Old Thrustmaster TQS and F-22 revival Win10
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Hi.
Just for the interested. I own very old 80 and 90s stuff, one of the first Thrustmaster wooden viper cockpits with all add ons, old TQS, F22……so I “played” the very first Sims and controllers from C64, Atari ST, PC on. I was searching for a manual bringing the old TQS with its mixture of PS2, serial, Gamport back to live. I only read in the DCS forum about users who used bodnar boards but without any complete explanation. So I just want to write here some description for those who own the old TQS and want to use it on new Win10 systems.First, it works, and it works great! Theres no pain building the TQS to USB standard, it goes nice and easy.
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You wipe out all the old boards of the TQS and replace it with a Leo Bodnar board, you can use the cheaper ones (BU0836A) or the top variant BU0836X as I did. Buy some cabels for wiring and a 3-4$ XBox/PS2/3/4 thumbstick for the cursor control/Enable switches.
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Remove the old Mouse control stuff from the trottle an replace it with the thumbstick, it will fit without problems, just ensure that it stays right in place without moving.
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Then just follow the colours of the old TQS wiring and solder (BU0836A, but then you have to solder some diodes too or you just use the Bodnar matrix board) or just plug (BU0836X) the cabels. Just follow the right colours and plug all buttons and pots; you can use one ground and one +5V cable common for all switches or pots, so you just have to solder new cables for the thumbstick and thumbstick button.
The Bodnar board allows to connect 8 axes and 32 buttons, one hat switch. The board is “the whole controller”, you just add all axes and buttons you want and you don´t have to program anything, you can use any kind of buttons, switches and all common pots (1 - 100k). You don´t have to use any old, spiky Thrustmaster pots, cou can replace them with newer 10k joystick pots or mix pots of different size/value. You can even add new axes and switches as I did (see jpg), I used additional three pots, two of them with On/OFF switch for HMCS and HUD control. You can calibrate all axes and the new pots in the Win10 game controller settings and then all works fine in BMS. Just match the right keys in BMS controller settings to your new USB device and the corresponding switches/axes.
Of course you can use the old Thrustmaster pots, but then better clean them (inside) as I did; disasamle the pot (don´t just spray in), remove the grease and dirt and bend all the small contacts (cleaned) into place. Then the spikes are gone for a time.
Because the old TQS is made from plastic you can easily drill and model the throttle as you want. You can see in the pictures my home built idle and AB detents, I just used the hardware I found and some bike parts for that, the idle detent can only be accessed by lifting the cutoff release handle (just mechanically as IRL, but of course without rotating the throttle handle up/outwards).
If you want to use the F22 stick, the best way is to use a Arduino board, there are several good manuals on the DCS forum, so I don´t explain it here how to do, you will even find the software you need in that forum. I just added two more pics for demonstration, I combined the F22 grip with an old Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback2 for flying Huey and some planes in DCS VR with realsitic Feedback and Trim functions. I used the free buttons and axes of the FFB to build a collective helicopter control with working throttle ant the most important switches there. A 20 bucks adjustable motorcycle steering damper takes care of realistic collective movement.
If anybody needs futher explanation you´re welcome.
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