forces, StickFeel, Engine, etc.) to reset the whole group. A new Discard button on the Profile card reverts everything back to the loaded profile. Mouse wheel on sliders only captures when the slider has focus. Hovering and scrolling no longer hijacks the page scroll on the Tuning page.

FFB-Bridge 1.0.0-beta.6 is out. Quick update with one new physics effect, a much faster way to get your stick polarity right on first install, and it's much easier now to do tuning as per-slider and per-section reset to defaults has been added. New: Stick drop Real GA aircraft have a forward-pulling bias when the elevator is unloaded — gravity + cable rigging pull the surface down, which pulls the yoke forward. You feel a steady forward pull while parked or taxiing, and it fades out once airflow loads the elevator. Now modelled. Find it at Tuning → StickFeel → Stick drop. Defaults to a Cessna-class feel (Force 0.25, fades by 30 kts) — the stick will rest roughly halfway forward against the default spring. For jet/heavy profiles, drop the Force toward 0 to silence it. (Thanks to IceManDBB for the report that started this.) New: Live polarity test on Doctor There's a new Hardware compatibility card at the top of the Doctor page. Click Start, drag the puck around an X-Y pad, the stick follows in real time. Click Stop, answer "Did the stick follow the puck?" — Yes (no change) or No (auto-invert). Done in 30 seconds. Quality of life Per-slider and per-section reset arrows on the Tuning page. Click the arrow next to any slider to revert just that one. Click the arrow on a section header (Forces, StickFeel, Engine, etc.) to reset the whole group. A new Discard button on the Profile card reverts everything back to the loaded profile. Mouse wheel on sliders only captures when the slider has focus. Hovering and scrolling no longer hijacks the page scroll on the Tuning page.

And we’re not done yet. Various improvements dropping soon.

I actually have the mk1 one too, along with a custom PIC usb->gameport adapter. Might be fun to try and get this working through that.. that's a project

Great to hear. So the new interface changes do make it more intuitive, right? It was way too complicated before. once you’ve used it a bit, feel free to email me with ideas and suggestions. I really want to add other FFB sticks to this. Does anyone here have any thoughts on which one to add next?

New build out! Changes to make it a lot easier to tune, change profiles, and so on. You should have an email, or else https://ffb-bridge.com/ The interface got quite the redesign. Would love some feedback @spilok @DD_Arthur and anyone else that's using this.

Thanks for the kind words. Not done yet though, the interface is improving to make it easier for new users. There are a LOT of options and it can get confusing. new build later today.

Working on this now. It's a UI-issue. It's not clear what to do.. the code path is clean, but the interface is confusing. Working on a new build with a different flow. i'll email you when it's ready for testing in a bit

For tuning, have you seen this -> https://ffb-bridge.com/docs/tuning-guide

Hey thanks! Yeah, I had the same reaction when this thing finally came to life after so MANY years. All the other things I've tried (and I have purchased and tried every one - xpforce, fsforce, don't even remember the others) just never worked well and I would eventually give up and dump it. Now that the early bugs are taken care of, I have ideas for next steps! BTW, can you do me a favour? Could you kindly try saving a new profile and see if that works? I'm getting conflicting reports from some users.

https://ffb-bridge.com/docs/install Covers most common installation gotchas now.

Thanks, let me look into this. Appreciate the tip. And thanks for the feedback about SAC. I have added this to the docs now, should be live there in a bit

Yeah, that's MS doing its thing. They want me to pay $200-700 (per year) for a code signing certificate.. which is kinda not what I'm going to do right now for a free niche beta thing that's a hobby for me! You just need to tell your Windows install that you want to run this app. Microsoft's official guidance on disabling SAC around an unsigned install: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/smart-app-control-frequently-asked-questions-285ea03d-fa88-4d56-882e-6698afdb7003 The FAQ (see "When should I disable Smart App Control?") is about this scenario ( installers without digital signatures) and tells you how to toggle it off via Settings → Privacy & security → Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control settings. After installing FFB-Bridge, you can turn SAC back on if you like. FFB-Bridge app itself will keep running normally; SAC only checks at launch for apps it hasn't seen before. Let me know if that worked

Posting Stan's questions here as this is useful to others as well From Stan (PII and other stuff removed) My FF2 joystick keeps consistently vibrating after liftoff and during cruise. It gets more pronounced with throttle increases. What specific parameter would you adjust to lessen that force? I love the touchdown force, and the take off force is good, but would love for it to be more pronounced at it hits each tarstrip rather than one continuous vibration. I <snip> would like to feel the stick feeling a THUMP when it encountered a turbulent jolt. How? --- Answers below Quick tuning guidance for each of the three things you mentioned. All of these live on the Tuning page with per-effect gain sliders (they save to your profile, and you can reset any slider back to default if you overshoot): 1. Cruise vibration that grows with throttle. That's the Engine rumble effect, which is a continuous low-frequency thrum scaled by engine RPM percentage. Default gain is 0.3; drop it to 0.1–0.15 and the cruise hum quiets right down. Set it to 0 if you'd rather not feel the engine at all. 2. Takeoff roll. Ok, you want per-strip thumps, not a continuous buzz. Two sliders to balance: Runway rumble is the continuous surface vibration — lower this (default 0.35 → try 0.15). Gear bumps is the per-joint hits scaled by ground speed — raise this (default 0.25 → try 0.5). With that mix, the rollout feels like you're clipping each expansion strip rather than one sustained buzz. Same balance works on landing rollout. 3. The turbulence thump. Good news! It's already in there (well, it should be anyway, need you to test it out). It's driven off the rolling standard deviation of G-force over about a one-second window. Smooth air ≈ 0; light chop ≈ 0.05; moderate ≈ 0.15; severe ≈ 0.30+. If you're flying with real weather (Active Sky, MSFS built-in live, etc.) and not feeling it, the usual cause is the default gain is sitting under the other effects. Try raising Turbulence from 0.4 to 0.6–0.7. It's technically a continuous amplitude modulation rather than a discrete thump, but with real-wx the amplitude swings feel jolt-like through the stick. ---

Many thanks! I just replied to your email with details on what to try. Let me know how it goes 🙂

No worries, thanks for testing it for me!

Hotfix done. You can download from the website as normal, you should get - ffb-bridge-setup-1.0.0-beta.2-x64.exe https://ffb-bridge.com Existing subscribers will get an email in a little while telling them about the new version.

The fix is in. You can redownload it from the webpage if you want it now - you should get ffb-bridge-setup-1.0.0-beta.2-x64.exe I am just setting up the email send so you should get an email about this soon and won't need to check the website after that - every new update will auto email everyone with the news.

Yes, I have identified the issue and am fixing it right now. Don't bother testing with the version you have, I'll email you the new version soon (this is why I asked for emails 🙂 ). it's a simple fix (hopefully), the app is just looking in the wrong place for Simconnect.xml for Store installs.

Root cause identified. Should have a hotfix out in a few hours

MSFS 2024 is the Windows Store install, correct? There's a bug where it works with the Steam version but not with Windows store (looking for the wrong file). I'll install from the Store and trouble shoot. Is the stick working with the Mock page? Do you see it move when you go to the mock page, switch to Mock (UI-Driven), and then arm the stick and move the sliders and click the test buttons?