Feature: The CH Products Pro Throttle with the "Semi-Franken Potato" Mod

Guest Writer "Bill Son of Hew" Hewett explains all in his step-by-step article here: http://www.simhq.com/_technology2/technology_076a.html

Most of the time, I read these articles without reply. In this case I feel compelled to comment. Thank You Bill for the review. Thank You Doug, and Tom for allowing it to be seen by the thousands of members and visitors to SimHQ. I hope that for those that were/are wondering just what a Franken-Potato is, and what makes it tick, well, now ya know.

Thanks Bill and SHQ team for publishing it in the Articles. Being a proud owner of Franken Potato I firmly attest it is an awesome piece of HOTAS. With these analogue programmable wheels CH COMBO has become finally a complete HOTAS solution.

And Ken indeed is a very pleasant person to deal with.

Happy to do so Ghost. It really is the icing on the CH cake. And Ken is indeed very pleasant to deal with, well, as much as a Marine can be.

I think these guys just were envious of all the Cougar Mods :p

Ummmm no RSColonel, not to quote myself or anything but;

Let's just leave it at that okay. Now play nice.

Nice write-up, Bill, and nice work, Ken.

For years I have asked how/if the lack of rotaries on the CH HOTAS. Lots of people said it didn't matter. No one was ever able to tell me why.

I guess this means that they do matter, as IMO there simply is no substitute for true analogue control of something. This certainly takes a wonderful piece of hardware and makes it that much better.

DOH! Oh my goodness, sorry about that. We looked at that with two pairs of eyes and still didn't catch it. But we shall fix it promptly.

Nice work on the article Bill, and Ghost, what can I say other than what I have said before: Ghost knows.

Nice idea to redesign the ProThrottle that way.

I would like to see a comparable, picture-rich article on how to replace the Fighterstick's soft springs with stiffer springs! The default ones are the only weakness in this piece of hardware. I use it since many years and despite the soft springs I think it is fantastic.

I never really got used to the Cougar's heavy springs. So as we know, one man's pleasure is another's poison.

Still, if it can be done, Ghost will find a way.

S! 531 Ghost for coming up with a way to make a good piece of kit better and Bill Son of Hew for a well-written and illustrated article.

I have a couple of Q's:

1. Has CH Products considered updating the design of the PT to incorporate some of the elements of the Franken Potato?
2. Would the additional rotaries and switches benefit a propsim like PF, or are they more geared to assisting the gameplay of jetsims?

Skybird, yes, the FS can be stiffened up

Thank you Swoose. As to your questions...

No

The additional rotaries and switches can be used to do anything programmable in Control Manager v4.0 + Trim, prop RPM, mixture...

Just to clarify, is the basis of the mod to:

1.) Add the PCB from the Throttle Quadrant, to the innards of the Pro Throttle, giving you 2 USB connectors coming from one unit.

2.) Wire up the Throttle Quadrant's PCB giving you its equivalent analogues and switches.

In which case, is it possible to purchase separately from CH the PCB's for their hardware?

And are wiring diagrams available too?

Cheers

James

James, the TQ has a PCB as does the PT. They are seperate. The PT PCB is in the handle and the TQ one I added into the base. Using both PCBs gives the user the best of both worlds, a PT/TQ so to speak. This does require the two USBs. If I could fit 4 more axis in the PT, with the TQ PCB it would be possible. The CH PCBs are available, in their items, FS, CS, PT,... well, you get the picture. As for the wiring diagrams, I figured it out looking at the circuit board the TQs POTs are mounted to.

Thanks bud. So basically if someone wanted to do this, they'd need to purchase both the Pro Throttle and Throttle Quadrant as complete items, and then basically gut the throttle quadrant and use that within the Pro Throttle I presume? There's no easy shortcut via CH selling the PCBs separately?

Cheers

James

Well, someone with some talent and handy with various hand tools, yes, that's what they'd have to do. Ah, forgot to mention 1 little (well 2 actually) thing, the POTs I used, are not used in the TQ, BUT, they and the switches are 64 bit programmable, as well as 32.

Cheers

Ken

Nice job though Ghost, nice and neat and not a drop of hot glue or insulation tape in sight.

Sorry Joe, didn't mean to leave you out. Thank you. As for the need, it may not "feel" like it but it is possible to create an axis where there is none.

Pro Pedal springs to Fighterstick
CH Parts

Alas James the PCBs are not available, as most likely proprietary.

This is correct. Afterall, we wouldn't want to see our "brains" stuffed into a product of lesser quality.

Thanks for confirming that Debby

I thought they already are. The brains are in the drivers and software and they're stuffed into

James

Ahhh yes, that too!

2006-2017 It was a good run.



The Phinal Phranken-Potato.

Hard to believe it's been over 10 years since this all started!

+1
Time does get away from us it seems.


Wheels