Apache MFD from Total Controls

[Caps Lock]

Order number #1207 arrived today in Nashville and got it installed in the pit and working. I'll do a more in depth review of the Total Controls MPDs in a few days after I use them some for those on the fence about ordering some.  

 

 

[jabbabzh]

Very nice work, will wait for review and install details (screen used etc)

[Caps Lock]

15 minutes ago, jabbabzh said:

Very nice work, will wait for review and install details (screen used etc)

These are the screens I used. 

VSDISPLAY 10.4" 10.4 Inch 800x600... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09332N7MH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The work great. I can link you a video I used to set them up with the code for the Lua file. Does take a bit of tinkering with the numbers to get them lined up perfectly but not too hard. The monitors are 800x600 so when setting up the Lua files you need to change it to 600x600 because the frames are square, then it's just a matter of telling DCS where in the box to display the MPD. This is the part where a little "Kentucky Windage" is involved and it requires guessing the numbers, starting DCS and adjusting and closing etc. 

[corbu1]

vor 12 Stunden schrieb Caps Lock:

Order number #1207 arrived today in Nashville and got it installed in the pit and working. I'll do a more in depth review of the Total Controls MPDs in a few days after I use them some for those on the fence about ordering some.  

 

 

Great setup!!! Really cool!

[JackFlash]

3 hours ago, Caps Lock said:

These are the screens I used. 

VSDISPLAY 10.4" 10.4 Inch 800x600... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09332N7MH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

The work great. I can link you a video I used to set them up with the code for the Lua file. Does take a bit of tinkering with the numbers to get them lined up perfectly but not too hard. The monitors are 800x600 so when setting up the Lua files you need to change it to 600x600 because the frames are square, then it's just a matter of telling DCS where in the box to display the MPD. This is the part where a little "Kentucky Windage" is involved and it requires guessing the numbers, starting DCS and adjusting and closing etc. 

I used this metod. It's simpel and really good.

 

[Hotdognz]

Ordered mine yesterday to replace my cheap TM MFDs :).

Looking forward to them as they look great and i like to support these small developers.

 

[Herisson]

14 hours ago, Hotdognz said:

Ordered mine yesterday to replace my cheap TM MFDs :).

Looking forward to them as they look great and i like to support these small developers.

 

TM MFDs aren't that cheap. Second, I find it hard to imagine how they served you for the Apache, even harder to imagine how TC's MFDs can help with with the Hornet, for instance. Two different products.

[Rogue Trooper]

I will look into the discord Total Controls.

Got home after a long week of travel and here they are, double boxed and well packed.

The Aache MPDs are big!.....They are really BIG!

In VR (pilot) it makes you realise how far you sit from them; a full arms stretch to actuate them for sure.

love the VID pot centre detent. Very nice feel to the button push, they feel industrial, requiring deliberate force.

Nice freedom of movement of the buttons, nothing sticks.

Clean and solid and professional is all I can say so far. lovely build quality, lots of documents, lollipops are the extras..

Tomorrow I will try to go live with them but for sure Sunday is work out day.

My first virtual/actual module purchase.

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Rogue Trooper

[Rogue Trooper]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:29 AM, Caps Lock said:

Order number #1207 arrived today in Nashville and got it installed in the pit and working. I'll do a more in depth review of the Total Controls MPDs in a few days after I use them some for those on the fence about ordering some.  

 

 

look at that!

it will be much better in VR, the only problem left is calibrating the real to the virtual MPDs.

[Caps Lock]

10 minutes ago, Rogue Trooper said:

look at that!

it will be much better in VR, the only problem left is calibrating the real to the virtual MPDs.

Yeah I don't do VR. My son has a head set and while I will admit I did try it while just sitting in the cockpit on the runway, I was freaking awesome. I have tried VR a few times and found. Get violently motion sick and I can feel the effects even days later. I have no desire to try to train my brain to deal with it, 2d (pancake) is plenty immersive for me. The only thing I could ever see me doing to make it more immersive is adding a motion platform but they are very expensive. 

 

[Rogue Trooper]

18 minutes ago, Caps Lock said:

Yeah I don't do VR. My son has a head set and while I will admit I did try it while just sitting in the cockpit on the runway, I was freaking awesome. I have tried VR a few times and found. Get violently motion sick and I can feel the effects even days later. I have no desire to try to train my brain to deal with it, 2d (pancake) is plenty immersive for me. The only thing I could ever see me doing to make it more immersive is adding a motion platform but they are very expensive. 

 

Getting your VR legs takes time and training and alot of money.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by Rogue Trooper

[JackFlash]

The frames without the table mounts are sold out. Batch no 2 is on order.

[corbu1]

Just got notification, my pair is already in town. I get it tomorrow…

[Durham]

Mine arrived today in Miami.

Needed a bit of WD-40 and pre-screwing to get the four big screws (M5) in - electronics came up immediately - plug and play.

The units report to Windows as either Right or Left, and of course I hadn't plugged them in, so had to swap - so top tip, plug one in and see how it reports and tag as L or R.  Also the paper screens don't slide in like the TM Cougar, so put them underneath before screwing the panels to the mounts.

DCS programming was a breeze with a little help from the US Army manual: T = Top - buttons are L to R, same for B = Bottom, R and L are top to bottom.  Only difference is that B1 is the black button labelled M.

Of course DCS made me invert the four BRT and VID axes for the potentiometers, as well as initially programming them to the cyclic, because its controller detection/suggestion is not the best.

They are bloody big (the diagonal is 50% greater than the TM Cougar (29cm v 19cm), I had to clear out two additional desktop mounted throttles to make room for them, so goodbye X-Plane with the Honeycomb.

In VR, mounted pointing up they seem about 3-4" higher than in the VR cockpit, so mounting them hanging down from a desk would be worse, as they would be around 6" too low, and might interfere with your knees moving the rudders.

Button pushing is way better than the Cougars with a real click, instead of just push and hope.

Will take a few hours to get faster than head pointing and using my HOTAS mouse buttons, but highly confident I will get faster over time than that solution.

So, in summary, really cool product, and with the EURO dropping below parity, an absolute bargain for USD buyers.

Now just waiting for a VP Rhino to become available to sort out the trim issue , and then VPC to make an AH-64 grip and collective!

 

Edited September 24, 2022 by Durham
Grammar

[JackFlash]

5 hours ago, Durham said:

Mine arrived today in Miami.

Needed a bit of WD-40 and pre-screwing to get the four big screws (M5) in - electronics came up immediately - plug and play.

The units report to Windows as either Right or Left, and of course I hadn't plugged them in, so had to swap - so top tip, plug one in and see how it reports and tag as L or R.  Also the paper screens don't slide in like the TM Cougar, so put them underneath before screwing the panels to the mounts.

DCS programming was a breeze with a little help from the US Army manual: T = Top - buttons are L to R, same for B = Bottom, R and L are top to bottom.  Only difference is that B1 is the black button labelled M.

Of course DCS made me invert the four BRT and VID axes for the potentiometers, as well as initially programming them to the cyclic, because its controller detection/suggestion is not the best.

They are bloody big (the diagonal is 50% greater than the TM Cougar (29cm v 19cm), I had to clear out two additional desktop mounted throttles to make room for them, so goodbye X-Plane with the Honeycomb.

In VR, mounted pointing up they seem about 3-4" higher than in the VR cockpit, so mounting them hanging down from a desk would be worse, as they would be around 6" too low, and might interfere with your knees moving the rudders.

Button pushing is way better than the Cougars with a real click, instead of just push and hope.

Will take a few hours to get faster than head pointing and using my HOTAS mouse buttons, but highly confident I will get faster over time than that solution.

So, in summary, really cool product, and with the EURO dropping below parity, an absolute bargain for USD buyers.

Now just waiting for a VP Rhino to become available to sort out the trim issue , and then VPC to make an AH-64 grip and collective!

 

 

Cool setup! Looks like a perfect VR pit. 
 

Just a few notes:

1. There are ready made profiles for the frames on the Total Controls support page. Just download and load them into DCS. 
    
2. You can easily swap out the left or right setup just by the press of a button. It can even be detected as a center frame. Check the manuals first page.

Glad you like them! We will try to make the holes a tiny bit larger in next batch.
Fly safe. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by JackFlash

[corbu1]

Am 24.9.2022 um 08:58 schrieb JackFlash:

Cool setup! Looks like a perfect VR pit. 
 

Just a few notes:

1. There are ready made profiles for the frames on the Total Controls support page. Just download and load them into DCS. 
    
2. You can easily swap out the left or right setup just by the press of a button. It can even be detected as a center frame. Check the manuals first page.

Glad you like them! We will try to make the holes a tiny bit larger in next batch.
Fly safe. 

 

Setting up the MPD‘s in DCS was really easy with the profiles from your support page. Thanks so much!

Quality of the MPD‘s is really great. They are super solid!

[Sarge55]

Got mine setup now as well. Agree with the other posts. Dead easy to setup and a really solid piece of kit. 

[JackFlash]

Would anyone be interested in these? We plan to sell them for 120 Euro each. Will fit like a glove for the Apace MPD frames, even with the table mount.

 

[JackFlash]

 

 

[JackFlash]

The Apache frames are now restocked!

[hannibal]

all you guys with the apache MFD frame's and multimonitors..

are you guys able to use the setup on Multiplayer servers with Integrity Check?

[JackFlash]

5 hours ago, hannibal said:

all you guys with the apache MFD frame's and multimonitors..

are you guys able to use the setup on Multiplayer servers with Integrity Check?

I do not see why not? What do you figure could cause any problems?

[hannibal]

14 minutes ago, JackFlash said:

I do not see why not? What do you figure could cause any problems?

i have a specific multimonitor file i use to allow me to view the MFD and TEDAC. unfortunately i cant seem to join servers with integrity check. i would crash to desktop. 

on a non IC server, i am ok.

im just wondering if you guys have issues going into multiplayer servers with integrity check..

[Tiger-II]

On 12/23/2021 at 7:31 AM, Vakarian said:

Well yeah, Cougars are not something I'd say are the pinnacle of latest tech, but let's be honest, it's a button box, nothing else. If a button gets registered when I press it, I really don't care if it's an el cheapo no-name switch beneath, ALPS, Omron or even an OTTO switch behind it. It's a button, nothing else. It's a frame with 28 buttons on it, just formed in a logical shape to accomodate better muscle memory.

Now, with the Apache MFDs, we have a bit more buttons and a 3 extra encoders (I presume those are encoders, might be wrong) placed in a slightly bigger frame. Now, I don't think that the size of the frame matters as much in the terms of the pricing, it's a plastic after all and at the first glance looks 3D printed. PCB can also be done fairly cheaply from jlcpcb or any other manufacturing. So, 3 extra encoders, 4 extra buttons and a larger frame result that there is a product that's more than a double of price of a single Cougar MFD and a tad more than a price of the both of them.

 

TM Cougars (Kit of 2 frames)	TC Apache MFD x2
56 buttons	64 buttons and 6 encoders
80 USD	200-240 USD

That's why it's a hard sell for me

I completely agree with this! We get ripped off as simmers because "niche market" (which isn't so niche).

[Hammer1-1]

Well I can tell you after owning no less than 3 sets of Cougar MFDs (and how fast they turn to junk), the $240 USD starts to look like a bargain after you start replacing them because of wiring bundle issues. The way they package those cables, the way they're routed, put an insane amount of strain and wind up yanking soldered wires off buttons after a while. Ill take quality 10 times out of 10.