MobiFlight Basic Concepts and Functionality

Preconditions, Config References, Compare, Transform, FSUIPC, MobiFlight Variables, Inputs, Outputs, Output generated Input events! Aargh!

Just getting started with MobiFlight? Great! All the excitement, and the possiblities are very cool. But it can also feel overwhelming when you do not yet know the basic concepts and functionality of MobiFlight, and what is useful for what. This page tries to correct that. Hopefully, after reading this, you will have a pretty good idea of all the different concepts and how each of them can be used to make your ideas work.

Basic Architecture

MobiFlight consists of two parts: First, there is one or more Arduino micro controller boards connected to your computer via USB, and various switches, potentiometers, encoders and displays are connected to the Arduino pins. The Arduino runs MobiFlight firmware and has a pin configuration in its storage memory that determines what devices are connected to each pin.

In this case our button is wired to pin number 13. Every time you press the button, the Arduino sends a message to your computer that button 13 was pressed, and then released.

MobiFlight Connector software that runs, usually next to the simulator program in your Windows PC. It communicates with the Arduino, sending and receiving data. Connector also connects to your flight simulator, and lets you connect button presses and other input events to the flight simulator functions.

Inputs

Outputs