ColonelPanic

I'll take a look at that, thanks Rudel. The rudders wouldn't show up under Windows... I had to install the drivers for that... and that now replaces the control panel I used to calibrate with TM's viewer, and the rudder is still off-center to the right. Fortunately, the trim controls in the CCP could fix this better than they could the stick, so I'm not going to worry about it at this point, just glad the Cougars are doing their thing. I had to break away for a long work project, but as soon as I can I will look at the calibration document you referenced. Thank you again for all your help.

This seems to be solved now. Windows was the culprit. Their joystick calibration panel is hidden in Windows 10. If you search for "joy.cpl" in the Windows search bar, you'll get more direct controls to your joysticks, and one of them is calibration. Once I went through this (with the throttle connected), everything was centered in DCS and steady as a rock (with no Thrustmaster drivers or software installed). Plus, I have some hot new Rel4y sensors that I can already tell are making a big difference. The rudder isn't recognized yet, but I'm working on that. Will report back.

Great tip, I did not think of that. Thank you.

Interesting development... had the opportunity to plug the Cougar stick into another computer and launch DCS. I did this without any Cougar drivers installed (when I did this with my computer after un-installing all the software and drivers, it still showed it off-center), This time, the stick was centered perfectly, so whatever is going on is not with the Cougars. Now to find out what in the world could be wrong with my computer such that it's doing this to the stick. I didn't have a chance to plug the throttle or rudders in, but I'd be surprised if they weren't centered as well. This makes me happy, because now I at least know the Cougars aren't the problem.

I’d be open to trying that. Would need some very detailed guidance, though, as this sounds a bit outside my skill set. I don’t want to be s burden on anyone, but it sounds interesting.

I think I've reached the point where I'm going to have to give up on this and replace them with the Warthogs when I can. Very sad. Rudel has been incredibly patient and helpful in trying to help me solve this, (and I've learned tons from him), and I appreciate that very very much!

That’s very kind of you to offer, sir. Let me go over your software setup post and see if I missed anything during setup, then I may take you up on that. Cheers!

Thanks again for all the thoughts and ideas, and for explaining that so clearly. Sadly, after I did those steps several times, it still won't center. I think I'll try uninstalling all the drivers, just in case something got tweaked. After that it seems like it might be time to move on. Best regards!

Reporting back... I installed Rel4y's sensor replacements, and they are definitely a big upgrade, and very easy to install. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be what was causing the centering problem with the X-axis. It is still off to the right by the exact same amount as with the old pots. The gimbals seem fine... I can't detect anything that looks broken or not straight. I'm very surprised, and not sure where to go from here. If anyone has any other ideas for what might cause this, I'd love to hear. Not sorry at all that I bought the replacement pots!

Thank you for all the info. The XR thumbwheel is actually in good shape, it was just twisted a bit when I screenshotted the viewer. I took the stick apart and that X-axis pot is indeed very squirrelly. Could feel something weird happening in there when I turned it with my fingers. Gimbals look fine, at least to my eye. I will definitely replace the pots, looks like--at the very least--they're an upgrade, and I should have them anyway. If that doesn't fix it, at least I know they're not the problem (but I bet they are). I'll post a follow-up after I replace them. Cheers and thanks again. :thumbup:

Hi all... brand new here, but a long-time simmer, and a long-time Cougar owner. The stick and throttle are both bone-stock, no modifications, and about 15 years old. They've always been very solid, no troubles, so I've never had to fuss with them much, but recently after a little break, I hooked them back up and found that both the X-axis on the stick and the ZR-axis on the rudder are off to the right (see pics attached). It causes enough yaw and roll to make things pretty unflyable. I've done a lot of searching, but couldn't seem to find this particular issue. No amount of calibrating using the CCP will fix this, and I can't seem to get the CCP to maintain some of the settings. I've tried setting it to User Mode and manually calibrating, then saving that as a profile that gets loaded on startup, but the next time I open the CCP, the settings are back to default. I've tried re-flashing the stick with the newest firmware I could find, with no change. I've also tried adjusting the trim setting in the Axis Shaping tab of the CCP (which the software will remember), but when I set this to -7, it's just shy of center (still rolls the plane), and when I set it to -8, due to the size of the increments, it jumps over the center and begins rolling left. Can't set it to -7.5. In addition, this adjustment means that I can't give the plane full right aileron, since the trim setting seems to shift the entire range of motion, not just the center point. I know the pots in these controllers are widely held to be not that great, and some have offered better ones in the past that people have modded their sticks with. I would put better parts in them if that would fix it, but I don't want to replace these controllers with the Warthog unless I absolutely have to--they are still pristine, no visible wear and tear on the exterior, and everything is like-new except for this, so it seems a shame to not try to fix them even if it's a hardware issue. EDIT: This doesn't help me with the rudders, but I suppose I can replace those easier than I can the stick... this is why I'm hoping this can be a software fix. Does anyone know how maybe to address this? Also, out of curiosity, are the Warthogs still supported by TM? Thank you in advance very much for any assistance! Here are my particulars: Windows 10 Home version 1809 TM Driver version (in and out): 2.0.3.0 CCP version: 3.01 Foxy version 4.4.02 Firmware version 3.06