Vlerkies

I can only imagine it being very complex trying to integrate all the 3rd party modules 'over time' into newer dcs platforms. I do wonder though if the 'urgency' is diminished as time goes by. You get early release, lots of hype, beta, lots of hype, but no clarity on 'up to speed' with the platform being dcs version. Im a huge DCS fan and support and own almost all modules except 2 or 3, but sometimes I do think think the battle to deliver new modules outweighs the quality. Has the huey searchlight been sorted yet? I think there needs to be a rethink by ED/DCS on the Beta/early releases to be honest. Having an open ended beta forever is not on. Love the Huey, love the improvements over time but even generically speaking what sort of timelines are given to developers to get to a specific std? Anyway, no hate here, like I said I love the platform and modules, just asking in general.

Just in case some new folks missed it the rudder trim is unticked by default.Enabling it makes life easier and from what I have read is the way it should be.

Ok thanks. After a long time away from the Huey I have been getting back into it. I thought I was doing something maybe wrong as I did not have a problem before with it. Yeah the beam only extends maybe 10 meters and is very weak. Gonna have to try mission 4 of Argo campaign blind lol.

Hi folks Is the searchlight working in the current release? I can turn it on and slew it but not seeing hardly anything getting lit up on the ground even when super low? thanks

Yeah, very happy. Tell you one thing though, while looking for help and reaching out for anyone to offer a suitable troubleshooting direction I hit blanks. This includes TM of course, their call center tried but nojoy. Had around 20+ mails with TM, they tried,, but a corporate line as you expect. Heres the surprise! Other hardware suppliers tried to help after I made contact. MFG (Milan) was stellar in his guidance, help and advice on parts and how to move forward. Being a proud owner of MFG pedals as well, and this just re-enforces MFG commitment to the community. Salute

The patience of Job escapes me completely, but i tend to be a persistent bastard at times :megalol: I have fixed it myself. I tinned the one male connector, and inseted a very fine strand of wire into the female connector I thought was dodgy. Everything working 100% If that failed I was readily prepared to forgo the actual din connectors and hotwire the wires directly by joining the base and stick wires with something else. I would have drilled the dins out if necessary. Still need Thrustmaster to offer a spare though but who knows how long that will take. Also need that pinky switch for the throttle but that looks reasonably common. Not a train smash. I had a new hog stick in my check out cart for almost 2 weeks and avoided pushing the button, that was the real miracle. My one is so worn it has to much character to just kick to the side hehe. Anyway, happy camper for now. :thumbup:

MD-50SN 3d cad model https://www.cui.com/product/resource/digikey3dmodel/md-50sn TDS https://www.cui.com/product/resource/digikeypdf/md-sn-series.pdf

Thrustmster informs me they have no stock of the Din-mini connector and don't know when they will have stock I also asked for a throttle pinky switch as mine is a bit worn and same story. :dunno: Now what? Pinky switch not a trauma but the stick din connection is. Any ideas, do the guys that make stick extensions use the same similar parts? :( Can i hotwire the stick connection somehow?

Hi I do have a positive progress report. 1. I used an old computer at work last week and managed to get the firmware to update to the first 2 stages (2 green ticks only 3rd failed) After doing some research I then stripped the din-mini female connector out of the base and held it firmly with my fingers onto the stick and ran the updater again. This worked, 3 green ticks and device recognized correctly in the device manager as HID device and in the usb game controllers. 2. I came home last week with it and it defaulted back to BOOT mode when i connected it to my main pc. This left me confused. :huh: I left it then until today and re-did step 1 above after work today and firmware updated properly. (i had to hold the din-mini again in place after stripping it out) I then, in the 'USB game controller properties' tested the stick and it can be clearly seen that there is a bad connection on the Din-mini connector. Without some pressure all the button lights are RED in the properties screen. If I apply pressure they all go off as they should be. I tested all buttons/hat switches on the handle and they work fine. (with pressure applied to the connection) So in short my problem is in fact 2 things. Prob 1: My new pc at home which does not have EHCI usb (only has XHCI usb controller on the motherboard) does not speak to the controller when running the firmware updater software. It just shows 1 green tick, no matter what I do. My motherboard is an Asus Hero VIII. Reading on various flight sim forums ( and from helpful advice received here, thx) this seems to be an increasingly more frequent problem with newer machines for users without dedicated USB2.0 (EHCI controlled) ports on their motherboards. Prob 2: As my stick was working fine before I ran the firmware updater I can also only suspect/assume that I have now damaged the female Din-mini connector while trying to fix the initial problem, with all the taking apart and putting back together of the device and the disconnect/reconnect of the handle to base itself. I did send through some pictures of both the male and female Din connectors to Thrustmaster at their request right in the beginning and they all looked ok at the beginning of the troubleshooting exercise. One of the metal contacts though in the 5 pin female connector did look a few mm deeper set than the other 4 though, but at the time, considering the length of the pins on the male handle component, it was assumed (by me and them) they would make good contact. What some testing today has proved is that without positive pressure of the 2 connectors, the device does not function. (the black plastic of the female connector is also seated properly as far as possible into the silver metal supporting mount that screws into the base) On the old Win 7 usb2.0 machine the device also will change from HID compliant to Thrustmaster Warthog Joystick or something similar when the bad connection is in play. ---- I will look around here locally for an MD-50 type connector replacement but in my experience its probably less heart ache to spend the cash and wait and get the bespoke part. have in the interim asked Thrustmaster to quote so they can send me one or 2. Some light at the end of the tunnel, and not a train I hope. Thanks again for the assistance. If anyone has come across sources for identical rfu parts, link would help me and others I am sure. All I have mustered so far is this. (MD-50 config in data sheet as closet match) Male https://www.cui.com/product/resource/digikeypdf/md.pdf Female https://www.cui.com/product/resource/digikeypdf/md-sv-series.pdf In the interim, while I wait for new bits, I will try a few hacks, thinking of seeing if I can put a thin layer of solder onto the pins, or somehow improving the connection points on the female connector, got nothing to lose. Maybe some shims lifting up the female connector, dunno, WIP. All that is needed is a fraction of positive pressure and it works. salute

:doh: Silly me

Are you sure the problem is in the handle/grip itself, and not the more common problem of the 5 pin Din-mini connector not making good contact? Can you see where the problem is ? Post picture?

A really cool interview with Gunnar Hagstrom, a Vietnam Loach OH-6 pilot. Not a Huey but was really interesting to hear how they worked and what they were facing on a day to day basis.

Yup same thing buddy if you type usb game controller in the start/search menu of windowns 10 it brings it up. then you can check all the buttons, and axis etc, even calibrate should you feel the need to do so. I will give this another go on Monday when back in the office and I can hijack that old pc again.

Nope (not sure what that is,) help I'm the student :smartass: Would appreciate any direction or advice man, thx. When i got the firmware thing to complete (on the old machine) I was 'over the moon' with joy, and never checked the actual functioning of the controller in the usb game devices thingy. It was listed though and the controller was never faulty The controller/stick was always working fine on my home machine. All I did was check it listed as it should in the usb game controller menu, ( I will dig deeper next week when i can access that machine),,,,, would it be wrong if I loaded a few dodgy files on it when I am done? :shocking::music_whistling: moving along then Sorry for being pedantic but, this is a software/firmware issue, my stick was working fine, has done for years. I was flying DCS F18 literally about 30 minutes prior no issues. All I did was run the firmware updater on the stick.(thank god not the throttle) and boom, nothing, thank you for your purchase your stick is now a paper weight.

Hi Seb71 I had limited time, I did manage to instal the drivers on the old pc and as per thrustmasters instructions let them instal without connecting the controller. Then followed instructions no probs. Got a new error which was because the female pot they asked me to inspect was not seated back properly, sorted that quick sticks. Ran firmware update, got 3 green ticks, i.e everything 100% Then I shut it down and left. Got home, plugged in the controller, registers in device manager, if you access the firmware update is shows 0 firmware (contrary to what was shown on the win 7 machine a hour earlier where i got 3 greens) So my joystick now regiters in Win7 in device manager and usb game controller settings, but on my home win10/64 pc, no cormprende. wtf http://ts.thrustmaster.com/download/pub/webupdate/hotaswt/2014_tmhw_1.exe http://ts.thrustmaster.com/faqs/eng/thr_eng_00136.pdf http://ts.thrustmaster.com/faqs/eng/thr_eng_00140.pdf So device registered on Win7 old machine and firmware update, ran with 3 green ticks. Plugged it into my rig at home and no comunicado, no talky talky. Showed in device manager under HID as expected but nothing in game controller. Throttle still works fine. Again, I had a perfectly functional stick, all I did was run the firmware updater from TM.

Hi Craig Will give it a go for sure. I sat today and ran the firmware update on the old machine. It ran well, but then dished out another error (0x34100002) which was new to me. (after some google-fu) That specific error was a result of me stripping the stick (at TM's request to check the connections) and not seating the female connector back properly, so when I inserted the stick it just pushed the connector down. I sorted that. The que's for this was that when I ran the firmware update it gave me 2 green ticks, but error on the last one. (On my home machine with xHCI, the firmware updater bombs out at the first stage, doesnt work, rubbish, useless, thx thrustmaster) On my machine I do not get past the 1st green one. So after seeing 2 green ticks I knew I was progressing. and stripped the stick again to the point where I could with my fingers join the connector from the base to the stick itself. Then I ran the firmware updater again and 3 perfect green ticks. :thumbup: I shutdown and left it there. Then I came home and the blasted stick still shows [boot] loading with 0 firmware. Im not giving up just yet. But this is crazy hehe --- So in short I managed to run the firmware update on the old machine, but when I got home and plugged it into my main desktop machine it still showed the controller with 0 firmware and [boot] status? I will try again next week, but i did look after getting 3 green ticks that the controller was correctly identified in the device manager of the machine and it showed in the usb game controller menu. I never went into the usb game controller menu to manually check but it was listed. On my home machine it is not listed there at all, but is seen in the device manager.

I'm still sitting with a pretty expensive paper weight though!

:lol:Hi Folks Ok update I managed to find and use an old windows machine. We have hectic pc policies at work but after everyone left I zeroed in on the oldest lamest pc we have and took control :joystick: Ok. Win7 beast, ran the firmware updater. It got 2 'green ticks' and a red fail on the end This was a 0x34100002 BS failure Sorted out the shoddy default TM connection to base and all good. Short story is I was able to instal the firmware on the old machine, but when I plugged the hotas into my main machine it reverts to [boot] I ran the firmware updater; it got 3 green ticks in the old machine, but on my own machine not seen as usb game controller.

Indeed Craig, no option to disable xHCI that i could locate in the bios. Edit: I did pick up on the Asus forums some guys saying that option disappeared / was there? Could not concretley confirm it was for the viii board though, but maybe earlier bios version. But then if you say the xHCI is the only usb controller I suppose the above is moot.

Hi Folks I have had long email discussions with Thrustmaster, stripped the stick down, checked all connections etc but nojoy. The only potential solution they can come up with is to sell me a new PCB to try, no guarantees of course and I understand that. Im also on the verge of just buying a new stick, but still holding onto some hope I can resolve this. Craighl4, thanks I will have a look around for a pci card, maybe even by one if I can from the store to try. Worth a shot. Whiskeybravo, thanks. So need to find a machine that uses EHCI going on Craigs post. My laptop is also a brand new dell

Hi Blackrat, I will give it a go tomorrow, thx. Hi Thermal Yes I hear you loud and clear. I have always been in the habit of keeping my firware up to date for all types of hardware though. All I did was innocently run the updater expecting it to say no firmware up or firmware update. Why dont I think the bootloader will work in Win 10, well before I posted I did a search and there were a a few post mentioning to use 7 or 8.1 if it doesnt run for some reason. Even the document thrustmaster sent out and that is on their site doesnt list win 10, guess its just dated. I can see the stick in the DM, and not the GD as you say but it has no firmware on it now I think and as such not recognized. I havent messed with it today, been out and about and watching rugby. Thanks to all for the input, I really do appreciate it and sorry if I came across a little strong yesterday, I was bloody annoyed with the software bricking the stick and more annoyed with myself actually for not leaving well alone, I should know better when it comes to flight sim stuff as Thermal quite rightly points out. :blush: Will have another stab at it tomorrow to see if I can somehow undo the mess.

had a few (non bot) mails from Thrustmaster looking for info to troubleshoot :thumbup: Will update on progress.

How many gb is that, I get like 100gb/pm at high cost and slow speeds. Africa, shit happens :lol: I beg to say no, high end hardware should have software to match. Never had a major issue before, always a few hoops to jump through but not this.

Thx folks. This USB2 thing! I have nothing with a usb 2 interface around, at least not in the short term. My desktop and laptop seem to be 3 configured. I have sent this to Thrustmaster as well, cause as far as I am concerned asking me to have a floppy drive, say to speak, post 2010 is a little obnoxious if not outright insulting when one pays top dollar for hardware. all i did was use their own 'Firmware Updater', now kaput, everything was working fine before that.

So after calling thrustmaster and waiting over 30mins for an answer on my mobile from South Africa they offered the same bootloader reset sequence that is/was geared for Win 7 win 8.1. Must say, a very friendly and nice call with someone that really tried, but still stuck. They said send it back? Economically that is a bitter pill, as it costs bucket loads to send this heavy hardware from where I am to the US, likewise when I bought it getting it here. All I did was run 'their own proprietary software' and it went pear shaped, how is that my problem? Was working fine till i pressed 'their update' button ?