Cougar base springs
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@SOBO-87 - I’ve had a Warthog stick for something like 8 years now and it’s still working flawlessly, never had an issue with it other than it not being a force sensing base. I do get the impression that there have been “bad runs” of them, but the quality of the grip and switches alone are enough to make me prefer it over the Cougar. Planning to get a second grip so I have one at my desk and one in my cockpit.
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@Stevie Glad you’ve got a good one! All the WH sticks I’ve purchased for the various sims I help maintain have failed because of similar fundamental weaknesses in the Warthog design, so we’ve gone over to WarBRDs now. The split axis and the much higher force required to reach full deflection is also much more realistic than the simple spring bowl of the warthog. It’s nice that pitch and roll can be sprung differently so you can have heavier pitch and lighter roll which is generally more realistic as well.
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@SOBO-87 I was flying with the Cougar Grip and the FSSB R3 for about a year now. I purchased a used Cougar back in 2020 and have been slowly repairing it since then. Part of the issues I have had have been:
Wobble in the grip itself - corrected thanks to a buddy telling me about the screws that hold the stem in place.
The base has some play in it - took it apart last night and tightened up some screws which worked, but I think the wear and tear on the gimble is the issue now. But it is firmer now than it was.
TQS had an elevation pot crapping out and the micro stick pinging all over the place replaced the pot with another and was good to go and now swapped that pot out for a sensor from Rely4.
Microstick is having issues in that there is major movement on the y-axis when input is given to the x-axis. Going to try and replace the connector on that one and see if the issue remains. Swapped the OEM out for a Delta Sim one. At some point in time, I would like to fly with the whole setup without any issues.
Both the base and the TQS have had the original pots swapped out for hall sensors as well.
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@JUmpstart5179 Ah I see. So you have a FSSB R3 but you still want to use the Cougar stick base instead? My question would be why?
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@SOBO-87 Back up and nostalgia. It took some hunting to find a set and maybe one of my kids might get into simming as well. I’m on a budget so shelling out for complete sets and such is not feasible for me. Right now it is sitting around collecting dust.
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@JUmpstart5179 Aha yes well that makes sense. I still have my Cougar and will probably keep it just out of nostalgia from my youth when I first got into F4 and combat sims. I hope you can find some springs!
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@SOBO-87 yeah. I was into simming back in the 90s before the tech for them exploded and always wanted a good Thrustmaster set. Back then it was the FLCS and the TQS but could never spring for it. When I got back into it it was alot of piecemealing and procuring what I could. I snagged the set I have back in 2020 and have been working on it over the years. Eventually when I get my part of the house setup I may put it somewhere and it could be a conversation starter. But I would like for it to functional if at all possible.
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@SOBO-87 - that’s a fair point, actually. Something I’ve done with mine is to over-calibrate it…i.e.; such that the throes required for “max” are VERY short, to sim an F-16 SSC. So I don’t really use mine to its full mechanical range/limits.
This is something I came up with as a way to “mimic” an SSC, seeing as the stock WH unit is so much stiffer than a pot-gimbaled joystick to begin with. I could probably get even better results if I were to replace the stock spring with an even stiffer one meant for use with an extension. But again, this approach depends on what you are trying to emulate.
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I’m still using my original cougar from the 1st or 2nd year they came out.
Granted, the stick has the FCC3 and a throttle pot replacement from cub pilot, back in the day.
All else is still working great, double knock wood. -
@Badger sadly, I think those mods are no longer available. I know you can do something similar to the cubpilot that I was looking into for my TQS. Stuff for the base is different.