msmith301

What are you using when using the alternate (Red) controls in red shown? I picked up a seperate Numpad the other day at an office supply and attached to my control dash to use for the same thing. Minimal cost and very small. Takes up no room at all. Had some extra brackets that I was looking to use that worked out perfect. Mounted it on the vertical panel left side of flight sim above throttle. Flight Sim picture is before I picked up numpad. Excuse the mess. This is my out of town rental house/man cave. I built this thing in a a couple of hours in the rental house garage using some 1/2" MDF and 3" PVC legs. Also used a bunch of misc. brackets left over from work. Wife has no say in this domain!!! (Unless she comes to visit...LOL.):D I was already told I'm not allowed to bring this home..except the chair.

Warthog sets over here are going around $500. US if you can even find one. Plus I've looked at the different types of toggles, dials, and switches they have on it. Hate when they name a switch for you because it's what's on a certain aircraft. At least the Virpil Throttle base doesn't tell what it should be used for. Even those are pricey. $400 just for a throttle base. I was looking at the Koolertron as well for half the price of the X-Keys but you can't do a whole lot with naming or labeling the keys. The X-Keys gives me twice as many keys on the same panel plus they have replacement clear plastic keys that you can drop labels into. I also like where you can block out a row of keys to separate keys by groups. I want to get it to the point where I never have to look at an ordinary keyboard when flying trying to do multi-key combinations to operate something on your plane while your trying to fly is ridiculous.

Actually I have been using the VHF/UHF 4 way radio control/T2-T6 on the front side of the throttle for TDC left/right/up/down. Then when I want to lock target I use the button 29 for the radar cursor. Works just the same. I haven't really had a need for all of the UHF/VHF controls as of yet so I'll figure something out then. I've been looking at the X-Keys Programmable keyboards to mount in front of me instead of the regular keyboard. I can have all of the controls and keyboard macros in one button right in front of me. They also have clear key board covers for labels and blanks so you can label keys and section off certain parts of the keypad. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092SJ8YU/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B003MB780E&pd_rd_w=A5HXb&pf_rd_p=48d372c1-f7e1-4b8b-9d02-4bd86f5158c5&pd_rd_wg=ybsMx&pf_rd_r=TATG382YESAQ27MJBPH0&pd_rd_r=51369f4b-a5dd-4126-b0aa-42ea5abe2a57&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTUtUWFVJV1NJTjVHJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjgyODQzMUhaRkYzSllXMUFQTiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTU0NDQ5MjFUV0FJN0Y4UVRHNCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092SGI0C/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B003MB780E&pd_rd_w=A5HXb&pf_rd_p=48d372c1-f7e1-4b8b-9d02-4bd86f5158c5&pd_rd_wg=ybsMx&pf_rd_r=TATG382YESAQ27MJBPH0&pd_rd_r=51369f4b-a5dd-4126-b0aa-42ea5abe2a57&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTUtUWFVJV1NJTjVHJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjgyODQzMUhaRkYzSllXMUFQTiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTU0NDQ5MjFUV0FJN0Y4UVRHNCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

Yes. Button 29 works for the microstick on everything I've tried it on, DCS control panel, TARGET, and HOTAS CCP just not the axis controls. Was using the calibration routines in CCP last night but while everything else responded to the controls nothing from the microstick axis controls. The entire clean sweep sounds a little involved. Have to look into this tomorrow night. It's hard keeping up sometimes being in such different parts of the world creating different hours of being on the internet. But I seriously appreciate the help and input. Thing I'm starting to get this narrowed down.

After digging around in the files I found the HotasUpdate.exe file and was able to update the drivers, version, whatever..sheesh!! Was able to swap out the microstick Y and X axis for the toe brakes but still no recognition in any of the software calibration or setups. I can only assume they must be broken. Now I need to load Foxy....Saving that for tomorrow night. I'M DONE FOR TONIGHT!!! All I wanna do is fly!! :cry_2:

And then it gets even more frustrating when you can't even get the damn error message you screen shot onto your computer because of the damned Google security crap!!! The simplest things to do always seem to be the most frustrating, aggravating and baffling. Anyway the message says: HOTAS Cougar control panel version 3.01 "Your current firmware does not support the latest calibration features." "Please launch HotasUpdate.exe to be able to use this CCP"

I was going thru all the steps. I didn't get the error message about the "STTubedevice203.dll" file needing to be copied and pasted into the Window/Wow64 file because somehow it was already in there without me actually putting it there. However I can't open the CCP panel because I'm getting this error message: HOTAS CCP Error message.pdf

After looking over my laptop and (finally!) finding the manual it would appear that my laptop has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C port. Doesn't Gen 2 give you 10 or 20 GB/s?

Did you create the file name shown here for the DCS JF-17 or did Foxy generate it for you? Just seems a little strange for Foxy to generate something so specific.

That's one of the reasons I was originally looking at SSD external storage drives. I have had several laptop HDDs go bad on me from traveling when I was told about the SSD drives.

Got it thanks

Rudel chw; Question: On page 3 of your download you say the installer will copy driver files into the default folder C:\Program Files(x86)\HOTAS However when I look into the Program Files (x86) there is no HOTAS folder present. Should this folder already be present or does the installer create the HOTAS folder for you? Just want to verify a few things before I start this process.

Yeah I just spent the last half hour reading it. Remembered downloading it when I first hooked my controllers back up.

Is there anything with the Cougar HOTAS that should be loaded up before loading Foxy V4.0 Drivers, etc..? All I ever did was just plugged in the controllers and started using them. Never installed any basic software for them. Also should I install the HOTAS Cougar Foxy V4.0 Flight Sim Support Pack? Does it have anything worth while or are they older sims that are no longer used?

So [Program Files] and [Program Files (x86)] have no special meaning or design to them other than a place to store all program files?

I thought the base files had to be located in the [Program Files] or or [Program Files (x86)] folders. I don't know a lot about computer base code so I'm just reaching here.

All I know is it's a 512 GB SSD laptop. Can't really do anything to it because it't my work laptop. That's why I was looking to do external drive. I only have 10 gigs left. Most of it being in program files for either DCS, GOG, Steam or Ubisoft. Problem is I've probably uninstalled most of the other games because of DCS.

If you used Foxy for your DCS aircraft instead of DCS control panel wouldn't you have to set up a separate file in Foxy for each aircraft you fly in DCS and then wouldn't you have to go into Foxy and apply that format to the controls before you could use it? If you set up your controls in Foxy for emulate the F-15 but then wanted to fly the F-5E wouldn't they conflict with other?

Damn!! Not another museum piece...lol.

AGREED! I plan to load Foxy at my earliest convenience and try it out. Right now my next major purchase is going to be the F-14 Tomcat. Summer discount plus have a bunch of miles to use with it. When I loaded up and activated the TARGET software it caused problems when I tried to fill in the rest of the keyboard controls on the DCS control window. I't kept adding the mouse button 1 to the profile when I used the mouse button to click the OK button at the bottom right corner. So I had to shut down TARGET and restart DCS. As soon as I did it went away. Guess they don't play well together. Having said that can you use Foxy combined with DCS or will I have the same conflicts?

The main reason I was looking to do the TUSB converter we because I can't get anything to recognize the radar cursor on the throttle. Even the new TARGET software. Guess I may have to load up the old Foxy software.

I notice you are still using the Cougar HOTAS yourself despite having a pretty high end system. How come you've never upgraded? Mine is a question of finances. Since I'm just getting back into the game from a 15 year pc hiatus I figured I'd just try to use some of my older stuff. Yes my Cougar HOTAS is at least 15 years old along with the Elite rudder pedals. As far at the controls go I've been pretty satisfied. Although I did have to repair a broken gimble in my joystick shortly after setting them back up. Thank god a very generous DCS player saw the forum and had the extra part he sent me. I've since purchased the Virpil Warbird base to replace the TM joystick base should this happen again which is more than likely. Just haven't had time to set up the new base. The only other thing I will need to do is purchase the RealSim TUSB converter for my throttle to separate it from the Cougar base.

There's only 19 megs of video in there. I've only been recording my videos for a short time now. Usually dogfight videos and only have a couple of those. Most of my flight time has been learning the planes and training. Good thing to keep an eye on though.

I guess the bottom line is can I run DCS if it is loaded onto a USB 3.0 external hard drive without losing any performance? IMHO DCS was not meant to be played with "dumb'ed down" graphics and specs. What's the fastest read speed I can expect from a 3.0 USB port?

Actually it's USB 3.0 2nd generation 2x2 technology whatever that is. They have the USB 3. close to the 2 gen to make it look like USB 3.2 I know my new laptop has 3.0 plus the 4 port USB hub that I use is a"powered" 3.0 as well. [Edit] I stand corrected. Although the title says 3.0 when you read further down into the specs it talks about it being exactly that...USB 3.2 Gen.2 with 2x2 technology. I assuming this would only move as fast as a USB 3.0 port would allow it to. IS ANYBODY IN DCS PLAYING OFF AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE USING USB 3.0?