problematic 4 way hats on the CM3 throttle

[Hotdognz]

On 2/27/2022 at 5:55 AM, Meatshield said:

Well, if anyone else finds it as insane of a design decision as I do (for background I'm an embedded device/firmware engineer with 12 years of commercial and industrial new product development experience specializing in human-machine interfaces, not saying I'm never wrong, but I pride myself on creating an intuitive and a pleasant user experience), or just wants to see what I'm talking about, I learned some python just now and made a joystick gremlin script to fix the hat dropping buttons in the corners. Feel free to use/modify/ignore: 

https://pastebin.com/F1FiPPsh

To use:

1. install vJoy, install Joystick Gremlin, and download the py script linked above
2. Set the hat to 8W mode in VPC
3. In Joystick Gremlin, add this file on the plugins tab, hit the gear to config, bind the hat to the various inputs, set the outputs to buttons on the virtual stick
4. Click the gamepad looking thing in the toolbar and it turns green
5. Enjoy!
6. You can run as many instances of the plugin as desired (hit plus sign next to plugin to spawn more instances), so you could do all the hats if you wanted. It only has callbacks, so shouldn't hurt performance. Bonus, if you have multiple throttles, or a collective that you swap between, you could map a hat on each to the same virtual buttons so you don't have to change your VA/SRS bindings when switching devices

Thanks Meatshield this fixed all of my problems with the very sensitive 4 way (really is 8 way hat), coming from a Wathog my comms hat is now acting the same as it was on the Warthog whos hat is more defined in its operation.

[eagle17]

This is why I prefer 4 way hats.   8 way hats (even when wired for 4) are difficult to use especially in time critical functions.   

[Ready]

My main issue is with the 5-way pyramid looking hat switch that is controlled by the thumb and has that rotary around it.

I have it configured as my radio switch and can't reliably push down or aft when having the throttle in various positions or even while moving it, because I can not clearly tell its directions just by feeling it.

If there would be a 3d printed mod out there that would give a better feel of the switch and its directions(more like the TM warthog radio button) that would make my life so much easier and my radio PTT/release errors much less frequent.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Ready

[splash]

I have all my hats configured as 4W and don't notice any inconvenience.

[dburne]

12 minutes ago, splash said:

I have all my hats configured as 4W and don't notice any inconvenience.

Me too - this!

[imacken]

On 1/12/2023 at 12:42 AM, Ready said:

My main issue is with the 5-way pyramid looking hat switch that is controlled by the thumb and has that rotary around it.

I have it configured as my radio switch and can't reliably push down or aft when having the throttle in various positions or even while moving it, because I can not clearly tell its directions just by feeling it.

If there would be a 3d printed mod out there that would give a better feel of the switch and its directions(more like the TM warthog radio button) that would make my life so much easier and my radio PTT/release errors much less frequent.

 

The hat has 4 flat sides, and from that, you can tell which direction you are pushing in throughout the travel of the throttle.

[Ready]

5 hours ago, imacken said:

The hat has 4 flat sides, and from that, you can tell which direction you are pushing in throughout the travel of the throttle.

Yeah I know what it looks like and how it works, I have been using the CM3 for over a year. I am having difficulty to consistently press aft or down on it, sometimes loosing grip on it, like almost pushing in between down and aft. My TM throttle's button was not giving me this issue as it was easier to feel its orientation. I think with a small modification of the shape of the hat it would limit my errors.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Ready

[ColinM9991]

I had similar issues with the 5-way hat with rotary dial as what @Readyis describing but I've gotten used to it over the past year of usage and now I'm able to push aft or fwd without activating any other buttons. The quality of the hats isn't great it seems all 4+ way hats suffer from the same issue.

Still, one day there'll be a better product on the market.

[Ready]

1 minute ago, ColinM9991 said:

I had similar issues with the 5-way hat with rotary dial as what @Readyis describing but I've gotten used to it over the past year of usage and now I'm able to push aft or fwd without activating any other buttons. The quality of the hats isn't great it seems all 4+ way hats suffer from the same issue.

Still, one day there'll be a better product on the market.

Hope it will go by time with me as well. Somehow I have the feeling that it should not be too difficult to change the feel of this hat. I am considering to just take it off and take a sander to flatten one side, or to glue something onto it so I can clearly feel what's what.

[imacken]

15 minutes ago, Ready said:

Yeah I know what it looks like and how it works, I have been using the CM3 for over a year. I am having difficulty to consistently press aft or down on it, sometimes loosing grip on it, like almost pushing in between down and aft. My TM throttle's button was not giving me this issue as it was easier to feel its orientation. I think with a small modification of the shape of the hat it would limit my errors.

I tend to put my thumb on the flat surface for the direction of travel I want rather than pressing it from the centre, and that works nicely, for me anyway.

[IRRE_Schwarzy]

On 2/26/2022 at 8:55 PM, Meatshield said:

Well, if anyone else finds it as insane of a design decision as I do (for background I'm an embedded device/firmware engineer with 12 years of commercial and industrial new product development experience specializing in human-machine interfaces, not saying I'm never wrong, but I pride myself on creating an intuitive and a pleasant user experience), or just wants to see what I'm talking about, I learned some python just now and made a joystick gremlin script to fix the hat dropping buttons in the corners. Feel free to use/modify/ignore: 

https://pastebin.com/F1FiPPsh

To use:

1. install vJoy, install Joystick Gremlin, and download the py script linked above
2. Set the hat to 8W mode in VPC
3. In Joystick Gremlin, add this file on the plugins tab, hit the gear to config, bind the hat to the various inputs, set the outputs to buttons on the virtual stick
4. Click the gamepad looking thing in the toolbar and it turns green
5. Enjoy!
6. You can run as many instances of the plugin as desired (hit plus sign next to plugin to spawn more instances), so you could do all the hats if you wanted. It only has callbacks, so shouldn't hurt performance. Bonus, if you have multiple throttles, or a collective that you swap between, you could map a hat on each to the same virtual buttons so you don't have to change your VA/SRS bindings when switching devices

Thank you so much, this problem was horrible for me, because I use one of the 8w hat as a push to talk for all the radios on SRS, and I was always loosing my communication when my fingers moved a little on a diagonal. The virpil support said me that he understands my problem, but this was a physical problem of their hat and that there was not any other solution than be very very precise with the hat. Your pluggin is perfect for me, I mapped my SRS with the Vjoy buttons and its fine.