Joyful Stick is a utility program to help extend the functionality of a Saitek/Logitech x52 joystick. The physical buttons on the joystick are mapped to software in 3 modes. The mode is selected using the 3 position mode switch on the joystick. The axes of the joystick can also adjust their center point, exponential, and ranges. All of the settings are stored in a profile, and multiple profiles can be stored. Switching between profiles can be done via the GUI or by pressing the (i) and toggling the page up/down buttons. When changing modes, the LEDs will change color from red for mode 1, yellow for mode 2, and green for mode 3.
Unfortunately, for all of the buttons and LEDs to be available to JoyfulStick, the windows "Game Controllers" -> "X52 Professional H.O.T.A.S." Properties page must be left open during use.
Joyful Stick relies on having a vJoy device created. It is suggested to create a vJoy device with X, Y, Z, Rx, Ry, Rz, and slider axes, 120 virtual buttons, and 1 continuous POV hat.
Included is a powershell script StartDCS.ps1 which can be called to start JoyfulStick, open the necessary joystick dialogs, optionally open TrackIR, and start whatever game you desire. You can create shortcuts to this script for convenience.