xoxen

I answered to your mail on my smartphone and was not able to see the writing "188FW" beside of the hog. Sad to hear they are not located there anymore. I really like the Warthog since I was young and had the same experience back in 1991 (I was 19 years old). They (81st TFW) were moved away from Ahlhorn, Nothern Germany and I really missed the specific sound I was used to hear above my place since I was a child. So I have kind of an idea what you´re missing. Xoxen

Ich würde auch mal bei den Spare-Time-Pilots vorbei gucken. Da findet sich auch meistens jemand, der einem unter die Arme greift (einfach sagen was man üben will). Die haben auch ein eigenes Forum. Einfach mal googeln, nette Leute da. Gruß, Xoxen

On the picture they look good. I already started thinking by my own if my beloved Warthog is worth this for me. My wife killed this thinking immidiately :music_whistling: There are 2 positive feedbacks so there are at least two people who got them shipped. I have no experience with this shop but did you read feedbacks about the shop where people lost their money? If this is the case I would not spend my money. Xoxen @GeneralDynamics: Woo Pig Sooie, Go Hogs. (I visited a colleague from the company I´m working for in Arkansas 2013 and got the opportunity to see a Hogs game at the weekend. Great experience with 75.000 people in the stadium. Now I´m a fan)

Announcement and WIP of the F-16C, finally ;) Seroiusly, progress of the Strait of Hormuz map.....(with Carrier Ops)

Even though I already own an extension this one looks much better. Mine gives force to the thread while trying to tighten the extension and hold the stick straight. This solution look much more professional. You definitely should think about a higher production for the community. I would even start thinking about a new extension. Xoxen

Generally you are right. I don't see the stickyness as a total show stopper. So I'm fine with the re-greasing thing. From the engineering perspective I agree that TM should do some rework on the warthog to get rid of the small flaws. Especially this one can be sorted out quite easy. Xoxen P.S.: The spare parts are just for security reasons but not really necessary.

Hi, I just would like to share that I have a very good communication with Thrustmaster - finally. I simply responded to the automatic answer after 10 days and then I received response. I requested if I will lose warranty by greasing up my Articulation spere (at the Warthog it is not called gimbals anymore I was told). Only in case of a breakage happening during regreasing I will lose it. My fault, now they have my name ;) They offered the inner ball and lower part of the sphere to me for a reasonable price and I will see what I do now. I just wanted to share that Thrustmaster custumer support isn't as bad. Xoxen

Do you have the M-kote EM-30L grease for sale as well :music_whistling: 1kg is too much and actually the smallest amount I found to buy in Germany (for a hell of a money).

This is exactly the same problem I have. I found a 3D model of the inner ball and have it on my computer now (thanks to google translator as my russian skills are very very limited). If I ever need to use it, hopefully not. But a set of metal gimbals sound great. Unfortunately I have no chance to do something by my own because of no access to machines. I will follow the development of this within the community. I heard of a guy thinking about new gimbals for the Warthog, nothing to speak about now, but maybe in the future.

Very good find, thanks a lot. Was not able to read it and also had no time so far to use google translator. Will have a look at it when I´m at home. Thanks again and have a great rest of the day. Roland P.S.: I was able to register and download the part, thanks again. Google translator isn´t bad, I was able to understand everything.

Hi FeistyLemur, even though I´m a mechanical engineer I do not work in the production of parts, respectively my knowledge about milling might be old fashioned. I know a lot is possible with CNC mashines and I´m quite sure they are feasable to produce the parts out of SST or Aluminum. What I fear is the roundness of the parts. When you mill them you have to do it step by step on round surfaces. This is something which can be seen on the surface and I doubt they are smooth enough to be used as gimbals without being polished. I heard about a way to use metal similar to plastic in 3D "printers". This is something I can imagine in a better way but have no clue about the costs. I´m working with plastic parts and can ask some people if this is something to think about further. In another thread of mine (http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=146318) I got a contact of a guy in the IL2 forums. This guy seem to have 3D model(s) at least of the inner ball. I did not register so far as everything is in russian language and I did not find the time to use google translator. Maybe somebody is already registered there and can contact him. Rgds, Roland

Hi folks, I recently bought a Warthog and sent my Cougar into retirement. I would like to do a small comparison for others as I was searching for this before moving but did not find anything worthy for me. For the Cougar I have to mention I did the throttle mod (soaped tape around the axis + aluminum foil at the break, btw works like charm) and also bought Magoo´s mod which takes care of the abrasion of the gimbals in a good way (details can be googled). So it has zero play and is in a very good condition. But in regards to precision I thought I better go for the Warthog with Hall sensors and it helped me e. g. to improve my air refueling abilities. So this point goes to the Warthog. Coming from the Cougar I was spoiled by massive metal engineering. I never had issues electrical wise and took care about the critical points (stickiness of the throttle and play of the gimbals). Only the precision is less in direct comparison, so an important difference. Anyway, I have to mention that I´m happy with flying with the Warthog and enjoy the mentioned precision. But there are some details I dislike and I would like to highlight. My Cougar cost me 165,-€ when it was new and I thought spending 300,-€ for the Warthog only can be an upgrade, also quality wise. Then I put my hands around the Throttle and Stick and the first disillusion happened to me. The Throttle handles can be pulled slightly upward to get them from off to idle. This is fine. But the levers also move slightly left and right which gives them a feeling of weakness. So there is play which I did not know from my Cougar. Additionally the Cougar is better in the hands, the ergonomics is better from my point of view. Now to the stick. I am used to have no play (Cougar) and this is something which I expected from a 300,-€ hardware (Warthog) as well. But this was not the case. The stick has no play in X-axis but a small one in Y-axis. Not really much but I noticed it. Additionally there is play in the nonexistent Z-axis. I can slightly rotate clockwise and counter clockwise. I can feel a little spring force which moves it back to the original center position. I expect this to be the force from the 4 springs inside of the stick base. As I had a closer look into the Cougar gimbals quite often I can compare them in a good way to the ones of the Warthog. Cougar = die cast aluminum; Warthog = plastic (PA6.6?). The Cougar solution is not good in terms of wear as stated above. Additionally you can feel the force of each axis when moving the stick e.g. to the lower right corner. Here the Warthog is much more even in force independent of the direction you move the stick to. So here the Warthog gives a much better feeling when flying. But the plastic gimbals give me a quite cheap impression. I only can hope that the plastic is a high quality one and I will not see wear here as there is no chance to fix it like I did with Magoo´s mod (by the way, on a request at TM about the possibility to buy them as spare parts I got not even an answer, EDIT: in the meantime I had a very good conversation with TM and was able to order the lower and inner part of the Articulation Sphere just for security reasons). Additionally there is a stickiness in this connection. I read a lot about this in different forums and can confirm it. I´m just in the process of having a look for a good grease to buy in Germany to get rid of this. My conclusion is, that I´m very happy with the Warthog and do not regret that I spent this money. But if you own a good Cougar like I do I´m not sure if I would spend the money again. Hall sensors for the Cougar would have been an alternative but even higher in price. Maybe I´m whining at a high level, no, I am whining at a high level as both sticks are really good. But the Cougar is 10+ years of age and still in very good condition. What I see and read about the Warthog let me doubt it will get as old. Hopefully I´m wrong on this. Maybe there are some mods available in the future which are taking care of the disadvantages. I hope you understand what I wrote as I did this in the lunch break and not being a native speaker. And I hope this helps others in the same situation I was in. Watch your six, Xoxen P.S.: This is my personal feeling, maybe others have a completely different impression. But being a mechanical engineer I really take care about quality and good engineering.

Can confirm this, worked for me as well, thanks god.

Some pictures I took over the years. I love this sim ;)

Thanks Sokol, I first will try to contact Thrustmaster again and try to get the mentioned part (I believe this only can better fit compared to a self made part). If I fail again I will try to contact the one in the link, even though I do not speak a word in russian. I expect him to speak english?! Thanks, Xoxen

I had a mistake in my firmware upgrade of the stick. Seemed to be a USB 3 issue according to a read in this forum. My throttle was acknowledged in DCS but the stick not anymore, even though it was shown in property manager. Running the firmware on a second computer with USB 1.1 brought me success. I installed the drivers without the stick being inserted and plugged it in afterwards. The firmware upgrade worked flawless then and everything was fine. Maybe this helps. Good luck.

Hi everybody. Have a Warthog now and am pleased so far. The stickiness is existent at mine as well and I want to grease it up. As I have an extension I fear that I damage the gimbals (especially the inner ball) when unscrewing and reassembling the stick. I like to be secure and have the chance to replace immidiately if something happens. Thrustmaster isn't of help for the gimbals so I'm asking here in the community if anyone has an accurate 3D model of the inner ball, the pins and even better, the whole set. Best would be SolidWorks but everything else would be fine as well. Thanks, Roland P.S.: If somebody sells them printed already this would be fine, too :)

If you ever 3D scan the parts please share the model. As Thrustmaster does not sell gimbals (requested a week ago with no answer at all and read many posts with the same experience) it'd be great to have the chance to 3D print it by my own. If the stick is as tight again it may work to cool it down. Plastik shrinks more than metal and it might come loose easier. Xoxen

I read this and had a quick idea. Don't know if it is stupid or not, maybe someone can answer this better than I can do. For the Warthog I need to use TARGET to use F12 and so on on buttons. Is it possible to insert a fake command line for the TIR into the joystick lua? Hope you understand what my goal is. Have it visible in dcs and assign a button to f12 to center TIR. Thanks and have a great weekend. Xoxen

Yeaaahh, +1 :pilotfly:

Serial #: 38180 Cloppenburg, Germany

That really looks interesting, especially the 3D printed part. Please let me know if the interest is large enough after bringing this thread back to the top. Cheers, Roland

I skipped the GTX 970 when I built my new rig (money issue). I also have the GTX760 and wonder what the benefit would be. Could you become more specific. Sorry for using this thread for my purposes ;) Thanks, Xoxen

Yesterday I did my very first flight on my new rig. Wow. Where I had 25FPS before I have a solid 50FPS now with the same settings. And I´m still testing. Once I switch to a 970 I will also post my findings, but actually I´m still fine with my 760. Xoxen P.S.: Changed two Nvidia Cards recently without reinstalling drivers, worked like charm for me.

Hab gehört, dass das ein bekannter bug ist. Hab das genauso.......