Controls: bindings and simulator profiles

After you route a device, the simulator sees a new controller and asks for its bindings once. In MSFS 2024, the binding sheet lists every input with the name MSFS shows for it and a suggested assignment. In X-Plane 12, FFB-Bridge can write pedal assignments for you, and a copy workflow carries existing assignments over to the FFB-Bridge device. Routing itself is described in Controls: routing and pedals.

Bind once

A binding tells the simulator what an input does. When a device is routed, the simulator reads a virtual FFB-Bridge device, such as FFB-Bridge Pro Yoke, FFB-Bridge Pro Joystick or FFB-Bridge Pro Rudder. Bindings made for the physical device stop applying while it is routed.

Bind the FFB-Bridge device in the simulator. Axes, buttons and hats keep the numbers they had on the physical device.
The binding belongs to the virtual device. If you later swap the physical yoke or stick for another one, the simulator still sees the same FFB-Bridge device and needs no rebinding.
If you turned on Show all routed devices to the simulator as one device, the simulator sees FFB-Bridge Pro Combined instead. Bind that device.

MSFS 2024: the binding sheet

MSFS has no way to import a profile, so the Bind step of the route guide is a sheet that shows what to bind. Open it from the route guide, or click Binding sheet on the route card of the Controls page. The pedal guide has a sheet of its own with three rows: rudder, left brake and right brake.

Figure 1. The binding sheet for an AY210 with an MFY handle, with one control held and lit.

In MSFS 2024, open Settings → Controls and pick the FFB-Bridge device named at the top of the sheet.
Click a slot in MSFS, press the input and click Validate.
For axes, set sensitivity to 0 % and dead zone to 0 %. Leave Reverse axis off, because FFB-Bridge sends the direction MSFS expects.

Read the sheet

The sheet has two parts.

Bind these first lists the inputs that make a working cockpit. It shows the count, for example “8 inputs · a working cockpit”. Each row has the sheet's number, the input on your device, MSFS calls it and Bind to. The numbers are FFB-Bridge's own and do not match MSFS's numbering.
Everything else opens a list of the remaining inputs, for when you need them.

Where FFB-Bridge has a picture of the device, the sheet shows it with the same numbers on its controls. Move a control and its number, its badge on the picture and its row light up. This lets you find a control without counting buttons.

A switch shows its current state. Off leaves its lamp unlit, and On lights it.
A grouped control shows the member that is active. A mini-stick shows its direction as an arrow inside the badge.
The AY210 FLAPS switch is momentary. It reports up, centre and down. The sheet suggests Decrease flaps for one direction and Increase flaps for the other, one step each, and leaves the centre position unbound.

MSFS names and actions stay in English whatever language the app uses. The buttons at the bottom of the sheet are Close, Copy as text, which puts the whole sheet on the clipboard, Show on your phone and Done, check in the game.

Which devices have a picture

FFB-Bridge has sourced input maps for the MOZA AY210 with the MFY handle, the MOZA AY90, the MOZA MH16, MHG and MA3X grips, the SideWinder Force Feedback 2, the Honeycomb Bravo and the Brunner FFB-G Rudder pedals. For any other device, the sheet says that FFB-Bridge has no picture of it and lists every input in a table by its number, for example Joystick Button 1.

If you use SPAD.neXt or Axis and Ohs, choose the FFB-Bridge device there and bind as you always do. Every axis, button and hat keeps the number it had on the physical device.

Check step

Click Done, check in the game to go to the Check step.

Move the yoke or stick. Pitch and roll show MSFS reads it once FFB-Bridge sees MSFS's control positions follow your input. Their tick boxes, Pitch moves the elevator and Roll moves the ailerons, tick by themselves.
Press the buttons you bound. Under Buttons you bound, a lamp lights when an active input reaches the FFB-Bridge device. FFB-Bridge cannot tell whether the action is the one you meant. Look in the cockpit, then tick The buttons do what I bound.
Click Finish when all three boxes are ticked. Back to the sheet returns to the sheet.

The measured check needs fresh simulator data. It does not run when the aircraft owns its control input. In that case the tick boxes are yours to tick.

The Check step only reads. Nothing is changed or sent.

X-Plane 12

X-Plane lists the FFB-Bridge device as a new controller and gives it default pitch and roll assignments.

Keep routing on and start X-Plane.
In X-Plane, open Settings → Joystick and select the FFB-Bridge device, for example FFB-Bridge Pro Yoke.
New controllers receive default pitch and roll assignments. Review the axes and assign the buttons.

For rudder pedals, click Write X-Plane assignments in the pedal guide, after the pedals are routed. FFB-Bridge writes the three axis assignments into a new X-Plane profile. X-Plane must be closed for the write. If X-Plane has not listed the virtual controller yet, keep routing, start X-Plane once, close it and write again. If you assign the pedals in X-Plane yourself, calibrate full left, full right and centre. The pedal guide is described in Controls: routing and pedals.

The route guide's X-Plane Bind step also offers Copy my X-Plane assignments, which opens the copy workflow below.

The binding sheet on your phone

You can keep the sheet beside you while you sit at the controls. On MSFS 2024, with a device routed, Cockpit Web shows a Binding sheet panel on the Fly tab with an Open the binding sheet button. It shows the same sheet for each routed device, pedals included, and lights the input you operate.

Figure 4. The binding sheet on a phone for an AB9 with the MH16 grip: the device name and the picture with numbered controls, and the held control, number 3, lit.

In the desktop guide, Show on your phone opens the Cockpit page, where the pairing code is. If you have not paired a browser yet, follow Cockpit Web. Without a routed device, or with X-Plane 12 selected, the phone says so and tells you what to do.

Copy simulator assignments

If you already bound a device in MSFS 2024 or X-Plane 12, you can copy those assignments to the FFB-Bridge device instead of binding again. Click Copy simulator assignments on the route card. The button appears while the device is routed. If the FFB-Bridge device already has the assignments you want, click Use existing Bridge assignments at the top of the workflow instead.

Your original profiles stay unchanged. FFB-Bridge keeps backups.
The simulator must be closed and your forces disarmed before the copy is made.
The copy keeps its assignments after you restart the simulator.

The workflow has four steps.

Source profile. Choose the Original profile and, if the file holds several controllers, the Controller in this profile whose assignments you want. The step shows how many saved assignments the controller has. To search again or pick a file yourself, open Files and search and click Find profiles or Choose profile file…. Click Continue to Bridge destination.
Bridge destination. The simulator creates a profile for the FFB-Bridge device the first time it sees it. Choose that Simulator-created Bridge profile and the Bridge controller. If none is listed, click Find destination profiles. Click Continue to review.
Review. Check the source, destination and options, then click Review the copy. The step names the New profile name and lists what will change; Copy details shows the files involved. On X-Plane you also choose the Aircraft. On MSFS you can tick Also copy the other category, and click Choose MSFS Community folder if FFB-Bridge did not find it. Back returns to the previous step.
Copy. Click Create the copy. The finished page says Controls copied, or Select your copied profiles if the simulator needs you to select them. Restore original controls undoes the copy. Copy another profile starts again.

Figure 5. The copy workflow at the Source profile step, with the profile and controller chosen.

Figure 6. The Review step before the copy is created.

Before you copy in X-Plane

X-Plane writes a profile for the FFB-Bridge device only after it has seen the device. Start X-Plane once with routing on, then quit X-Plane. After that the destination can be found and the copy can be written. If X-Plane is open when you try to copy, the guide says Close X-Plane to write the copy. Routing keeps running.

Before you copy in MSFS 2024

The copy needs a readable local MSFS profile file for the source. If your profiles are only in MSFS cloud storage, use the binding sheet instead. For the destination, open MSFS with routing on and save a profile for the FFB-Bridge device, then close MSFS and search again. After the copy, restart MSFS and select the copied profiles in its controls settings. Aircraft-specific assignments are not installed automatically.

App assignments are separate

Simulator bindings, described on this page, tell the simulator what each input does. App assignments tell FFB-Bridge what an input does, for example Beep trim, pitch and roll, Force trim on/off or Push to talk, Voice Control. App assignments are made on the Controls tab of the MOZA Base page, which is titled FFB-Bridge app assignments and has an Open Controls button for simulator bindings. An input with no app function stays free for the simulator.

Problems

Problem	What to do
The simulator does not list the FFB-Bridge device	Check that the status card on the Controls page shows the Routed pill. On MSFS 2024, open the controls settings again. On X-Plane, start the simulator after routing has started.
An axis moves the wrong control	Compare the axis with its row on the sheet and bind the one the sheet names. For pitch and roll, run the Check step. Leave Reverse axis off in MSFS.
Buttons are shifted after you changed routing	A different routing layout can give the virtual device a different report. Open the sheet again. If the layout changed, the page asks you to bind again.
The sheet has no picture	FFB-Bridge has no map for that device. Use the table: it lists every input by its number.
A control does not light on the sheet	Check that the device is routed and the simulator is selected. Hold the control for a moment. If it still does not light, run Check in Your devices to see whether the input reaches the device.
The copy is refused	Read the message in the step. Close the simulator, disarm, and make sure the destination profile and controller are chosen. In X-Plane, the FFB-Bridge device must have been seen by X-Plane once.
X-Plane is open and the write is refused	Quit X-Plane. Routing keeps running. Click the button again.
The copy is not in the simulator	Restart the simulator and select the copied profile. In MSFS 2024, the finished page says Select your copied profiles. Restore original controls puts your original files back.
The phone cannot open the binding sheet	The sheet is available for MSFS 2024 with a routed device. Choose MSFS 2024 on the Controls page and start routing. Then open the sheet again.