Wrightie Posted August 9, 2019 Posted August 9, 2019 Hi Folks, After a couple of months hiatus from DCS i decided to climb back into the cockpit again. Upom firing up DCS and jumping into the Tomcat i've noticed some odd behaviour with my Warthog throttles. As i us VR i have a button mapped to zoom, this doesn't always work or sometimes when i hold it down the view will flick forward and backwards like i'm pressing it multiple times. The default Jester menu button doesn't always work. The 3 position switch on the side of the right throttle (weapons arm) was flicking on and off while in the arm position. My master light switch was flicking on and off while turning it on ( can here multiple clicks from the sim too) I was pressing the button i have mapped to pause (the nipple on the front of the right throttle) and as well as pausing it also brought up the Jester menu. All rather odd behaviour. Is this a driver issue or a fault with the stick itself? I plugged the stick in and windows installed the drivers. After a bricked Windows installation and a faulty stick of RAM i put in 16gb new RAM and reinstalled Windows and everything else from scratch.... although some of the issues were present before.... the zoom one and Jester menu being temperamental at times. Most of these issues only appear using the Tomcat. The Hornet, Huey and F-15 only have the zoom issue. The stick was brand new in Nov 18. Is this a quirk of DCS or a faulty stick? Sounds daft to ask but i went through several x-52s back in 2010 that all suffered the same button not working in FSX so wanted to see if anyone else has come accross this at all before going down the replacement route Sorry it's a bit of a ramble but thanks for taking a look.
Drakoz Posted August 10, 2019 Posted August 10, 2019 To many variables. Isolate just the throttle and make sure it is working in the Thrustmaster TARGET Device Analyzer (it will show you all axis and DirectX buttons). If you are programming the throttle with TARGET, also use the Device Analyzer as well as the TARGET Event Tester to see programmed key strokes. But more likely, it might just be that you need to clear all your DCS command configs (mappings for the Warthog and all other game controllers you use) because after major updates, they sometimes mess with the config tables and corrupt things. Do the two things above first and it will go a long way toward fixing or narrowing things down.
Wrightie Posted August 12, 2019 Author Posted August 12, 2019 Thank you for the advice Drakoz, it is a completely fresh install of windows and DCS but will give that ago. I'll install T.A R.G.E.T and have a look at that too.
Wrightie Posted August 12, 2019 Author Posted August 12, 2019 I've just installed T A.R.G.E.T but couldn't find where to test the buttons of the throttles. I opened up joy.cpl and noticed the behaviour below. Basically the hat switch on the front of the throttle works as a hat switch apart from when i hold Right. In that instance it triggers button 8. The hat switch on the right of the throttles triggers buttons 4 (up) 5 (forward) and 6 (down) however when pushing the hat back it triggers up on the POV hat graphic in the game controllers config. Video below. Is there something funny going on with my throttles or is this how they're supposed to be?
Sokol1_br Posted August 12, 2019 Posted August 12, 2019 Could be internal wires smashed, that in some throttle positions cause short circuit and cause ghost buttons press.
Wrightie Posted August 12, 2019 Author Posted August 12, 2019 Having just fired up the sim for a quick flight the buttons on the throttles are going haywire. Nothing appears to work as mapped, multiple button presses. Going to have to go down the replacement route unfortunately. Am gutted as i expected better quality for £400 issues with these throttles seems to affect quite a few of these units.
Drakoz Posted August 15, 2019 Posted August 15, 2019 Ya, looks like a hardware problem. Is it under warranty? Or are you comfortable with opening it up. If so, make sure all the connectors are on tight and look for pinched or messed up wires as Sokol1_br suggests. You might get lucky. Sorry to hear it. Take it slow and careful if you take it apart. Some parts inside the throttle are not easy to reassemble (like the springs that hold the friction pads for the throttle levers - avoid taking that stuff apart if you can). But the main goal is to make sure all the wires are connected or not broken. The Thrustmaster TARGET Device Analyzer (for monitoring the analog axis and DirectX buttons) and the Event Tester (for monitoring keyboard presses) can be run from the icon bar along the top of the TARGET Script Editor. Or you can run the .exe files directly from the TARGET installation directory. I don't remember if they give you Start Menu icons.
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