CH Throttle Quadrant calibration

[AndyE1976]

I noticed flying Dino's F35 that I wasn't getting full throttle with my CH throttle quadrant, when I went into recalibrate it showed a raw value of 19 - 255, rather than 0 - 255.

I finally managed to get it to calibrate so it would just get into full AB, but I wondered whether anyone else had had this problem?

 

[Daveroo]

i have this problem currantly...how did you fix it???

 

[AndyE1976]

I hit the 'Reset Default' button on the FSX screen with the CH Throttle Quadrant selected and then recalibrated. It still didn't show the full range of motion in the calibration window, but it was better than when I started and now gives the full range in the sim.

I had to reset the button assignments though.

I'm going to have to look into this on the CH forums as I thought that USB PnP meant that we shouldn't have to worry about calibration now.

 

[falcon409]

. . . . .as I thought that USB PnP meant that we shouldn't have to worry about calibration now.

That would be nice, but I don't believe PNP was ever meant to mean "no calibration required". I have a CH throttle and Logitech Joystick and having to recalibrate is a constant function. Not every day mind you, but from time to time it becomes necessary to recalibrate both. It's just part of simming.

 

[stansdds]

I have to recalibrate mine on a fairly regular basis.

 

[AndyE1976]

Well although this worked fine for the F35, my Alphasim Tornado F3 now only gives me non-AB up to the first indent, i.e. about 1/4 inch of movement. Previously it would go about 3/4 of the travel before lighting up. This makes it tricky to land!

Recalibrating didn't make any difference. I think I'm going to unplug it and see if I can get FSX to forget it and start again.

 

[Jwcfly]

Hi AndyE:

In the immortal words of a recent President, "I feel your pain".

I have had the Throttle Quad since it came out. In fact, I got one of the first batch from Flight Sim Central (now defunct), which had a calibration problem. Rather than sending it back, I just worked with it for a few years. After all, it does have six levers, and you only need three to fly a fighter. I did send it back to CH twice for repair. Now, as "Babs" would say, "It's smooth as budda". It was a gift, so even with the repair costs, I'm still way ahead.

I say this simply to let you know I've spent quite sometime thru the years dealing with flight control issues. I now have the CH Yoke USB, Throttle Quad, and CH Pedals.

Somewhere in the archives at the CH Community forum I read where calibrating your controllers with the CH Manager software FIRST is highly recommended. The windows calibration routine may be used AFTER, but it really is not needed or used by the controllers, as signals are "filtered" thru the CH Manager before being sent to the controllers. This is the only thing I use the CH Control Manager software for, although it is capable of far more. I then assign the axis' and buttons in game.

Granted, it is another step, and another program to install and learn. I have used the CH Control Manager software for years, and it gives much more "fine" control to the axis inputs. It's a little work, but I believe well worth it.

 

[AndyE1976]

I'll definitely give that a try, it would make sense that it would be filtered. Probably calibrating it direct with the windows dialog has confused it.

 

[falcon409]

. . . . . .Somewhere in the archives at the CH Community forum I read where calibrating your controllers with the CH Manager software FIRST is highly recommended. The windows calibration routine may be used AFTER, but it really is not needed or used by the controllers, as signals are "filtered" thru the CH Manager before being sent to the controllers. . . . . . . .

I have the single "Fighter Style" CH Throttle and I'm sure I probably got the CH Manager disk as part of the purchase, but I never loaded it, mainly because all mine needs to do is go fast or slow, lol. I program the buttons for gears, spoilers, pitch trim and so on, but I never have used the "manager".:salute:

 

[AndyE1976]

Well, tonight was fun. I tried the ch control manager and it grouped all of my controls under a new ch products node in device manager and removed them from game controllers, so fsx and fs9 didn't see them anymore.

I removed all my USB devices and reattached them to restore them and now I have normal range of motion in the tornado. Haven't had a chance to test the f35 yet.

According to the ch support site there should be no need for the ch control manager except for the mfp.

 

[Daveroo]

so what are you saying?...ive gotten confused...do? or dont? use the ch manager? i have the new eclipse yoke,2 throttle quards and rudder peddles...everything works fine except the throttles,,,,litterally...the throttle levers are allways about 20% open and the plane wants to roar off instead of sitting idling while i do my pre flight,the prop and mixure levers are ok...its also allways the first two levers on the first quad only

 

[Jwcfly]

I have the single "Fighter Style" CH Throttle and I'm sure I probably got the CH Manager disk as part of the purchase, but I never loaded it, mainly because all mine needs to do is go fast or slow, lol. I program the buttons for gears, spoilers, pitch trim and so on, but I never have used the "manager".:salute:

Yes, they do send a disc, although if you're going to try it best to get the latest version of the CM from the CH website. It's been updated as new operating systems have come out, XP, Vista, etc, and also many new features have become available the last few years. With more sophisticated os, and I think a more stable version controller-wise with FSX vs. FS2004, the need for the Manager has been minimized, at least for FSX. I think those that play FPS games make extensive use of the programming macro capability.

Like you, I just assign axes and buttons in game, although I always have to manually assign that pesky Gear_Up/Gear_Down command in the Standard.XML file.

 

[Jwcfly]

Well, tonight was fun. I tried the ch control manager and it grouped all of my controls under a new ch products node in device manager and removed them from game controllers, so fsx and fs9 didn't see them anymore.

I removed all my USB devices and reattached them to restore them and now I have normal range of motion in the tornado. Haven't had a chance to test the f35 yet.

According to the ch support site there should be no need for the ch control manager except for the mfp.

Glad they are working now. Sometimes with the Control Manager I adjust the gain for the yoke to give quicker or slower response depending what I am flying, but generally just leave it alone once the controls are calibrated..

It certainly can be a tangled web trying to juggle between joystick, joystick software, windows software, the FSX controller menu, FSUIPC (if you have it), and any other programs such as EZCA that use the joysticks one has hooked up.

It seems the combination of the CH Control Manager and FSUIPC is the best, turning off the joystick inside of FS, letting the Control Manager calibrate and FSUIPC assign. I don't have FSUIPC now, but used it in combo with the CM years ago.

 

[Jwcfly]

so what are you saying?...ive gotten confused...do? or dont? use the ch manager? i have the new eclipse yoke,2 throttle quards and rudder peddles...everything works fine except the throttles,,,,litterally...the throttle levers are allways about 20% open and the plane wants to roar off instead of sitting idling while i do my pre flight,the prop and mixure levers are ok...its also allways the first two levers on the first quad only

Hi Daveroo

First place I'd check would be under the Settings/Controls/Calibration/Advanced Settings. Under Sensitivity and Null Zone click advanced and make sure all sensitivity sliders are FULLY right and Null Zones are FULLY left. I have no experience with using two Throttle Quads (I'm envious), but double checking this and your axis assignment might be the easiest place to start. I'll try to help more if this doesn't work.

I think in your case with 2 Quads it might be easier in the long run to install the Control Manager and calibrate thru that. With the relatively short throws of the Throttle Quad I find small movements are a bit easier to "feel" than without the CM.

 

[AndyE1976]

so what are you saying?...ive gotten confused...do? or dont? use the ch manager? i have the new eclipse yoke,2 throttle quards and rudder peddles...everything works fine except the throttles,,,,litterally...the throttle levers are allways about 20% open and the plane wants to roar off instead of sitting idling while i do my pre flight,the prop and mixure levers are ok...its also allways the first two levers on the first quad only

All I'm saying is that CH say you don't have to use the control manager for their products to work in windows except for the MFP.

When I tried using it I had problems with device assignments and FSX couldn't see my controls, that may have been a coincidence though as others here have got it to work.

 

[Jwcfly]

All I'm saying is that CH say you don't have to use the control manager for their products to work in windows except for the MFP.

When I tried using it I had problems with device assignments and FSX couldn't see my controls, that may have been a coincidence though as others here have got it to work.

Certainly the CM is not needed to use the CH joysticks in game, everything else being equal. The problem I've found is that with Flight Sim, things are rarely equal, what with different aircraft needing different control, buttons, etc, and I just don't find the native windows calibration as precise as the CH Control Manager.

Once I have the Manager software installed, I make what they call a "map", or a template using all the controllers I want to use for a particular type of plane, single, twin, etc. Although I have the Yoke, Quad, and Pedals, if I desire I can make a map using just the Yoke and Pedals. It's handy having the Quad, as if I don't need the axis levers, I can still use the 6 toggles. Then I save the map. I then reload the map and calibrate using the Manager. You can have an infinite number of maps, using one per plane if desired. It just has to be loaded before starting FS

Now, here is where it can get complicated. Once FSX is started, it will find the "new" hardware, and register it in game changing the names to CH Control Manager Device 1, 2, 3, and so on. The old names no longer show up. Every CH Device that is recognized by the game will probably have the exact same axis and key assignments across all the controllers. Obviously, this is not what is needed. I just go into the controller assignments in FSX and eliminate all the axis and button assignments. It just takes a couple of minutes, and ensures that when you do start to make axis and button assignments in FSX, you start with a clean slate. The elephant in the room with all this is, sometimes when you eliminate an axis or button from one of the controllers, it does not register as such in the game, leaving an unwanted assignment. If you don't catch this, it can really be very frustrating. It is not quite so frequent in FSX, but it does still happen. Of course, you can use the CH Control Manager to assign all the axis and buttons too, it just requires a few more steps.

I hope this helps if you decide to use this software in the future.