Hey aviators,

I've got a CH Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, and Pro Pedals that I need to use with MSFS 2020.  The three controllers show up in Windows Device Manager under 'CH Products', so that tells me that Windows acknowledges their existence.

The controllers don't, however, show up in MSFS 2020.  When I say they don't show up, I mean that the only devices available for me to assign stuff to on the 'Controls' tab are my mouse, my keyboard, and a 'touch pointer' (which is a drawing tablet I use for art.)

Can anyone tell me what's going on here, and how I can get MSFS to acknowledge my controllers so I can start assigning functions to them?

Tons of threads and info about the CH stuff. Did you search?

3 minutes ago, Flyfaster said:

Tons of threads and info about the CH stuff. Did you search?

All of the threads I'm seeing involve how to program the CH stuff.  It mostly involves people not understanding how to select control assignments for 'all' or 'essential' instead of 'assigned'.  That's not my problem.  The only devices available for me to program are my mouse, my keyboard, and my drawing tablet.  My CH devices are nowhere to be seen.  Not even a greyed out picture of a generic controller.  There's nothing.

17 minutes ago, chris_cantrell_07 said:

All of the threads I'm seeing involve how to program the CH stuff.  It mostly involves people not understanding how to select control assignments for 'all' or 'essential' instead of 'assigned'.  That's not my problem.  The only devices available for me to program are my mouse, my keyboard, and my drawing tablet.  My CH devices are nowhere to be seen.  Not even a greyed out picture of a generic controller.  There's nothing.

That’s really odd, both my ch yoke and pedals showed up, and was easy to program/bind, I know I am no help to you hit just wanted to confirm that somethings odd as mine are there. 

As of a fairly recent Windows update (within the past 6 months), my CH products "break" (stop reporting to Windows completely) if I unplug any of them. I have to reboot with them plugged in before they show up again.

Short answer, try rebooting once if you haven't already.

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by molleh

Hey Molleh,

I've rebooted my computer several times with my products already plugged in, but that's not doing anything.  They all show up in 'Device Manager' under the category 'CH Products'.  They also all show up in 'Control Panel' > 'View Device and Printers' under 'Unspecified'. 

flyinpilot, thanks for your encouragement.

2 minutes ago, chris_cantrell_07 said:

Hey Molleh,

I've rebooted my computer several times with my products already plugged in, but that's not doing anything.  They all show up in 'Device Manager' under the category 'CH Products'.  They also all show up in 'Control Panel' > 'View Device and Printers' under 'Unspecified'. 

flyinpilot, thanks for your encouragement.

Are you using CH Control Manager software? If so, do the controllers show up under the testing feature in that app?

2 minutes ago, molleh said:

Are you using CH Control Manager software? If so, do the controllers show up under the testing feature in that app?

I saw online that CH Control Manager isn't supported anymore, and that it's not recommended for Win 10, so I never installed it.

Just now, chris_cantrell_07 said:

I saw online that CH Control Manager isn't supported anymore, and that it's not recommended for Win 10, so I never installed it.

Install it. Works fine for me and always has, through every Windows 10 version up to 2004 (the current one) minus the one caveat I mentioned, which is mostly just an annoyance.

6 minutes ago, molleh said:

Install it. Works fine for me and always has, through every Windows 10 version up to 2004 (the current one) minus the one caveat I mentioned, which is mostly just an annoyance.

Weird.  I just installed CH Control Manager, and before I even opened it for the first time, I got three messages saying that Windows was installing HID-compliant game controllers, one for each of my CH products I presume.  I'll check to see if they're recognized in MSFS, now.  May not need to even do anything with Control Manager.

I can't speak to the other devices, but I use the CH throttle quadrant, and although it only shows a generic silhouette in the Controls section, I can program all of the levers and switches. The one thing I learned is that I don't use the CH Control Manager at all. Just program everything in the sim. I even have a Razer Orb Weaver and a pair of Thrustmaster MFD Cougars, and all of them are programmable. My standard controls are the Logitech X-56 HOTAS and Logitech G-Pro rudder pedals.

1 minute ago, chris_cantrell_07 said:

Weird.  I just installed CH Control Manager, and before I even opened it for the first time, I got three messages saying that Windows was installing HID-compliant game controllers, one for each of my CH products I presume.  I'll check to see if they're recognized in MSFS, now.  May not need to even do anything with Control Manager.

That is normal. The software works by "intercepting" each controller and filtering them through its software, allowing you to do all the little tricks it allows you to do.

1 hour ago, chris_cantrell_07 said:

Hey aviators,

I've got a CH Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, and Pro Pedals that I need to use with MSFS 2020.  The three controllers show up in Windows Device Manager under 'CH Products', so that tells me that Windows acknowledges their existence.

The controllers don't, however, show up in MSFS 2020.  When I say they don't show up, I mean that the only devices available for me to assign stuff to on the 'Controls' tab are my mouse, my keyboard, and a 'touch pointer' (which is a drawing tablet I use for art.)

Can anyone tell me what's going on here, and how I can get MSFS to acknowledge my controllers so I can start assigning functions to them?

Hmmm... I have a CH Flight Sim Yoke and CH Pro Pedals that work find in MSFS, but I don't see them in the Windows Device Manager. What type of device are they listed under?  Mine show up in the Windows- Settings-Devices view as "Other Devices," and they are listed by name as CH Flight Sim Yoke USB and CH Pro Pedals USB just as they are listed in MSFS.  Maybe try uninstalling them through Device Manager and then re-booting?

Looks like installing Control Manager worked.  It's weird; on CH's website, they state explicitly that Control Manager doesn't provide drivers, yet when I installed Control Manager, Windows installed my devices as HID-compliant devices, and now MSFS recognizes them.  Apparently I have to use Control Manager for the devices to work in MSFS.  Thanks for the help, molleh!

1 hour ago, chris_cantrell_07 said:

Looks like installing Control Manager worked.  It's weird; on CH's website, they state explicitly that Control Manager doesn't provide drivers, yet when I installed Control Manager, Windows installed my devices as HID-compliant devices, and now MSFS recognizes them.  Apparently I have to use Control Manager for the devices to work in MSFS.  Thanks for the help, molleh!

Happy to see that You got it to work! I also struggled for days to get everything right. The funny/strange thing is that in my case I had to DISABLE my CH-manager to get the control to work/respond and show up