Throttletek Fighter GF-14 Throttle

[Blood-n-Guts]

I'm sure this was posted somewhere on this forum, but I want to share it, the Fighter GF-14 Throttle, from Throttletek.

 

https://throttletek.com/gf-14-throttle/

 

I have seen comments that their products are not of good quality, any information they have would be good.

 

Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vídeo:

 

https://youtu.be/ghmjbvIElsQ

[punk]

Do a search, I already made a post reference this particular product. Sorry, too busy to write up something now. Buyer Beware is all I have time for right now. Though your mileage may vary...:punk:

[Blood-n-Guts]

Do a search, I already made a post reference this particular product. Sorry, too busy to write up something now. Buyer Beware is all I have time for right now. Though your mileage may vary...:punk:

 

Thanks Punk, I already located your publication, :noexpression: ohhh I was almost to buy it.

 

:thumbup: Thanks friend...

[Mich Mich]

I almost bougth it a while ago, good on me I didn't! They were asking US$1500 at this time...

[RustBelt]

So the wing sweep cover doesn't talk to DCS, and lifting the wing sweep handle isn't a thing.....so....? $800? Also why does the Comm 4 way look like a button and the speed brake is labeled "Radar Mode"?

[lunaticfringe]

Because they were shoddy on their documentation and used F-14D materials for partial reference.

 

Punk, you ever get handles for that quadrant? Might be able to help you in the not too distant future.

[Gunslinger22]

I’m looking at possibly getting them, might hold off a while now, though the quality doesn’t look terrible from the latest video.

[Blood-n-Guts]

Because they were shoddy on their documentation and used F-14D materials for partial reference.

 

Punk, you ever get handles for that quadrant? Might be able to help you in the not too distant future.

 

Interesting lunaticfringe ...

 

It would be interesting if any of you were encouraged to build an F-14 throttle, I would give my money.

 

I see that VKB and Virpil are not interested in producing it, so you have to resort to third parties.

 

In my opinion Throttletek made some changes in the construction of this throttle, but it is very risky to pay $ 800 if the product is of low quality.

 

We will have to wait for someone more risky to buy it and publish something.

 

:( By lowering the price from $ 1500 to $ 800, that's not a good thing either ...

[punk]

Because they were shoddy on their documentation and used F-14D materials for partial reference.

 

Punk, you ever get handles for that quadrant? Might be able to help you in the not too distant future.

Hey Mr. Fringe, No, I never was able to for that quadrant. I did come across a second one with A handles, it would be nice to have the extra button or two of the D though.

 

Salute,

[Gunslinger22]

Yeah I emailed him about the Mic 4 way hat looking like a button and he told me that the Tomcat throttles only had one 4 way hat for the wing sweep. I showed him the correct throttle layout which he said they can easily do. Still concerning that they didn’t get it right though.

[Extranajero]

It looks like an OK effort for a home DIY-er with a 3D printer and some basic model making skills.

I would trust it as far as I could throw it in daily use though. I certainly wouldn't pay $800 for it.

 

Recently I saw a complete, useable, good condition, Tornado throttle quadrant sell on Ebay for under £400 - because it's from a Tornado it has wing sweep, two throttles and a flap lever.

Add some sensors and a Leo Bodnar board and it would last forever...

[Uxi]

Anyone ever give thought to the mechanism that would be needed for a moving wing sweep handle, if not auto throttle?

 

If building a replica simpit, $800 itself is approachable though I'd be concerned about longevity.

[lunaticfringe]

The drive of the sweep handle is a stepper motor and DCS bios. Not an insurmountable problem.

 

What is, however, difficult at the hobbyist level is the operation of the sweep handle with the spider gear incrementation. While one would think the sweep handle should work like an axis, it really doesn't; instead, the travel is broken down into roughly 4 degree sections, plus one for the oversweep setting. You pull the handle, select region, push in, and you push into that 4 degree area gating. Meanwhile, while we're limited to apply emergency settings with that method, the handle still sweeps in a linear fashion when controlled by the CADC.

 

Now you're talking about the need to not only have a stepper to drive the handle in both directions, but the engineering of an arrangement that takes shape in two ways to perform the interaction- a latching method that the motor can still drive the handle across at each step, and a method of reporting that position back to DCS 1:1 when we're applying the emergency setting.

 

None of it's insurmountable, and to be honest- at that price point I'd expect this to have at least been considered on the motor drive point, even if the recreation of the increments can't be achieved. But it's not going to be a weekend project, to be sure- and for easiest effect, would likely demand a special control implementation by HB to pull off banding with an axis, or a switch logic to define the regions of travel in a more controllable fashion.

 

Not something I'd begin to expect anytime soon.

[Blood-n-Guts]

The drive of the sweep handle is a stepper motor and DCS bios. Not an insurmountable problem.

 

What is, however, difficult at the hobbyist level is the operation of the sweep handle with the spider gear incrementation. While one would think the sweep handle should work like an axis, it really doesn't; instead, the travel is broken down into roughly 4 degree sections, plus one for the oversweep setting. You pull the handle, select region, push in, and you push into that 4 degree area gating. Meanwhile, while we're limited to apply emergency settings with that method, the handle still sweeps in a linear fashion when controlled by the CADC.

 

Now you're talking about the need to not only have a stepper to drive the handle in both directions, but the engineering of an arrangement that takes shape in two ways to perform the interaction- a latching method that the motor can still drive the handle across at each step, and a method of reporting that position back to DCS 1:1 when we're applying the emergency setting.

 

None of it's insurmountable, and to be honest- at that price point I'd expect this to have at least been considered on the motor drive point, even if the recreation of the increments can't be achieved. But it's not going to be a weekend project, to be sure- and for easiest effect, would likely demand a special control implementation by HB to pull off banding with an axis, or a switch logic to define the regions of travel in a more controllable fashion.

 

Not something I'd begin to expect anytime soon.

 

I think VKB together with Heatblur would accomplish this, but will they?

[Robert31178]

I'm a little late seeing this whole set up. Does anyone know what, if anything, has been changed on these? I reached out to the manufacturer and was quoted starting at $1200. Seems like a lot but I'm also not afraid of spending money on my DCS habit. That said, I don't want to pay real money for something that will break on me in three or four years. Call me spoiled, but the CH gear that my newer controllers are replacing were all purchased in 2009, and all three of them work just fine still. Replacements HAVE TO last me at least that long. 

 

Again, not purposely trying to resurrect a dead thread, just been away for a year and wanted any info before I throw money away!

~Rob

[LASooner]

I'm a little late seeing this whole set up. Does anyone know what, if anything, has been changed on these? I reached out to the manufacturer and was quoted starting at $1200. Seems like a lot but I'm also not afraid of spending money on my DCS habit. That said, I don't want to pay real money for something that will break on me in three or four years. Call me spoiled, but the CH gear that my newer controllers are replacing were all purchased in 2009, and all three of them work just fine still. Replacements HAVE TO last me at least that long. 
 
Again, not purposely trying to resurrect a dead thread, just been away for a year and wanted any info before I throw money away!
~Rob

Is that the metal hand grip version? Last year, I got the mostly resin version with hall effect sensors for something close to $900. Others I've spoken to, who got one as well, seem to have gotten different functionality. My wing sweep lever is microswitches for the various positions, which actually worked out ok as I adjusted the controls LUA to recognize when I lift the lever, then put it back down when I put it in a specific position. Others got an axis for their wing sweep, but you still need to bind the lift to something with that and add the axis to the LUA as well. You could create an input that would reconize the cover lift to also lift the lever and put it down when you close it.

As I have said to others, I like it, it's not worth it at these prices, and for that I can't recommend it, but I'm like you I will stupidly pay to have fun the way I want to. I know other have had issues with Roberto, but he was helpful when I had an issue with the hat switches, and after figuring out the problem sent me a new set of hat switches.

It's a hobbyiest item at professional prices. Take it for what you will.


Sent from my Samsung Chromebook Plus using Tapatalk

[AH_Solid_Snake]

I can only agree with LASooner. I bought the previous version for ~800 USD in 2019. Its perfectly fine as a hobby level controller, mine was all laser cut acrylic for the casing and a resin grip. My version didn't have the markings around the HAT switches I've seen in the later pictures and the push buttons on the front of the grips were very mushy. The wing sweep lever is an axis with a couple of microswitches to track the open / closed state.

In more detail I found

- The afterburner / idle gates are quite small (2-3mm thick) so it was quite easy to push through them in the heat of the moment rather than having to move them outboard and around it.

- The push buttons and hat switches were quite mushy, the push buttons in particular would flicker on and off while pressing them until they were fully depressed.

- The throttle grips themselves are approx 20% undersize and don't have some features such as the cutout on the left grip for the flap lever.

- The pots for the throttle levers were quite spikey particularly in the middle range where i found myself during AAR

 

For all those reasons I ended up spending the past 18 months essentially rebuilding the entire thing from scratch with larger grips, OTTO switches, hall effect pots and a revised lever / gate setup so that there is a more positive 10mm gate that you really do have to move around rather than through.

 

[lunaticfringe]

33 minutes ago, AH_Solid_Snake said:

I can only agree with LASooner. I bought the previous version for ~800 USD in 2019. Its perfectly fine as a hobby level controller, mine was all laser cut acrylic for the casing and a resin grip. My version didn't have the markings around the HAT switches I've seen in the later pictures and the push buttons on the front of the grips were very mushy. The wing sweep lever is an axis with a couple of microswitches to track the open / closed state.

In more detail I found

- The afterburner / idle gates are quite small (2-3mm thick) so it was quite easy to push through them in the heat of the moment rather than having to move them outboard and around it.

- The push buttons and hat switches were quite mushy, the push buttons in particular would flicker on and off while pressing them until they were fully depressed.

- The throttle grips themselves are approx 20% undersize and don't have some features such as the cutout on the left grip for the flap lever.

- The pots for the throttle levers were quite spikey particularly in the middle range where i found myself during AAR

 

For all those reasons I ended up spending the past 18 months essentially rebuilding the entire thing from scratch with larger grips, OTTO switches, hall effect pots and a revised lever / gate setup so that there is a more positive 10mm gate that you really do have to move around rather than through.

 

 

If you're ever in the mood to get the "right" gating lengths, see the following.  While 2" for the MIL band seems small on paper, at proper arm height its better than 4" measured at the top of the handles.