My new "used" cougar
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Loved my Cougar until the stick started flopping about 1/2 inch, making it virtually unusable.
Replaced by the more reliable x65.
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Loved my Cougar until the stick started flopping about 1/2 inch, making it virtually unusable.
Replaced by the more reliable x65.
How do you find the x65? And are you using it with the cougar throttle?
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How do you find the x65? And are you using it with the cougar throttle?
Discontinued so you can’t find it AFAIK, and no, don’t think you can.
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Find it used on ebay, and to use it with the cougar throttle, buy a TUSBA.
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Discontinued so you can’t find it AFAIK, and no, don’t think you can.
Thanks. With “find it” I meant what is your experience using it.
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The guy I bought it from works for a ministry, and the cables have this white powder on them. So I’m assuming (and secretly wishing) the HOTAS was used in a mil sim where it was built in and had been taken care of.
There’s no play in the stick and the rotaries and micro stick feel very solid.
Just afraid of that T9 switch. It’s a bit hard to move. Probably going to do that modification they wrote about on cougarworld.
Thoroughly recommend fixing it, it makes it work significantly better.
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Thanks for the information. Did Greg fit your Evenstrain mod, or did you fit it yourself with his kit?
At the time Greg was doing it himself. The reason why he needed the base is that he exactly matched the measurements of the bottom portion of the stick. Once installed it’s only going to work with that stick. If you have never tried an Even Strain or Ian’s mod you’re missing out. Nothing compares. They are built like tanks and they are about the most precise stick even when comparing to the Warthog. The reason why I like the WH as well is that is has a much longer throw which works well with WWII stuff that I fly quite a bit.
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to use it with the cougar throttle, buy a TUSBA.
Hmm, forgot about that. Thing is, the x65 throttle is more versatile anyhow.
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Thanks. With “find it” I meant what is your experience using it.
For a stick with that many cons, I found enough pros to keep using it, and find advantages in it over most other sticks Ive come across.
The X65F was my firsr HOTAS. I bought it specifically to learn Falcon BMS with. Ive since upgraded, and my X65F is presently lent to a friend since his expression of interest in learning Falcon. For some time I used the X65F, then when I purchased a Cougar I spent some time using the X65F stick with the Cougar throttle (no TUSBA), and when I could afford it I upgraded my Coagar with an FCC3 and boxed up my X65F.
Whilst using the various configurations of the Saitek HOTAS, I found a number of strong and weak points. Some things about it infuriated me - case in point, the position of the pickle button. Located squarely below the trim/POV hat, you WILL accidentally pickle at some point. I lost only two sidewinders to this misfortune, fortunately.
Some things are strengths - the stick force sensing comes to mind. Quickly configurable, and as of the time of writing, it is now calibratable also. Getting drivers and so on for the stick, for me personally, was a massive pain. Getting it to work with my hardware likewise. The importer for Saitek in Australia got to know me by name with the amount of time I spent chatting with their warranty department. Upgrading to the Cougar was no less concerning WRT drivers, with the caveat that there was no warranty support for me. Both sticks were of the set and forget variety - once its set, try to forget all the hassles… until the next time you need to remember what works.
When it was working, it was a joy to fly with. Smooth action on the throttles, a ministick that with some work could be made to control the radar cursors, more buttons than you can shake a stick at, and of course the force sensing stick. Ive since that stick refused to try to fly falcon without a force sensing stick - its so much easier being able to feel your amount of deflection by the strain on your hands - sort of an anti trim mechanism almost. That said without the FLCS I could see it get very frustrating very quickly.
Other than one recurring hardware issue, the X65F never had any problems or faults. The one recurring issue was eventually solved by plugging it into a powered USB hub instead of my computer itself. Im thinking my PCs +5V rail might have been a bit intermittent - though I did not check it at the time, it was fine a month ago when I did check it. I dunno what caused it.
I still miss having the switches that used to be in front of the throttle - so much so, its prompted me to start making my own switch panels for Falcon. Mine are not so pretty as the Saitek ones, but they are better matched to the layout of a block 50 cockpit.
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Wow thanks Blu. Makes me want to get the FCC or the FSSB real soon. Hope I can get to make time and make some switches too. Step by step build a cockpit.
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step by step is all -I- can afford at the moment… Id recommend starting with a numpad and some extra switches to make an ICP, and a MISC panel.
I started off with just attaching the switches to cheap circuit board, and wiring the switches to a PC plug in gamepad circuitboard - the gamepad was one of those $20 ones that looks a bit like an xbox controller without ministicks.
Upgraded from that to Pokeys units, which are a lot more configurable (or, well, at ALL configurable) - replaced the mounting with a metal panel at around the same time.
Its much more immersive moving a physical switch to fence in.
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That’s exactly what I had in mind. Will look into the Pokeys stuff. How about CH multi button interfaces? iirc they had something looking like an ICP.
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At the time Greg was doing it himself. The reason why he needed the base is that he exactly matched the measurements of the bottom portion of the stick. Once installed it’s only going to work with that stick. If you have never tried an Even Strain or Ian’s mod you’re missing out.
I’ve got one (see sig) of the first batch of 25 with the titanium Greg had left over. I only ask as Greg fitted mine himself (I shipped the base to the States and he fitted and shipped it back with the old gimbals) but I’ve never looked to see if he fitted a collar on mine (or that was something he added later).
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Sorry I didn’t see that in your sig. If it’s never given you a problem by now it never will IMO. The collar is part of the mod so he fit the collar himself. The only thing he added later was a small aluminum tube that goes under the collar in case it slide up the stick. I never had an issue with it doing it but I did have that issue of it twisting over time. So we will see. That stick will most likely outlast the software.
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thats sim porn. So jealous. wish id picked one up years ago. Only thing that puts me off is seen youtube vids of the stick being flappy with little return tension.
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thats sim porn. So jealous. wish id picked one up years ago. Only thing that puts me off is seen youtube vids of the stick being flappy with little return tension.
Force sensing variants tend to not be so flappy
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