lxsapper Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) Today I wanted to share a controller I'm costumizing a controller inspired by PererP's 2 MSFF2s merged with one cougar grip. I plan to try in the future to try something more like Peter's controller, but at this time I can't use his solution for using the 2 MSFF's. Basicaly because only works in DCS and I intend to use this with more sims than DCS. It's actually a defect in DCS that it works the way it does in wich any FF controller you hook up coopies the beavior of any controller. This was probably impremented to suport multi-crew cockpits I belive. But what it does in not to allow one to have for example FF rudders. I know there are no FF rudders on the market but one could make them and RoF (the only sim I know of) suports it. So in any case because implementing 2 motors per axis or stronger motors is going to be tricky, I came up with another solution as a backup. So instead of using a Cougar or Warthog's grip I got a really cheap old TM FLCS. Once I opened the grip I had the pleasent surprise to find out that the electronics inside the grip were very much like the cougar's. So instead of having to buy a USB board (like Leobodnar's) to drive the buttons and hats, I decided to try if I could interface it trough the cougar. Also I wanted to retain Cougar functionality (I was also planing a side project to make it a force sensing stick), but I've since switched the cougar for a warthog. Plan is the same here!!!! NOT TO ALTER the interns of the WH in anyway, shape or form! It was a real help that the cougar and WH grips can be interchanged, because I didn't have to change a thing. Originally I had to swap a few wires inside the FLCS grip because of swaped reports (similar to the cougar but not exactly wired the same) and the TG1 and TG2 not reporting anything at all. So I got it all working, it's still in the MSFF2 base waiting for me to build a central column box thing to house/suport it. But I made a video of it working. It's bad quality and my first video for youtube, my native language in not english, the video was shot in less than ideal conditions, at one point you can hear my daughter and my wife in the background.... basically it sucks!!! But I hope it can clear it all up, so that you can have an idea of how it's working. Edited February 21, 2013 by lxsapper
Swaty Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 Nice one!! About video just write [YOUTUBE.............../YOUTUBE] just replace dots with this : ]ao6Tyw2a5wQ[ [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] My Pit
lxsapper Posted February 21, 2013 Author Posted February 21, 2013 Thanks Swaty... also for removing my dumbness :)
recoilfx Posted February 22, 2013 Posted February 22, 2013 I think you may be able to simplify this set up if you can code. Warthog grip is basically 3 shift registers (CD4021BCM) inside. Since FLCS and Warthog/Cougar are pin compatible I think you may be able to get a Teensy running in HID mode and have the grip directly communicate with it instead of hauling a warthog base around... There are couple CD4021BCN arduinos tutorials around, I don't know the pin outs for Warthog/Cougar grip though...
lxsapper Posted February 22, 2013 Author Posted February 22, 2013 I think you may be able to simplify this set up if you can code. Warthog grip is basically 3 shift registers (CD4021BCM) inside. Since FLCS and Warthog/Cougar are pin compatible I think you may be able to get a Teensy running in HID mode and have the grip directly communicate with it instead of hauling a warthog base around... There are couple CD4021BCN arduinos tutorials around, I don't know the pin outs for Warthog/Cougar grip though... Thank you for the tip, it's worth checking out. But I think I will be keeping it this way at least for now. It's really meant to be a stop gap solution, at least while I check if I can boost the output on my other MSFF2 to drive 2 or stronger motors. My electronics are limited and my coding nearly non-existant. I will be getting help however. The arengement isn't impratical for me because the WH base will sit on a sidestick configuration (it could be put inside the stand I'm going to build but I intend to use it for flying as well), whenever I want to fly my FF stick I will just put it in place and connect through the Hog maintaining all the programing. Idealy I will end with my WH grip replacing the FLCS (wich is butt ugly and has crap buttons) much like PeterP's cougar grip.
recoilfx Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 Thank you for the tip, it's worth checking out. But I think I will be keeping it this way at least for now. It's really meant to be a stop gap solution, at least while I check if I can boost the output on my other MSFF2 to drive 2 or stronger motors. My electronics are limited and my coding nearly non-existant. I will be getting help however. The arengement isn't impratical for me because the WH base will sit on a sidestick configuration (it could be put inside the stand I'm going to build but I intend to use it for flying as well), whenever I want to fly my FF stick I will just put it in place and connect through the Hog maintaining all the programing. Idealy I will end with my WH grip replacing the FLCS (wich is butt ugly and has crap buttons) much like PeterP's cougar grip. Hey sapper, I went ahead and did a probe of the the min-din 5 connector on the Warthog/Cougar grips and made a post about it on simhq... You may find it useful down the line if you want to make your own controller boards... http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3741152#Post3741152
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