The Amazing DataRef Tool

[@manlatycon]

Thanks for taking the time to make this and reveal something about what lurks underneath the bonnet (hood) in X Plane.

[@mxcollin95]

Thanks Russ for another great video! I’m new to Xplane so your videos are helping me immensely.

[@tadeuprimo]

Starting now in the xPlane11 world, amazing tool to start with.

[@Boise777]

Please allow me to join the many others and thank YOU for taking the time to prepare and publish this video. Very, very helpful!

[@maartenvd84]

Thank you! Didn't know about that tool! Very interesting when planning a home cockpit build (or any other interface).

[@hesynergy]

Great stuff Russ...I forgot I had Both...but you really opened my eyes up with the “tool”. Thanks, Chas

[@ericsmith313]

thanks a lot for ALL the videos you have made. helped a lot pf people including myself im sure.

[@CapnJackBkup]

Hey Russ I am trying to understand exactly how to for instance program my taxi light key on the Honeycomb Alpha to the taxi light switch in the zibo 737. I can see the datarefs change on the two different datarefs when you hit the switch in the sim and on the Alpha taxi switch itself. But how to you get the dataref for the Alpha hardware switch to then actuate the actual line in the dataref for the taxi lights in the sim. No one I can find is actually showing how to do that. I would really appreciate some help here.

[@rbarlow]

You can only map x-commands ( both standard of custom) to joystick controls. With Dataref tool you can select to look only at commands and only those that change and then actuate the switch and see what pops up as executed.(color change). You cannot write values to a dataref from a joystick. You could create a custom switch panel using Arduino with either Air Manager or Mobiflight or SimVim. See if these hints help and if not check back and I will try to help.

[@razorhead7513]

Great Video. Thanks for the information.

[@Glasairman]

Hi I used this tool to find Toliss AirbusFBW Datarefs which are not published and are are not picked up by the Dataref Editor. All the Datarefs you show here are integers or floats and I have had no probs in setiing them from an external program. However many of the AirbusFBW datarefs visibie in the DataRef Tool just say 'activate'. Without knowning what activate means internally, it's hard to enter a program value that changes the Dataref state. Do you have any information perhaps?

[@FGCH03]

Can you assign custom datarefs to joystick i mean like a mouse macro in fsx??

[@escort349]

Does this tool make permanent changes? Whenever I change a value in the tool, the next time I start the sim all values are back to default! It's advertised as an editor, but changes are not saved. How can I save the changes?

[@dorex2007]

I'm finding that editing the search field using Xplane 12 often gives a CTD.

[@rbarlow]

Haven’t tried it with XP12

[@程洋-x8x]

I'm curious about how to write a plugin for external panel. It's easy to understand from this video, that if an external panel do something(click, move york), the plugin will modify corresponding datarefs. However how can the plugin receive information or deliver information to the external panel? Especially i saw some external panel which doesn't need to be connected to the computer at all

[@rbarlow]

程洋 if you know C++ you can get all information from X-Plane developers site including sample code for a plugin Look here. developer.x-plane.com/sdk/

[@程洋-x8x]

@@rbarlow Well i'm a developer right now. Though not xplane developer. But the key point is, i saw an external panel can control xplane, however in xplane joystick settings(i'm pretty sure it's a master xplane), there is no recongnised joystick at all. Did you see anything like this?

[@c.e.sherrod3183]

Thanks for the video Russ. I installed the Dataref Tool, but when I click on the Datarefs or the Commands they don't show up on my screen. Clicking on About Datarefs also shows nothing. But under Plugin Admin. It shows DataRefEditor as enabled. I have C++ 2015 x86 & x64. Also C++ 2017 x86 & x64. I've been talking with Lee Baker and he doesn't know what the problem is either. Do you have any suggestions?

[@yair1956]

..nice. But noticed that there are no insulation instruction in the file I downloaded ....found 2 files one Master and one _2018_06_06, what next ???

[@windlooper1]

Hello All, I need help installing Datareftool I have Dataref Editor installed but cannot gt tool to show up in plugins . HELP PLS

[@rbarlow]

leonard krieser Download the zipped plugin and unzip it. Place the entire folder into the XP plugins folder (it is inside the resources folder in the XP main folder. Download the file at github.com/leecbaker/datareftool/releases/download/2019.12.04/DataRefTool_2019_12_04.zip don’t take the folders out of the unzipped archive but place the entire unzipped folder into the plugins folder. After you install be sure it shows up in the plugins folder in XP.

[@IvanEng747]

Do you know, how send data in serial port from x-plane?

[@rbarlow]

This is for use with Arduino but may help github.com/dertin/ArdSerialXPlaneUDP

[@brentjohnson6654]

Thanks. This is good info as I am trying to figure out data refs

[@brandonparker7183]

Great for programming the Bravo !

[@rbarlow]

Yes and his PlaneCommand is a cool product too" I love it in VR

[@rteixeirapl]

Sir, did you had any success at mapping A320 by FF? Thank you!

[@rbarlow]

No. I don’t have the FF A320

[@adrianwilliams763]

Awesome video. Appreciate that

[@simhoper8953]

Dear Russ this is amazing! Can it be used with custom models like paid models? Thank you

[@rbarlow]

Yes and the latest version defaults to emulate Dararef Editor so custom datatefs are visible in DAta Ref Tool

[@simhoper8953]

@@rbarlow That is wonderful. I am trying to build a Baas 340A sim. Will be creating some gauges for the 2D panel. This will be awesome. Thank you for your video and feedback!

[@simhoper8953]

@@rbarlow Thank you!

[@Plydrms]

nice! Is it better than .Lua script editor? If you modify a data ref in game is it permanent next time you start the game, or does does everything go back to default?..thanks

[@rbarlow]

Plydrms DatarefTool Is different than Lua script editor. This is just a way to see what is happening in X-Plane. You can make test value inputs and send commands but if the dataref is updated by the sim in the next frame then they are changed. DRT is best used in searching for the correct datarefs and commands to use in your Lua scripts or as I do with Air Manager. Sorry if I was unclear.

[@Plydrms]

I think that I understand. You can immediately see the affect on the data ref changes in simulation then permanently change with LUA if desired? Are the data ref's rebuilt back to default (assuming no LUA scripts) each time the game is loaded? So the changes made strictly in DRT would be lost after quitting the sim?...thanks for your time-

[@Yonlawlawlaw]

can i set null zones of my joystick with that pluggin?

[@rbarlow]

No it is only for viewing internal variable values and commands. You can set joystick profiles and response curves right in X-Plane now.

[@frewent0]

Yes - I have set null zones with the plugin although the values set will not persist between "runs" (you could use a Lua script loaded at startup to automatically set the same null zone datarefs to the desired values each time)

[@hootsmangreen]

running on windows 10 I put the files into the normal plugins folder but it does not show up in XP11 I have the Visual Studio runtime installed. Any ideas why it is not working

[@rbarlow]

Coco737 did you put the files or the folder containing the files into the CP plugins folder? The latter is correct. If that is not the issue maybe you could contact the author Lee Baker

[@hootsmangreen]

CP plugins? is this a different folder from /resources/plugins

[@StefBelgium]

@@rbarlow same here. What s the cp plugins folder? Could you please explain how to install? Thanks so much

[@rbarlow]

Coco737 XP not CP (typo) the X-Plane Plug-ins Folder is in the Resources folder which is in the main X-Plane11 folder. Just copy the entire plugin folder for DRT and paste a copy into the plugins folder

[@s6xer]

i use DataRefTool to create xChecklist and xFirstOfficer files

[@UmutUfukUtku]

waow, thanks for this

[@rigilchrist]

Cool, thanks!

[@mro9466]

thanks !