Anyone have any experience using DIView and calibrating the Cougar TQS?

Hello,

I ordered it. Today i build it in my Cougar. It works fine out of the box.

Greatings

Dirk

Just getting back into Falcon, and a BMS user for the first time. I have the Cougar HOTAS and the Thrustmaster elite rudder pedals. Both the default falcon game and the Foxy ccp sees the rudders, but BMS doesn’t. In the advanced tab, only keyboard or mouse/wheel are my options… the pedals aren’t being seen. I’ve been looking for answers but can’t find any.

Can anyone help?

update:
seemed to stumble on my problem’s fix after seemingly exhausting effort. In the advanced section one of the knob settings there had the rudder pedals set. When I removed them the pedals became available for the rudder axis.
gtg

Finally getting around to get back into Falcon, can I get this to work?

Dave

@JUmpstart5179:

The TQS won’t speak to CCP anymore. I converted it with the LeoBonard board a month or so ago.

Use software at Leo Bodner to do it. DIView: http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=12 Or apply deadzone in BMS setup.

My radar cursor was failing and i wanted to fix it. I tried to do a hall effect mod to it as another user did but i failed miserably and damaged the microstick pcb so i decided to make my own replacement.

Parts used:

6x8cm double sided epoxy prototyping pcb,

2 10k ohm upright trimpots (i don’t know the part number),

1 joystick without any pots on it, sourced from an old third party playstation 2 controller. You can source one from where ever you want as long as it moves in 2 axis’ and has a push button. The push button can be on the side of the joystick assembly unlike the original CTS joystick which has the button on the middle inside.

****** If you feel like it you can directly use a joystick that already has pots attached to it. I decided to remove the existing pots from the joystick that i sourced from an old ps2 controller as it was old and i replaced them with new pots that are used in electrical measuring equipments.

Jumper cables,

Soldering iron, solder, heat shrink tubing.

Making:

********************** ALWAYS USE HEAT SHRINK TUBING OR ELECTRICAL TAPE TO COVER THE EXPOSED SOLDER JOINTS OR CABLE PARTS. AS THE COUGAR THROTTLE HANDLE IS MADE OUT OF METAL DON’T, ***********
********************** RISK DAMAGING ANY ELECTRONICS ***********

1- I measured the dimensions of the original pcb then i draw it on a paper to make a template that i can stick onto the prototyping pcb board so i can cut a similar pcb.

2- I cut the pcb to the desired shape and sanded the edges for a better fit and finish

3- I aligned the corners of the original pcb and the freshly cut pcb to figure out where i needed to place the joystick. Marked the pins that i would attach the joystick onto.

4- I drilled the previously marked pins so that the pins of the joystick would fit.

5- I checked the fitting of my pcb inside the cougar throttle. It fits.

6- I fitted the joystick onto the pcb and checked the fitting inside the cougar throttle again. It fits.

7- I put on the trimpots onto the pcb in a way that they are close to the joystick and the moving notches of the axis parts were in contact with the center of the trimpots. Therefore moving the joystick moves the trimpots too. Normally all the joysticks that we have in remotes, game controllers have their trimpots on their side, mechanically linked to the moving axis

8- Fitting check.

9- I soldered the trimpots and the push button onto the board from the underside.

10- I soldered wires according to the schematics i draw.

11- I added female jumper cable tips to replace the original 6 pin female JST connector as i couldn’t source one for myself.

12- I used an arduino to check if the pots work (I used the AnalogReadSerial example). I made a small circuit to check if the push button works.

13- I cut the JST male connector inside of the throttle grip and added male jumper cable tips to all 6 cables. ( As i was too carried away listening music i accidently sodlered female tips, so i had female tips on both the replacement pcb and the cougar wire harness! I didn’t bother doing all the soldering again and just connected them with a male-male cable in between. It took a lot of space inside the handle so i don’t recommend doing something like that. I will solder male tips to the next time i open my unit)

14- Placed the pcb and the supporting bracket in and closed the handle. I put the thing together.

15- Checked if the new board was working as intended in the CCP.

This is not an absolute fix to the cursor problem that occurs in many of our throttles. I am experimenting on implementing hall effect sensors to mini joysticks so that we can have a contactless solution that can last longer than pots.

Here i am inserting some drawings that i made prior to this modification.

@Mylonite470:

I placed the magnet as close to the sensor as possible without them touching each other, I think the magnet is within about 1mm distance of the sensor.

I see around 1400 units, but I aim to get the magnet and sensor as far apart as possible.

Arcadia you the man ! I had been banging my head against this for the last two days.

Jumpstart thanks for your input. I’ve played with the HOTAS Axes settings on 6 and 7 and have a better understanding. Appreciate your help.

Thank you gentlemen.

At first - it’s took me a while to figure out just what the micro stick does, electrically. I solved the problem by mapping it to Arrow keys and adjusting the dead zone using ControllerMate on my Mac. Now it’s rock solid.

Electrically, the micro stick describes a Lissajous as it moves from quadrant to quadrant - the trick is to decipher which quadrant it’s in and map that to an Arrow key. For a full Cougar there should be a way to also do this with Foxy, but in our conversion case we need a utility that will 1) read the micro stick; and 2) map it to a key. In any event, I find this method REALLY kills all cursor drift. I just haven’t figured out a way to implement it on a PC yet.

holy f…. I replaced it with a nail of similar dimensions and so far it works.

Hello community,

The enable/cursor switch on my Hotas cougar has suddenly started to drift. I had a spare throttle that i dismounted and then I swapped the faulty part. It worked fine for two weeks and then it started drifting again, this is when i suspected a software issue with Windows 10.

I attempted to recalibrate the throttle and enabled dead zones, it would only hold good for 2 days, sometimes only 1 day and then drift again. I was about to give up on it and permanently store it away. Every time I would let it sit there for two weeks or so and plug it back in, it would work and then 24 hours to 48 hours later it would start drifting again. It started to really confirm what I suspected, Windows 10 is simply making a mess.

My solution was to unplug it before i shut down windows 10 and plug it back in after booting windows 10 up again. It seems that every time power is applied to the computer and the USB cable is still plugged in it creates a drift in my axes.

Since I have been doing this, no more drifts.

I am sharing this in case some of you are about to give up on the Hotas Cougar. I came back to it every time because flying in BMS with anything else than an F-16 throttle just feels off.

Enjoy the weekend and happy MiG hunting.

And now that everything is working I can get back to flying in BMS, too. But I have to say, ED is the only thing I’ve played yet where it makes me wish the Cougar had MORE buttons on it.

It’s going to be weeks before I’ve got my configuration back to where I’ve got my workflow back.

I sure wish someone would come up with a simmer’s version of a JHMCS. A helmet mounted display with integrated head tracking would be simply awesme.

@Mower:

Can I use shifted commands with S3 with a DX profile?

Yessir.

#####################################################################

This is the SHIFTED (with holding Pinky/S3) layer. Pressing PINKY/S3 + some button will result in a DX number which is “original DX button number + 256”. So e.g. the Uncage button - which is Win DX24 / BMS DX23 by default - will become BMS DX23+256 = DX279 here. Shifted buttons that should do THE SAME as the unshifted ones do NOT need to be mapped at all. Shifted buttons that should do NOTHING at all (hence only work as unshifted buttons) need to be mapped to “SimDoNothing”. NOTE: for the DX shifting to work properly, you HAVE to make sure that the Falcon BMS config file includes the following setting: set g_nHotasPinkyShiftMagnitude 256 (this should be there by default, please just crosscheck)

#####################################################################

TG1 (Win DX1 = BMS DX0+256 = BMS DX256)

SimDoNothing 256 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

Pickle/S2 (Win DX2 = BMS DX1+256 = BMS DX257)

AFResetTrim 257 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

Pinky/S3 (Win DX3 = BMS DX2+256 = BMS DX25)

SimHotasPinkyShift 258 -1 -2 0 0x0 -1

Paddle/S4 (…and so on…)

SimEject 259 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

MslStep/S1

SimDoNothing 260 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

TG2

SimDoNothing 261 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

TMS/H2

OTWSelect3DCockpitMode 262 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
OTWSelectF3PadlockModeAA 263 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
OTWStepNextPadlock 264 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
OTWSelectF3PadlockModeAG 265 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

DMS/H3

FOVToggle 266 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
SimVisorToggle 267 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
ToggleNVGMode 268 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
RecenterTrackIR 269 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

CMS/H4

SimEWSPGMInc 270 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
SimEWSProgInc 271 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
SimEWSPGMDec 272 -1 -2 0 0x0 0
SimEWSProgDec 273 -1 -2 0 0x0 0

The TRIM hat/H1 has its own syntax. (Please just believe me that this section is ok, a full explaination is available in the “DX Shifting” docu). We map TRIM for the SHIFTED layer here. There is no need to map the UNSHIFTED stuff (POV change), because BMS will automatically use POV for ALL unmapped/unused layers by default.

AFElevatorTrimUp 0 -1 -3 0 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 0 -1 -3 1 0x0 0
AFAileronTrimRight 0 -1 -3 2 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 0 -1 -3 3 0x0 0
AFElevatorTrimDown 0 -1 -3 4 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 0 -1 -3 5 0x0 0
AFAileronTrimLeft 0 -1 -3 6 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 0 -1 -3 7 0x0 0
OTWViewUp 2 -1 -3 0 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 2 -1 -3 1 0x0 0
OTWViewRight 2 -1 -3 2 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 2 -1 -3 3 0x0 0
OTWViewDown 2 -1 -3 4 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 2 -1 -3 5 0x0 0
OTWViewLeft 2 -1 -3 6 0x0 0
SimDoNothing 2 -1 -3 7 0x0 0

###Note: I have POV on shifted layer and Trim on unshifted layer here

Thank you guys…

Have you tried recalibrating with manual recalibration.

THANK YOU FOR THE FIX!

New user to BMS. Years since I had pulled out my Cougar.
I checked the 4.34 BMS manual and couldn’t find the answer around the 49-50 pages on why I received this compile error of the Cougar_DX.tmj / .tmm files had to be in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\HOTAS\Files”
(Although I suspect it has something to do with Foxy reading ‘.tmj.tmj’ extensions.

Anyone have any clarification?

File: Dunc_DX.tmj
Line: 0
Error: ERROR 1000: Could not open Input file G:\MicroProse\Falcon BMS 4.33 U1\Docs\TM HOTAS Cougar\Cougar_DX.tmj.TMJ

TX to all for replies. Had this HOTAS since 2001, so I do know how to flash it. Hate to get new gear, as this old girl is like an extension of my hand.

@Morgan:

Realy? At least 4 members in my SQ had a problem like yours or like soldano’s and with this HUB now they are all ΟΚ.

Ι cant think something else.

Changing the cougar for a new one solved most of my electronics issues

The last problem I had was related to bad usb plug

And then I have the undelaying problem of the FCC2 which is too dépendant on temperature

Of course my airbrake switch broke , like most people but with proper resin I was able to repair it

And the monster play I had on the stick was solve with proper cork at the right places 🙂

As I said voodoo + luck + heavy maintenance has always been needed with this POS

You can invert the axis using Realsimulator’s tool I believe ?

@Master:

Bumping so anyone with damaged pots can see this at the top. Maybe make it a sticky?

Bumping again for the above reasons