New F-18C Grip...

[Xpendable]

Guess what I got?

Yes, it's an F-18C grip for my Thrustmaster Warthog. Was a bit expensive... $229 plus tax. "But... you fly the Harrier?" Yes, I do. However, the Harrier actually uses the same grip as the F-18C. There's 1 difference, though. The pitch hat and the castle switch are swapped positions in the Harrier. I'm not sure if I'm going to attempt to swap them or not - I've heard the holes are slightly different but it is technically possible.

Oh... and... you may not know this, but I do sometimes fly the F-18C. That said, before last week it has been a couple of years since I flew the Hornet in combat. Over the weekend I was getting a little A/A practice in. It wasn't pretty, but I did get some kills.

Unfortunately, I still need to buy a few more parts. First off, the stick is supposed to be counter-rotated with a 15 degree offset. They sell mods that allow you to do this, but they extend the stick at the same time. I need to extend the stick anyway once it is in my Harrier sim pit, but that might be a ways off. If I extend it now, I'm going to have to modify my stick mount to lower the stick.

[Bones]

That's cool. This stick is also the same stick used in the F-15E. Back in the days of Jane's F/A-18C I used to use this stick made by Suncom for the Super Hornet. It was so cool; I wish Suncom hadn't gone under.

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Wow. That's a fine set up you have there.

[Hammer]

congrats on the grip.

on your mount, is the ply on the bottom of your desk surface glued, screwed, or both? is that a 2x4 that the stick base is actually mounted to? any part removable?

[Xpendable]

Great questions, Hammer. Yes, fully removable. Takes 2 seconds to remove, no tools required. It's a bit crude, but it works. Basically, there is a wooden frame that forms a pocket that is screwed into the underside of the desk. I might have also glued it with wood glue, I don't remember. The stick is mounted to 1 piece of 2x4, which itself is screwed into another section of 2x4 which is then screwed into a section of 3/4" pine. Whole stick contraction with the 3/4" pine slides snugly into the pocket, no tools needed. When I'm done flying, I simply pull it out and sit it on my desk. I used materials I had lying around and put this together in a span of about 15 minutes. I didn't even bother buying longer screws to attach the 2x4 to the base... I counter-sunk the holes pretty deep so they would reach the base.

[Trichome]

That's a sweet looking piece of kit. Even the box looks nice...
Probably better to get back into the Hornet as it nears the end of EA.

I love how everyone finds different solutions to their sim pit problems. Either DIY or market available options - or both. I have the same type of "make it work" setup. Thanks to some wood, screws and Velcro.

[Hammer]

Trichome,
I would like to see pics of you setup as well.

[Bones]

I love how everyone finds different solutions to their sim pit problems. Either DIY or market available options - or both. I have the same type of "make it work" setup. Thanks to some wood, screws and Velcro.

Haha yeah, me too, to an extent. My rudders slide too much on the ground, even with it being carpeted, so at first I put my "Great Book of Modern Warplanes" between it and the wall to hold them in place. Later I bought an old VCR off of eBay to rip some home videos to my PC, and so now that replaced the book.

For my HOTAS, for years I was just setting them on a TV tray. But eventually I bought these aluminum adjustable mounts that clamp onto the desktop.



It's been working out pretty well since except that it killed the keyboard shelf I had it mounted to originally. I would have mounted it to the desktop, but the shelf was in the way of the hand clamps. So it was either mount them to the shelf, or have to go through the annoying act of having to remove the shelf then put it back on everytime I wanted to fly. Now the keyboard sits on the desktop with the mounts clamped to the desktop as well, and the shelf is on the floor to the side. I could put it back on but I'm really the only one using the computer 95% of the time, so why bother putting the shelf back on? As we said, "Works for me."

v6,
boNes

[Trichome]

I cant see a pic if you posted one Bones.....

[Trichome]

I have my HOTAS mounted to a few pieces of wood I cut out to the shape of the HOTAS bottoms and I have it on a little angle, Its screwed from the top of the desk. Screws are sunk under the large mouse pad.

The rudder pedals are against the wall and dont move around but I did have to use this heavy duty velcro to wrap around the chair handles when Im really pushing the pedals (in the apache) the chair doesnt slide away. This work 100% better than those office wheels form amazon with locks on it. Its a bigger difference when Im playing F1 smashing the gas and brake pretty aggressively and the chair doesn't move.

Works great for me....

[Trichome]

F1 - and the magical Velcro.....and some wood working McGyver style....

[Xpendable]

I like the Saturn V and Space Shuttle (Lego, right?)

[Bones]

I didn't post pics...yet.

What I did post was a link to the mounts that I got from Amazon.

v6,
boNes

[Xpendable]

So bad luck. Just 3 days after receiving my new grip, the throttle is kaput. Apparently it is a known issue that plagues all Thrustmaster Warthog throttles and Thrustmaster has never bothered to update the main board to fix it. They will happily sell you a replacement board that is expensive, and has essentially the same flaw, and it will likely also fail in 1-4 years. I found a thread on Eagle Dynamics forums and literally hundreds of customers have run into this exact issue, going back to 2011 on this thread on the ED forums, with the most recent report within a few months ago. What is the flaw? I need to read up on it. But I did take mine apart and I know enough about electronics to know that I think they did NOT bother to put a voltage regulator on the board to protect the PIC microcontroller. I think the PIC can get messed up and lose its flash, causing the controller to be dead at that point. Only way to fix it (if PIC isn't destroyed) is to solder on a programming header and use a chip programmer or build one with an Arduino to load the bootloader on the chip, then get the firmware loaded. If the chip is bad, you would have buy a new one, desolder the old one, solder on the new one, and still do the above steps. And that desolder and soldering ain't easy... This is a surface mount chip with 64 pins, 16 on each of the 4 sides. You need a hot air reworking station (which I actually have) and even then it isn't that easy. Solder paste is a pain. Getting old chip off isn't too bad, it's getting the new one on that is hard. I end up with too much solder and then have to wick away the excess with copper thread tape.

More to come on this.

[Hammer]

i am gonna say you cannot to that surface mount chip at home? you would probably be better off to take it/send it somewhere. i guess maybe it you have lots of free time and don't get frustrated.

probably cheaper to buy their stupid board.

or look at a different throttle, if you can find one in stock. Grifter and I have the Thrustmaster TWCS. It is not high end, but good enough for now...

[Xpendable]

I can do the surface mount at home. It requires special equipment, which I have. It is just a PITA. Actually you could do it without special equipment but it is really hard and you risk damaging the chip. That is just step 1. Step 2 is hooking up a programmer to flash the bootloader. Whole 'nother set of skills there. Step 3 is to load the firmware.

The chip is a Cypress chip, not a PIC. I have the dataset for it. I am going to try to reflow the solder first. Sometimes that bring stuff like this back to life, but not likely the issue here.

I agree, probably easier to just buy a new board.

[Hammer]

you have far more soldering skills than I. ;) i have an inductive soldering station, love it (actually have 2 from a company shutdown I did). but the hot air would probably work better for reflow.

you could get the new board, then work on this one for the ultimate board for a spare...

[Trichome]

I like the Saturn V and Space Shuttle (Lego, right?)

Thanks... Ya, Ive been about that lately. Im on a bit of a Lego NASA binge....

[Jedi Master]

Ok so you inspired me to post the pics of my HOTAS(es). Seeing as I have F-16 and Hornet grips for both sticks and throttles. Currently have the Vipers' connected with the Hornet's lying next to them.

20220502_192808.jpg

Xpen, you mentioned offset, do you mean rotating the stick on the base? With mine I just need to loosen the screw like i'm going to remove it and then loosen the main connection and it will sit at any angle as long as I don't overtwist the wire inside. It's not a socket connection on the grip, it's just a wire, connecting to the socket in the base. I think you can see it hanging out of the Hornet stick grip.

[Trichome]

Very nice Jedi!