Would be grateful for help with my Cougar
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Hello everyone, I was hoping someone could help me out with some advice about how to get out of a hole I seem to have dug for myself with very basic Cougar programming. I have been using a Cougar for years with few problems and when Windows 10 came along all the old software worked fine when re-installed. I have used Dunc’s profile for BMS, but recently thought I would try out the TARGET GUI to create a profile for the DCS Mirage 2000C. The TARGET profile works fine but I no longer have access to the CCP to download profiles to the stick in the “old” way. The CCP loads but I get error messages “Error 14 Unable to write to device” and “E1008: Device error unable to write to device E9914)”. I have tried using Foxy to cleanse the HOTAS but no joy, still the same errors. I had hoped to be able to switch between TARGET and the CCP but it seems that isn’t possible.
Not all is well with the TARGET script editor either-TMC files have corrupted text, just a long line of jumbled code and what look like tags. Also none of the utilities that come with TARGET are working-they cannot detect my Cougar even though the TARGET GUI shows it as “connected” and it works OK in DCS. I could of course reinstall everything but I thought I would ask for advice here first in case I should be using one or the other method of managing my Cougar not both! I have done a lot of searching but may well have missed something. I would ideally like a profile for BMS that I could use in the TARGET GUI (i.e. an .fcf file) but as far as I can see everyone works with the basic .tmc files.
As you can see my knowledge is pretty basic-I wrote lot of profiles in Foxy but they were the simple kind-so any help will be much appreciated :-).TARGET version is 3.0.16.520
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I’ve had that a few times too. In the past one of the following things sometimes helped:
- change USB port (usb3 gave me issues, older 2 was working better)
- if using a usb hub, make sure it’s a powered usb hub, or switch to a direct port on your computer instead
- reflash your cougar (I should look up how again, but IIRC by holding trigger pressed while connecting in usb port)
- reinstall all TM drivers
One case was that bad nothing helped eventually and I had to replace the PCB inside the stick base.
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I’ve had that a few times too. In the past one of the following things sometimes helped:
- change USB port (usb3 gave me issues, older 2 was working better)
- if using a usb hub, make sure it’s a powered usb hub, or switch to a direct port on your computer instead
- reflash your cougar (I should look up how again, but IIRC by holding trigger pressed while connecting in usb port) IIRC, you MUST disconnect the TQS from SSC when flashing firmware to the cougar.
- reinstall all TM drivers
One case was that bad nothing helped eventually and I had to replace the PCB inside the stick base.
What he said. I’ve just added an extra line.
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Thanks for that, I’ve done everything short of flashing the Cougar with no result, Foxy can’t communicate with the controllers. I have flashed my Cougar a number of times in the past and apart from the first time when I was unaware that you need to disconnect the TQS and damaged it, it has worked fine. However I am now getting along better with the TARGET gui now having taught myself how to convert Warthog files for my Cougar. I have also found an fcf file for BMS on the Check 6 site. So I’m going with TARGET at the moment as it seems to be working OK and the Cougar works normally in game. But I may well come back to Foxy and your advice!
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Glad it’s working but a shame you require target. I haven’t done a single key mapping outside of BMS and I have the MFDs also. The only thing I’ve done is add TrackIR keys to my gaming mouse.
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So the best way is to assign everything within BMS? I have never tried that apart from the main axes, what I have done previously is to download Dunc’s profile to the Cougar using the CCP and that always worked fine. Now target seems to have taken over my Cougar so I’m wondering if that will prevent me from key mapping in BMS, but I will give it a try. I will probably reinstall everything anyway quite soon. Target seems to have most use in a flight sim where you have multiple flyable aircraft and like me you aren’t very patient about setting up each one individually. It’s easy to use but no doubt there are drawbacks that I will encounter in due course.
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That’s one way, and I don’t have button or axis emulation turned on. All the buttons on my cougar just worked with bms, but honestly, I can’t tell you what’s on the mappings as it’s set to whatever it was last time I flew F4. I’m pretty sure I’m purely using DX mappings.
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I’ve had a look at what you can do inside BMS now and everything appears to work except the toe brake axes for the cursors. I used to get those working by using the CCP to load the BMS tmc file which set them up right, but I can’t do that at the moment as the CCP won’t load at all now following re-installation. I’m now getting a message about STTubeDevice.dll being missing which has a ring of familiarity about it going back to when I first installed on Windows 7. Is there any other way of setting up the cursors? I haven’t reflashed the Cougar yet because I have a bad feeling about doing that with none of the software working. I’m going to try the target profile next, which does use DX buttons as well. I have reinstalled target but the script editor still displays garbage so I’m guessing that’s a Win 10 compatibility issue (despite my setting compatibility to earlier versions). I know I’ll get there in the end and be able to start flying sims again not messing with controllers. I have a Logitech Extreme 3d which I use for historical and helicopter sims but that just doesn’t feel right with BMS or the complex DCS jets!
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I’ve had a look at what you can do inside BMS now and everything appears to work except the toe brake axes for the cursors. I used to get those working by using the CCP to load the BMS tmc file which set them up right, but I can’t do that at the moment as the CCP won’t load at all now following re-installation. I’m now getting a message about STTubeDevice.dll being missing which has a ring of familiarity about it going back to when I first installed on Windows 7. Is there any other way of setting up the cursors? I haven’t reflashed the Cougar yet because I have a bad feeling about doing that with none of the software working. I’m going to try the target profile next, which does use DX buttons as well. I have reinstalled target but the script editor still displays garbage so I’m guessing that’s a Win 10 compatibility issue (despite my setting compatibility to earlier versions). I know I’ll get there in the end and be able to start flying sims again not messing with controllers. I have a Logitech Extreme 3d which I use for historical and helicopter sims but that just doesn’t feel right with BMS or the complex DCS jets!
Copy STTubeDevice.dll from the CCP install directory to system32 and also sysWOW64 and you’ll be good to go mate.
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And now it all works, I have the CCP up and running for BMS and Target working fine too for those other sims if I need it. I finally got the hang of the script editor too when I realized that the TMC files for the Cougar are a different species from the ones target uses (confusing!). Thanks a lot for the pointers in the right direction.