I’ve been using my stock Cougar for a two years and one thing that always hindered precision flying was the hard zero-axis transition. Researched a lot on what others did and most solutions involve new gimbals and springs. Some are still around but most are out of production. A Virpil Warbrd base is sexy but it’s also money. So I asked myself if I can achieve the same type of butter-smooth axis transition feel while retaining the resistance of pulling the stick without resorting to expensive after-market parts. There’s a YouTube channel called the Slingshot Channel where a large German volk creates dangerous weapons of war with rubber bands and that inspired me. After two days of trial and error, I’ve made a successful modification which costed exactly $1.70 CAD.
What I used:
a hex tool
a multi-tool (Leatherman Wingman)
a bag of rubber bands my wife bought at the dollar store ($1.50 plus tax)
a Microsoft branded stress puck (free)
some 2-mm wide zip-ties I had lying around
What I did:
Day 1
Open the Cougar stick from the bottom, remove the PCB carefully after discharging static from body. Took pictures of the layout before removing any cable.
Removed the pot sensor for the X axis.
Removed the screws for the X axis using a hex nut (torsion spring side only). Need a bit of muscle as there are quite a bit of pink locktite on the nut. Once the screws are removed, just use some muscle to force the spring-side bracket loose (pink locktite might be present between the bracket and the case)
Removed the torsion spring that is providing tension to the knob-pairs (real name pending)
Took some rubber bands and wrap them together. I used 3 bands per knob-pair, that’s 6 bands per axis. In order to increase tension I coiled them 4 times. Use zip-ties to keep them together.
Now comes the hardest part: Putting the rubber bands onto the knob-pairs on the gimbal brackets. I used a pair of surgical needle plyers to keep both bands stretched as the bracket is re-attached to the gimbal.
Did the same with the Y axis. Kept the springs in the case by taping it on the side. This way the mod can always be reversed.
Reassemble and test. At this point mine is way too lose, but the rubber bands are already a pain to put on and already achieved partly the goal: The hard axis transition is gone. So the question now is how to make the the stick resistance higher so there’s more ‘feel’ and center better?
Day 2:
Found a Microsoft-branded stress puck (a stress ball but in the shape of a hockey puck) that I took from a trade show booth a few years ago. Hmm… the diameter seems to be very close to that of the metal ring at the base of the stick. The height of the puck seems to be just a bit higher between the base to the large screw on the bottom of the stick.
Removed the ring and rubber dust-cover (keep in a safe place if wanting to undo this mod)
Made a hole in the middle of the puck, pulled the stick shaft (disassembled shaft from the gimbal so that the smaller end can push through the hole of the puck) through the puck, and just re-assembled the whole thing again.
Testing resulted in a much better centering force. The rubber bands which replaced the springs were still inside and provided that extra bit of resistance when the stick is pulled <5 degrees. What you get is a smooth axis-transitioned, gradual increasing resistance feel which made precision flying so much easier. It doesn’t really matter that the stick doesn’t return to completely zero (by 2-3 degrees) because in game I just intuitively adjusted if something felt drifting one side or the other. My setting for deadzone is medium.
A few BFMs with a few SU-27s feels sooooo much better and intuitive. Initially I still jerked the stick around because muscle memory still was anticipating the sudden resistance in the opposite direction when transiting zero-axis. But after a few flights I’m getting used to the way the stick feels now.
Let me know if you want pictures to decipher what I just explained or just want to see this contraption for your amusement.
