Setup & pairing
Getting the phone talking to the simulator.
What you need
An iPhone, a computer running macOS or Windows with your simulator on it, and the free Uplink Companion — both on the same Wi-Fi, or a USB cable. The iPhone app is not on the App Store yet, so this page is the setup you will follow when it is.
How it fits together
There are two halves. The phone is the transmitter: it shows the sticks and switches, and streams their positions. Uplink Companion is the app on the computer running the simulator: it receives that input and presents it to the operating system as an ordinary game controller, which the simulator reads exactly as it would a physical one.
The two halves talk straight to each other over your own network or a USB cable. Nothing goes through the internet, and there is no account.
1. Install the companion
Install Uplink Companion on the computer that runs the simulator — not on the phone. See Download for current platform availability. On Windows the installer also sets up the controller driver and opens the firewall rules the companion needs — two rules, private networks only. On macOS there is nothing extra to install.
On Windows the installer sets up a small open-source controller driver (ViGEmBus) and skips it if you already have it. Decline it and the companion still runs, but nothing reaches your simulator.
When it is running, the companion's panel is at http://127.0.0.1:8766/ on that computer. The pad appears in the simulator about a second after you pair.
2. Connect the phone to the computer
Easiest: put both on the same Wi-Fi. If that does not work — club, office and campus Wi-Fi often stop devices seeing each other — open Uplink to the cockpit screen, plug the phone into the computer with a USB cable, and tap Trust when the phone asks. The cable needs no Wi-Fi at all.
3. Pair
Open the companion's panel on the computer and start pairing — it stays open for 60 seconds. On the phone, take whichever route suits you: tap once to pair while that window is open, scan the QR code, or type the 9-digit code under it. The phone remembers the computer afterwards, so this is a first-run step.
Good to know
What your simulator sees
The companion creates one controller on the computer, only so a flight simulator can be flown from the phone. On macOS and Linux the simulator lists it as Uplink Transmitter; on Windows it appears as an Xbox 360 controller, which is the name Windows gives the driver. It behaves like any gamepad:
- Four analog axes — two sticks — carrying roll, pitch, yaw and throttle, plus switch inputs for the controls a simulator expects to be toggled.
- Input comes only from the paired phone. It never synthesises keyboard or mouse events, and does not read or inject input anywhere else on the system.
- Only one device flies at a time, so two phones can never fight over the same controller. Handing over between them is deliberate and is reported on screen.
- On any handover or dropped connection the throttle is driven to its minimum first. Losing the link can never leave the aircraft holding the throttle it had.
- The controller exists only while the companion is running, and is removed when it exits.
Network and firewall
The companion listens on your local network only. Nothing it opens is reachable from the internet, and it makes no outbound connection of its own.
On Windows the installer opens two firewall rules — one for the phone's control connection, one for the browser controller — and both are limited to private networks only. If you instead allow it through a firewall prompt by hand, keep it off public networks — a shared or guest network is not somewhere to run this.
Troubleshooting
Scanning the code does not connect
Type the 9-digit code under the QR instead, or tap to pair while the companion's pairing window is open. If none of that connects, the network is probably keeping the two apart — use a USB cable instead: open Uplink to the cockpit, plug in, and tap Trust.
They are on the same Wi-Fi but still cannot connect
Check the computer's firewall is allowing the companion, and that the network is marked as a private network rather than a public one. The installer's firewall rules deliberately do not cover public networks.
The phone connects, but the simulator sees no controller
On Windows this usually means the controller driver was declined during install. The companion's panel tells you whether the driver is there — check that first, then run the installer again and accept the driver step.
The controller stopped responding mid-flight
Only one device flies at a time. If you connected from a second phone or tablet, the first one hands over and stops sending. Reconnect from the device you want to fly with.
Still stuck
If none of the above helps, write in via Support with your setup and what you have already tried.