This is a guide to make Jester less of a pain by cross-binding stuff from the RIO cockpit.

Introduction

This is a set of modifications and utilities that lets you avoid common problems with Jester in the F-14. Works in multiplayer. From the pilot seat you can:

• Manually control radar azimuth and elevation
• Change TWS shooting priority
• Hook TID targets for extended information
• Lock up contacts from TID
• Change TID display settings to reduce clutter
• Initiate flare and chaff programs
• Assign Jester actions to single keypress
• Perform navigation fixes for when Jester screws up nav
• Control RWR display with limit and offset functions
• Control LANTIRN with buttons instead of head tracking
• Control radar main lobe clutter filter

Prerequisites

• vJoy - https://github.com/shauleiz/vJoy
• Autohotkey - https://www.autohotkey.com/
• DCS Input Command Injector - https://github.com/Quaggles/dcs-input-command-injector

Installation

1. Copy InputCommands to DCS Saved Games folder. DCS will need to be restarted
2. (Optionally) Copy Kneeboard to DCS Saved Games folder if you will do NAV FIXES or will use CAP from the front seat

Configuration

1. Getting your joystick ID

1. Run utils/joyids.ahk. A tooltip should appear at the cursor.
2. Hold Button 1 on the joystick you want to use for radar control.
3. Write down number of the joystick displayed, you will need it later for the configuration.

2. Utility configuration

Open bearingjester.ahk and configure keybinds there.

1. On line #9 you need to specify you joystick ID that you got from your previous step
2. On line #21 you want to change the buttons on the joystick to control the radar:

    SummedAxis(MOD, DOWN, UP, RESET, 0.08, "ry")
    SummedAxis(MOD, LEFT, RIGHT, RESET, 0.6, "rx")

• DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT are the button numbers on the set joystick to control radar. Its the same button number DCS displays in Controls.
• MOD can be a joystick button that you need to hold to enable radar controls, leave at 0 to disable and just use buttons as is.

3. On line #39 edit the mod key to activate Jester macroses with (if needed)

3. DCS keybinds configuration

Jester AI

For Jester macro to work you have to bind the Jester menu binds to specific keys:

If you already use any of those bindings you can change keys that utility uses by editing JESTER Menu mapping section in the bearingjester.ahk.

Axis

Bind two axis - Radar elevation control to vJoy RY and Radar azimuth control to vJoy RX.

Verify that axis control and Jester macroses actually work. Then you can set DEBUG to false on line #8 of the script to remove debugging messages and artificial slowdowns.

Features

While most features are very simple to use, you might want to practice some first from the RIO pit to get the idea how TID hooking works, which buttons do what and when, since you will be doing it practically blind from the front seat.

• Radar control - use the joystick buttons you've set up during configuration. Keep in mind that TWS auto will override your control as soon as it picks up any contacts, but you can ask Jester to switch to TWS manual and that will let you control the radar
• TID Hooks - you need to bind HCU half-action (this needs to be held down to bring up the cursor), HCU backward/forward/left/right to move it and HCU full-action to hook stuff. Note that pressind the half-action will unhook whatever is hooked and that can screw up Jester doing stuff. For example, if you unhook waypoint that he's entering lat\lon for it will screw up the navigation suite and you will need to perform an in flight nav fix to get it working again
• TID Symbology Settings - bind any of the TID Symbology: ... binds to toggle specific elements on-off. Most useful ones are Alt Num, Vec Vector, Sym Elem and Data Link
• STT hooked contact - bind RADAR Pulse (Doppler) Single Target Track, it will attemp to STT the contact that you've hooked on TID
• TID Range and Ground Stab - if you ask Jester for a specific range he will stop changind it himself, then you can use bind TID range: X to change ranged instantaneously. Aircraft\Ground stabilization cannot be changed directly and you have to do it via Jester AI bindings with delays
• TWS Shooting Priority can be changed by hooking a contact and using bind Next launch. The contact will become new 1st TWS contact
• Chaff and Flare programs - bind AN/ALE-39 Right Data Dispenser Switch Down - Chaff Program and AN/ALE-39 Right Data Dispenser Switch Right - Flare Program
• RWR Offset and Limit functions - bind RWR Display Mode LMT and RWR Display Mode OFST
• Control LANTIRN via keys - disable Jester and then use binds LANTIRN Slew Up/Down/Left/Right. You can also use direct head control which will stop him from messing with the Lantirn, but the moment that is disable he will snap the TGP back to his own last position
• Disable/enable MLC - use binds MLC out and MLC auto to turn MLC off or get it back to auto position. Don't leave it in out, Jester won't fix it for you

Jester Macros

There are a couple of predefined macroses in bearingjester.ahk starting at line #40:

• RShift+, - SIL the radar
• RShift+. - OPER the radar
• RShift+/ - Enable TWS MAN

You can add your own after MACROS := [] line, with the following syntax:

MACROS["KEY_TO_TRIGGER"] := "SEQUENCE"

Where KEY_TO_TRIGGER would be the key you need to press in order to activate it (don't forget that you also need to hold MACROS_MOD which is RShift by default), and SEQUENCE corresponds to the sequence of items to select starting from the main Jester menu (which is always brought up when you press Jester AI - Toggle Menu twice), as they numbered in the menu itself. Keep in mind that some items change positions based on circumstances.

(Not needed anymore) Navigation fixes

You can perform navigation fixes, albeit doing it blindly is tricky. For that you will need CAP button X mapped, and also CAP category NAV plus CAP category TAC. You can read up on the full procedure in the Heatblur manual, and I strongly recommend doing it a couple of times from the RIO seat in single player before attempting it blind.

TACAN Front Seat Fix

Even if you do everything correctly nav will still be off by a couple of NMs. Multiple attempts may be needed to get the accuracy right.

1. Tune in to a TACAN station with known position. You can do it with moving station, with varying results in the accuracy based on your timing
2. Ask Jester to setup a waypoint (any will do) for you on that TACAN station position. You can use map marker for that
3. Hit CAP category TAC:

1. Press corresponding CAP button to hook that waypoint. Note that you can also do that by simply hooking it up on the TID if it happen to be visible
2. Hit CAP category NAV:

1. Press CAP button 6 to start the fix. Delta will be recalculated every couple of seconds, and you also can force it by pressing the button
2. Press CAP button 9 to apply the delta

Visual Front Seat Fix

1. Ask Jester to setup a waypoint (any will do) that you plan to overfly. You can use map marker for that
2. Hit CAP category NAV:

1. When you are directly over the waypoint press CAP button 8 to start the fix
2. Press CAP button 9 to apply the delta

Limitations

I've went over most of the useful features and excluded ones that Jester won't let you do. This include things like instantaneous aircraft/ground stab (Jester will immediately switch it back), changing elevation bars or azimuth scan range (same story), changing LANTIRN zoom (in every mode I've tried Jester will switch it back either immediately or after a short amount of time).

You can disable Jester altogether and then control pretty much everything from the front cockpit, but then you can't IFF (techically speaking you can IFF but you will never see the result since it's displayed on the DDD), which is a dealbreaker obviously. So features denied by the Jester are controlled via one-key Jester menu macroses.