Modify button layout on CH fighterstick?

[GRUNHERZ]

Hello guys,

I just got my CH HOTAS w/pedals set up nad its great fun to learn AH all over agin. All is well except I really dont like the layout of the 4 buttons/hats on the top of the stick. The view hat and the fire button are too high up for my taste and since they are the two primary controls on the stick IMO I dont like having to readjust my grip to reach them.

Is it possible to modify the button layout so the 8 way view hat and the seconday red fire button are on the bottom and the 2 4 way hat buttons are on the top. HAs anybody done this? Alternatively has anybody opened up teh CH stick?  I know this would bust the warranty.

Please note I'm not intersted in having a discission about high/low grip or the prototypical accuracy of the CH F16 style fighterstick. I dont have a simpit to place the contoler at waist level as in the F16 and my joytick sits on a tabletop so the high placement of the view nad fire button are not ideal.

Any ideas?

[Grits]

I took mine apart thinking I'd just move the switches around, but all four are mounted on a single board under the handle. I didnt look any farther into moving them and just got used to where they were placed. Now I dont even notice it, but it did bother me at first.

[GRUNHERZ]

Thanks for teh reply Grits.

I suspected as much. I wonder, do you think the whole board can be rotated?  Also how hard was it to take apart and put together again - is there anything holding it together  besides the screws in teh grip?

Thanks

[airspro]

Here's how I fixed mine , click here .

I hate that high 8 way too . I took apart old ch stick , seems the 8 way hat is bigger than the others . Be a "hard" to do switch to move them IMO .

gl
Spro

[SNO]

Grunherz, I put my views on the throttle hat switch and use the red button next to the trigger for the secondary fire button. I like this setup myself, especially the views on the throttle. Also I use the pinkie switch for the up view which in combination with the hat makes up back, up right etc.

[GRUNHERZ]

I use the pinke switch for up as well.  I'd like to keep the view hat on the stick tho - i've mapped the throttle 8 way for something else already.

[Grits]

The board that the switches are attatched too is shaped like the flat surface that the buttons come out of so it cant (not easily anyway) be rotated.

I used the "pinky up" as far back as my original FLCS from TM, so that was natural, but the upper two buttons/switches on the CH stick I just had to adapt too. Now, like I said, I dont even notice when I move my hand to reach them.

[DonULFonso]

Hm, why don't you ask over at the CH-Hangar's hardware-board? It's an independent site run by a CH-user, but CH-staff is frequently browsing it, too, so chances are good that they might be able to help you there!

As for the 8-way vs. 4-way coolie-hats, I remember Michael Sexton of CH Products once said that the only reason why the 4-way hats don't have corner-positions is that their mounting-brackets (if that's the right term, sorry, I'm no native speaker) have plastic bars there. If you don't mind voiding your warranty by opening up your stick, filing these noses off might do the trick and give you a 4-way hat with corners? (And via a short script you then even could set this hat up as a true 8-way coolie with 8 individual functions.)

It shouldn't do no harm to just ask there , huh? That's all I can think of, sorry. [edit] I've just and simply asked this question over there. [/edit]

[DonULFonso]

Filing away the brackets did work with the old game-port stick, as one user has reported in the meantime - I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't work with today's USB-sticks. I'm still waiting for an "official" word on this topic, though...

Supposed you should decide to just do it, here's how you'd then set up such an ex-4-way coolie to have 8 individual functions assigned to its now 8 positions:

Script

//        B5                       +5-6-8
//         |                          |
//         |                   +5+8   |   +5+6
//         |                        \ | /
// B8 -----+----- B6  -->  -5-7+8 ----+---- -5+6-7
//         |                        / | \
//         |                   +7+8   |   +6+7
//         |                          |
//        B7                      -6+7-8

CMS.B1 =     JS1.B5 AND NOT JS1.B6                AND NOT JS1.B8;
CMS.B2 =     JS1.B5 AND     JS1.B6                              ;
CMS.B3 = NOT JS1.B5 AND     JS1.B6 AND NOT JS1.B7               ;
CMS.B4 =                    JS1.B6 AND     JS1.B7               ;
CMS.B5 =                NOT JS1.B6 AND     JS1.B7 AND NOT JS1.B8;
CMS.B6 =                                   JS1.B7 AND     JS1.B8;
CMS.B7 = NOT JS1.B5                AND NOT JS1.B7 AND     JS1.B8;
CMS.B8 =     JS1.B5                               AND     JS1.B8;

EndScript

You'd have to clear the stick-buttons B5 - B8 from any direct output on the stick's tab of the CM's GUI and assign the desired functions to the CMS-buttons B1 - B8 on the "CMS Controls"-tab instead.

To set up the original 4-way operation without corner-positions, you'd simply leave out the even CMS-buttons' lines.

To set up a 4-way operation with corner-positions, you'd simply assign the desired functions directly to the stick's buttons B5 - B8 via the CM's GUI and wouldn't need any CMS at all.