DATA - Input to Data Output

DATA Request

X-Plane Settings “Data Output” screen lists a hundred or so data sets which can be output to the Cockpit, saved to file, or sent via UDP. The DSEL/USEL - Stream Data Output command allows you to effectively request one (or more) of these data sets sent to the configured port. The response to DSEL is DATA. (You should be familiar with the DSEL command before trying to use this DATA command.)

The DATA command can also be sent to X-Plane.

Send

The command looks just like the DATA response to DSEL. It consists of the index, followed by eight data values (all floats):

msg = struct.pack('<4sxfffffffff'.format(b'DATA', index,
                                         col0, col1, col2, col3,
                                         col4, col5, col6, col7)

The index is a float, but represents the (integer) index of the “data output” you want to change. For example, index #8 is for “Joystick aileron/elevator/rudder”. Select that item in settings, and you’ll see the following on the screen.

The DATA command sent might look like:

msg = struct.pack('<4sxfffffffff'.format(b'DATA', float(8),
                                         -.1115, 0.0, -999.0, -999.0
                                         -999.0, -999.0, -999.0, -999.0)

Which would (attempt to) set the elevator to -.1115, and the aileron to 0.0. The -999.0 values indicate no input (that is, don’t attempt to change the X-Plane value). You can stream these UDP commands to drive X-Plane using external devices.

While there is no direct response to this command, if you have set DSEL you will receive the DATA response (whereever you have set up the DSEL response.

Note that many values on the Data Output page cannot be set directly, as they’re derived from internal data. Attempts to set them will result in a no-op. You cannot, for example, set the GPU busy time (gpu) to 0.00001 or frame rate (f-act) to 120.0. If only…