I fly and drive in VR only. I have built several button boxes, but eventually decided it would be much easier to use a single multi-mode device that’s easy to get my hands on while playing.

Features

  • a 7-way funky switch that appears as a 4-way POV HAT + push button + encoder
  • a dual encoder with push button, exposed as 5 buttons
  • USB-C

Inputs can be mapped in-game as normal HID device buttons.

Variants

Modeless

All the encoders, joystick and buttons are available for binding.

Multi-mode

This variant has 4 modes. The modes are selected with the lower funkyswitch joystick; pressing Up/Down/Left/Right will set the mode 1/2/3/4. In each mode the encoders and encoder push buttons will output different logical buttons. This provides 12 encoders and 8 buttons that can be mapped to whatever functions you wish.

For example you could have a mode with encoders mapped to heading, altitude, and barometer, a mode for speed management with encoders mapped to speed & vertical speed, and a mode where they are mapped to rudder, elevator & aileron trim.

Likewise in simracing, you could split the various engine/suspension adjustments (ABS, MAP, TCS, brake bias, brake migration etc) into groups and assign encoders to them.

As the joystick is used for mode select, it is not available for binding.

SPAD and Modeless

SPAD.next can implement modes in software, and it can use any button as mode change; so mapping a switch on your flightstick for works well. Switch modes with one hand and the adjust with the other. It’s very smooth.

One option is to cycle through different modes, e.g. altitude -> heading -> vertical speed -> barometer etc, and have it announce the mode using text to speech. This is great in VR. An example SPAD.next profile is included.

Setting this up is a little time consuming and requires patience with SPAD.next, so if you just want basic modes then the multi-mode variant is probably for you. If you want more flexibility and retain the joystick function, modeless is better.

Note: aside from SPAD.next, Joystick Gremlin can also accomplish multiple modes and speech, but I have little experience with Joystick Gremlin so can’t help with that so much.

I use the weapon select switch on my flight stick so I can switch modes rapidly. HOTAF: Hand On Throttle And Funky-coder :-)

Mounting options

B1

This can be flipped horizontally and vertically. For M3 socket head bolts.

The Funky-coder is available in my Etsy Shop