Newcomer / Intro T.16000M FCS HOTAS - Throttle

[Flying Peanut]

Hello Commanders,

I was driving my SRV on a planet in a nice stretch of dessert and and issue I started to occur to me. I have the SRV bindings for the thrust set to my Hotas thruster, but also to my keyboard. I now found out that the speed on full does not coincide. The Hotas does not reach the full 100%.

I have a Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS HOTAS and I wonder if anybody else has ran into this issue and was able to fix it.

Also in flight I notice a difference in speed with the TCWS thruster on full at a speed of 306 and with the keyboard binding I reach 319. That is a difference of 13 between life and death.

 

[SlickPBW]

Not sure how to answer your real question but (if not already done) map SRV steering to the throttle rudder, then you can drive with your left hand and operate the turret with the joystick. Unless that makes you want to barf.

 

[Flying Peanut]

Not sure how to answer your real question but (if not already done) map SRV steering to the throttle rudder, then you can drive with your left hand and operate the turret with the joystick. Unless that makes you want to barf.

Yeah, I have been playing with mapping the settings to my liking. This is just about the throttle tough. It just doesn't go "full throttle". Always lacking a bit of speed that way.
I can still accelerate with my keyboard, but I wonder if there is a fix for the throttle.

I have a double binding. The main throttle of the hotas and then also a keyboard binding. My platform is a PC, in case I needed to include that info.

 

[Chris Simon]

Just a few ideas.
In Windows - Check the travel of your axes in device properties in Control panel. FCS throttle shouldn't need calibrating but maybe there's a physical constraint on its travel.
In-game options - Check your dead zones. Try re-binding the throttle. Try switching between Full range and Forward only and see if it does it in both modes.

 

[Alec Turner]

I think I may have had the same as what you're describing ... I use a Thrustmaster Hotas 4 and I've had several units now where, after many months of use, the potentiometer on the throttle unit stops registering a full 100% (tends to jitter around the 95% mark). As someone who spends a lot of their time doing competitive races in Elite this is clearly a bit of a problem so what I tend to do is also map a button on the stick to Increase Throttle and keep that held down when I really want 100%. Alas these joysticks do tend to fail in this way after a while (I'm currently on my 7th or 8th, I've literally lost count). Not honestly much you can do about it unless you're up for taking the thing apart and replacing the sensor.

 

[Flying Peanut]

Just a few ideas.
In Windows - Check the travel of your axes in device properties in Control panel. FCS throttle shouldn't need calibrating but maybe there's a physical constraint on its travel.
In-game options - Check your dead zones. Try re-binding the throttle. Try switching between Full range and Forward only and see if it does it in both modes.

Thanks Chris,

I tried switching to forward only and there is still a difference there.
I checked my device properties and do notice I cannot reach full range. Being 3% off on one end and 1% on the other.

There doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the setting though. So much for calling it calibration when i can't tune the settings of the dead zone at the beginning and the end of the slider

The in-game dead zones only allow for center settings, not at the outer ends.

That basically only leaves the physical constraints. One last thing I can do is open it up and test the potentiometer, but that still doesn't solve the issue unless I find a way to alter the range of the handle itself.

 

[Flying Peanut]

I think I may have had the same as what you're describing ... I use a Thrustmaster Hotas 4 and I've had several units now where, after many months of use, the potentiometer on the throttle unit stops registering a full 100% (tends to jitter around the 95% mark). As someone who spends a lot of their time doing competitive races in Elite this is clearly a bit of a problem so what I tend to do is also map a button on the stick to Increase Throttle and keep that held down when I really want 100%. Alas these joysticks do tend to fail in this way after a while (I'm currently on my 7th or 8th, I've literally lost count). Not honestly much you can do about it unless you're up for taking the thing apart and replacing the sensor.

Well.. Now that I know I have a little extra under the hood, I have the keybinding to the keyboard that I can use to go full throttle, so I can get around the issue. But as you mention it is a bit of a problem. In the heat of the game you just want to play without having to do extra tricks.

 

[Alec Turner]

Thanks Chris,

I tried switching to forward only and there is still a difference there.
I checked my device properties and do notice I cannot reach full range. Being 3% off on one end and 1% on the other.

View attachment 331416
View attachment 331417

There doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the setting though. So much for calling it calibration when i can't tune the settings of the dead zone at the beginning and the end of the slider

The in-game dead zones only allow for center settings, not at the outer ends.

That basically only leaves the physical constraints. One last thing I can do is open it up and test the potentiometer, but that still doesn't solve the issue unless I find a way to alter the range of the handle itself.

Yeah, I ran into the exact some stuff. It turns out you can calibrate the main joystick axis (so less travel would take you to min and max values with a little bit of wiggle room to spare) but not the throttle axis. I actually considered taking a hacksaw/knife to my joystick to physically move the endstops a bit but chickened out in the end and bought a new hotas (which had come down to £49 at the time). The only avenue I didn't pursue was looking to see if I could use a joystick config utility like Joystick Gremlin to map the physical inputs through virtual ones and re-callibrate them that way.

 

[Flying Peanut]

Yeah, I ran into the exact some stuff. It turns out you can calibrate the main joystick axis (so less travel would take you to min and max values with a little bit of wiggle room to spare) but not the throttle axis. I actually considered taking a hacksaw/knife to my joystick to physically move the endstops a bit but chickened out in the end and bought a new hotas (which had come down to £49 at the time). The only avenue I didn't pursue was looking to see if I could use a joystick config utility like Joystick Gremlin to map the physical inputs through virtual ones and re-callibrate them that way.

Well .... Bummer I suppose then. I was thinking of filing some off the handle itself. On the other end it does not interfere with my playing too much, so it is likely not worth it. I tried Joystick Gremlin, but it won't run. It pops up an error message about vJoy.

Did a new HOTAS fix your issue?

 

[Chris Simon]

Thanks Chris,

I tried switching to forward only and there is still a difference there.
I checked my device properties and do notice I cannot reach full range. Being 3% off on one end and 1% on the other.

View attachment 331416
View attachment 331417

There doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the setting though. So much for calling it calibration when i can't tune the settings of the dead zone at the beginning and the end of the slider

The in-game dead zones only allow for center settings, not at the outer ends.

That basically only leaves the physical constraints. One last thing I can do is open it up and test the potentiometer, but that still doesn't solve the issue unless I find a way to alter the range of the handle itself.

First thing you can try is loosening up the throttle lever.
There is a screw for that at the bottom. The throttle slides on rails and is held by a metal plate that also provides friction. You have to find what looks like an empty hole on the botom of the base and slide your throttle over it to line up the screw with it. then you can loosen it a little bit. (be careful not to screw it out all the way, though, for obvious reasons)
Then you can check if you're able to force the throttle a bit further.

If that doesn't help, don't be afraid to open the base. There isn't much in there. It will also allow you to lube the rails a bit better. One of my pet peeves with this otherwise really good throttle is how "sticky" it can be at times when you need a fine control.
There is a lever mechanism that translates the throttle movement into the sensor rotation. Loosen it up a bit and physically rotate the sensor. (Check which way it turns when you move the throttle forward and rotate it in that direction a couple degrees.

That could help. (Worst that will happen is that you lose a couple of % of travel in reverse.)

 

[Alec Turner]

Well .... Bummer I suppose then. I was thinking of filing some off the handle itself. On the other end it does not interfere with my playing too much, so it is likely not worth it. I tried Joystick Gremlin, but it won't run. It pops up an error message about vJoy.

Did a new HOTAS fix your issue?

Yes (although I know it won't last forever - I've had this happen on at least two sticks after 6 months or so).

 

[Flying Peanut]

First thing you can try is loosening up the throttle lever.
There is a screw for that at the bottom. The throttle slides on rails and is held by a metal plate that also provides friction. You have to find what looks like an empty hole on the botom of the base and slide your throttle over it to line up the screw with it. then you can loosen it a little bit. (be careful not to screw it out all the way, though, for obvious reasons)
Then you can check if you're able to force the throttle a bit further.

If that doesn't help, don't be afraid to open the base. There isn't much in there. It will also allow you to lube the rails a bit better. One of my pet peeves with this otherwise really good throttle is how "sticky" it can be at times when you need a fine control.
There is a lever mechanism that translates the throttle movement into the sensor rotation. Loosen it up a bit and physically rotate the sensor. (Check which way it turns when you move the throttle forward and rotate it in that direction a couple degrees.

That could help. (Worst that will happen is that you lose a couple of % of travel in reverse.)

Thanks Chris ..

I know what you mention there. As a matter of fact I have changed the slider out with a modification because of the "sticky" problem. It works absolutely great and stickyness is no more. I also left that friction screw out.

Slider Upgrade Kit Thrustmaster T16000M TWCS Throttle - Etsy

This Video Games item by ADULabs has 410 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Canada. Listed on Nov 8, 2022

www.etsy.com

Of course I had to opens the TCWS throttle, so I do know about the internals. I will open it up again to see if there is a little "play" in the lever. If not I may have to resort to make modifications to the base itself or just leave it be. As I mentioned before I also have a keyboard bind as an alternative in the keybind settings of Elite. That is one thing I like about this game being able to set double keybinding.

 

[Flying Peanut]

Thank you for your time and efforts commanders. I figured it out.

Inside the base there is a bracket on each end that hold the rails in place. There is a notch sticking out. I had made the mistake to turn the notch in the wrong direction towards the slider. Causing the slider to bump into it and thus being stopped from reaching the full potential. In the attached image I already fixed the problem by turning it around so the notch points to the outside direction.

My bad!!! At least I got it fixed and again thank you for your time and effort to help me.

See you in space

 

[Chris Simon]