It works the same downloading it without having to use Steam.  You get a couple free planes and dont have to log into steam to fly.

If any of you are thinking about an extension...  DO IT!

The planes handle so much better with the extra range of movement.  And the spring strength is so smooth and easy now with just this short extension.   Details are in the Gaming Hardware Mod (link in post 1 of this thread).   I like the offset tube.  I plan on printing this off again in PETG for the extra strength, but this is in PLA and there doesnt seem to be any issues at all.

Not my files, but they are on thingverse.  If anyone has any questions, let me know.

Yes.  Although I personally would suggest the standalone version (there are few practical differences).  For free you get to fly a TP-51 (no weapons) and an Su-25T which is not a high fidelity model.

If you are interested in getting into it, there is a sale going on now through the DCS site.

A Warthog with an extension is a much better stick.

Yup. You should be gtg. Try the free planes first. The su25 is easy mode. And the unarmed tf51 is clicky plane (hard mode). Figure out what you like and you can buy a module or 2 to get you started. FC3 has all the easy mode planes, and the other modules get one hard mode plane each. Winter sale is on for a few more days so lots of stuff is half off, ive bought most of the modules on sale so i have alot of them that ive barely flown. Also, i dont reccomend the early acess planes, the are half finished with little in the way of good documentation.

Anyone just put the base an the floor and use a longer extension? Im thinking of like a 40cm extension.

The only file I found had the whole thing printed at once with the nut and extension one piece. Is there another version, or am I just too clueless to know how to print them separately?

ETA: Never mind, I see it was fixed!

Off to print!

I may just be passing on internet bullshit, but I have heard that if the stick has an offset, the gimbal tends to wear out from torsional forces. Not sure if it matters for the way you're thinking of doing it, or if it's even a real issue. Just throwing it out there.

That would be a monster of an extension.  Mine is like a 10cm extension.  With 20cm you are really going to have to move your arm around.

I printed mine of with the extension and nut as one unit.   It does have some slight material that is used to build them, but wait til it cools, then give it a good twist and jerk til it cracks!  You know how to do that dont you?!

But the do have the straight ones as well as the separated parts too.   I did print off the straight one last night in Hatchbox TRUE RED to see if I liked it or not.

The cables are EASY to make too.  Just get a PS2 extension cable, soldering iron and a dremel tool with a sanding drum and really small drill bit.

I have a set of these that reamed out the peg hold on the female connecter perfectly.

Micro Bits

You have to break the peg and remove a pin on the male plug, then drill out the peg hole on the female plug as shown.  Then I used a small dremel sanding drum to enlarge the hole on the extension and grind down the plastic on the cable ends to fit through the holes.  I made mine a little long so that I could connect them to the base, then seat the extension, then connect to the grip, then push that down into the extension.  But not TOO long.  There is not a lot of room in there to cram in cables.

 Yeah, I ended up destroying it without getting it to separate!  I'm going to try it again but this time on my newer printer that holds much better tolerances than to old one.  I'll see in a couple hours.

Does anyone know what the exact din connector is that Thrustmaster uses?  I can probably get the correct connector and cable assembled faster than the PS2 cable since I can just piggyback my order on with work's order tomorrow.

I have scoured the web for those damn connectors.  Honestly, its easier to mod a PS2 extension or Y-cable than it is to find one of those damn things!

Walmart, Microcenter, Amazon, Ebay all carry those extensions.  I just cut it, stripped the ends, slid on a small piece of heat shrink, soldered, heated the shrink tube, rinse and repeat.   I did put on a couple sizes of heat shrink to enclose all the cables once I was done to make it LOOK like I know what I was doing!

Oooh....

CHEAP Micro Drill Bits! $2.84, Free ship on slow boat though.

I think it's an MD50J, five pin mini din. Any of the component suppliers like mouser or digikey should have them.  I was hoping to find out for sure and have some delivered to work tomorrow, but it's too late now.  I'll just do the extension like you mentioned for now.

ETA:   https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/670/md-xxj_series-1311408.pdf

Hell you can get the 6ft PS2 cable ($3.43 ea 1-10) cheaper than a set of the MD-50 and MD-50J connectors themselves.   And you still have to solder and drill those too.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Tripp-Lite/P222-006?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvAZU35sbsmiSndL9tAL%2fx%252bQ1v%252bNjwcobo%3d

Nothing to drill, they used off the shelf panel mount din connectors on the stick itself.  You're looking at the Mouser price for 1-10, not the price I would be paying ordering from work where we use these by the shit ton.

Most importantly, I was trying to have them tomorrow morning instead of having to wait!  The extension will be done soon, I'm impatient!

ETA: soldering the connectors is easier and neater than shortening a cable.  Given the choice between the two, I'll go with new connectors every time, sadly, shortening cables is what we wend up doing all to often at work anyway.

We both have valid point!  

Hell, if I had enough people that wanted them, I would buy in bulk and sell it off at a little profit to cover time, labor, expenses, shipping, etc.  But could still come in under $15 a cable shipped easy (just rough off the top numbers).

But having that 3D printer making parts like the extensions...  HA!  They can suck on my $75 I saved!

More than one way to skin a cat!

I see there are also stock and push through afterburner detents on Thingiverse.  Kind of wish I had seen those before I modded mine since it's starting to wear down.  I'll be printing a couple of those anyway for future use.

It would be on the floor coming up to between my legs in the chair. I measured it and in the 30-40cm range is what it would take to get it high enough. Currently im sidesticking it on a desk and its too tall. My main worry is if the base is stable enough.

I'll have to look and see if I have any old pictures, but before I built my joystick extension I had a riser below the stick to bring it up to the right height.  For that I cut a piece of plywood in a circle just a little larger than the joystick base (not the baseplate, just the sensor part), attached the sensor to the plywood through the mounting screw holes that hold it to the baseplate.  Then it was just a piece of PVC pipe to make the riser.

Not that I’ve noticed. I don’t have a utility for measuring it, though.

Yeah post em if you got em. Im currently debating the best way to do it. Extensions seem stupidly expensive (100 bucks for an aluminumn tube and a din cable?) Ive thought about raising the overal level and using a shorter extension, as i read that the centering springs can be obertaced with long extensions.

Fraps not work for vr? Or the built in dcs counter?

ordered my monstertech hotas warthog desk mounts today, should have them in a week or 2. tomorrow the new desk comes in and i start setting up all my new mini monitors and MFD's for my simpit desk

I didn't know DCS had a built in one.

I get a steady 30 FPS with occasional dips to ~25.  The main menu seems frame locked to 60.

This is using an Odyssey (so higher res than most VR), 7700k, and 1080ti, and with some graphics settings and view distance turned up from the preset.  I might drop some settings to see what that does, but frankly, I don't think it's needed.

Do those clamp yo a desk or is it a drill and screw deal. That may work better for my setup than a floor mount.

Thanks. Ive got a rift on order and a somewhat lower specced card, so ill be happy if it runs 30 frames on low.

stupid strong clamp

https://monstertechusa.com/product/joystick-hotas-table-mount/

If you are handy you can put one together for about fifteen bucks.

What is the thread size and type would be main question along with tubing diameter. Someone already posted the oddball din connectors.

Hmm. This may be the way to go for me then.

This is the thread pitch.

I'm considering these.

https://foxxmount.com/HOTAS Desktop mounts

I 3d Printed the offset extension that I am using from a file on thingverse and they also have a straight extension.  This was actually just a test with PLA filament to see if I would like it.  It seems stable enough even in PLA.  I plan on running one in PETG for increased strength though.

I posted about the cable.   You can buy a standard PS2 Y splitter for around $5, on the male end, break out the pin at the 11:00 position, snap out the center plastic post and on the female end, drill out the center hole large enough to fit on the pin on the base.  Easy peasy!

I was going to make a desk mount, but went with the Wheel Stand Pro Warthog.


It's a bit over $300, but mounts everything including pedals... mine were always sliding around. plus you can adjust it for height, how far back you want it, etc.

You can also fold it all up kind of flat to store.  At least in theory, mine doesn't go anywhere.

Saw those. Precisely what i dont want tho.

Cool, thanks for the tips!  I have it downloading now, and I'm already eyeing that FC3 pack, that's a pretty good deal considering the cost of the individual planes.

got my new desk built and stuff all laid out, my 8in mfd monitors wont recognize the pc as source on hdmi, event though my pc sees them and acts like they work

They are low fi arcade  planes tho, no clicky. Limited system modeling etc.

Well, that's pretty okay probably since I've been smashing the SU25 into the ground repeatedly all morning!  Do you advise not getting that pack though?  If not, what's a good one to get?  I've always been fond of the F15 and the MiG 29...

I also kinda want the Blackshark.  I remember when it was a stand-alone game, and I thought "I was so good (not) and Jane's Longbow sim...."

(I am having trouble getting the game to use my TrackIR and profiles in the X55 though.  The controllers work, but none of the buttons are actually taking any mappings.  So, I have to figure out wtf is going on there.)  Fixed.  Driver updates for both, a reboot, and boom.  Now I can fly and shoot at stuff more betters!

I also recruited a friend that used to be into Falcon and the first A10 game to download it.  He's got a Rift and is always looking for a good VR experience.  (He and I use to fly longbow together.  me pilot, him weapons dude.

How much for you to print me that with a slight modification ? Like a 5 degree bend/bank to the left ?

I have an extension but it is a straight one. Yours with the bend would be perfection

The 10 or 15cm extension is the best one. More and your stick will have way to much travel at the to be realistic and handy.

My stick is fixed to a base of my cockpit seat.

I can rest my arm on my tigh while flying, if needed

You can see it here

we may be on 104th later, we failed to kill the mainstay the other day, going to try for attempt number 2, with an actual blan aside from "yeet yeet"

Honestly its all about your interests. For me since I used to fly planes the "arcade" push button 2 to goto AA mode stuff mostly doesn't do it for me. I want to fly a plane, and that means boring stuff like pushing 20 buttons in the right order to get it started and up and running. Or realistic weapons managment and employment, i.e. pushing half a dozen buttons to get the target picked out, missiles/bombs setup right etc. I honestly think the FC3 planes have a massive advantage in MP due to their simplicity. But honestly getting half a dozen planes to figure out what you sort of like (AA vs AG) isn't a bad thing. And at least the stick-n-rudder skills should translate to the clicky planes.

In terms of clicky planes, figure out what you want to do, and pick one. The older planes like the F5 or F86 tend to be alot simpler to learn on IMO. I picked those up pretty quick, but they aren't really that competitive in MP if thats your thing (its not mine for the most part). I would not reccomend an early access plane for your first one, its a giant PITA figuring out what works, what doesn't, is it me thats wrong or is it bugged etc. That being said I have the harrier mostly figured out, and am starting on the F18, though more for F14 practice down the road, since thats the bird I really want to fly. FWIW the mig21 was the first clicky plane I got, and it was challenging but it also mostly "worked", and is vaguely competitive. (you can also use cheats like autostart to make the clicky planes easier) Also I highly recommend looking a "chucks guide" for each plane, before you buy to give you some idea on how hard it might be to fly.

As for the Helo's, I just picked em all up, and since I have little helo experience I mainly just fly em around which is hard enough for me (pedals are a must for helos). I like the gazelle, though the flight model does seem a bit janky compared to the others (which has been an ongoing drama for years now as I read it). And I have about an hour on the KA50, which seems much easier to "fly" but systems wise I haven't really done much with it.

You might also check out falcon BMS. You need a original Falcon4 disk/licencse which are like 10-15 bucks on ebay or online. BMS is better than DCS in alot of ways, other than graphically, and no VR.

Lots of discussions on DCS VR, but the general concensus is that it needs a very high end system to run it (though some dudes do with significantly less apparently).

Thats mostly what I'm looking to do, I just can't build a real pit. The monster and other mounts look fairly promising with a short extension. Thanks.

I picked up a new PC today.  I7-8700 with GF1080ti.

Been busy getting everything loaded and setup working on it tonight.

Sent back the Thrustmaster TFRP pedals and picked up set of the Saitek/Logi rudder pedals.   A lot nicer to work those, but I think I need to work on the curves for them as the brakes dont seem to catch very well.

I have the FC3 pack and fly the F-15 occasionally.  It's not a bad deal, especially on sale.  And it's better than arcade, but not as good as the fully clickable PFM models.

The Black Shark is a good little helo to go out and wreck some shit.  It's a little weird as some of the single pilot assist stuff is a little odd, along with the gun that only transverses to the right.

This is relevant to my interests.  In!!!