Warthog HOTAS

[kestrel79]

Anyone have one of these? Curious to how it is with CloD? I have read some threads at SimHQ with people having issues.

[Skoshi Tiger]

I'm using a hotas WartHog.

I's going OK except there are issues with the way the switches on the throttle opperate. Most of the switches are standard toggle switches which means that when you throw the switch it stays in that position. COD does not recognise that you have only thrown the switch once and will repeatedly issue the command.

In some situations this is ok but lets say you assign a switch to close radiators a unit , if you throw the switch and leave it in that possition the radiator control in game will continue to close to fully closed. In this case when I want to adjust the radiators to get any sort of control you need to toggle the switch repeatedly (returning it back to OFF imediately after turning it on) until you get your desired setting.

A momentary switch would be much more gooder! (is that a word?)

Also some of the switches that are obscured by the trottle leaver making it awkward to opperate.

Apart from that it works great!

I'm not using Target so there may be ways around some of these problems for the technecally inclined!

Cheers!

[335th_GRAthos]

Very nice Joystick and Throttle and with so many switches and buttons that you can put everything you want!

The bad news:
The Stick is done for modern Fly-by-wire airplanes: You give the plane a movement with the stick (e.g. 20° left), the plane takes the position and subsequently the computer keeps the plane stable at the situation you put it in.
So even if the stick is very stiff, you have no problems.

In CoD it is not fly by wire and there are few trim controls so you are obliged to keep the stick continously at a certain position in order to make the plane keep a certain direction.
Good luck to your right wrist if you like flying 1-2hrs...

~S~

[Skoshi Tiger]

The bad news:
The Stick is done for modern Fly-by-wire airplanes: You give the plane a movement with the stick (e.g. 20° left), the plane takes the position and subsequently the computer keeps the plane stable at the situation you put it in.
So even if the stick is very stiff, you have no problems.

In CoD it is not fly by wire and there are few trim controls so you are obliged to keep the stick continously at a certain position in order to make the plane keep a certain direction.
Good luck to your right wrist if you like flying 1-2hrs...

~S~

Too true! But unless your going force feedback it is true with all joysticks that are held in a centre position.

It's Not quite authentic but it works for me, I've got my trim mapped to a home brew controller, What I would normally do is move the stick to the attitude I want to maintain and then trim until I've reduced the pressure (ie moving it closer to the centre position) on the stick.

Luckly with the heavy spring on the Warthog you get a good feel for that center position. (and you get your 30 minutes of exercise a day! :) )


Cheers!

[recoilfx]

It's actually very easy to reduce the centering force for the warthog with very easy mods.


There are three ways:
1.) Extend the shaft. This will give you more accuracy and less centering force.

2.) Unscrew the top 8(?) screws from the silver ring and the four black screws hidden under the 8 screw silver ring. Remove the black heavy spring and place the four small springs from the bottom on top of piston through the rods.

See this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBMBR8M0z2E

3.) Replace the bottom four springs with more powerful springs. In my case, I purchased a pack of assorted small springs from homedepot and stacked 4 small springs on top of the bottom springs.

[kestrel79]

Does it have a lot of trim wheels? One of the things I like about my x52 is all the rotories on the throttle to map stuff with.

I do own DCS A10c, but I'll mainly be flying CloD with this. My x52 gives my arm a workout when flying so I can only imagine what a real stick like this will do. Build strong wrist muscles.

[335th_GRAthos]

Does it have a lot of trim wheels? One of the things I like about my x52 is all the rotaries on the throttle to map stuff with.

No it does not, you will be very dissapointed by that, it only has one trim wheel and it is not very good (IMHAO)

But with so many good and easy to handle switches, you will be able to use the button trims.
Remember this is an "authentic" throttle and stick of a real warplane (A10) so Thrustmaster made it look authentic (= no addiitonal trim wheels :( ).



@recoilfx:
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
That is great to know!

My Warthog stick did not survive 24hrs with me, I put the stick back in the box and still use my SW2FFB ...where I leave the stick, the position stays as long as I do not engage the light sensor :)


~S~

[Hood]

Warthog user here. Use Target and once you get a good understanding of how the bindings operate you have lots of possibilities. In fact I think using Target really makes the thing work better.

I would have liked rotaries as on my X52 throttle and this was a possible barrier, but the quality and "feel" of the stick are a quantum leap ahead. I am very happy with the switch from my CH Fighterstick + X52 throttle.

Hood

[ATAG_Snapper]

I use TARGET as well. Once I got it figured out I've found it pretty straightforward (I only use "basic", haven't done any scripting for it). The Warthog HOTAS also works great with COD as a simple "plug 'n play", it's easy to assign the various buttons, switches, and axis to the aircraft controls using the in-game menu. Many, if not most, players wouldn't really need TARGET for CoD, I don't think.

Plug 'n play would've done me fine except I wanted to use a joystick button to turn FRAPS on & off. FRAPS doesn't recognize Directx controls as a hotkey (Naturalpoint's TrackIR have figured it out, though). I eventually got a reply back from FRAPS -- they seemed surprised that anyone would want to use a joystick button as a hotkey when you have a perfectly good 104-key keyboard right in front of you in the heat of a dogfight! And then they returned to their Pong office championship.......

@Recoilfx: as with Athos -- Thank you!!!! Nothing like a little video to clearly show how to do what appears to be a simple task. Like Athos, I brought my FFSB2 out of retirement because I found the big Warthog stick too stiff <uh, pardon?> and clunky. I've only returned back to it for the extra on-stick controls and the use of TARGET, but didn't exactly love it for prolonged maneuvring. I also like the suggestion on the video to simply use a few washers under each of the four repositioned smaller springs if you find the stick a little too mushy. I use a couple of levers on my CH Quadrant for trimming which work extremely well -- more responsive than button/hat controls IMHO.

[recoilfx]

I think it's ridiculous that Flight Sims developers do not ship default profiles for the major joysticks. I hate the amount of time I have to spend on adding all these key bindings before I start the game. Sometimes I don't even know what to bind since I havn't learned what the function is yet!

There are what, only 7-8 major joysticks (Warthog, Cougar, x52, g40, t1600m, hotas x, 3d extreme pro, msffb2, ch combat sticks).. If they spend one day of an employee time just make these few default profiles, it would save us so much time and the game would seem more polished.

What ticks me off even more about CloD is that some of the major functions such complex engine management operations aren't even bond to the keyboards.

[Kodoss]

looks like I'm the only one who likes the muscle training with the stick.

My first Joystick was a Thrustmaster X-Fighter, with the badest spring ever.
Playing Tie Fighter and X-Wing vs Tie Fighter for hours. Best muscle training ever.
After one month you didn't had any problems anymore. ( Also a good excuse for not going to fitness studios:twisted: )

[ATAG_Snapper]

In my case, when I ride my Hog sleeveless next summer I don't want the guys to see my right arm hugely developed vs my left arm. Telling them it's because I "got a lot of stick time in over the winter" probably would not be helpful.

[Kodoss]

You mean like Cermes the javelin thrower?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8C1SiDKhc

Don't worry. I'm lefthanded....:rolleyes:

[louisv]

Very nice Joystick and Throttle and with so many switches and buttons that you can put everything you want!

The bad news:
The Stick is done for modern Fly-by-wire airplanes: You give the plane a movement with the stick (e.g. 20° left), the plane takes the position and subsequently the computer keeps the plane stable at the situation you put it in.
So even if the stick is very stiff, you have no problems.

In CoD it is not fly by wire and there are few trim controls so you are obliged to keep the stick continously at a certain position in order to make the plane keep a certain direction.
Good luck to your right wrist if you like flying 1-2hrs...

~S~
OK, try it again...a car drives like that, not a plane, nor a joystick !!!

[Blackdog_kt]

I think it's ridiculous that Flight Sims developers do not ship default profiles for the major joysticks. I hate the amount of time I have to spend on adding all these key bindings before I start the game. Sometimes I don't even know what to bind since I havn't learned what the function is yet!

There are what, only 7-8 major joysticks (Warthog, Cougar, x52, g40, t1600m, hotas x, 3d extreme pro, msffb2, ch combat sticks).. If they spend one day of an employee time just make these few default profiles, it would save us so much time and the game would seem more polished.

What ticks me off even more about CloD is that some of the major functions such complex engine management operations aren't even bond to the keyboards.

Actually, i prefer it the other way around. When there's a lot of different functions needed, i always go with a custom profile of my own. That's not to say a stock profile wouldn't help people who just want to plug in and give it a whirl but you would still have to do the bulk of the work anyway, which is finding out what each function does, when you need it and where it is on your stick.

I just find it easier to map my own controls similar to how i had them in IL2 1946 instead of having to memorize new ones, but of course it's a subjective thing ;)

[kestrel79]

Thinking of changing up the plans a bit and upgrading to a x52 pro. Then using the extra cash saved to put towards a CH throttle quadrant, some Saitek Combat Pedals, and maybe a Derek Spear designs button box for flying and driving iRacing.

While the Warthog looks SO cool and real that's a lot of cash and I think I will miss my Saitek rotory dials too much for trimming.

I wish most stores still had the "joystick aisle" like bestbuy did a few years back so you could test them out.

[kestrel79]

It's done guys. Pulled the trigger on a new x52 pro. I've had my standard x52 going on 7 years and she still works good. May keep it as a backup for sell on ebay.

Couldn't pull that much money on the Warthog. I'm too used to my x52 controls and trim wheels.

[Maico]

I just got the Warthog and had my first flight last night. Lots of programing options. Hours and hours of fun can be had just programing the thing. I was a bit shocked at how heavy the stick is. I may replace the heavy grease with some light lube. On the positive side, it is very stable. I do NOT like giving up the rotaries on the X-52. So I will say that this is a trial basis. I do like the way it feels but it does lack some things...

[kestrel79]

I just setup my x52 pro in my Obutto. I could not give up the rotaries, I like them too much :)

The x52 pro is much much cooler than the standard x52 I've had for the last 7 years. The stick feels heavier, smoother. The metal buttons are a nice touch and make it more meaty. I really like the new green LED colors and black/metal trim, makes it look less like a toy and more like something you'd find in an aircraft.

I cleaned my Obutto out and redid all the wiring. Everything is nice and tidy now, no cables running everywhere. I also moved the Obutto throttle attachment further up so I could make room to mount my new CH Throttle Quadrant on the Obutto arm. Works great! Lots of levers and rotaries at my disposal for CEM in CloD I'm excited!

I'll post some pictures in a few weeks once my Derek Speares Designs button box comes in as well. Then my updated cockpit will be completed. Not it's off to program some buttons!

[Steve Zodiac]

I realize that this thread is old but maybe someone will find use in it as I did when I first got my warthog and it was to stiff.

Of the fixes listed, number three is the way to go. Those bottom four springs lessen the tension of the large coil spring. All one needs to do is double those up (two on each post or get slightly stronger replacements. I doubled them and used some molycote mL30 plastics grease and mine is perfect.

The number two fix that leaves the coil spring out and moves the bottom springs to the top works but lessens the full range of movement since they compress and get in the way a bit at the end of the travel.

Just go to the hardware store and get the same little four springs and double them up on the bottom. put the big coil back and your good to go. Smooth as butter and no cramped wrist.

[Tiger27]

looks like I'm the only one who likes the muscle training with the stick.

My first Joystick was a Thrustmaster X-Fighter, with the badest spring ever.
Playing Tie Fighter and X-Wing vs Tie Fighter for hours. Best muscle training ever.
After one month you didn't had any problems anymore. ( Also a good excuse for not going to fitness studios:twisted: )

I like the strong spring as well, I broke my CH Fighterstick at the neck after many years of use and thought I would struggle with the hogs spring but no problems at all for me.