HOTAS Throttle rework?

[nobrot]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of reworking the Thrustmaster HOTAS throttle top panels and lighting. I am certain that those of you shooting for as much realism as possible will agree that the panel lighting on the HOTAS throttles is too green and too bright; I am thinking that the top panel and lighting needs to be replaced with the same format as the other panels that will be manufactured.

 

So if anyone has committed the crime of destroying what is one of the more expensive parts of the sim in the name of realism... please share!

[Flagrum]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of reworking the Thrustmaster HOTAS throttle top panels and lighting. I am certain that those of you shooting for as much realism as possible will agree that the panel lighting on the HOTAS throttles is too green and too bright; I am thinking that the top panel and lighting needs to be replaced with the same format as the other panels that will be manufactured.

 

So if anyone has committed the crime of destroying what is one of the more expensive parts of the sim in the name of realism... please share!

You know that you can dim the leds with the target software?

[nobrot]

You know that you can dim the leds with the target software?

 

Yep, but I want to be able to dim them with my lighting panel :)

[lxsapper]

I'm sure it's just a mater of wiring the lighting to your panel and you may have to add a resistor circuit conneted to the warthog to replace the leds.

[MA_Goblin]

I'm not a programmer but since you can do it from the TARGET software there

must be a possibility to write a script so that when dimming from your panel

it will call the WH and dim the light.

[lxsapper]

Maybe, but Target only works with some TM hardware, you can dim your throttle from any of those devices (eg, Cougar, MFDs, T1600) I don't know if you could hack it so that you could use a costum built device, you could however do a hardware hack to any of those devices to create your own. But I think he intends to dim not only the WH backlighting but his entire cockpit consoles to be controled from his lighting panel, and that's the same cockpit knob, so to make the same knob to control hardware and softwate (wich will in turn control hardware too) may be more trouble than it's worth, I'd go for the WH hacking.

[nobrot]

Some good feedback, thanks guys; Its not just the dimming, its the colour of the panel as well, My panels are going to be off-white backlit, not green, so I want to match that, and also tie it in to the overall panel lighting, I am likely to have to manufacture replacement panels to get it right, but havent yed grown the goolies to attack my spanking new HOTAS with a screwdriver!

[Namco51]

LEDs don't use resistance to lower the lighting output, but rather they use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) which basically is just turning the LED on and off so rapidly that they just appear dimmer. It's not as simple as just adding a potentiometer unless that pot is connected to the analog input of an arduino or other circuit that decides how quickly to blink the LEDs.

 

Easiest course of action: use the TARGET software to do it.

Coolest and most difficult: keep the lights turned all the way up in TARGET and add an internal circuit and a knob to your warthog throttle that will blink the LEDs according to the position of the knob.

[nobrot]

Thanks for the reply Namco51, I actually have some LED dimmers (they have internal PWM circuits) that I could use, but I am swinging towards using EL wire for panel backlighting, or even EL sheet, so whatever system I end up going with, I expect I will simply manufacture a new top plate for the HOTAS throttles,