Hotas Cougar main PCB
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Hey everyone on Benchmarksims
Last week bought i a Hotas Cougar. When I was trying to install the driver, it said “USB Device Not Recognized”. I opened the unit to see after pinched wires. I wrote to Thrustmaster Technical support to see about they got a PCB board i could buy. They didn’t have a PCB to a Hotas Cougar, but they suggested i could go to a electronic shop to see about it could be repaired.
Is it possible to repair a PCB or have anyone tried the same as I?
It would be great if one of you could give me some advices to what else i can do to try to fix it.
Regards
RIK
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Did you try pulling the trigger and then plugging the USB in? This should reset the firmware. You’ll need to upgrade the firmware after this, if it brings the Cougar back to life. If that doesn’t work, check the USB cable with a multimeter, perhaps it’s damaged. If it’s really the PCB that’s broken, than things are not so simple as Thrustmaster made you believe. Most likely one of the “big chips” is broken, and they are hard to unsolder, perhaps no longer available, and at least one of them holds microcode that you don’t have.
If you got a friend with a Cougar, you could try swapping in his PCB to see whether it’s really the PCB that’s causing problems.
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Hello RIK
also be cautious about USB Hubs - powered ones are best but non-powered hubs can sometimes cause issues with Cougar - make sure you plug into the USB port on your PC direct, Also make sure that you have 64 bit Cougar drivers installed if you have 64 bit Windows -
Hey Jetlag
I have been tried with my brothers Cougar, and it works fine on my PC. Once the driver could be installed with my own Cougar, but in “Analyzer” it wouldn’t connect or react.
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I also have a Cougar main stick PCB that I know is defective (after hours of troubleshooting, swapped PCB’s and normal function resumed). The HOTAS malfunction symptom, strangely enough, was failure of the throttle COMM switch. I would love to find a vendor to repair the PCB so that I have a spare. The only repair method I am aware of is to purchase another Cougar.
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@RIK:
Hey Jetlag
I have been tried with my brothers Cougar, and it works fine on my PC. Once the driver could be installed with my own Cougar, but in “Analyzer” it wouldn’t connect or react.
Hey RIK
did you try your Cougar in a different PC? Also are you plugging in the Throttle to the Joystick before plugging the USB into the PC? Maybe try just the Joystick on its own at first without Throttle plugged in.
If you have not tried it already I would first follow the FlyFoxy Installation procedure:
http://cougar.flyfoxy.com/faqinstall.php -
Did you try pulling the trigger and then plugging the USB in? This should reset the firmware. You’ll need to upgrade the firmware after this
Rik, just to make sure you dont miss this. No 1 to try!!
Greets
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I have been trying that
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RIK - How deep into the guts have you gone so far? The big question - does it smell like burnt electronics? Raunchy plastic smell? If yes find the source - you should see a brown or black spot on the board if it’s bad enough. Do the electronic parts look like snot stuck on a hair or do you see little tiny silver/black/silver boxes? When I say tiny I mean smaller than 2mm. If you see something equal to snot on a hair you may be in luck, as far as replacement is concerned. Do you have access to a volt/ohm meter? You’ll need one to check the parts.
How’s your electronics background? Take note that you can FRY the internals with 6 volts. This would be a BAD thing.
Whatever you do, DON’T check anything with the stick plugged into your pc if you decide to test the physical components.I’ll give you a quick breakdown of what you’re probably looking at. I’m not an electronics tech, so don’t take my word as gold here.
Most of the things you’ll see are likely to be resistors, capacitors and integrated circuit chips.
Resistors are generally a mid tan brown color with 4 color bands breaking the tan color up, and you can check them with an ohm meter. Again, you should NOT have the stick plugged into anything when you check any physical part.
Capacitors would be the next easily identifiable part, they are usually a lighter blue color - the bigger ones anyway. They can hold a charge for a while, I don’t recommend trying to test them. They store energy and can discharge all their energy at once. They can really FRY things if you mess with them, and can hold their charge for hours.
Chips would be the next item you’d notice. They are very easy to identify. A black rectangle with a bunch of little silvery “legs” coming off it. You should be able to see some lettering on them. They house multiple electrical circuits within their walls. Sometimes they may be refered to as a processor, depending on how many circuits they have.
You may also see some pots or potentiometers. A volume knob on a stereo would be an example of a pot switch. I think they may be what reads as your x and y axis on your stick.
The board is just that, a breadboard with lots of traces and components mounted on it.
Punch in those names into any search engine for pictures of them. Testing boards is a pain in the, uh, lets just say it’s a pain. If you don’t see these items as I described them, snot on a hair, then you’re probably dealing with surface mounted parts. This is a problem in terms of replacement. Look at the board to see what the label is for the component. “C” would be a capacitor, R would be a resistor, D would be a diode, SW would be a switch. That’s about as far as I’m willing to go with that. Again, DON’T check them while the stick is plugged in. Someone like Radioshack might carry the bigger pieces, or have a place you can try to have it tested. You can try Digikey or someone like them for a bigger selection of electronic parts.
If an IC chip is bad you’ll need to have someone replace it with the same kind, and if it contains the software for the stick you’ll need someone to install that too. Best of luck, hope you get it up and running before having to look into replacing anything.
-Babite
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Options:
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get a refund and buy another set. Was the seller responsive?
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if you brother is willing, you could do a test point voltage comparison between good and bad TQS PCB. But it’s risky.
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sell the rig as is and start over. I’ll make an offer, pm me
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get a warthog set
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convert the TQS into a USB controller
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Checking TQS PCB is not risky at all IF IT IS DISCONNECTED FROM STICK BASE. There are only diodes on it.
Have fun! -
Hey
I’m 100% sure that it’s yhe pcb there is down so i just think i wil look for a new one…Regards
RIK -
Rik
are you talking about a TQS board or a stick board
Basically which one would you need? -
Its the stick board
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I’m out
can’t help then, sorry. -
That’s okay. Thanks anyway
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I fixed a friend’s Cougar with that “not recognised device” message. I checked USB cable and it was defective. You have to unplugged it from PCB and check each cable with a tester.
Give it a try! -
Tried to buy a new USB but without luck
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Forgot yesterday: have you tried TM support? Maybe the have still PCB’s stick (from TQS they don’t have AFAIK) …
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Do you have a link?