Really REALLY late to the Cougar party!
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I decided to get back into Falcon a few weeks ago after about 8 year layoff. While getting up to speed with BMS 432, I’ve been flying with a “new” in the box (NIB) Saitek X52 HOTAS that was purchased about 8 years ago. The X52 is an “OK” HOTAS, but certainly not optimized for flying the Viper. I decide time to switch to the TM Cougar which was also purchased about 8 years ago and was old NIB too. After having correctly setup, installed, and loaded the Cougar HOTAS with with Dunc’s profile, I was disappointed to find the following problems with all of the pot switches of the Cougar Throttle (CT):
- Throttle Pot: full AB with throttle in full back in the idle position, 60% with the throttle full forward. This made for an interesting test flight (pull the throttle to idle to go in to full after burn!)
- Range Pot not centered on the middle detent causing unwanted range increase in the FCR when the range knob was centered.
- Antenna Pot totally dead and from what I could determine browsing the many forum threads and other resources such as Corgarworld, was probably damaged during assembly at the manufacturer. I should be able to fix this particular pot.
- Microstick works only in X axis resulting in left/right but no up/down cursor control in the FCR. I’m unable to tell at this point if the microstick is busted or simply affected by some of the other bad pots.
All other switches, buttons and axis (Y, X) work fine as confirmed in Foxy Analyzer and F-BMS Controller/Advanced settings. So, I’ve got a busted CT just from sitting NIB for about 8 years (although the Saitek X52 is 100% functional after similar 8 year hibernation!). No problem, I’ll just fix the CT by modding it. NOT! It appears I waited too long to get back in the game. After some research and shopping around, it appears that the OEM replacement parts are no longer available (range pot, antenna pot, and microstick with PCB) as of say early to mid 2014. The Cub Hall sensor throttle pot appears to be no longer available too.
***** So, are there any sources of aftermarket “drop in” OEM replacement parts for throttle, range, antenna pots and microstick with PCB? *****
As far as I can tell, there are none that would be drop in OEM grade. I’ve seen recommendations for using non-OEM pots and switches with DIY home made custom mounts and adapters as a remedy. Unfortunately, this route exceeds my cost/effort/time to benefit tolerances. I’ve considered buying another CT, but it too would most likely need modding/repair. As for other mods such as FSSB for the SSC (which I was quoted a price by manuf), I’m willing but such a purchase would not be feasible if the CT is still out of commission. In fact, if I can’t totally repair ALL of the problems, no point in doing any of them at all.
The Cougar was (may still be) my first use of TM HOTAS. Admittedly, during unboxing there was some anticipation and admiration. But these feelings where quickly replaced by surprise and disappointment as I actually saw and experienced first hand the shortcomings of a product that I’d only read about previously (crooked buttons/switches, faulty or dead electrical components, etc). Hmm, what kind of business owner would knowingly release product in this condition?
Anyway, I guess I’ll continue using the Saitek X52 with its clumsy mode knob and stick base switches. If I can’t fix the CT, then I’ll eventually buy a CH Products Pro HOTAS, which I’m already accustomed to using (my game port version of CHP Pro died years ago).
Over and out,
F1 -
Quick question, as I don’t see it mentioned anywhere: have you calibrated your Cougar in the Cougar Control Panel (CCP)? Might solve the throttle and range knob issues.
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I remember when I went to Afghanistan for 9 months and returned my Cougars were a little twitchy. I bought some contact cleaner and sprayed all the POTs and it worked like a charm. You might want to try that?? Also try a program called “DIview” It allows you to fine tune all your calibrated axis and edit them… I use this to fine tune all my controls as I am not using the Cougar software anymore.
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Quick question, as I don’t see it mentioned anywhere: have you calibrated your Cougar in the Cougar Control Panel (CCP)? Might solve the throttle and range knob issues.
Yes, I forgot to mention that I had attempted calibration of the controllers in CCP. When auto calibrate failed, I attempted manual calibrate. Manual calibrate failed with a pop up message indicating both the antenna and range pots not in proper range or out of center, already determined by other means. Interestingly, the manual calibrate in CCP appears to be “all or nothing” in that if it couldn’t calibrate range or antenna, it declared the entire calibration a failure even if the other pots may have been calibrated. One thing we need to remember is that calibration is a fine tuning step, not a procedure to be used to mask or compensate for pots that are faulty (and certainly won’t do anything for pots that are totally porked).
f1
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I remember when I went to Afghanistan for 9 months and returned my Cougars were a little twitchy. I bought some contact cleaner and sprayed all the POTs and it worked like a charm. You might want to try that?? Also try a program called “DIview” It allows you to fine tune all your calibrated axis and edit them… I use this to fine tune all my controls as I am not using the Cougar software anymore.
Thanks for the tip…certainly worth a try on the Z and range pots (might as well spray Y and X pots too while at it!). If the cursor microstick switch is still faulty, I can try spraying it too tho I have my doubts. However, the antenna pot definitely needs repair or replacement.
I’ll also contact TM support as well as some 3rd party sources for price/availability of some of the parts. I think the most challenging repair is going to be the range/cage knob pot/switch since no OEM (or aftermarket) replacement of this part to be found anywhere. The cursor microstick will be problematic too since there are no longer any available with the PCB already soldered to it.
thx, f1
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Hmmm this dlview tool is a real treat.I believe it must get it’s place in my hotlist.
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Hmmm this dlview tool is a real treat.I believe it must get it’s place in my hotlist.
Sounds interesting indeed
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You might try going to Foxy and performing HOTAS cleanse, empty buffers. re flash etc. That has helped me sort similar problems before.
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I kind of feel embarrassed to ask any questions as I got my Cougar about 8 years ago as well and never used it effectively, now I am on Windows 10, the sim works great on Win 10 but no clue where to start Back then I did have Windows XP and messed around with flashing and all but I don’t even remember what we did that for. Directly connected to Windows 10 USB, HOTAS is working except I couldn’t get RDR CURSOR and MAN RNG to work.
I will be reading this
http://cougar.flyfoxy.com/starthere.phpAny other recommendations?
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Calibrate your Cougar with the CCC panel and select them in the BMS control gui
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Hi, i would like to ask if is there any windows 10 setup guide available for hotas cougar installation. My problem is calibration on the first place. AV8R above suggests CCC panel but thrustmaster doesn’t provide that download except that is packed with outdated drivers.
This device is fully compliant with the “Human Interface Device” (HID) specifications. By simply connecting your device to the computer’s USB port, it will be installed automatically by Windows, ensuring you a perfect compatibility with any games and programs (such as T.A.R.G.E.T).
Please note that although you may still be able to install older drivers and applications on recent version of Windows, they are no longer supported.
That’s THs statement. So do we need an other way to calibrate? And then old Foxy can still download profiles?
Thank you. -
Try to contact Thrustmaster, I bought replacement parts for my Cougars a year ago - so maybe there are still parts available no matter what people say……
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Hi, i would like to ask if is there any windows 10 setup guide available for hotas cougar installation.
I didn’t dog too much but I have used the Win 7 Installation Guide that is common around here and it worked for my Win 10 Pro. Since then I reverted back to Win 7 Ultimate though.