HOTAS AT LAST (very Long)

[coolts]

Having gone through almost every generation of joystick from an early Binatone, grandstand ‘astro wars’, (with ½” stick!), to Atari VCS 2600, (with CX40) MSX, (with competition pro), Amiga with (with competition pro ‘transparent’), Quick shot 1, 2 & 5 (Multiple. These had terrible bubble micro switches which easily punctured, leading to playground mini-industries repairing them with sellotape), Sega Master system, Megadrive, PS1, Nintendo Wii, leading to a Saitek cyborg & cyborg evo for my PC’s.

So, several joysticks then. Not an expert, more of a veteran. Over the past few years I have toyed with flight Sims, (PC), from F/A-18 interceptor (yay!), on the Amiga to DCS Black shark on the PC, and have finally decided, (after the debacle of Empire Total War & selling my dust gathering Wii), that flight Sims are where it’s at as far my game playing goes, (exiting & technical. Both boxes ticked).

I therefore trawled around for a ‘proper stick’, (for about 6 months), having decided that my floppy and annoying Cyborg Evo just didn’t have enough buttons. And the throttle was pants.

In short I wanted a HOTAS but I didn’t want to shell out £300 otherwise I would invoke the wrath of wench™,( and in any case, I might throw a massive strop in a few months if SOW still isn’t out & Napoleon TW comes out and go back to strat games).

I found a 2nd hand Thrustmaster Cougar going cheap, (about £80 with P&P), and took the plunge. It had seen better days and was in need of some TLC, (creaky stick movement, oxidised connectors – probably been in a garage, broken S2 pickle micro switch, faulty H4 hat in RT position, broken speedbrake, creaky throttle, not to mention the unfathomable software.

After 3 days of chin scratching deciding whether to send it back or keep it as a “doo-er upper”, I began trawling forums and found a wealth of knowledge and advice out there, apart from the massive gravity well caused by the apparent disappearance of FRUGALSWORLD several months earlier where most of the best info for the cougar & falcon were held, or so I hear. Ho-Hum, I always miss the party.

After stumbling across Cougarworld, and their priceless parts lists & articles, I decided to keep the kit, (after all it was really cheap and I am a bit of a DIY-er).

So, Game on.

Dismantled handle & de-soldered faulty micro switch and declared it dead. took it to Maplins and got the closest one they had, which, encased in the corpse of the old switch + blue tack, and after grafting the old micro switch tip onto the new one, the S2 pickle button now works. SORTED.

Re-greased gimbals in stick & thoroughly checked all potentiometers, (common Cougar casualty, although mine were fine luckily). No more creaks and stick now silky smooth.

Oxidisation polished off connectors.

Dismantled throttle and re-greased axle, bearings + detents. Added a strip of shiny electrical tape to axle to tighten up torque slider as I don’t like a floppy throttle. It’s now silky smooth and firm (ooer).

I plan to remove the detents or at least one of them as they are a bit annoying and a definite girlfriend-disturber.

I emailed Thrustmaster support with a shopping list of parts I want to replace to freshen up the stick, (micro switches, a hat & a couple of spare pots), and they got back to me within a week and the parts are 1 euro each ( + 5 euros delivery). ONE BLOODY EURO. THAT’S AMAZING. I am going to totally refurb the stick for a few quid.

I might actually get round to some flying at some point but I am having too much fun in a Fred Dibnah / James May sort of a way ATM.

After a short time flying this thing I can honestly say that along with my trackIR & repurposed G25 pedals, (sod bloody driving games), the HOTAS makes the sim for me. No more faffing about with the keyboard. Just a button map on screen 2 and away I go.

So…..

 

· Come back Frugalsworld, you were gone before I ever saw you! (like nirvana)

· Please bring out FF5.3 that bloody works in modern OS + Nvidia cards

· Bollox to BS trimmer implementation (s)

· Bring on A-10 & BOB, oh and FC2

[Revvin]

A good controller set up makes simming all that more enjoyable, you should think about replacing those pedals with some proper flight sim pedals for a little more added immersion.

[Conuk]

you think its good now..... thats what I thought... then I bought Cubbys hall sensors.... and my NXT2 came today.... the hall sensors are well worth the money ... I got my cougar for £100 or so second hand... just the throttle pot had gone.

 

 

My 5870 is still RMA so no trying out my shiny new Intel SSD either sob.....

 

I have some CH pedals for £50 and postage if you wanna complete your setup ?

(Im in UK)

[Conuk]

http://www.cougar.flyfoxy.com/

 

try here for backup cougar world ;)

[Lange_666]

.... and my NXT2 came today....

 

And...:joystick:...?

[Conuk]

And...:joystick:...?

 

precisely that!

sat here with a screen flashing like a xmas tree... so DCS wont even work !

 

just ordered a Sapphire 5870 Vapor X - comes tomorrow - cant wait for RMA times !

[talisman]

coolts - you have just becoame my fecking hero. That was without a doubt the most down to earth and funnesy post i have read for bloody ages.

 

Firstly you described my early life - i cut my teeth in on fa/18 interceptor and had 2 of the Astrowars games. (minus the power supplys of course) And lets not forget the 3D alien attack game you held up to your face. Remember that? It had rubber eyepieces t so you wouldnt gouge your eyes out if like me you tried to similtaniously play the game and walk through the house.

 

 

The quickshot joysticks where awesome in their cheapness, i miss joystiks that click when you change direction and had "rapid fire" buttons. How wonderful it was to own a joystick you had to lick before you could use it. And in the heat of battle it would come unstuck from the desk with a loud "PUC PUC PUC PUC" Just to be slammed back down on its suckers.

my fave ever joystick

 

 

I am a botcher and a blagger at heart and whilst having a joint account am unable to buy ...... well ..... anything i really want. As for wife disturbers - i have the creakyest set of home made pedels known to man, when all hell breaks loose and im trying to dodge stingers SETI can hear them.

 

Im just down the road from you too - love somerset.

Edited January 27, 2010 by talisman

[coolts]

Thanks conuk, I will let you know about the pedals. If you don’t mind me asking, how much are the hall sensor mods and the nxt2? I need to work out some sort of girlfriend-diversion, (possibly involving valentine’s day), to cover a flanking manouver to buy the mods!

A 5870 is on my list, (or an i7). v. nice.

the Cougarworld website is good but all the forums are gone, (with frugal), which is a shame.

Cheers <Talisman>. Once I sat down and thought about it, I realized that I must have owned almost every joystick in existence at some point.

I still remember the day when, after practicing “yie-ar kung-fu” from Konami, (or “way of the exploding fist” from Melbourne house, I can’t remember), till my thumbs bled, to get the final boss, my friend came round my house with his shiny new Quickshot, WHICH HAD AN AUTOFIRE BUTTON!!!!

He, plugged it in, set autofire-on and pushed right…………and completed the game! I was gutted & awestruck.

My pocket money that month bought me an auto-fire joystick.

"PUC PUC PUC PUC" –heh, I remember that. Once it did that, usually under critical mass of tension, you + computer flew across the room! After that you always pre-licked the four suckers on the bottom. After that, the whole table would lift up! But the joystick stayed put!

 

Who needs to drill holes and use clamps to keep a HOTAS stable? Just four “competition pro” style suckers, (well licked), and you are sorted.

 

Should keep costs down.

Probably not allowed by health and safety nowadays. There’s nowt wrong with licking the bottom of your joystick I can tell you. cough cough.

Edited January 28, 2010 by coolts

[Revvin]

Probably not allowed by health and safety nowadays. There’s nowt wrong with licking the bottom of your joystick I can tell you. cough cough.

 

In this compensation cultre you'd have someone with an intolerance to rubber taking legal action because there was not a huge warning on each sucker warning them not to lick it :)

 

The old Kempston sticks were pretty hard to beat on the ZX Spectrum, I had one stick I really liked, it had a kind of pistol grip under a square-ish base with a small stick on top of that.

 

LOL while searching for a picture of that joystick I also found my first set of pedals!

 

[talisman]

i rememeber these - green was forward, red was back and yellow was joy fire 2. but you could customise if you wanted. I made these myself using an old joypad and lego! Then i could play Formula 1 Grand Prix by Geoff Crammond and Lotus esprit turbo challenge. he he those where the days.

 

Ahh yes, the games where unwinnable, the peripherals where cheap and cheerful and if you had a monitor - you where too cheap to buy a decient telly.

 

 

Was this the joystick you where talking about?

[Revvin]

Thats the one, though mine was plain black with a red handle, it didn't have any of those labels on it. Yeah I was heavily into Geoff Crammonds F1 GP and Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge and also loved Stunt Car Racer. I was also into my sims back then, Microprose's Gunship on the ZX Specturm, F19 Stealth Fighter and then games like Knights of the Sky on the Amiga. Anyway sorry Coolts I've taken this off topic.

[coolts]

Off topic? I would kill for one of those Microprose manuals and f19 keyboard overlays!

 

Stunt car racer eh? i nearly had a hernia avery time i humped my commodore CRT monitor over to a friends house to hook up 2 x amiga's with a homemade R3232 cable! I think that game actually caused me to have vertigo. Every time someone tries to get me on a rolloercoaster or something, blocky polygons appear before my eyes! PULL UP, PULL UP, (or nowadays "EKRAN EKRAN". potato - potaaato)

[talisman]

ROFL - just ROFL.