VKB 2 stage trigger question

The lateral thrusters only have 50% power in FA on if rotational correction is enabled. This is why the docking computer fails on the Cutter. I have heard this is only the case when a landing pad is in the instance, but I keep it on a toggle anyway and make sure it is off unless I need it.
 
Here are my bindings. Not sure if I changed something since uploading, but it might give an idea how I do it.
Ah! You mapped the FSD stuff to C1 and countermeasures to A4. I did it the other way round because I saw that some real-life fighter jets have their countermeasures on the C1 position. Your bindings may be better, as you have to move your thumb away from all the important stuff to reach the C1 hat.
 
The lateral thrusters only have 50% power in FA on if rotational correction is enabled. This is why the docking computer fails on the Cutter. I have heard this is only the case when a landing pad is in the instance, but I keep it on a toggle anyway and make sure it is off unless I need it.

As a note for @Pville_Piper , the above is absolutely correct—Thrusters in 4.0 are indeed normal while no landing pad is present, indeed have reduced ability to stop via Flight Assist if a landing pad is present, and this is exactly what the auto-dock cannot handle. Actually, the Thrusters behave exactly as if Flight Assist is disabled:
  • I tested this a while back using my Mamba with its normal top speed, no boosting and no rotation.
  • With no pad, RC either and FA enabled, it takes 7 seconds to stop.
  • With or without a pad, RC irrelevant and FA disabled, it takes 20 seconds to stop.
  • With a pad, RC enabled and FA enabled, it takes 20 seconds to stop.
  • With a pad, RC disabled and FA enabled, it takes 7 seconds to stop.
Since then, my Rotational Correction button is pushing in the central stick on the Kosmosima; button 10 in the diagram posted by @Lhorndra .
 
As a note for @Pville_Piper , the above is absolutely correct—Thrusters in 4.0 are indeed normal while no landing pad is present, indeed have reduced ability to stop via Flight Assist if a landing pad is present, and this is exactly what the auto-dock cannot handle. Actually, the Thrusters behave exactly as if Flight Assist is disabled:
  • I tested this a while back using my Mamba with its normal top speed, no boosting and no rotation.
  • With no pad, RC either and FA enabled, it takes 7 seconds to stop.
  • With or without a pad, RC irrelevant and FA disabled, it takes 20 seconds to stop.
  • With a pad, RC enabled and FA enabled, it takes 20 seconds to stop.
  • With a pad, RC disabled and FA enabled, it takes 7 seconds to stop.
Since then, my Rotational Correction button is pushing in the central stick on the Kosmosima; button 10 in the diagram posted by @Lhorndra .
Interesting, the last time I flew without RC made for a very rough landing inside a station... Chasing the pad was not fun!
 
Ah! You mapped the FSD stuff to C1 and countermeasures to A4. I did it the other way round because I saw that some real-life fighter jets have their countermeasures on the C1 position. Your bindings may be better, as you have to move your thumb away from all the important stuff to reach the C1 hat.

I am not sure how good my bindings are. I have not done a lot of combat since I got the OTA and still have trouble memorizing everything :)
 
As is with the normal stick, the OT comes in two boxes (base and grip with OTA) with the grip already mounted to the OT adapter. You do not get the normal stick adapter if you buy the OT as a unit from VKB, so going back to normal stick mode is not possible without getting the normal adapter first. The boxes should contain everything, including the tools you need, in the box, so you're good to go. There are comprehensive assembly and installation guides available on their Youtube channel.

It comes with medium springs preinstalled and both a set of light and heavy springs plus two spares of each, and it took me a few iterations to find the right springs and clutch pressure so the weight of my hand doesn't constantly push the OT out of center.

You don't need any software unless you plan to (re-)program any functions - which you will eventually. I think my OT came with the analog stick in hat mode as default, this is one you might or might not want to change. I use my sticks without any curves except for the left twist, which I put a pretty aggressive curve on (see below)

As always, save your bindings and be prepared for the rebinding nightmare. If you launch Elite and have your old throttle not connected, Elite will not load your old bindings file because it contains a device that is no longer present. My solution when switching from a X52 throttle to the OT was to keep the X52 connected and to replace every X52 binding step by step until I could disconnect the X52 without Elite throwing errors for the bindings file.

As for how to use it, it took me a while and a few assignment tries to find a setup I liked and that worked with my brain. As of now, I use twist for fwd and reverse thrusters, Y for vertical and X for lateral. I have no SC throttle bound, I have the five presets (0/25/50/75/100) on the right stick's thumb hat (100 is center click) and use that exclusively in SC. I also use them in normal space and use the twist to accelerate or decelerate around the set speed. For that I needed a pretty aggressive curve to make it sensitive enough.

Also, be prepared to flop around for a while while you re-learn how to fly :).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
 
As is with the normal stick, the OT comes in two boxes (base and grip with OTA) with the grip already mounted to the OT adapter. You do not get the normal stick adapter if you buy the OT as a unit from VKB, so going back to normal stick mode is not possible without getting the normal adapter first. The boxes should contain everything, including the tools you need, in the box, so you're good to go. There are comprehensive assembly and installation guides available on their Youtube channel.

It comes with medium springs preinstalled and both a set of light and heavy springs plus two spares of each, and it took me a few iterations to find the right springs and clutch pressure so the weight of my hand doesn't constantly push the OT out of center.

You don't need any software unless you plan to (re-)program any functions - which you will eventually. I think my OT came with the analog stick in hat mode as default, this is one you might or might not want to change. I use my sticks without any curves except for the left twist, which I put a pretty aggressive curve on (see below)

As always, save your bindings and be prepared for the rebinding nightmare. If you launch Elite and have your old throttle not connected, Elite will not load your old bindings file because it contains a device that is no longer present. My solution when switching from a X52 throttle to the OT was to keep the X52 connected and to replace every X52 binding step by step until I could disconnect the X52 without Elite throwing errors for the bindings file.

As for how to use it, it took me a while and a few assignment tries to find a setup I liked and that worked with my brain. As of now, I use twist for fwd and reverse thrusters, Y for vertical and X for lateral. I have no SC throttle bound, I have the five presets (0/25/50/75/100) on the right stick's thumb hat (100 is center click) and use that exclusively in SC. I also use them in normal space and use the twist to accelerate or decelerate around the set speed. For that I needed a pretty aggressive curve to make it sensitive enough.

Also, be prepared to flop around for a while while you re-learn how to fly :).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
Thanks, I had planned on keeping my old throttle hooked up during the the process but in the excitement to get started, I my have forgotten to leave it hooked up, so thanks for reinforcing that!

A great reply for sure so thanks for the info!

As far as flopping around for a bit, we'll, that describes my flying abilities to the "t"! 🤣

I have a pretty good idea of how I want to set up the throttle from the previous responses to the thread, but imagine that will change /refine the process when I get hands on.

I will likely keep my old throttle and program it to use with the camera.

Thanks for the helpful responses everyone, the community is one very big reason I still love this game!
 
I tried combos of the two stage red fire Joy_1 and Joy_2 but always seem to need to change something per different ships, gear and missions. One might go with beams then add multi-cannons. Then beams drain the WEP thus need to recharge offline while firing the multi-cannons.

I find Joy_21 push versus Joy_22 pull on the black rapid fire is very convenient for firing the shutdown field neutralizer at the right moment. It also works well as a flight assist off/on toggle.

Here's a Gladiator NXT binding sheet if anyone needs it. Note that A1 is an 8-way hat versus the chart. Click on it, a red light comes on and it becomes an analog thumbstick. They can be bound separately in ED. The other three hats have push bindings so can be used for heatsink launchers, chaff, on foot etc.

bindingst.jpeg
 
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Well, my Omnithrottle is inbound and should be here by Thursday, any tips or suggestions that I might need for installation?
Be aware that the VKB Omnithrottle is neither in an upright position like an ordinary joystick, nor turned exactly 90° to a perfect horizontal position like an ordinary throttle. It's highly depending on the person using it, of course, but it might take some time before you get used to that. For example, if you manage your power pips with one of the hats of your OTA, you want to push the hat up for ENG, left for SYS, right for WEP of course. However, relative to your screen and desk, it's not really up/left/right, it's something diagonal in between.

When I first got my OTA, I tried to bind the hats with an offset of 90° (left = ENG, up = WEP, down = SYS), because it looked right. It didn't feel right at all because of the muscle memory of my left thumb. It's hard to explain via text. Just try out different bindings before you settle down on one. Do try some of the training missions again, even if they are boring for you.

Also, although you gain some pretty cool options, you lose some: the twist axis now feels perfect to control the up/down thrusters of your ship or for acceleration, like @Helmut Grokenberger said, but not so perfect anymore if you want to bind SRV left/right steering to it.

It comes with medium springs preinstalled and both a set of light and heavy springs plus two spares of each, and it took me a few iterations to find the right springs and clutch pressure so the weight of my hand doesn't constantly push the OT out of center.
This. Your hand rests differently on the OTA than on an upright joystick. For me, the weight of my hand always pulled the OTA ever so slightly to the left. That's why I have heavy springs on the X axis, but only medium ones on Y. And the clutches of my OTA are tighter than on my right joystick.

Like Helmut, I don't use my Omnithrottle as a real throttle at all, which is pretty ironic. I use the fixed speed presets, while the axes control the thrusters. That's pretty awesome for complicated landings. (I do a lot of exobiology.)

Regarding the software: the OTA should work right out of the box, no drivers needed at all. If you want to program some macros (e.g. for pip management), be prepared to read the sometimes confusing manual thoroughly.

Also, be prepared to flop around for a while while you re-learn how to fly :).
Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/fail-airplane-remote-control-xT8qBunBN9HDmaur1C
 
Well, my Omnithrottle is inbound and should be here by Thursday, any tips or suggestions that I might need for installation?
....
@Fnord Velkor

First you have to decide if you are going to use it as a throttle or as a second stick - so for me it was lock the x-axis, take the spring off the y axis and fiddle with the tightness of the resultant throttle movement. The buttons are hard to get used to in my case as I have tried to reflect the assignments I used on my CHPro Throttle* - several weeks in and I still have to think from time to time.

EDIT - Forgot to say, I keep accidentally depressing the F1 button on the base with my wrist - so I don't have any of those three "F" buttons assigned at the moment.

* The button layout on the CHPro Throttle is a masterpiece of ergonomic design. If that ministick was better then I would probably have just replaced the pot with a mag sensor (guy in Germany does a straight replacement). The omnithrottle is way more precise of course.
 
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Also, although you gain some pretty cool options, you lose some: the twist axis now feels perfect to control the up/down thrusters of your ship or for acceleration, like @Helmut Grokenberger said, but not so perfect anymore if you want to bind SRV left/right steering to it.
I don't remember completely all SRV bindings, but I have steering on the right twist, turret yaw on the left X, turret pitch on left Y and fwd/reverse thrust still on the twist on the OT. Oh, and the rotational thrusters also on left X, I think. You know, for when you are flipped over. I don't remember where I put the vertical thrusters, maybe on left Y?
This. Your hand rests differently on the OTA than on an upright joystick. For me, the weight of my hand always pulled the OTA ever so slightly to the left. That's why I have heavy springs on the X axis, but only medium ones on Y. And the clutches of my OTA are tighter than on my right joystick.
I tried to counter it with the supplied palm rest, because if I shift my hand slightly up the grip it all is perfectly balanced. It only gets out of balance when my hand slips down the grip a bit. The palm rest didn't work out though, because with the palm rest I had trouble reaching the left pinkie button, an issue I don't have on the right upright stick.
Like Helmut, I don't use my Omnithrottle as a real throttle at all, which is pretty ironic. I use the fixed speed presets, while the axes control the thrusters. That's pretty awesome for complicated landings. (I do a lot of exobiology.)
The really cool thing of the Omni Throttle is that it contains everything you need to reconfigure it into a real, proper throttle but with a slightly more ergonomic grip. The other way to use it is as you and I do, in Stick mode with, again, a bit more ergonomics and a twist that makes more sense :).

Edited to make more sense.
 
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First you have to decide if you are going to use it as a throttle or as a second stick - so for me it was lock the x-axis, take the spring off the y axis and fiddle with the tightness of the resultant throttle movement. The buttons are hard to get used to in my case as i have tried to reflect the assignments I used on my CHPro Throttle* - several weeks in and I still have to think from time to time.
Or you can go in-between, have a traditional throttle in Y with an additional X axis: take out the springs for Y and tighten it to taste, but still have the X axis usable with center return. There are even very easy mods out there that make the Y return to center if pulled back, but stay in place if pushed forward.

The whole thing is genius, if you ask me. You get all that from Virpil too, and in metal, but for much, much more money.
 
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VKB and Virpil are the go to standards for general flight and space sim HOTAS. I wish that the other manufacturers would learn from them.There are other more advanced control systems as flying a helicopter costing thousands but Virpil is also getting into that.

It is a brave new world.
 
Well, it arrived yesterday. My first impression was that it beyond expectations. While I knew that it was supposed to be good, holding it in your hand, is another story.
I love the grip, it blows away every joystick I've ever seen and makes my Thrustmaster stuff look like toys, the quality of the build, the extra parts, are all top notch. I really am just blown away.
I slowly worked up a minimal amount of keybinds, I don't want to overload myself as it will take a while to get familiar with the new layout. Fortunately, I have voice attack to help ease the journey.
I mainly concentrated on the throttle side of things. I tried different springs and tensions to see what worked and what I liked. I tried it with no spring on the X axis and using it as a straight throttle but I didn't like how tight the clutch was and it didn't really hold position well. Maybe I could go tighter but I wasn't sure if I should, the screw seemed really tight.
Edit: The damper/clutch works fine, I just had the axis backwards.
Beyond that, I have never liked the way the ship reverses when using the button to set reverse.
I ended up with a 10 spring on the X axis and setting the throttle to full range. I felt pretty comfortable with it in that mode and that is how I wanted to use it anyway. I can really feel a big difference in performance over the TWCS when flying.
After getting used to the new setup, I took it to a low res to get a feel for it and I can say that it was a real blast to fly it that way. I really enjoy using a HOSAS setup.
Anyway, if you are someone who is thinking about getting one of these... DO IT!
And a big thanks to those who responded to this thread for the tips and insights that you have given me.
 
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