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A picture Tale: "Dual Thrust" or "What I did in my Easter Holiday"


PeterP

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Long story short:

I : "I really need a Dual-Thrust controller with lots of buttons ! Can I buy the HOTAS Warthog ?"

Girlfriend: "We have no money for that - we need a new car. ...

...and by the way : You have already enough of that crap lying around!

The answer is NO!"

I : "Thank you for that explanation and pointing out that I have everything I need... so I will make my own!"

 

So I trolled back in to my Man-cave...

 

What I had already 'lying around':

-HOTAS Cougar Thrust unit (for most of the switches)

-Saitek Cyborg ProGamer Pad (to wire everything up)

-Saitek ProFlight Throttle box (for thrust control)

 

What I needed to get:

-One big Red button, Two three-way and one four-way switch.(Mic-,Boat-,Pinky-switch,Left-Throttle Button)

-Parts that I could modify for the housing.

(all together around 30€)

 

picture.php?pictureid=3509&albumid=512&dl=1304150067&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3500&albumid=512&dl=1304148212&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3493&albumid=512&dl=1304148088&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3506&albumid=512&dl=1304148419&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3492&albumid=512&dl=1304148088&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3491&albumid=512&dl=1304148088&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3508&albumid=512&dl=1304149729&thumb=1+picture.php?pictureid=3507&albumid=512&dl=1304149415&thumb=1+ three days work (3x 5 hours)

=picture.php?pictureid=3503&albumid=512&dl=1304148249&thumb=1smile.gif

 

DAY ONE -Friday 22. April :

I made the housing out of a stereo-mixer and two small plastic-boxes with the help of epoxy and super-glue. I Cannibalised the Thrust-unit of the HOTAS cougar for the needed switches and mounted everything into the housing and placed everything on the throttle box :

picture.php?pictureid=3497&albumid=512&dl=1304148175&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3495&albumid=512&dl=1304148136&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3494&albumid=512&dl=1304148136&thumb=1

DAY TWO -Saturday 23. April:

Filled, sanded off and painted the the parts.

picture.php?pictureid=3498&albumid=512&dl=1304148175&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3501&albumid=512&dl=1304148212&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3496&albumid=512&dl=1304148136&thumb=1

DAY THREE -Monday 25.April:

Wired everything up with the circuitboard of the Cyborg-ProGamer Pad. and stored it save in the housing of the Throttle box. For the wires of the levers I made two additional openings in the housing. I was very lucky that there was enough room in the Throttle box to fit everything in it without interfering the mechanic for the levers.

picture.php?pictureid=3505&albumid=512&dl=1304148249&thumb=1picture.php?pictureid=3504&albumid=512&dl=1304148249&thumb=1

picture.php?albumid=512&pictureid=3526

 

My Girlfriend and I are very happy with the outcome.biggrin.gif


Edited by PeterP
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Very nice outcome, I would be interested how you are finding the play in the throttles, I scratch built a HOTAS once, but could never get the throttles to line up, but I'm thinking your CH throttles are a better starting platform

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Dude, Awesome!:thumbup: Melikes the engineering state of mind.

I only respond to that little mechanical voice that says "Terrain! Terrain! Pull Up! Pull Up!"

 

Who can say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

-Robert Goddard

 

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Thank you all for your kind words!

 

I want to add that, after using the new controller the last 5 Days, I'm very satisfied with the overall handling of my new 'Toy' !

with the Cougar Throttle (RIPmusic_whistling.gif) I had to use modifiers.

Now I proudly can say that controlling the complex systems of the warthog is so much more natural and easier without the need to use modifiers for some functions any more.

 

Very nice outcome, I would be interested how you are finding the play in the throttles, I scratch built a HOTAS once, but could never get the throttles to line up, but I'm thinking your CH throttles are a better starting platform

 

I have absolute no play in the throttles of the Saitek Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant (this is no CH produkt) and both levers are synchronous. And even if there would be a slight non-alignment I could easily modify the working range with the SST programming software from saitek.

 

 

Do you recon you will be able to re-assemble the Couger if DCS make F-16!!

I hardly believe that I ever want to disassemble my new hardware to put back the switches into the cougar Thrust-unit. My new Dual-Thrust controller will (hopefully) stay for many years to come in my collection.

 

It's much more likely that I will buy a new one or get a replacement of the missing switches.

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Wow. Makes me realize what is possible with a little bit of effort.

 

Just one question, does it show up as 2 devices in the SST software? I'm assuming that the switches are programmed through the Command Unit and the Throttles are the Quadrant.


Edited by LtFransky

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Great skill, i also think rotating the throttle.

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Just one question, does it show up as 2 devices in the SST software? I'm assuming that the switches are programmed through the Command Unit and the Throttles are the Quadrant.

Yes, that's right. The Circuit-board of the Cyborg-Pad is only 3,5 x 8 cm

and it fits without a problem in the base of the Throttle-Quadrant. Now there are two USB connectors coming out of the box.

Soldering the IDE wires for the buttons to the this board was one of the hardest part (not much room for failures)

picture.php?albumid=512&pictureid=3500

 

Excellent! Have you considered rotating the entire base assembly (45 degrees longitudinally) so you won't have to bend your wrist awkwardly?

Already done!:

picture.php?albumid=512&pictureid=3526

 

just curious how much do you have invested in to all the parts you combined in to this throttle?

1 Four-way micro-switch,red push button and two three-way switches = 12€

the two small plastic-boxes = 4€

the audio-mixer for the housing = 12€ (everything from Conrad Electronics)

The Loudspeaker-holder did come in a pair for 19€.

----------

=47€

 

 

Everything else I had already at home in my toolbox/cellar.

The Throttle-quadrant did cost me 38€ and the cyborg-pad was about 39€ at a onlineshop if I remember correctly.

And search on Ebay for the price of a used HOTAS Cougar (it could have a broken thrust unit- you will not use it after you finished the dual-thrust) .

 

Edit:

If someone really want to try this mod by himself I would deliver drawings how to wire the buttons to the cyborg-pad correctly up. This can be very tricky if you use not the right "ground bus".

It Took me 2 hours to find the right combination to make every switch working - and I'm no novice in this ;)

There are 24 connectors but they share not the same grounding. There a 5 different ground buses and they must connected to the right button or they will have a wrong/double or none at all output.

I have made already the drawings but I need to bring them in a clean form that everyone would be able to read them.

 

I have also made a nice profile for the Throttle quadrant : When I push one throttle over the little detent at the 0% position the engines will start. And when I put them back and hold them for more than two seconds full back the engine will stop. The 2sec delay will prevent me to do it unintentional during a flight.


Edited by PeterP
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  • 2 weeks later...

definitely looks awesome!

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Rafael

 

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Awesome work! Conrad Electronics you say? And the whole thing came out to under 100€ with having to buy the throttle? I already have the cougar throttle (the stick is getting some new parts to get rid of the centerplay). If I can do this for pretty cheap, my wife might just let me. Of course getting the warthog with all the base switches is cool, I'm sure I can convince her to let me spend 50-100€ rather than the 300€ for the warthog. (I'm in Berlin, btw, and there's a conrad right down the street.)

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hog_driver111th,

give me a PM if you want to do this mod - I will help you as much I can with suggestions/plans to wire up the buttons/what tools to use (a "Dremel" Minidrill and a saw blade socket will be very handy!) -even over phone/skype.


Edited by PeterP

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Wow good job :thumbup:. That is a sweet piece of hardware you have there! Keep up the good work :)

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peter, what's that plastic paste you used?

Rafael

 

Ryzen 7 1800x @ 4ghz | MSI GTX 980ti | 32gb DDR4 Ballistix 2400Mhz | Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (wi-fi) | 480Gb Kingston NVMe ssd | Western Digital 1TB x2 | EVGA 850w PSU | Noctua NH-D14 | NZXT S240 | Windows 10 Pro 64bit | 4k 50" Philips android TV | Dell P2418D | Oculus Rift S | Thrustmaster Warthog Hotas

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"Fine Filler"

It's called "Feinspachtel" in German.

Its contains of two components.http://www.google.de/products/catalog?q=feinspachtel&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15984988072287434350&sa=X&ei=FRLgTZ2FNcbEsgaogu3KBQ&ved=0CEYQ8wIwAg

Sorry for the delay.


Edited by PeterP

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