FieroCDSP

It can be said that the airframes are aging, their role limited, and their battlefield survivability more and more at risk in the advancing electronic battlefield where even Stealth-tech is having to improve dramatically. That being said, there are virtually no new platforms in the Air Force arsenal since the F22 is limited and the F35 has yet to be something more than a production waiting game. Scrapping the fleet of A-10's is a mistake, at least until the F-35 can prove it does the job as well. You can retrofit the heck out of several A-10's for the cost of one F-35, and lets be honest here, sometimes you need to loiter forever and have a lot of ordinance to deliver just before you head home. It has its place in CAS role and can continue to for some time.

If I'm building a rig from scratch, I try to get whatever my budget will allow, only adjust for whether a later upgrade might be cheaper later than currently. the newer OS make full use of all the ram, but I'm personally still on XP32 so a small portion of my total ram is not in use. In such an instance, the total ram is not as important as the clock speed. If your GFX card is rated highly in its ram and speed, then you can skimp just a bit on the system ram. The Saphire's 1GB of DDR5 is pretty good. I'm running an equivalent NVidia card and I can nearly max out the video with my older Core2Quad 2.8, but it takes a hit when heavily populated with MLRS rockets or when using multiple screens. The best thing you can do is double-check to make sure your ram's model numbers are supported by the board specifically (usually in the manual or on the manufacturer's site), and then buy the best you can afford. It doesn't pay to spend the extra dime on the better ram but then have stability or processing lags from an untested or incompatible set.

I credit Jane's Fighters Anthology for hooking me on flight sims. F-15 and the Longbow series put a hankering for button pushing in me. If it weren't so difficult to get the games running again (I have to build a new step-down comp) I'd probably play them all the time. Console gamers know nothing of simulation action, something I learned long ago when I played Crimson Skies 2 on X-box. That was an affront to all that was decent.

Had this happen a few times. Maybe my birds are too high... hmm... Funny thing is, while not in perfect checklist order, I knew enough to get it back around and land the first time. I've been flying these sims too long.

One of the Apollo astronauts (I think it was Buzz Aldrin but probably one of the third selection group) flew test sorties on low altitude insertion, pop-up release of B61's. They followed white marker posts that were stuck in the ground at some insanely low height (30 ft or so, they were mainly for visual reference). As the story goes, the pilots would try to get as low as possible, and on returning from his Mach+ practice delivery, he found white paint splotched on his fuse from where he tagged one of the markers.

I avoided buying the Saitek X52 specifically for this reason (that and what they did to the head of the stick). I loved the rudder on the fingertips of the X35-45 throttle, as it put the control on the two fingers that weren't doing anything. If you're going to drop a dime on the Warthog, just get some pedals. Most of them are good for other things, like racing sims, as well.

Lots of switches in that cockpit. Heck, even with my years of flight-sim experience I had trouble getting it right.

You probably could do it in-game rather than in TARGET. Just select the "gear horn" space in the control assignments and clear it, then assign the button to the brakes (under "systems" at the bottom)

If you move the X45's position around a bunch on the desk, be prepared to replace your ground wire between the throttle and the stick. Both Saitek X series (35 and 45) I've had failed there before anything else. It breaks right behind the connector. It's easy enough to solder in a new one. I just cut out a spot in the throttle case to accommodate the wire and taped it to the original. Also, if you're heavy on the trigger, the mount for the micro-switch will break. I just tore mine apart for parts for collective controller I'm building, but it amazed me how many of the tactile switches were worn out from the years of abuse. As an addition, I'd like to say that my X45 held up remarkably well given the abuse, and I have another one sitting on my shelf in barely used condition (got from a friend), should I ever need it's help again.

Having tried to get the pigtail wiring diagram for an X45 out of Saitek's tech-support (and failing miserably at it) I can appreciate TM doing this for a customer. Were I a manufacturer, I'd insist my tech guys provide a similar, self-applied, approach if the customer is capable and willing. No sense shipping a large, heavy box when you can mail a few $.50 switches in a $2.00 mailer. In this day and age of replaceable merchandise, I'll stick with a manufacturer that does more than just ship the product. BTW, my favorite places to get parts are Mouser.com (if you know exactly what you are looking for and can find it on their site) and MPJA.com (discount place. Plenty of regular switches, cheap but workable quality).

About the only changes I made were in replacing the forward and back on the throttle thumb-hat to be my zoom in and out, the hat button to be my stick-to-trim, and the pinky paddle for my FM radio (JTAC)

Yeah, but airframes can't tell the story over and over to cage drinks (rightfully deserved, in most cases). You can take pilots out of the cockpit, but it makes the plane just another thing. You can't love a thing like you can a hero. No one grows up saying "I want to pilot drones for a living." My view is as such: Take the casualties out of war, it's no longer something to avoid or fight to an end. There's no human cost, no war memorials, and no incentive to avoid other than considering it a money-pit. The day we let machines do the majority of our fighting is the day we commit ourselves to continuing it. I don't need to go into the really important reasons AI's with weapons are a really BAD idea, do I?

The Warthog uses Hall Effect sensors, not pots, on the stick. I haven't cracked into the throttle, but if the pots are cheap, they certainly haven't shown it yet. I have yet to have spikes or dead zones occur. On the other hand, I've had Saitek gear for some time. I started with the X36(analog), moved up to the X45, and found numerous issues with their design. The X45 had cheap switches internally, and upon breaking the trigger, I swapped out the mounting side of the handgrip with the one from my X35, a larger and stronger design switch/mount. The wire from the throttle was also a constant problem, as the ground would break over time of moving it around. I'm sure the new one probably uses a direct USB conncection for the throttle (the others connect into the stick first for single-device status). The other thing I asked myself was: "How often did I ever actually use two rotaries?" The answer was that I hardly ever used them. Sometimes I'd use one for elevator trim, but otherwise I never did. No doubt the X65f is supposed to compete with the Warthog, but quality-wise, it's a hard thing to do without jumping into the same price range.

The main reason I bought a HOTAS Warthog was for the data management and target controls. I had only been fiddling with the game for a few weeks with my Saitek X45, but I could not seem to get a configuration I liked or found convenient, especially when trying to learn the controls alongside the tutorial. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but you need to prioritize what controls you really need and which ones you want. Landing gear, flaps, and even speedbrake, can be handled easily by the keyboard. Getting the less-intuitive controls (like the slew/designate and target hats) should be prioritized based on which features of them you will use most.

gives me a few ideas of my own. Thanks!

congrats and enjoy!!!

okay... I can see why you are frustrated, but I think a few deep breaths and a simpler, systematic approach might help some. isolate the hardware and software sides of things and eliminate possible issues one at a time. 1:obvious question- do you have the recent drivers from TM? You should also have the Target GUI and Script Editor softwares that download with it. In the Target GUI software is a quick button for updating the controller's firmware. You should make sure the firmware and drivers are up to date (sorry to sound like tech non-support). 2: Do all of the axis perform correctly in your windows game-controllers panels? Is there any delay or sluggishness, or odd switch behaviors. 3:If the controller performs fine in the game-controller screen, open the Target GUI software and make sure there's no profile running that might be screwing things up. not likely, but best to check. 4: try hooking the TM controllers directly to the comp's USB ports. I ran into an issue with the throttle not reading when hooked into my front-panel ports because (for whatever reason) the power available there was not enough to run it. Connecting to the back panel ports fixed it. Maybe there's an issue with your hub or just the sheer amount of stuff there. If you find the controller working just fine outside of the software environment, you know for certain it's something with A10, not the controller or interface. 5:In A-10, go to "options, controls tab" and look at what you have there. You should see columns for each TM unit, plus your mouse, keyboard, and pedals. Here's the "gotcha" part. Whenever you connect a new USB controller, it sometimes assigns a full range of axis and buttons for each one. You can clear the columns and fix each switch manually if need be, though. Verify your axis in the axis screen and clear any possible conflictions between them (i.e. make sure that rotaries don't overlap and that rudder axis are only assigned to rudder controls.) work with each control individually until it works. use the runway start and check the controls before you leave the ground. 6:About the only other thing I can think of is that maybe your control settings are being done in "sim" mode settings tab and your game setting is for arcade. Both have different profiles so it's possible that when you're getting in game, you're using a different profile than the one you set up. If you already covered all of this on your own then I'm out of ideas. My own TM hooked up just fine, which was a pleasant surprise. USB is convenient, but it is not perfect. Conflicts can occur and sometimes you just need to rethink the plumbing. Plugging one thing in at a time and working up is often the easiest method of trouble shooting. Above all else, patience and a method are the keys to fixing problems like this.

Yes, the Matrix would be better for a larger console. When you start looking at panels like the right side panel of the KA-50, you start to realize how many inputs you need. The problem with the GPWiz is the 40-switch limit per device. Since they offer up to 4 device ID's, you can get 4 boards for 160 inputs. That 4 USB devices. The advantage of the Matrix in this case is the "single-device" nature of it, which will help with older games that might have trouble using multiple input devices. Everything used keystrokes. Then again, the nice thing about DirectX-style input is that Winblows doesn't care if they are held down/on, so there's that.

Am I the only person who suspects the A-10 is the only military aircraft to come in under-budget? :)

Perhaps I missed it in my search, but is there a way to make a left side second monitor work for MFDs only? I tried using negative X values, which seemed to work somewhat, but I ended up getting no visual change (still extended desktop) from the left monitor, and my right had the right mfd screen on the up-left corner with the cockpit centered, and the pause screen bar half off of the right side of the screen. Windows is set up right, as I scroll left and the mouse moves left onto my expanded desktop. Both monitors are identical models at 1920x1080 res. options screen is set at 3840x1080, and it came up with 3.55 aspect. script follows: EDIT: I just tried telling windows that my extra monitor was to my right, adjusted values, and ran into problems with the video not engaging at all on either screen, but the cursor and clickable hot-points were there. Okay, found the X/Y issue in the RMFD field, and switched the monitor ID opposite of what it actually is, so winblows displays the left screen as a right. still testing. Fixed! corrected script errors and it's working.

Serial#: 01277 Location: Wooster, Ohio, USA

I started off wishing I could build a panel but not knowing how to start. I have a basic understanding of electronics (I can use an iron and my hands don't shake too bad :) ), so when I came across Tigershark's vids on youtube, it lit a fire. I picked up a GPWiz board,some cheap switches and box, and came away with a an almost identical copy of the A-10 master arm panel, with the power panel rigged above. Wasn't hard at all. Looks like that's just a keystroke creator that you hook switches to. While it's probably okay if you're going to change your switch settings a lot for different titles/purposes, it still relies on key commands. The GPWiz is a more direct, hard-wired approach. Think of the Matrix board as a keyboard, and the GPWiz as more of a joystick/DirectX input. regardless of how you go about wiring it, you should start off thinking about your layout, which switches you want to create, and ease of purpose. I'll be the first to admit that the Thrustmaster Warthog throttle quadrant, while cool, has a lot of largely useless switches when you play A-10. How often do you use the fuel-flow, engine, or APU switches really? On start-up and that's about it. The Master-arm panel i built shares that a bit, but at least the M/A, Gun, laser, and TGP switches get more use. In addition to layout, ease of construction is important. Keeping wires neat makes for easy repair or additions. Since you're not dealing with high voltages, thin wire is all you need. I chopped an old 40-wire IDE cable for use in my box. The ribbon helps to keep groups of switches wired neatly, since they run in the ribbon until you get close enough to split them off. My next project is a collective controller modeled after the BlackShark's. I have most of the stuff I need, I just have to find an axis board to go with.