MSFF2 - CH Fighterstick Handle Conversion

Thanks to forum members for some tips, and in particular Boris for suggesting the Fighterstick as a possible candidate for my conversion when looking at the options of maybe putting my Warthog stick on the MSFF base.

So I wanted a force feedback stick with a twist rudder, plus lots of warthog style buttons, of course, nothing like this exists.

I have a Warthog, I also have a Logitech G940, I had at this point the MSFF2, and of all the sticks I liked the way the MSFF felt when flying, but naturally wanted all the buttons from my Warthog, hence the purchase of the G940....the G940 is ok, but feels a little grindy compared to the MSFF, and of course still has no twist rudder.

Hence the Fighterstick handle conversion.

Now my mod is not as tidy as some I have seen because I wanted to retain the rudder, I looked at all the possible ways to do this that were within my means and settled with trimming down the original MSFF shaft so it could slide inside the Fighterstick handle, then be hot glued, and finally pinned with a screw whilst keeping the rudder functionality.

I am really happy with this mod, everything works fully, tucked away the controller board for the CH in the base of the MS and made a second USB cable exit point, all works in DCS perfectly, just need to figure a way out to tidy the bottom bit up now, any suggestions ?

If this had been a straight handle swap it would have been super super easy to switch over the handles and redo the wiring to suit.

Thanks again to those who have helped in some way.

Looks really good.

I think I would have used epoxy instead of hot glue, but this will do.

To tidy things up I'd say remove all the excess glue, sand, fill any voids with either modeling putty or epoxy filler, sand, repeat until smooth.

Little though will need to go in if you need possibility to open the handle for service.

Thanks, As I currently have it you can split the handle down like it would have been from the factory, thus if the base ever dies I can transfer it across to my backup in less than 30mins work.

Those pics are not really that great either to be honest :)

I have a lot of cable management to sort out again as you can see :pilotfly:

Aesthetically It doesn't look to bad really.

Your hand however will appreciate a smoother surface. but then again hard to tell from picture, maybe it is smooth enough to touch.

Cool stuff. Looks like you a sim racer as well. That msffb makes a really nice adjustable stick shift lever and you have in the just right place :)

And Be careful about that cup of coffee while you work on cabling :)

The glue has been trimmed a little compared to the first two pics I posted, I will trim it back further and explore the modelling putty solution, it works just fine as it is, just wanna make the finish a little better I guess :music_whistling:

Yup into Sim Racing, that's my problem, there is no easy way to make use of those pedals for Flight Sims sadly, hence needing the twist rudder solution and all this hassle, my setup is deliberately dual use, looking forward to tidying up the rest of the cabling and stuff again now I got this project mostly finished.

I have the big sequential gear shift on the left there, also doubles as a H-Pattern shifter with the flick of a couple of switches, however, I did a long while back used to use a MSFF for a force feedback gated shifter solution in a porsche cockpit that I made :D, worked very nicely indeed actually.

Went from this.....

to this.......

All fully working gauges and stuff.....I will sometime soon start building A10C panels, already bought some switches and other controls :P

Ahhh i remember you from TWIP Mark...

Damn, not been to TWIP for ages, some cool car pits on that page last time I looked :)

Looking forward to starting to build some A10 stuff now.

I like your "game-boy corner" :D ... very nice!

Thanks mate :)

Just hoping the work I do on the A10 Panels comes out somewhere near good, guys here have set the standard so high, frankly amazes me, but as they are not for sale I guess you just have to make your own right :joystick:

I been having trouble running flight and racing sims on the same cockpit to.. Ended up buying a GTUltimate from next level racing.

That is what this is, except I had to do a lot of welding and metal work to make it stable and actually worth using, the enormous GT seat is in my garage awaiting sale.

The amount of welding and customisation I have done to this makes me wish I had just custom built it from the start !!

ok...i know this thread is stone old...but im actually thinking about doing the same...except, i dont want to keep the twist function as i have rudder pedals....

anybody here who has done this?

for now, i only started to remove the grip of the ch-fighterstick from the base...the boards are still wired with the grip...but, there is still the plastic cover on the lower side of the shaft for the aileron-axis...will i have to open the grip to get rid of it?

If you don't want "twist", don't need cut MSFFb2 grip nor CH grip like the OP did, just fit the whole CH grip over the pole shaft of MSFFb2 base.

will the ch-grip fit on the msffb2 shaft?

"PnP" probable not, but you find a way to "fit". :)

There's examples in this forum, but the "search" don't help to find.

ok...now i completely got rid of the base of the ch-stick...i figured i had to open the grip to completely get rid of the unnecessary parts...the problem was, that there was 1 screw, where the thread was completely messed up...i tried really hard to open it but without success...so all i could do is to drill the screw out...finally i could open the ch-grip....and bang, first problem...drilling the screw out of the grip, also cut the wire, and some buttons stopped working. 9small wires within 1 isolation tube...horrible work, they have probably half a millimeter diameter...but luckily now after hours of fiddeling around i got them back working...so now i have a free and working ch-grip.....next step would probably be, to open the msffb2 grip i guess.

i know sokol,...i already searched this forum, but i only found this thread so far..

Take in mind that CH Fighterstick grip is 20 buttons, MSFFB2 is able to handle only 12, so you need keep the CH circuit to handle their grip buttons, can fit their PCB inside MSFFB2 base.

The FFB2 circuit will handle only the axis and Force Feedback.

For computer/games this will be 2 sticks.

^^this is exactly my plan...

there are two benefits i see:

- i dont have to solder which i did last ~10years ago in school

- as the grip is still recognized as a ch-fighterstick, i can also use the ch-control manager

now the question, can i just cut the wires from the msffb2 grip?

If MSFFB2 don't use connectors, cut the wires and add a heatsink tube over the tips.

Just don't cut their pole shaft, adapt CH grip for this shaft, or using a tube join the MSFFB2 shaft with CH shaft.

Look how this guy did (using Tm F22 grip):

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=152723&highlight=MS+force+feedback+mod

quick update...sidewinder grip is removed, and axis tested in windows and dcs...axis and ffb working perfectly fine...

now i have a 15mm diameter aluminuim tube which i plan to use as an extension...it almost fits onto the sidewinder shaft...i dont know whether i should try to grind a little off the plastic shaft of the sidewinder to make it fit, or if i somehow would be able to slightly widen the aluminuim tube...

anyway, the biggest problem im facing now is, that i cannot get the circuit board of the fighterstick through the shaft of the sidewinder...so i fear, i will need to cut the wire(s), and put them back together once the board has its place in the sidewinder base...

ok...extension fits onto the sidewinder shaft..now i need to make sure it also fits onto the ch-grip...

Dremel makes "fit". :D

Tip - don't fit the rigid in the grip, allow the tube rotate inside the grip, so you can set a offset angle between 0 and 20 degrees for left, more ergonomic for hand for use stick in center position.

After set tightening the grip screws fit the tube in position, I modified my CH grips in this way.

lol, i wish i had a proper dremel....i better dont even say what "tools" i used to make it fit...:lol:

work is finished. made a very brief test flight yesterday evening, and i'm already sure the effort was worth it:thumbup:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3024041&postcount=101

work is finished. made a very brief test flight yesterday evening, and i'm already sure the effort was worth it:thumbup:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3024041&postcount=101

Great job! that's my next project :thumbup:

Did you encounter any problems with un-balanced stick (because of its higher weight and form than the FF2) ?