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#4426582 - 06/18/18 02:12 AM Looking for HOTAS recommendation  
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Andy T Offline
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Andy T  Offline
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I currently have CH Pro Throttle and Fighterstick. However, I am fed up with the software support and looking to upgrade.
My max budget is TM Warthog. However, what other HOTAS are of good quality and have decent software?

Thanks!

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#4426584 - 06/18/18 02:40 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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Sokol1 Offline
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Between CH FighterStick + CH PRO throttle and Warthog price are only Logitech (Saitek) G X-56 ~$250 - case you want play "lottery". smile

And specially that you have mentioned "software" better bet in TARGET.

#4426603 - 06/18/18 08:17 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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- Ice Offline
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Well, WH it is then. smile There are some Virpil stuff and it looks good but seems to be having shipping issues and stuff, and I think for a complete HOTAS, it'll cost more than a WH.


- Ice
#4426625 - 06/18/18 02:22 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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Mr_Blastman Offline
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Buy a modded Cougar off Ebay. The Foxy software is fantastic.

#4426630 - 06/18/18 02:56 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: - Ice]  
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Sokol1 Offline
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Originally Posted by - Ice
Virpil stuff ... for a complete HOTAS, it'll cost more than a WH.


T50 BE, Throttle and two deskmount is ~$ 705 (plus shipping, VAT).

#4426669 - 06/18/18 07:56 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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- Ice Offline
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What is BE? Is that the standard one? I looked at the Virpil site and it seems that the throttle isn't available yet. Regardless, two mounts, a throttle plate, a stick plate, the throttle, and T50 CM comes up to EUR815 or £715 or US$947. Just the throttle and regular T50 is EUR663/£581/US$770. The WH costs £325 or EUR370.

Now the question is if it's justifiably better than the WH in performance/quality? I do love the design of the stick and throttle! smile


- Ice
#4426707 - 06/18/18 10:44 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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Paradaz Offline
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I can confirm the T50 base is many times better than the Warthog stick base......and that’s purely down to the gimbal. I’ve paired mine up with the Warthog stick and although most people are impressed with the Virpil sticks they still look a bit plasticky to me.


On the Eighth day God created Paratroopers and the Devil stood to attention.
#4426709 - 06/18/18 10:58 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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- Ice Offline
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Virpil base, WH stick? My concern is that for my BMS flying, I use a TM profile that combines both stick and throttle into one device, I suppose I can no longer do that with a Virpil base.


- Ice
#4426710 - 06/18/18 11:00 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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Andy T Offline
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Andy T  Offline
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Thank you for the replies. Never heard of Vipril before. While it looks cool, I am sticking to mass market stuff I can get from Amazon. Most likely it will be Warthog. It's just that the tiny window of CH manager has annoyed me too much.
Plus I get frequent crashes with the software on Win 10.

#4426723 - 06/19/18 12:27 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Andy T]  
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531 Ghost Offline
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Originally Posted by Andy T
I currently have CH Pro Throttle and Fighterstick. However, I am fed up with the software support and looking to upgrade.
My max budget is TM Warthog. However, what other HOTAS are of good quality and have decent software?

Thanks!


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Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.


#4426738 - 06/19/18 02:36 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: - Ice]  
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Sokol1 Offline
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Originally Posted by - Ice
What is BE? Is that the standard one? I looked at the Virpil site and it seems that the throttle isn't available yet. Regardless, two mounts, a throttle plate, a stick plate, the throttle, and T50 CM comes up to EUR815 or £715 or US$947. Just the throttle and regular T50 is EUR663/£581/US$770. The WH costs £325 or EUR370.


BE is "Black Edition" fo T50 grip, cost a bit more, but is just look's. smile

T50 don't require plate, the stick is fixed to deskmount by side, not bottom.

Originally Posted by - Ice
Virpil base, WH stick? My concern is that for my BMS flying, I use a TM profile that combines both stick and throttle into one device, I suppose I can no longer do that with a Virpil base.


VirPil base use the same nut&bolt system of Warthog base, so is just matter "PnP" Warthog grip in VirPil base.

Joystick Gemlin allow make a virtual device with any mix/brand of controllers.



Last edited by Sokol1; 06/19/18 02:41 AM.
#4426792 - 06/19/18 07:27 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Sokol1]  
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- Ice Offline
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Originally Posted by Sokol1
VirPil base use the same nut&bolt system of Warthog base, so is just matter "PnP" Warthog grip in VirPil base.

Joystick Gemlin allow make a virtual device with any mix/brand of controllers.

Interesting!!..... biggrin


- Ice
#4426803 - 06/19/18 08:17 PM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: - Ice]  
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Paradaz Offline
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Originally Posted by - Ice
Originally Posted by Sokol1
VirPil base use the same nut&bolt system of Warthog base, so is just matter "PnP" Warthog grip in VirPil base.

Joystick Gemlin allow make a virtual device with any mix/brand of controllers.

Interesting!!..... biggrin



yep

Attached Files IMG_20180619_211517.jpg

On the Eighth day God created Paratroopers and the Devil stood to attention.
#4430872 - 07/18/18 06:00 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: Sokol1]  
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NamelessPFG Offline
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Originally Posted by Mr_Blastman
Buy a modded Cougar off Ebay. The Foxy software is fantastic.

Emphasis on "modded", because the stock Cougar gimbals are soft pot metal crap, but you can either go with U2-NXT/Evenstrain for conventional displacement that puts it firmly in VKB/Baur tier (read: way better than anything you're getting off the shelf), or FCC/FSSB force-sensing for more realistic F-16/F-22/F-35 behavior and precision in space sims (at the expense of being unsuitable for anything that isn't fly-by-wire).

Also, you have the choice of using either Foxy or TARGET, though I just stick with the former until I have a need to merge other controllers that only support TARGET. I can do just about anything I want to with the Cougar through the control panel alone, and some simple Foxy programming can take care of the edge cases from there.

One can also use a Virpil or VKB stick base with a TM Cougar/Warthog grip instead (which is what I used to do with one of the older Fat Black Mamba sticks years ago), but you lose the software integration between controllers by doing this. Additionally, in the case of a Cougar, the throttle's dead weight without either being attached to the old stick base somewhere, or a RealSimulator TUSBA (which actually allows more axis resolution and range than the stock Cougar base does, but doesn't support Foxy or TARGET).

Originally Posted by Sokol1
Joystick Gremlin allow make a virtual device with any mix/brand of controllers.

One potential problem with software like that: you still need to have the original devices exposed through DirectInput in order to feed the inputs back into the virtual device, whereas CH Control Manager and TARGET can mask the original device IDs, leaving only the virtual devices visible.

This makes things much less problematic for games that require everything to be merged into a single ID into the first place, because they're usually picking the wrong controller that you may not have even selected as the primary controller in the joy.cpl panel.

#4472921 - 05/04/19 06:50 AM Re: Looking for HOTAS recommendation [Re: NamelessPFG]  
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Gekko71 Offline
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Cougar or Warthog can be used in Virpil base with Target - the USB identifier can be modified with the help of Virpil Software to TM Cougar / Warthog and from then on Windows will see the stick as it is: Cougar or Warthog.
I have a Virpil WarBRD base with the good old Cougar and managed to make it work that way.
However finally I decided to stick with the VIRPIL mode, and now programming the stick for BMS by modifying the key files and adding DirectX codes - in this way does not matter what manufacturer your device is from and one can combine a large number of devices with no problem.

I have not tried with DCS yet, I may need to do this USB trick and Target there.

Last edited by Gekko71; 05/04/19 06:53 AM.

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