Virpil WarBRD Base

GJ51

GJ51
After 6500 hours in ED my Warthog joystick base started to get sloppy. Having read about all the raves for the Virpil WarBRD base, I bit the bullet and decided top give it a try.

It's obviously well made and very accurate. The problem I'm having is that I'm using the Virpil base with the Warthog grip and although everything works pretty well and I have all my bindings recovered, the springs seem to make the stick overcorrect and wobble quite a bit in normal use. Perhaps this might be due to the Warthog being metal and a bit heavier than the Virpil grips?

I know there are several spring and cam options available, but I was hoping another CMDR may have already run into this and solved the problem. I'm probably going to order the Cosmo cams at some point, but the shipping is more than the cost of the cams, so I might hold off to see if there's another option. I'm still using the default installed spring and intend to give the heavier ones included with the base after I've given the default setup a bit more time to see if I adjust to the feel a little better.

THX
 

Eli Jack

Eli Jack
When you say 'wobble' do you mean physically wobble or your ship 'wobbling' in Elite? (That's a lot of 'wobble' used in one sentence).

I use the Virpil base and a WarBRD stick and it is a physically 'wobbly' combo in the centre position. Unfortunately this translates to ship 'wobble' in game especially when using roll.

I would have thought the heavier Warthog stick would fare better but it might just exacerbate the problem, I dunno. I'd give the heavier springs/cams a go first to see if that lessens/solves the problem.

(Probably not much help to you but it did give me the chance to use 'wobble' or a derivative thereof a number of times. For that I'll be eternally grateful).
 

GJ51

GJ51
Eli Jack said:
When you say 'wobble' do you mean physically wobble or your ship 'wobbling' in Elite? (That's a lot of 'wobble' used in one sentence).

I use the Virpil base and a WarBRD stick and it is a physically 'wobbly' combo in the centre position. Unfortunately this translates to ship 'wobble' in game especially when using roll.

I would have thought the heavier Warthog stick would fare better but it might just exacerbate the problem, I dunno. I'd give the heavier springs/cams a go first to see if that lessens/solves the problem.

(Probably not much help to you but it did give me the chance to use 'wobble' or a derivative thereof a number of times. For that I'll be eternally grateful).
Click to expand...

LOL - thanks for the input. I was a bit surprised/disappointed after seeing so many posts singing the praises of the this base and then feeling it for the first time. It certainly wasn't cheap and I could have bought another complete Warthog stick and throttle for about the same price. I'm hoping that I can adapt or find a better spring/cam combination that will dampen the spring rebounding effect. I hate throwing more money at trying to find an answer that may not be there. With shipping it costs almost $100 US just for another set of cams.
 

CMDR Eryn Liamson

CMDR Eryn Liamson
I had the same issue - Warthog stick and WarBRD base, and lots of wobble. I found a lot of it was due to the much greater resistance on the Warthog base causing me to overcorrect on the lighter WarBRD. After a few days of using it, I adjusted to the new resistances and the problem went away.

It still wobbles, but I'm used to it now.
 

GJ51

GJ51
Thanks - I'm going to give it some time, but it sure has a different feel from a healthy Warthog. I've also watched a vdeo that recommends stronger springs with the Cosmo 0 cam, but I'll wait a bit longer before spending more money. I might also try just swapping to the stronger spring that came in the box.
 

60mm

60mm
I used my warBRD with light springs and CosmoSim cams, never had wobble issues. That's with a Mongoos T50 though.
 

Camisade

Camisade
This is probably not helpful, but I have two of those Franken-setups with the TM Warhog grip on a Virpil WarBRD base. On both of them I never changed out any springs or cams -- just use them as they came. No issues and both work great. No deadzone increase needed (though I do use Joystick Gremlin for some curves).

...unfortunately, now I know for certain my only limiting factors for fixed weapon usage are physiological. It's possible I wish I could go back to blaming my HOTAS setup.... ;-)
 

GJ51

GJ51
I do seem to be adapting a bit more as I continue to use the setup. I think I'll eventually want to get the Cosmo No center Cam to reduce the resistance increase at the outer limits of range.

I've never used custom curves with the Warthog, but I can see how that might be useful with the WarBRD due to the increased throw over the Warthog base. Joystick Gremlin looks like a good solution.

THX
 

Tomh207

T
You can setup axis curves in the Virpil software which then loads the profile to the stick, never need to run an intermediate bit of software and the curves will remain even if using a different computer
 

GJ51

GJ51
Thanks Tom,

That's something I'll definitely look at.

For now, I think I'll be trying the stronger spring on the Y axis and some curve adjustment on X. I'm going to stay with the stock setup for the rest of this week and then start tweaking. I'm still not getting used to the bouncy feeling at center, but it's not quite as bad as it was on first impression. I think it needs a bit more resistance at center for a positive feel at center and less resistance progression which will probably need an optional Cosmo Cam.

I'm still a bit surprised that this isn't the huge improvement over the Warthog base that I was looking for. I did modify my Warthog a bit with weaker springs, so maybe others are comparing this to a stock Warthog base. I decided to "upgrade" because the old Warthog base had lost a bit of its firm feel at center. I'll be rebuilding it in a week or two to have as a backup, but if I can't get this dialed in I may just return to the Hog and put this up for sale.

I really want to like this and make it work, but I'm still a ways from where I want it to be.

All suggestions greatly appreciated.
 

Tomh207

T
GJ51

Search YouTube for HavocCompanyClan, he has a few good guide videos on setup including curves. He is very active on the Virpil forums supporting folks

Tom
 

Alteph Four

A
GJ51 said:
After 6500 hours in ED my Warthog joystick base started to get sloppy. Having read about all the raves for the Virpil WarBRD base, I bit the bullet and decided top give it a try.

It's obviously well made and very accurate. The problem I'm having is that I'm using the Virpil base with the Warthog grip and although everything works pretty well and I have all my bindings recovered, the springs seem to make the stick overcorrect and wobble quite a bit in normal use. Perhaps this might be due to the Warthog being metal and a bit heavier than the Virpil grips?

I know there are several spring and cam options available, but I was hoping another CMDR may have already run into this and solved the problem. I'm probably going to order the Cosmo cams at some point, but the shipping is more than the cost of the cams, so I might hold off to see if there's another option. I'm still using the default installed spring and intend to give the heavier ones included with the base after I've given the default setup a bit more time to see if I adjust to the feel a little better.

THX
Click to expand...
I have x tm grip and am considering getting the WarBRD base for it as I dont like the all plastic gimbal that TM has.

What was involved in getting the grip attached to the base?

Was it hard to flash the base do that all the buttons on thd TM grip worked?

I imagine the friction I am dealing with on the warthog is non existent in the Virpil base.
 

GJ51

GJ51
finitematter said:
I have x tm grip and am considering getting the WarBRD base for it as I dont like the all plastic gimbal that TM has.

What was involved in getting the grip attached to the base?

Was it hard to flash the base do that all the buttons on thd TM grip worked?

I imagine the friction I am dealing with on the warthog is non existent in the Virpil base.
Click to expand...

Getting the TM grip on the base wasn't a problem - there is a statement on the Virpil page for the base that says, "* Remove the 2 bolts holding the female grip connector in place when attaching TM grips to prevent damage to the connectors. " and I did that, even though there's no other reference to that anywhere else that I could find.

The connector for the grip to the base is identical to the Warthog's and the threaded rings to secure to the base are the same thread pitch and diameter.

Flashing the base was pretty easy as long as you follow the instructions. The program and documentation are downloadable Here: https://virpil-controls.eu/downloads.html

You could loock at the Docs beforehand if you like, but although there's a lot of complexity and depth available - initial setup was pretty straightforward.

The Virpil base is virtually friction-less, but I'm still trying to adapt to the spring oscillation effect. I'm hoping to get it to a point where it's better than what I replaced. A well lubricated Warthog with custom spring that lower the resistance is pretty sweet and I was content with it until it broke down after 6500 hrs. and started to become loose at the center.

All the buttons on the grip mapped fine to ED - WARNING - Back up your bindings file before loading ED. Once in, create a new Custom Binds file and then open it in note. Locate the joystick id and copy it. Kill the new Custom Binds the new stick created, copy the backup into the active binds directory, open it in note and do a "Replace all" swapping out the Thrustmaster stick identifier with the Virpil ID.

So far,l I'm still not convinced that this was an upgrade that will give me significant improvement over a good Warthog for the money spent.

HTH

There's a video on YT showing how to replace the 4 return springs with 7/32" x 1-5/8" x .015" springs which I found at Lowe's or Home Depot. I'll be rebuilding my old base and sanding it down and lubricating with a good plastic safe grease to use it as either a back up or replacement for the WarBRD if I can't get the feel I'm looking for.
 
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GJ51

GJ51
Tomh207 said:
GJ51

Search YouTube for HavocCompanyClan, he has a few good guide videos on setup including curves. He is very active on the Virpil forums supporting folks

Tom
Click to expand...

+1 - Great source

I'll definitely be going through these!
 

60mm

60mm
Virpil's software is great. While the UI is . . . not slick, it works very well. I set up my buttons and loaded the curves I want one time, and have never had to calibrate it or open the software again.
 

Alteph Four

A
GJ51 said:
Getting the TM grip on the base wasn't a problem - there is a statement on the Virpil page for the base that says, "* Remove the 2 bolts holding the female grip connector in place when attaching TM grips to prevent damage to the connectors. " and I did that, even though there's no other reference to that anywhere else that I could find.

The connector for the grip to the base is identical to the Warthog's and the threaded rings to secure to the base are the same thread pitch and diameter.

Flashing the base was pretty easy as long as you follow the instructions. The program and documentation are downloadable Here: https://virpil-controls.eu/downloads.html

You could loock at the Docs beforehand if you like, but although there's a lot of complexity and depth available - initial setup was pretty straightforward.

The Virpil base is virtually friction-less, but I'm still trying to adapt to the spring oscillation effect. I'm hoping to get it to a point where it's better than what I replaced. A well lubricated Warthog with custom spring that lower the resistance is pretty sweet and I was content with it until it broke down after 6500 hrs. and started to become loose at the center.

All the buttons on the grip mapped fine to ED - WARNING - Back up your bindings file before loading ED. Once in, create a new Custom Binds file and then open it in note. Locate the joystick id and copy it. Kill the new Custom Binds the new stick created, copy the backup into the active binds directory, open it in note and do a "Replace all" swapping out the Thrustmaster stick identifier with the Virpil ID.

So far,l I'm still not convinced that this was an upgrade that will give me significant improvement over a good Warthog for the money spent.

HTH

There's a video on YT showing how to replace the 4 return springs with 7/32" x 1-5/8" x .015" springs which I found at Lowe's or Home Depot. I'll be rebuilding my old base and sanding it down and lubricating with a good plastic safe grease to use it as either a back up or replacement for the WarBRD if I can't get the feel I'm looking for.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by an oscillation effect?

I love the idea of a frictionless base, exactly what I am looking for.

I want to re grease my tm base, but I dont feel confident enough to take it apart and get it back together again.

I am starting to get sick of the stiction. I dont mind the strength of the spring that comes in the stick by default, I'd rather have that than a stock that has issues re-centering.
 
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