TM Cougar & CH magnetoresistive/ hall sensor kits

[BlacleyCole]

Rel4y I haven’t received any contact but I’m ready to send funds thru pp

[GPatricks]

To save anybody a bit of grief, here are the CH Instructions in a nutshell..

 

Crimp one side of the spade connector down to fit tightly on the new sensor's pin or (better) solder the wire in place. The wiring connections are NOT the same sequence (Y Axis Green/Blue are reversed on OEM CH pot) on one axis of the USB Fighterstick so wire as follows or you will most likely toast the Y axis sensor. (The PCB pins are labeled)

For the USB throttle – GREEN =GND, YELLOW=OUT, BLUE=VCC

For the USB Fighterstick - GREEN =GND, BLUE=VCC

For the 3 FS Axis - BROWN=(X Axis) OUT, BLACK=(Y Axis) OUT and YELLOW=(Z Axis Throttle Wheel) OUT

Edited December 16, 2019 by GaryR

[rel4y]

Good news, I just took the time and answered every single email. :)

 

The next batch of Cougar sensors is ready. Here is a picture:

 

I didn't have time to finish the CH sensor installation guide yet. A day only has so many hours.. :(

[GPatricks]

I didn't have time to finish the CH sensor installation guide yet. A day only has so many hours.. :(

 

Hopefully the post above will help someone (like me!) avoid being in a rush to install and toasting their shiny new Fighterstick Y axis sensor while we wait!

 

:joystick:

Edited December 16, 2019 by GaryR

[rel4y]

If you want to order any of the Cougar mods, please email us under mtwsims@tutamail.com

[rel4y]

Today, I sent out a large batch of packages. Emails with the tracking number & installation instructions should be on their way too.

 

I will ship the last packages for this year on Monday, after that I am off to the family.

 

From now on I will be shipping the rev 1.3 Cougar throttle USB adapters. These are simply a slightly larger, cleaned up rev 1.2 board with the benefit of attaching the digital TLE5011 sensor and a shift register together without any hassle. On the same note, I also just received notice that my newly designed shift register boards have been shipped. These are Thrustmaster compatible 24Bit 4021 shift registers with teeny tiny SMD resistor networks, which was a good occasion to test factory PCB assembly. These will come in handy on my next projects and I will make a more detailed post next year. :)

 

[BlacleyCole]

Thanks Rel4y I got the email and will let you know when it arrives. Once I’m ready I’ll let you know if I have any questions/problems and my intial thoughts on the difference, ease of transformation and how it compared to the before cougar and also to the warthog hotas. It will most likely be an article in my blog next year. I am trying to do weekly post each Friday by having the article ready to publish a month earlier and being scheduled for release.

[Dispatch]

:thumbup: Got Mine ToDay,

Will install during weekend

also got

Insignia™ - 9' Micro-USB-to-USB Type A Cable - Blue,

 

from Best Buy, 9.99

 

 

Thank you Rel4y

~

[Tazman]

 

There is a lot more, but I will just show one little sneak peak. I designed the following piece of kit last November and made a few testprints back then. I feel now it is time for a full stainless steel version. Looks a lot like Aarnds latest FCC3, doesnt it? Electronics are updated though. :music_whistling:

 

 

 

:surprise: Oh man! This is surreal!!! Today I was pondering how unfortunate I have been that I didn't have the chance to own an FCC3, as I was thinking how to upgrade my abysmal original Cougar gimbals.

And...here it is! A new Force sensing gimbal candidate in the making, featuring a striking resemblance to the FCC3! Oh boy!

By "Electronics are updated though", do you mean that this, indeed, could be considered an FCC3 update?

 

If this is the case, then don't, for the love of God, dare to quit this project!!! Ever!!! :D :thumbup:

[BlacleyCole]

Rel4y let me know when it’s for sale I’ve got that cougar stick that’s going to be my f16 side stick so why not make it force sensitive

[Foxx]

Excellent product!

 

Received my Cougar Throttle Standalone USB and 14 bit GMR sensor today, and its working perfectly! Installation was a breeze, just following the pictures on the first post.

 

I plugged in the USB cable and it was recognized immediately as a Cougar Throttle, with all of the buttons detected. After a quick windows calibration I was up and running, super smooth!.

 

One thing to note, in the windows calibration, the UI for the Z axis only showed it moving maybe 1/4 of the band, at around 1024 full forward (off of memory). However, the preview window showed it as full range. I then opened the Virpil Joy Tester app, and in that app it did indeed show the full 14 bit range in testing. Thus that must have just been a weird windows nuance.

 

In any case, I am completely satisfied with the product, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking to breathe a new life into their cougar throttle.

 

Thanks again Rel4y!

 

-Foxx

[rel4y]

Hey guys,

I am back from vacation and have a few cool new toys in stock. :thumbup:

 

Lets start off with the new 4021 shift registers. These are compatible to the Thrustmaster hardware, to MMJoy2 and to my Cougar USB standalone adapter. The dimensions are 20 mm x 50 mm (0.79 in x 1.97 in), so they are very small and fit basically in everywhere. The pins are spaced in standard 2,54 mm (0.1 in) to fit normal header pins (see picture 2). I offer them either with or without header pins attached.

 

The shift register is 24 Bit, so it has 24 inputs that you can connect buttons to. It can also be daisy chained, so you can put several shift register boards in series. Eg MMJoy2 supports 12 shift registers in series. So if you daisy chain 4 of my 24 Bit shift register boards, you have a total of 96 button inputs with just 2 pins used. If this isnt pretty damn cool I dont know what is. :)

 

Price is 10€ per shift register.

 

[rel4y]

Does anybody know which allen hex screws the Thrustmaster TQS uses? None of my metric hex keys seem to fit.. I wanted to make an ALPS microstick slew mod, but cant get it open. :(

[Foxmike]

Indeed this was my problem no1 doing a TQS USB upgrade. I have some really large bit boxes and had to use intermediates "Zwischengrößen". One or two of them are round now. Next time I'll use can openers...

[Tazman]

Does anybody know which allen hex screws the Thrustmaster TQS uses? None of my metric hex keys seem to fit.. I wanted to make an ALPS microstick slew mod, but cant get it open. :(

 

Interesting...I've recently corrected the SPDBRK's misalignment and I clearly remember that all of the screws were Philips type...:huh:

 

EDIT: By the way, kudos for taking the initiative to make this update , which even if I don't seem to need yet (since my TQS is relatively unused), it seems inevitable to fail, as rumor has it...

 

Thanks for all your efforts man! :thumbup: I can't stress how important your work is! You give the chance to this very old cougar equipment to serve for many years yet...at least, until somebody (i.e., company) decides to reincarnate the beast...:music_whistling:

Edited January 9, 2020 by Tazman

[Sokol1_br]

You need imperial Allen hex, or taken one in metric a little bigger and use a Dremel for adjust. :)

[rel4y]

Indeed this was my problem no1 doing a TQS USB upgrade. I have some really large bit boxes and had to use intermediates "Zwischengrößen". One or two of them are round now. Next time I'll use can openers...

Geez, its driving me nuts! I finally managed to get one out, while wrecking one of my hex keys and I think its imperial 5/32 in. How on earth shall I get something like that in Europe...

 

Interesting...I've recently corrected the SPDBRK's misalignment and I clearly remember that all of the screws were Philips type...

 

EDIT: By the way, kudos for taking the initiative to make this update , which even if I don't seem to need yet (since my TQS is relatively unused), it seems inevitable to fail, as rumor has it...

 

Thanks for all your efforts man! :thumbup: I can't stress how important your work is! You give the chance to this very old cougar equipment to serve for many years yet...at least, until somebody (i.e., company) decides to reincarnate the beast...

The ones on the grip itsef are imperial hex. So are you using the little red thingy? Isnt that totally akward?

 

Edit:

You need imperial Allen hex, or taken one in metric a little bigger and use a Dremel for adjust.

I will try that tomorrow. Thanks Sokol! :)

 

Edit2:

Hah, I just had my bright moment of the day. Torx T10 fits perfectly. :thumbup:

Edited January 14, 2020 by rel4y

[Orr89]

I'm currently using a Realsimualtor adapter for my Cougar, however I keep switching back to the Warthog for the simple reason its smoother.

 

No matter what I try i cannot make the cougar smooth, it always wants to jump, which is really annoying when flying formation or air to air refueling.

 

I'd like to update my Cougar I just don't have the time nor will power to bring myself to do it because of this "sticky" action.

 

I have noticed that Winwing are currently in development of a F-16 throttle, looking at the review of the F-18 throttle they made its sounding good (avoiding the stick tho).

[Tazman]

The ones on the grip itsef are imperial hex. So are you using the little red thingy? Isnt that totally akward?

 

I rechecked and yes, mine are all Philips screws.

FYI my SN is in the 299xx range. It seems different batches may have this kind of differences. I think it is good to be mentioned for anyone that writes guides or howto's to have in mind...

 

Regarding the "little red thingy", what do you mean?...I am afraid I lost you there...:P

[rel4y]

I'm currently using a Realsimualtor adapter for my Cougar, however I keep switching back to the Warthog for the simple reason its smoother.

 

No matter what I try i cannot make the cougar smooth, it always wants to jump, which is really annoying when flying formation or air to air refueling.

 

I'd like to update my Cougar I just don't have the time nor will power to bring myself to do it because of this "sticky" action.

 

I have noticed that Winwing are currently in development of a F-16 throttle, looking at the review of the F-18 throttle they made its sounding good (avoiding the stick tho).

 

 

You might be interested in my Cougar Throttle hall sensor then. This will fix a jumpy pot. Check which mainboard type you have (instructions in the first post) and shoot me an email. While your at it you can also clean the Throttle mechanism and check if the resistance lever (operated by the little turn wheel) is seated correctly. It should be buttery smooth afterwards.

 

My TQS SN is 8218. It might be the earlier TQS then which have the hex screws. I am talking about the red little laptop mouse thingy, I only know it as clit mouse. :D It is about the worst slew input I can imagine... There's no way in hell I will keep that thing on my TQS, not sure what the TM engineers were thinking.

[Tazman]

My TQS SN is 8218. It might be the earlier TQS then which have the hex screws. I am talking about the red little laptop mouse thingy, I only know it as clit mouse. :D It is about the worst slew input I can imagine... There's no way in hell I will keep that thing on my TQS, not sure what the TM engineers were thinking.

 

Oh, now I get the magnitude of my ignorance... From the beginning I was referring to the COUGAR TQS, while you were to the F-16 TQS. The older model...:doh: :blush:

 

So...whatever I mentioned is irrelevant...Sorry for the confusion. (Should I delete my previous replies to not confuse others also? I'm not familiar with the forum procedures...)

[BlacleyCole]

I received the kits today, there were only two sensors and something else if it was the usb conversion how does it work as I don’t see the place to plug a usb cable in plus no sensor for the throttle. Is the throttle parts shipped separately or are those the throttle and the stick coming separate?

Edited January 11, 2020 by BlacleyCole

[rel4y]

The USB adapter looks like shown in the photo on the first page of this thread. You should also have received a link to a PDF with installation instructions. Is there not a little device with a red PCB and colorful cables attached in the package? :o

[BlacleyCole]

I found the usb pcb the micro USB port was hidden by the wrapping. But I only got two sensors I should have enough for both the throttle and stick or are more coming

[rel4y]

The throttle axis sensor is attached to the USB adapter and the corresponding magnet axle was either loose in the package or is wrapped in the bubble wrap beneath the adapter. Did you get the PDF? There are installation instructions with pictures, from there it should be clear which part is doing what. :)