Advice please on Cougar spring replacement
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Encouraged by the total wonderfulness of 4.34 and its astonishing documentation, I’ve dug out the Cougar, once again to ascend the challenging but fun learning curve. My Cougar has the benefit of a Uber2NXT conversion with Hall sensors, done I guess at least 20 years ago, and amazingly it all still works (actually converted to Hall sensors by The Master of Cougar programming, James ‘Nutty’ Hallows - is he still out there I wonder?)
Its always been a bit on the floppy side (and its ‘hands off’ oscillation a bit excessive, solved of course by not taking your hand off) and I wondered if it might be feasible to change the springs and stiffen it up a bit. I know 0 about springs. Could anyone advise on what if anything is possible? In particular, could anyone point me to an actual supplier of stiffer springs that will do the trick?
Much thanks to all you lovely BMS people!
PS installation of 4.34 and setting up the Cougar is now so easy it seems like cheating!
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Well he was credited in the recent round of BMS manuals and documentation, so I’d hazard the guess that he’s still contributing.
I can’t point out a spring supplier, but I can point out to the existence of the FSSB mod for the Cougar. And perhaps there are still FCC3s floating around the place, as yet uninstalled? Both expensive but very much an improvement over any springs.
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Why no try this and move to force sensing…
https://vipergear.eu/product/vipergear-force-sensor-vfs/
I have it and cant say enough good things about it. -
Edit: Vipergear suggested already
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bigfish I did the Vipergear HAL pots and they were easy to install… no issues there. Very responsive and supportive. Now… how did you get your Cougar to work?!? I’m desperate here!
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Gentlemen, I thank you for your unanimous advice to chuck the innards away, inc. springs, and go to force sensing, just like the real thing I guess. I will research this very seriously, perhaps the time has indeed come.
Bruzzer, it’s easy because wonderful people have done all the work for us, in my case fortunately because I’ve completely forgotten how to programme the Cougar using Foxy (James’ bespoke software, and the only software which makes you laugh while you’re suffering). I assume your PC recognises your Cougar etc., and so all I did was 2 things: in your Falcon BMS 4.34 folder find Docs>01Input devices>03 HOTAS Setup>TM Cougar (Dunc_DX) first of all find the file BMS - BasicDX TM Cougar.key, go into BMS 4.34 setup and load that key file; then (step 2) find where your Cougar files are kept, in my case D:>Programs>Foxy>Files and copy and paste into that location these two files from TM Cougar (Dunc_DX): Cougar_DX.tmj and Cougar_DX.tmm. For those of us who used to write gigantically complex Foxy files they don’t look anything much at all, but the whole thing is very clever stuff indeed. Then, finally, go into Foxy and load them (well load the first, it’ll find the second itself), compile them and you’re good to go. Your Cougar now works just like a real F-16 stick. Awesome.
Was that what you wanted to know? I just reached the limit of my competence so if it wasn’t, I hope someone who really knows what they are talking about will help you!
Notwithstanding “force sensing” options, if anyone does have any “spring knowledge” just to tide me over short-term, I’d welcome it.