DeadMeat

Short answer - yes. EDIT DCS flighpanels branch was updated. Refer to my next post for an example of how to use the new outputs.

There should be a multiple-com-ports.cmd file to help connect multiple COM ports with one click: @echo off REM The COMPORTS variable should be set to a space-separated list of COM port numbers: set COMPORTS=4 5 6 7 8 9 for %%i in (%COMPORTS%) do start /b cmd /c connect-serial-port.cmd /Q %%i

These patents may be of interest. They have some interesting (principle) drawings: OTTO Multiposition electrical switch OTTO trim switch Guardian electrical multi-position switch "TM alike" hat switch concept

LUA references for switches sometimes change with DCS updates. The ASPJ rotary and some of the ECM toggles changed recently it seems, so check that you have the latest version of the DCS-BIOS hornet module.

Looks like you've worked some pull-action hijinks into the rotary on the CMSP How is it - pull between OFF and STBY?

Good to know - really curious to know how the TK switches feel. They could be more suitable

Sure - here's the STL - for personal use There's cut-outs for the USB cable for the Arduino and a 2.1x5.5 mm DC power jack, like this WH_Bottom_2 v6.stl

Correct - I used a T4-T (tactile version) so-called "mini-trim" hat switch so I lost the push function (not used in the Warthog anyways). Alternately I could have used a T5 (doesn't come in tactile version) - or what OTTO calls a "full-size" hat switch T5 but I don't know the part number for that (T5-####). I noticed OTTO put out a new hat switch, the TK which has tactile feedback. It may fit and it comes in both 4 and 5-way versions (i.e. with push). It'd be a shame to strip a real Viper throttle

I got rid of that whole board connector and everything. It used to connect to the main PCB with a double row of pins/headers that I simply recreated with a bit of proto-board and standard 0.1" pins. All new switches on that side are connected to it. Backlight can be connected to it as well to retain standard backlight capability and control in TARGET - I however chose to route that to the Arduino instead so I could sync it with DCS BIOS.

Cheers, I guess obsession will get you far For this version of the throttle I used (almost) all Eaton/Cutler-Hammer switches that I indeed found on EBay - same for the Honeywell mag switch. Toggle switches are typically USD 15-30 depending on condition (mine are all new/new old stock) while the mag switch should run you max USD 100 used if you're lucky. Push buttons are your standard OTTO P1 that are relatively cheap and can just be bought from suppliers like mouser.com - same goes for the hat switches but they're not cheap The transducer is out of a used F-15 throttle off EBay for too much $$$ to admit

Yeah nah nothing in the mail so far

Upgrading the throttle and LASTE panel switches For this post I'll explain how to upgrade the switches in the panels. The grips will follow in another post. To remove the stock switches you'll first need to remove the legend plate. It is held by a few screws and double sided tape: Remove the foam around the toggle switches and unscrew the mounting nuts using a pair of needle nosed pliers. The push button will have to wait. The stock switches are may be generic low cost switches but they have the correct action and a pretty heavy throw so they're not too bad I think. The size is helpful since the bushing is close enough to the 15/32-32 of the mil-spec switches making mounting them easy. Turning the throttle over, the metal bottom plates can be unscrewed and removed exposing the innards. I removed the weight bars from the bottom plates to free up more space inside the throttle. If you table mount the throttle afterwards you won't need the extra weight anyways. The problematic part of the mod now becomes apparent - the stock toggle switches are soldered directly onto daughter PCBs together with wiring for with push buttons and backlight. We need to get rid of those board altogether. First step is to unplug all connectors from the main board, unscrew it and place it aside. Be careful not crack the connectors to the side PCB. There's another problem now. The side PCB has a corner for the status LEDs that sticks out under the plastic holder for the main PCB: Unscrew the plastic holder but be careful now the tensioning mechanism for the throttle arms is free to pop out: To remove the bottom (LASTE) board, push button and backlight wires have to de-soldered first. Leave as much wire intact as you do so: The side board goes in the same way - de-solder and remove: Push buttons can then be removed from inside throttle housing by pushing in the side tabs and pushing them out through the front similar to those on the stick grips. Now would be a good time to deal with the flaps switch. Only a small body locking switch will fit. Preferably a single pole Eaton/Cutler-Hammer 8855K10, but a 2-pole or a Honeywell TW should fit. The top needs to be removed. I had to cut the top off mine: To remove the the stock flaps switch the plastic top is first removed by pushing out the retaining pin from the side. The switch body is buried deep but can be extracted by carving hole through side of the throttle arm well to free the mounting nut from the back. The stock switch slides right out and you can transplant the wires onto the new switch and install it in the cavity: And mounted in place: Now to install the regular toggle switches, it should be noted that if you stick to 1-pole mil-spec switches (even if the real deal uses 2-poles) they should fit right away. 2-pole switches will require at least that the tabs on the back of the mounting holes be removed. I had to trim the corner off the structure around the throttle arms as well to fit the engine switches. Mounting the new toggle switches is straightforward. Experiment with the height of the bottom mounting nut to find a good height overall where the bushing or locking features won't interfere with the legend plate and the locking switches are clear of the throttle arms: The mag switch body is a 1" diameter cylinder so the tabs on the back of the EAC mounting hole have to be removed with pliers/drill/Dremel. The P1-7 OTTO push buttons are a bit wider than stock so their mounting holes need to be enlarged slightly to fit. There may not be room to use the big mounting nut on the back so press fit or hot glue the buttons in place from the back if needed. On to wiring. Let's start with the LASTE (bottom) panel. Here's how I mapped out the connections. Colors refer the ribbon to the main board: Cut the ribbon and splice on wires to extend and connect to the toggle switches and push buttons. The ground can be daisy chained between all switches and back to the ribbon. Note that the mag switch needs a Schottky diode across the solenoid terminals going from positive to negative terminal. This mitigates back current when the solenoid is engaged. We'll need to feed it at least 12VDC to hold in the solenoid and we need a way to turn the power on and off. I use a small Arduino Pro Micro and a custom MOSFET circuit for control. My MOSFET design is based on GSS Rain's fine work here, but you can also just buy a breakout MOSFET board online. It just have to be logic level so you can control it with the Arduino. Here's how it can be connected in general: Now we can read the physical toggle switch state and synchronize the solenoid with the sim. I wired up a female power socket that so I can feed it with a regular wall adapter. 1A@12V switching is fine. Here's the confusing mess when all wired up. Only the mag switch ON position, ground and the MOSFET circuit is connected to the Arduino so far: I control the backlight in a similar fashion. I joined all the red and black backlight wires into separate buses and wired them to a PWM port on the Arduino through another MOSFET board. The LEDS take 5V and will need a resistor on the ground wire for protection (since we removed the daughter boards that had some). I think I used 470R. The PWM port allows us to dim the lights by changing the pulses in code in response to the backlight intensity in the sim. The remaining toggle switches and push button on the side panel are a bit trickier. Here's an overview of the wiring: Everything connects to the 16-pin connector that plugs into the main board, so I built a little hub out of prototype board and a double row of male pins with standard 0.1" spacing. It should plug nicely back into the main board. Ground wires have to be connected to a single cable bus and to the proper hub pins and the signal wires from each switch have to be individually connected their hub pins: The hub sits higher than the side board used to so we have to raise the main board to be able to connect them. I used 10mm bushings and some longer screws to hold the main PCB in place: Connect all wires back to the main board and power on the throttle to see if everything is connected correctly (or fried) before closing up the throttle. To fit everything I had to 3d print 20mm tall frame with cutouts for the 12V plug and the Arduino and main cables: To attach the metal bottom plates again I used longer 4x40mm screws. Always be super careful when closing the throttle back up to avoid pinching wires or stripping the flimsy plastic threads in the housing. To put the legend plates back on I had to replace the double sided tape to make them stick. With everything back together we can 3d print and paint a replacement hat for the flaps switch. I just glued it on the rim of switch threading with a strong epoxy. The color is Tamiya AS-7 spray paint: Just the DCS-BIOS code for the mag switch and backlight left. Here's an example for the A-10C II using the latest version of DCS flight panels branch: To use the throttle for a module without native mag switch support in DCS-BIOS like the Hornet, we can use the Arduino Pro Micro as a USB keyboard and send a keystroke as a workaround. Note the console lights are implemented in weird way in the standard library (intensity output is an integer, so we need to use it in combination with the dimmer knob position): That's it. Enjoy the toggling

--------------------------------------------- Warthog throttle Upgrading the throttle panels NEW-> Upgrading the outboard (left) grip Warthog, Hornet and Cougar stick grips Mil-spec upgrades for Thrustmaster stick grips --------------------------------------------- I've upgraded all switches to mil-spec on the Warthog throttle to improve the switch feel and make it more functionally realistic. This is probably only of interest if you really like the A-10C. This includes mil-spec locking and standard Eaton/Cutler-Hammer switches on the panel, the locking flap switch, OTTO push buttons and a functioning Honeywell mag switch. I had to provide 12VDC and install an Arduino running DCS-BIOS and a MOSFET circuit to control and sync the mag switch with DCS. Due to the size of the mag switch I had to extend the height of the throttle body with a simple 3D printed frame. On the throttle grips I put in all Eaton/Cutler-Hammer and one Honeywell toggle switch, OTTO hat switches and push button, and a Mason force transducer slew control out of a real F15 throttle unit. The force transducer is interfaced directly with the throttle using a small prototype PCB from Deltasim. I couldn't fit the whole mechanism from the F15 so I dropped the push functionality. It does exist in the real A-10C AFAIK but it is unused so not a great loss. While I was at it, I rewired the panel backlight to the Arduino I needed for the mag switch. This allows the LEDS to be directly synchronized with the in-game panel light intensity using DCS-BIOS. We included the actual brightness parameter in the latest DCS BIOS module for the A-10C. We have it for the Hornet as well in the DCSflightpanels branch. Here's a short video showcasing the look and feel of the switches. I've listed the switches I used, what they are in the real jet (based on Deadman's list) and some Honeywell alternatives at the end that are readily available from e.g. mouser.com This mod is neither cheap nor easy to do. It could be argued that it is in fact totally unnecessary and I would for sure have loved to convert a real throttle unit instead and it probably would have been cheaper. Good luck finding one though I intend to post a more in-depth guide to the various mods later - here's the short version for now: Rip out all switches and sub PCBs Poke it a bit with a Dremel tool Install new switches and wire them up You're golden

I'm told the -1 describes two 3-position switches on the DVADR remote control panel

Alright thanks for the quick reply. Interesting about the DVADR switches. They do look small-ish in pictures, so MS27716-21-1 (1 pole, 3-position version of what you listed) does make sense. Canopy switch - surprised about the locking action. If your memory is correct I suppose it'll actually be the mirrored M type locking - what I mean is momentary in keyway, maintained and locked out of & into opposite keyway, (ON)-OFF<->ON .. I can't find a part number for a round head TW version, but I guess a TL equivalent could be 1TL1-5M (MS24658-31M), disregarding # of poles, termination and possible ON center position.

Two Three questions for ya, hoping for confirmation on real part numbers , Canopy switch - looks like a TL series -5E (or Eaton/C-H equivalent)? DVADR switches - don't look like regular Honeywell or Eaton switches (no visible red or grey lever seal). Something from another manufacturer or maybe like an AT series style switch without seal? NMSP panel, PTR switch - thought it might be a Honeywell TW series or Eaton 8869xx, but the bat looks off so might be from another manufacturer

For a brand new stick it sounds like you have a warranty issue. Sending it back is probably the only option unless you want to take it apart and mess with it yourself. Unfortunately this is such a specialized switch that there are no direct drop-in replacements outside of maybe a spare part from Thrustmaster.

Change your documentation reference to advanced and look at the output for the master mode selector. You can check the output when you change position with this: void onMasterModeSelectChange(unsigned int newValue) { /* your code here */ } DcsBios::IntegerBuffer masterModeSelectBuffer(0x4614, 0xe000, 13, onMasterModeSelectChange);

I get asked this a lot - no I haven't felt the need to swap 'em but I think it should be possible to do The switch bodies have different diameters so it'll require a bit of dremel and hot glue work to fit but it shouldn't be a big problem. If someone donated a grip to the cause I'd be happy to try it out haha

Agree Nikolas - that's more clear way to put it Didn't mean to imply that there's a mechanical connection from the gear - I agree with carrot that would be a bad solution. Also to be fair there's WoW sensors on all 3 F16 landing gear, but they're connected to different things. For example the right MLG sensor is among other things tied to the FCR, so a fault in that sensor could cause the FCR to transmit on the ground cooking the crew chief or inhibit it from transmitting in the air blinding you if the fault went the other way. Not sure where the physical sensors sit, dash 1 just states that they are somehow connected to the strut compression (or so I'm told)

Yeah, pretty clear I guess. If you do it in code you can get by with just the MOSFET for controlling power to the solenoid like I described in the other thread. Your Arduino can check for high/low state of a downlock override button directly on a digital pin and in code you just need to check that all WoW outputs from DCS-BIOS are 0.. But no matter - I think it'd be fun to see your solution with chips instead Regarding which wheels to check WoW, "I'm told" that the A10 dash 1 mentions that WoW has to be off the "wheels" in plural to be able to move the landing gear handle up, so I guess it would be correct to check all wheels. The downlock override is mentioned to be electrically actuated - and there is no uplock on the handle other than having to pull it backwards first. For the F16, again "I'm told" that the dash 1 states that WoW is only checked for left MLG for the gear handle downlock. The override is fully mechanical however. In addition the F16 has a solenoid held handle uplock - controlled by the down permission button on the handle. It is unclear however if the uplock can be overridden - might be that the downlock override does it. On the Tornado lever I used, the downlock is defeated by solenoid or a fully mechanical override button above the handle. There is also a mechanical uplock unlocked by a small lever on the switch handle. Later versions of the lever may function differently.

My unit had the wiring diagram printed right on the side of it. If yours doesn't you will need to find the connections yourself with a multimeter. Basically the thing is just a big switch (or a number of switches in parallel), like a normal toggle switch and you can connect it to DCS like one. I don't know the PSCockpit stuff so can't help you there unfortunately; I used DCS-BIOS.

Back when we came up with adding the WoW parameter to DCS-BIOS based on the gear animation state I used it to control the downlock solenoid on this Tornado landing gear switch. Around page 2 you can see this logic being applied to control the solenoid using a MOSFET. If you prefer, you can skip the physical nand gate and do the logic in code to check for WoW being 0 for all wheels to trigger the solenoid.

I haven't tried it. Most or all mil-spec push buttons and hat switches I've seen actually have polymer buttons and hats, but I certainly get the idea that metal can feel better. In this thread I've focused on upgrading TM switches to their real/realistic counterparts, but feel free to share the results if you try out the cougar swap For reference, check out the specs on the OTTO Controls T4/T5 full size and T4 "mini trim" hat switches..

The madness continues. I have successfully swapped out the Hornet sensor control switch with an OTTO T5-0146 5-way switch: I salvaged the mil-spec switch from a rear seat side handle out of a Tornado fighter bomber I found on EBay. The handle that is: The stock TM switch is very similar in size to the real deal, only the T5 is a bit longer with the terminals and black caulk on the bottom and the T5 hat/crown on top is slightly larger: The TM sensor control switch is easily removed from the face plate but removing the hot glue and pressing in the tabs on the back side. The T5 can then be press fit into place so the mod is in principle reversible: The biggest hurdle is dealing with the length of the T5. You have to remove a good chunk of the central plate to make room. Make sure to leave some structure to support the screw holes so the grip can be closed up again and be careful not to completely destroy the groove for the trigger. Below a shot seen from the front of the grip (disassembled): The hole on the right is for the T5, the one on the left was made earlier for the T4 trim switch. The wires on my T5 were unmarked but it was a simple job to find the common and directional wires with a multimeter. I left 5 cm in place and spliced it with the wiring bundle from the stock TM switch, matching with the correct wires: The tricky thing here is that the wires for push button are both red and you need to splice the correct one with the yellow common wire from the 4-way and on to the single common wire on the T5. If you get it wrong the push button will be shorted and show up as pressed all the time. Only way to be sure is to hook it all up, plug her in and test it.. I messed up and had to swap the two red wires from common to push again. I think the TM switch is pretty good but In the end I'm happy with the upgrade unnecessary as it is. In action I find that the throw on the T5 is quite a bit longer than the TM switch and it has less of an audible click when it closes the contacts. Here's a short video comparing the two: