TM hotas warthog throttle dead and Joystick has one foot in the grave

[Randy1]

The throttle went titts up after a few minutes in AH tonight.  I find myself spending more time in iracing these days but still enjoy AH so I really not interessted in puting a lot on money in a new joystick and throttle..

I have made a couple of repairs on the joystick but its days are numbered.  The throttle just shutdown and W10 will see the joystick but not the throttle.  Tried new ports, reinstalled drivers and so forth.  It seems to be dead andd the throttle is wiggling anyway.

I am thinking of going down a bit.  I have had a T1600 in the past and really like that so I was thinking the Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS HOTAS Controller package that comes with a joystick and throttle.

Is throttle any good?

[Bizman]

For what I've heard/read the TM throttle is very good, better than the price tag would indicate.

[Randy1]

Thank you Bizman.  My biggest problem will be is getting this old brain to find buttons on a new joystick.

Amazon has them for $99.  A good deal I would say.

[Gman]

I bought a TM TWCS throttle when they first came out to check it out and compare it to all the other HOTAS I have (all of them pretty much).  I was very impressed with it for the cost - I got mine for around $100 ish CAD including shipping/tax/etc IIRC.  I've seen them on sale @ Amazon USA for $59 + shipping/tax, so you may want to hunt around or wait for a sale.  I think it's a better product than it's nearest competitor, the CH Throttle, very solid feel to the buttons, hats, wheel and so on.  It has a bit lower and wider stance than the CH which I find fits where I rest my left arm on my gaming table surface too.

You can't go wrong with it, again, better quality, ergonomics, and overall value than I expected it to be.  Have you thought about taking your WH throttle apart and seeing if there are any wires or connections that have failed?  Lots of other forums and sources out there to give you advice regarding this.

If you're feeling spendy, Virpil announced yesterday that their new stand alone throttle has gone into production, and should be out shortly.  $240 Euros, whatever they are, probably be around 300 bucks in real petro-chem dollars by the time you got it to your door.  Sure looks nice though, they made quite a few changes to it as well based on community feedback, which wasn't stellar when they released their concept model.  VKB has a really nice stand alone throttle coming too.

Lastly, another option is find a TM Cougar throttle, buy the USB adapter that's available for it that's around $20 USD, and use that.  I find used Cougars online pretty much monthly, and have picked up a few in the last year when I find a good yet cheap example - ie $50+shipping for the last Cougar set, and it's in great shape, so that's another route you could take too.  You can even mod the gimbal in the Cougar stick with an excellent setup that's around $50 IIRC.

Stick wise, if you check around you can find another TM Warthog stick only frequently too.  I've got 2 that were "scratch/dent/damage" from Amazon, and they had literally nothing wrong that a black marker wouldn't fix, and were around 3/5 of a retail nw one.  I've not tried any of the lower end stand alone sticks, but lots of others here report that the TM and some of the Saitek sticks are pretty decent in that regard.  Also, VKB has a less expensive but still very good Gladiator too.

[Randy1]

Thank you Gman.  That is a lot of good information.   I am sure other readers as well will find your information very useful.  The $99 was for stick and throttle.  Most places have it for $120 plus American.

I did find a forum reply from a guy that had the same problem.  AS things go he left it unpluged overnight then after replugging it worked.  Goint to try that before I tear into it.

[FLS]

You can upgrade your Warthog stick with a Virpil base as long as your hats and buttons work.

[Gman]

I’ve tried my WH stick in the T50 base and vice versa, works great both ways. 

[Randy1]

You can upgrade your Warthog stick with a Virpil base as long as your hats and buttons work.

Those look interesting.  Well suited for VR.

[Drano]

Think you can use a vkb base too but both that and virpil aren't on the outskirts of cheap. Vkb is currently having stock issues due to Chinese new year. Nobody around to build the stuff!

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[Randy1]

I took the hotas throttle apart.  It had a lot of ground plastic fall out.  As other forums have said the little plastic screw holders broke off when you pull the screws out.  Cleaned it out.  Tried it again bu no joy.

I also tried a forced boot which I think was a w7 problem anyway.

It is officially dead and with the worn plastic parts, I do not want to repair it.

BTW much of the weight of the throttle is in three steel bars on the inside attached to the base.

[Randy1]

I ordered it this morning.  Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS HOTAS Controller package that comes with a joystick and throttle.  I will post a review when I get it up and running.

[Gman]

I'm interested to hear what you think of the stick, I'm really impressed with the throttle as I've said.  I'm not sure how you use rudders (pedals, stick twist, whatever), but that throttle also has a rudder rocker like the old Saitek x36 and x45 units used to have, which IMO is a more accurate way to do it than twisting your stick, which adds another axis of motion to the two your arm and hand is already using to align targets.  You can assign the rocker to something else if you have pedals or prefer to twist.

This TM stick has a lot of potential for other games, particularly Star Citizen where space flying and the nature of how all the axis and thrusters work, is better suited to two sticks than a typical stick/throttle setup.  The 16000 stick is ambidextrous, just switching some parts lets it be configured for left hand use.

[mikeWe9a]

While you seem to have already solved your problem with a new throttle, my Warthog throttle died and the replacement motherboard was around $80, IIRC (it was in British Pounds - 40.50 for the board and 15 for shipping, not sure what the current conversion is).

Mike 

[Randy1]

While you seem to have already solved your problem with a new throttle, my Warthog throttle died and the replacement motherboard was around $80, IIRC (it was in British Pounds - 40.50 for the board and 15 for shipping, not sure what the current conversion is).

Mike

Mike when I pulled the bottom of the throttle, black plastic shaving went everywhere.  The throttle handle was warbling bad so it would have been a rebuild.  The joy stick connector to the base has a broken ear so it flopped but I did come up with a fix for that.

[Reschke]

You can always sell it for parts on the DCS forums...guys are using all the switches and stuff for bigger cockpits.