CH Throttle Quadrant

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

I currently use the CH Pro Yoke to fly my MAAM-SIM DC-3 (BEA Cargo version). I've assigned the two leftmost levers to throttles for engines 1 & 2, and the right lever for joint prop control (I use the mouse to move the mixture levers).I'd like to add the CH Throttle Quadrant so I could have independent engine control for throttle, props, and mixture. That would also free up the three Pro Yoke levers for other uses, and give me a dozen more buttons to assign to useful things :-)Question . . . has anyone else used this combination of hardware? Any problems doing so? Any problems assigning any function you want to any lever or button on either piece of hardware? In short, are they compatible with each other and with the MAAM-SIM DC-3?Thanks for the help,GaryDriftwood, TX

[Dark Moment 0]

The two units can certainly work together, Gary, no problem. I have yoke, pedals and quad set up, together with a joystick in tandem for helis, small GA, fighters, Airbuses etc.You can allocate most functions within FS without even having to use CH Control Manager, which is a good thing as you need to be fluent in Swahili or Mongolian to use that successfully. Forgeddaboudit.I have set up a couple of different CFG files for my gear - three in fact - so that I can have one configured for multi-engine use, i.e. my DC-3, one for single engine aircraft like Cessnas and the third for stick and pedals. This is easily done, again without having to use CH Control Manager. Simply make copies of your FS9.EXE file, naming them something like FS9STICK.EXE or FS9SINGLE.EXE. Then find your FS9.CFG file and make copies of that too, naming as above i.e. FS9STICK.CFG, FS9SINGLE.EXE. Then when you boot up the sim using one of your new EXE files, simply set up all the assignments accordingly. This is like having multiple installations of FS9, but all you are changing is two files in each case.Hope this is clear.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

Hi Mark,Absolutely clear, and a great idea about creating the faux-multiple installations of FS9. As always, thanks for helping the newbie :-)Best regards,Gary

[Dark Moment 0]

Just noticed an important error in my post, above:"Then find your FS9.CFG file and make copies of that too, naming as above i.e. FS9STICK.CFG, FS9SINGLE.EXE."The second file name should be FS9SINGLE.CFG, of course, not an .EXE ending.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

I ordered, received, and installed the CH Throttle Quadrant. All the buttons work fine. The Yoke and Quadrant work together fine. And the throttle lever for Engine #1 works perfectly.Unfortunately, none of the other 5 levers works :-).I made the lever assignments as follows: Propellers, Engine 1 -- X-Axis Propellers, Engine 2 -- Y-Axis Throttle, Engine 1 -- Z-Axis Throttle, Engine 2 -- X-Rotation Mixture, Engine 1 -- Y-Rotation Mixture, Engine 2 -- Z-Rotation I've calibrated the levers, and the calibration seems perfect. Summary -- the propeller levers move the control within a very tiny range. The Throttle for Engine 2 isn't coordinated with the throttle for Engine 1, and also has a narrow range of movement. The mixture lever for Engine 1 doesn't work at all (i.e.,produces no movement in the simulation equivalent lever), and mixture for Engine 2 has a very small range.I've given CH a heads-up on the problem, but haven't heard back yet. It's possible the unit is defective, of course. But I thought I'd try here just to see if I'm doing something dumb for which there is an easy fix.Gary

[Dark Moment 0]

A quick look at mine (which is two prop, two throt, two mix) shows assignments as yours. But mine works.Check SENSITIVITIES. All should be maxed on Sensitivity, zeroed on Null Zone. What do you find?And have you dared to mess with CH Control Manager? Such tomfoolery could well upset the applecart ... :). Unnecessary unless you intend to program non-FS controls i.e. outside DirectX, such as PTT buttons for Teamspeak or Roger Wilco.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

Mark,Sensitivity maxed, Null Zone zeroed.Did not even open the CH Control Manager CD :-).Still no reply from CH, but I only sent the inquiry Friday morning, so I expect it will be next week before I hear. I'm guessing a defective unit at this point, having exhausted every angle I can think of (and I've plugged in a lot of new hardware over the years :-).Best,Gary

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

I think I must have larger problems :-) Everything on the CH Yoke was functioning perfectly last night. So this morning I unplugged the CH Throttle Quadrant on the theory I'm going to have to replace it, and then re-set my assignments where they were for the CH Yoke alone. When I selected a flight, I discovered that although every button and lever on the CH Yoke functioned perfectly, the yoke itself won't move the ailerons or elevators :-(. Once again, I tried everything in the book (recalibration; restart; reboot; different aircraft; etc.; etc.), all to no avail. So there's obviously something strange going on in my system (which has no history of problems of any kind). Unless someone reading this has a clue . . .Thanks,Gary

[alastairmonk 0]

Have you tried saving your fs9.cfg file somewhere then deleting it and allowing FS2004 to create a new, default one ?This should remove any previous yoke settinmgs and allow you to start from a clean slate.Also - do you have the Yoke plugged into a main PC USB port or are you using an adaptor in between ? If the latter, try the former !Alastair

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

Alastair,Thanks very much for the idea. I decided to just try resetting defaults in the assignments window before taking the fs9.cfg step, reasoning that if I had make a mistake somewhere it was likely there. Worked :-) I had inadvertently removed the aileron/elevator control assignment :-)Now if I could just find that simple a solution to my CH Throttle Quadrant problem . . .Best,Gary

[Guest DC3 Pilot]

Finally solved the CH Throttle Quadrant problem. It was the sensitivities (max and min) as Mark suggested earlier, but I was in the wrong place when I set them previously. Had to be in the dialog box for the Quadrant and for the settings for axes and rotations. Once maxed and minned (is there such a word :-)?) everything worked fine. Now all I have to do is get used to all the buttons and levers having different assignments and doing different things :-)Gary

[Dark Moment 0]

Good to hear you're getting there, Gary. I talk daily to many people who use CH stuff, and hardware failures are very, very rare. In fact, I would go so far as to say that when people report, just occasionally, that they have had such failures, they probably were facing confusion such as you have just experienced, and dismantled or dumped the stuff for nothing. And when you take them apart, springs pop out, so this is not a recommended course of action!There's no doubt, however, that USB three-lever yoke and USB pedals are the way to go, for anyone who has the earlier gameport stuff. You can plug in the earlier stuff, sure, but functionality is much less.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]