VKBDevCfg Explained

#What this program is

VKBDevCfg is the Windows program that configures VKB joysticks, throttles and grips. It decides which physical button becomes which button in your flight sim, what colour an LED is, how an axis behaves, and what a thumb button does when you hold a shift key. It also flashes firmware onto the stick and calibrates its axes.

#What to download

VKB's site is vkbsimcontrollers.com/pages/downloads. Three downloads matter:

#Unlocking the full UI

VKBDevCfg hides part of its own interface: macros, LEDs, the virtual mouse and several options. A text file the program creates for itself, zconfig.ini, switches them on.

The procedure

1. Open VKBDevCfg once, then close it. On first run it writes zconfig.ini into its own folder, next to the executable. If the file never appears, the program did not actually launch.
2. Open zconfig.ini in a plain text editor. Keep it plain text.
3. Add the lines below under the matching [User] and [Common] sections. The program does not create them for you.
4. Save, and restart VKBDevCfg.

; under [User]
User=Developer
PartialWrite=1
PartialCalibration=1

; under [Common]
Use matrix=1
Test Misc Enabled=1

Spell the keys exactly, spaces included. Those five are the ones most people want; the full list of keys the manual documents (Appendix I plus the chapters on writing parameters and calibration) is:

#Firmware updates

Firmware is the code running on the stick's microcontroller. It is how you get bug fixes and new features: optional on a brand new device, increasingly important on an older one.

Via ZBootloader

1. Run ZBootloader2.
2. It lists every VKB device it can see. Double-click yours.
3. Point it at the .vkb file for your exact model, in the folder you extracted the firmware pack into.
4. Confirm it shows the version you expect — the version number is printed next to the file.
5. Click Flash. It takes roughly 30 seconds, then closes itself.

VKBDevCfg shows the firmware version on your stick next to the device name in the blue bar at the top, so you can check whether an update is warranted before you flash anything.

#How it works

The program feels confusing because it makes you configure several different layers of “button” and “axis” separately. Once you see the layers, the rest follows.

The unit is the “line”

“Button” is shorthand. The manual counts lines: every pair of contacts is one.

“Every pair of button contacts is represented as single line. So simple button occupies one line, toggle switch On–Off–On — two lines, 4-way HAT — 4. Njoy32 controller can process up to 128 lines.”

Lines are numbered by wiring and grouped eight to a register, Reg#1 … Reg#16. That is why the physical grid has 128 cells.

Four layers

You set each layer on its own, which is what makes the tool feel arbitrary. Not every physical function reaches layer 4: Shift has no logical function. It is a modifier, not an output.

Axes use the same split

Physical axes are raw sensor values straight off the gimbal. Logical axes are what Windows reports. Each logical axis names the physical axis feeding it (its Source), and one physical axis can feed several logical axes. On a default stick they match one to one, so leave them alone unless something is wrong. A controller handles at most eight axes.

Two gates on every axis: En and Vs

En (enabled) makes the stick compute the axis. Vs (visible) makes it show up in Windows. To use an axis in a game, tick both. An axis that is enabled but not visible still works inside the stick, driving Axes → Buttons, comparators or an LED gauge; that is how you turn axis movement into button presses without exposing the axis. Forgetting one box is the classic mistake.

Virtual controllers

Windows accepts at most 8 axes per controller. With more, enable virtual controllers (1–8) and assign each axis to one. Windows then sees each as a separate stick. The tool makes you do the assignment by hand.

Virtual buttons: the shifter example

A virtual button is a logical button with no switch behind it, triggered only by the firmware. It is how one physical input fans out into several logical buttons under different conditions.

1. Your trigger is physical button 10. By default it drives logical button 10.
2. You want trigger alone → logical button 79, and trigger + shift → logical button 80.
3. Logical button 79 takes the trigger as its source. Logical button 80 has no switch left to drive it, so it is assigned to a virtual button.

One live configuration

The stick holds a single configuration; there are no slots. Get reads all of it whichever tab you are on. Your per-game profiles are .cfg files on the PC, not on the stick. See Get / Set / Save / Load.

#Anatomy of the window

Once you have picked a device, the window splits into two regions that people routinely confuse.

Pick your device first

At the very top is a blue box listing every connected VKB device. Click yours; the app takes a second or two to read it, then shows its firmware version. Everything below applies only to the device you picked. With a stick and a throttle plugged in, you must switch between them.

#Get / Set / Save / Load

These four buttons cause more confusion than anything else in the program.

Per-game profiles

DCS, Microsoft Flight Simulator and Elite Dangerous all want different bindings, and the stick stores only one configuration, so keep one .cfg file per game:

1. Configure everything for DCS. Save → name it DCS.cfg.
2. Reconfigure for Elite Dangerous. Save → Elite.cfg.
3. Before playing, Load the right file, then press Set to push it into the stick.

You can also drag a .cfg file from Explorer onto the VKBDevCfg window to load it.

#Top bar reference

Three tabs. Only some of what is on them matters day to day.

#Test tab

For verifying hardware. It is read-mostly, so it is the safest place to poke around and the first place to look when something seems broken.

#Global tab

Settings that apply to the whole device rather than to one axis or button.

#Profile tab

You will spend most of your time here. Axes, buttons, POVs and logical functions all live on it.

#Macro tab

A macro is a named sequence of actions: button presses, keystrokes and so on. The tab is hidden until you unlock the full UI. Two things to set up, in this order.

1. Define what the macro does

1. Go to the Macro tab and select a macro number, e.g. macro 5.
2. Add entries, e.g. “mouse right button” and the keyboard A key.
3. Adjust timing in the same panel.
4. Click Set.

2. Point a button at it

1. Find the logical button you want to trigger it, e.g. logical button 80.
2. In Buttons → Logical layer, set its action to Macro.
3. Choose the macro number, e.g. macro 5. Tick Repeat if the macro should repeat while the button stays held.

Define the macro before you assign it, as the manual instructs. Pressing the stick button then replays the whole sequence.

#Recipes

#Gotchas

The things that reliably waste people's time.

#Beyond the basics

VKBDevCfg is a ~23 MB C++Builder application whose binary embeds 69 form definitions: roughly 50 are VKB's own windows and dialogs, about 16 belong to the bundled FastReport library. Across them sit thousands of controls. Decompiling the current build to map its UI surfaces a long tail of features beyond the tabs above.

#Glossary

#Sources and credit

This guide grew out of “VKBDevCfg Basics” by DCS Tutorial (27 June 2022), a patient half-hour walkthrough of the whole program and still the best introduction there is. Watch it alongside this page; the chapters below jump to the matching moment. The model and the settings were then checked against VKB's NJoy32 Configuration Utility User Guide v2.19 (August 2023, 163 pages) from their downloads page, and against the application itself.

Watch the original video