T-50CM2 Base, TM F-18C Stick, & TARGET?

[1Wolf]

I recently purchased a T-50CM2 Base to use with an extension and my TM F-18C stick.  I like the Thustmaster TARGET GUI so I was hoping to be able to program the F-18C stick in TARGET GUI.  After doing some research, I found several places online where people had mentioned being able to use the VPC Config software to set the VID/PID of the T-50CM2 to the VID/PID of the Warthog.

 

I did get this to work and TARGET GUI was seeing the T-50CM2 + TM F-18C Stick as a standard "Warthog" stick (Not the F-18C stick).  I was hoping to be able to get TARGET GUI to recognize the TM-F-18C stick as an actual TM F-18C stick so that I could program it and run TARGET profiles that were created with the TM F-18C stick.

 

So, as an experiment, I used the standard Warthog base with the F-18C stick and created a test profile for the F-18C stick in TARGET GUI.  When I run this test profile from TARGET GUI it works just fine.  In the screenshot below you can see the results from launching and running the test profile in TARGET GUI.

 

 

 

Then, I stopped the profile, shut down TARGET, and installed the F-18C stick onto the T-50CM2 base then used the VPC Config software to set the VID/PID to 044F/0402 (VID/PID of the Warthog).

 

 

Then I ran TARGET GUI and it recognized the T-50CM2 + F-18C stick as a standard Warthog stick (Not the F-18C).  Note in the image below that TARGET GUI is seeing the F-18C stick as a standard Warthog.

 

 

So if I run the test profile from TARGET GUI, it gives me the message that "USB HID device with hardware id "VID_044F&PID_0403" cannot be found.  Note that the Warthog PID/VID is 044F/0402 and the error message states its looking for 044f/0403.  I'm assuming that is because TARGET GUI is confused because I originally created the profile with the F-18C stick attached and by setting VPC Config to 044f/0402 it thinks its just a standard Warthog stick (instead of an F-18C stick) and thus TARGET GUI thinks it can't find it.

 

 

So then I started thinking that maybe I needed to set the VID/PID in the VPC Config software to what TARGET reported was missing, 044f/0403 and that maybe 0403 is the PID for specifically the F-18C stick.  That turned out to be a giant mistake...egads.  That bricked the whole thing.  Windows can't see the VPC base anymore and the VPC Configuration tool can't see it either.  Even if I go into the VPC Configuration options and untick the "Show only VPC products" checkbox.  Its still not there.  Its just gone.  Apparently setting it to 0403 confused the heck out of it.  Fixing THAT is a separate issue and I may post a separate thread about that as I don't want to de-rail this one.  I've got a feeling the solution to that is to reset the firmware manually like I'd seen in the video here...

 

 

So, anyway, back to the topic of this thread...

 

Is it possible to use TARGET GUI with the T-50CM2 & TM F-18C stick?  What am I doing wrong?  How do you do it?  Now...to try and figure out how to unbrick my T-50CM2

 

Thanks!

Edited August 16, 2021 by 1Wolf

[ataribaby]

I had similar issue when I changed VID and PID in VPC sw as I tried same thing. Virpil support told me to hold CTRL+F12 when in VPC config tool and there you can set tool to see non VPC devices so you can reset it to factory settings without HW boot pins. You can press CTRL+F12 again to go back to normal UI.

 

Also activate that DEBUG option on top right then you will see button at Firmware to set to factory settings.

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by ataribaby

[The LT]

Make sure you check out all the functionality of VPC firmware, it might prompt you to ditch that piece of... errr... Target.

[1Wolf]

2 hours ago, ataribaby said:

I had similar issue when I changed VID and PID in VPC sw as I tried same thing. Virpil support told me to hold CTRL+F12 when in VPC config tool and there you can set tool to see non VPC devices so you can reset it to factory settings without HW boot pins. You can press CTRL+F12 again to go back to normal UI.

 

Also activate that DEBUG option on top right then you will see button at Firmware to set to factory settings.

 

 

 

Thanks ataribaby and I certainly appreciate the screenshot.  I have tried that as well.  Problem is that the VPC base doesn't show up once I uncheck the "Show only VPC devices box" either.  That worked for me when I set it to 0402.  But when I set it to 0403, apparently that caused me a whole separate problem.  Take a look below.

 

 

You can see that its just plain gone.  There is no listing at all and nothing for me to select to load.

 

I tried that rest on the firmware tab you mentioned but that didn't work either because I couldn't select a device to apply it to.

 

1 hour ago, The LT said:

Make sure you check out all the functionality of VPC firmware, it might prompt you to ditch that piece of... errr... Target.

 

Thanks LT.  I may well do that.  As you can probably guess, I was really trying to avoid having to learn a new joystick configuration software as I'd already been quite happy with TARGET.  So I was just really hoping TARGET would still work.  I run a Warthog Throttle and a Warthog stick that I always assign the stick "paddle" as a Shift to double the buttons.  Thats probably the most important feature to me.  I'd also really hate to have to "rebuild" all the TARGET profiles I'd already built over the years to work with the VPC base.

[The LT]

 
Thanks LT.  I may well do that.  As you can probably guess, I was really trying to avoid having to learn a new joystick configuration software as I'd already been quite happy with TARGET.  So I was just really hoping TARGET would still work.  I run a Warthog Throttle and a Warthog stick that I always assign the stick "paddle" as a Shift to double the buttons.  Thats probably the most important feature to me.  I'd also really hate to have to "rebuild" all the TARGET profiles I'd already built over the years to work with the VPC base.

One of the benefits of the firmware is that it does everything in hardware, without any "virtual" devices. It might not be as complex as traget scripting, but it may get the job done and your system will have one less software to worry about, which is always a plus with DCS. Just my 2c.

[1Wolf]

8 hours ago, The LT said:

8 hours ago, 1Wolf said:

 
Thanks LT.  I may well do that.  As you can probably guess, I was really trying to avoid having to learn a new joystick configuration software as I'd already been quite happy with TARGET.  So I was just really hoping TARGET would still work.  I run a Warthog Throttle and a Warthog stick that I always assign the stick "paddle" as a Shift to double the buttons.  Thats probably the most important feature to me.  I'd also really hate to have to "rebuild" all the TARGET profiles I'd already built over the years to work with the VPC base.

One of the benefits of the firmware is that it does everything in hardware, without any "virtual" devices. It might not be as complex as traget scripting, but it may get the job done and your system will have one less software to worry about, which is always a plus with DCS. Just my 2c.

 

Makes perfect sense to me.  Based on the issues I've had with TARGET lately with my most recent PC build and over the years, I would have ditched TARGET already.  Only problem is that I use a Warthog Throttle and I really really need the capability to have a "shift" button on the stick that, when depressed, gives me 2nd functions for all the throttle buttons as well.  In my own personal "scheme" that I set up controls - I always tend to set the /O or "main" function of every control as identical to the real aircraft as I can.  I usually set aside the "paddle" of the stick to be my shift.  Then all of the "shifted" version of all the buttons are anything else I need to control easily.  It would be awesome if there was a simple interface like TARGET that would let me program both the TM throttle and VPC Base/TM Stick...and still program a shift key to the stick that would double the functions on the throttle.

[ataribaby]

Ahh I see, I just ditched idea to mimick Warthog and just set profile for WarBRD base + TW Warthog grip and reassigned controls in all my sims without Target. Life is too short...

[dburne]

6 hours ago, 1Wolf said:

 

Makes perfect sense to me.  Based on the issues I've had with TARGET lately with my most recent PC build and over the years, I would have ditched TARGET already.  Only problem is that I use a Warthog Throttle and I really really need the capability to have a "shift" button on the stick that, when depressed, gives me 2nd functions for all the throttle buttons as well.  In my own personal "scheme" that I set up controls - I always tend to set the /O or "main" function of every control as identical to the real aircraft as I can.  I usually set aside the "paddle" of the stick to be my shift.  Then all of the "shifted" version of all the buttons are anything else I need to control easily.  It would be awesome if there was a simple interface like TARGET that would let me program both the TM throttle and VPC Base/TM Stick...and still program a shift key to the stick that would double the functions on the throttle.

 

You can assign a shift button in the DCS controller setup.

[The LT]

 
Makes perfect sense to me.  Based on the issues I've had with TARGET lately with my most recent PC build and over the years, I would have ditched TARGET already.  Only problem is that I use a Warthog Throttle and I really really need the capability to have a "shift" button on the stick that, when depressed, gives me 2nd functions for all the throttle buttons as well.  In my own personal "scheme" that I set up controls - I always tend to set the /O or "main" function of every control as identical to the real aircraft as I can.  I usually set aside the "paddle" of the stick to be my shift.  Then all of the "shifted" version of all the buttons are anything else I need to control easily.  It would be awesome if there was a simple interface like TARGET that would let me program both the TM throttle and VPC Base/TM Stick...and still program a shift key to the stick that would double the functions on the throttle.

VPC Shift Tool does what you need but doesn't work with 3rd party throttles, unfortunately. Frankly, I use DCS built in shift functionality as it offers more flexibility and I hate to switch profiles.

[1Wolf]

8 hours ago, The LT said:

 

 

VPC Shift Tool does what you need but doesn't work with 3rd party throttles, unfortunately. Frankly, I use DCS built in shift functionality as it offers more flexibility and I hate to switch profiles.

 

 

Thanks LT.  I didn't even know that DCS had a built in shift functionality.  I'd never seen or messed with it as I always did everything in TARGET.  I'll have to learn more about that!  I knew you could program a key to use a modifier like "LSHF+T" or "LCTL+R" but I had no idea you could somehow tell a button on your controller to act as a generic "Shift" button and double the functions on your controllers from within DCS.  I'll definitely look into that.  Thank you!

[MAXsenna]

 
Thanks LT.  I didn't even know that DCS had a built in shift functionality.  I'd never seen or messed with it as I always did everything in TARGET.  I'll have to learn more about that!  I knew you could program a key to use a modifier like "LSHF+T" or "LCTL+R" but I had no idea you could somehow tell a button on your controller to act as a generic "Shift" button and double the functions on your controllers from within DCS.  I'll definitely look into that.  Thank you!

You can make any button/key in DCS a "toggle" switch.
But you need to do this for every module IIRC. So in the controls setup for a specific module, click modifier or something. In the drop down, choose the stick and then the button.
Cheers!

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