Using Thrustmaster Grips without Gunfighter Base

[gm1]

Hi there,

I am wondering if it's possible to connect the Thrustmaster Grips directly to the Blackbox? I have a MK2 BlackBox with T-Rudder MkIV, and a Thrustmaster Adapter, currently installed on the F18 grip.
I understand that it's possible to connect the VKB grips directly to the BlackBox via the S-Bus, is the same possible with Thrustmaster Grips?

When I load the Bootloader/DevCFG software with the grip connected, only the T-Rudder is detected.

For additional information, the grips are connected to to the BlackBox via the VKB 200mm extension and a VP Force adapter which goes from a RevB connector to the 4pin S-Bus connector.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Delta]

You need to set up the TM stick as an external device. Thrustmaster grips are so simple that adding them to an empty slot under the external devices tab ought to be enough. For other sticks, it might be a better strategy todownload the corresponding Gunfighter firmware and remove the GF base.

If you need help finding the setting, I can take screenshots when I get home.

[gm1]

Thanks for your response. I realise I made a mistake in my title now. The objective is to connect a Thrustmaster grip directly to the BlackBox without a base.

Based on your response, I assume that you saw past the title? I now see the external tab and am trying to read up on what to do. (Not averse to documentation if you can point me the right way)
Screenshots would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your help.

[Delta]

I realise I made a mistake in my title now.

Yeah, I was confused for a second. Connecting a grip to a black box without a black box sounded like it would be quite the endeavour.

Anyway, on the global page you should have two tabs, common and external. On external, there is another tab on the left that says "external devices". In that tab you can find a list of 8 devices, of which one should be populated as "generic virtual". Select one of the unused ones and search the options for something that looks like a TM adapter. Then hit set.

[gm1]

I see, I've tried what you suggested but it doesn't appear (to best of my limited knowledge) to be working. I've attached screenshots.

[Delta]

Set USART #2 on that screen to Master, S Bus, 500 kBps. Also, on the TMW adapter, the "Base" right next to "Reg N" that is currently at 14 should be set to 1.
Finally, make sure that at least 24 buttons are configured for the controller under "common".

Alternatively, flash the _BB_GunFighter_TMW_v2... file and go to the same screen, except you set the "GF Base" and "GF Base L" entries to "none".

[gm1]

Ok, so far, when I apply the settings from the last post, I am getting good progress.

I can see button depressed indicator flash red when I press a button on the grip.
The outstanding issue appears to be getting the controller recognized in DCS...

T Rudder is listed as an input device in DCS but no grip.

[Delta]

That is to be expected. The entire black box will appear under one name in games. And since it has the rudder firmware, it will show as rudders. Try and check out if the rudders have buttons now, and if you can press them with your grip.

[gm1]

Yes! Almost there now. I see that I can assign the buttons in DCS, however, I am getting an issue where by pressing the button, the button becomes disabled for a few seconds and cannot be pressed again.
It seems to apply not just to one of the buttons but if I pull the trigger for example then the trimmer and all other buttons are disabled for a few seconds after. Any thoughts on that?
(Hopefully this will all help someone else in the future...)

Once again, thank you for the great guidance and patience!

[Delta]

Not heard of that before. Do you see the same thing on your VKBDevCfg test page? On the physical buttons page with poll checked?

[gm1]

See the image below. When the button activates on registers #14 and #15 the issue occurs. You see in this example that 2 buttons are active even though I am only pulling the trigger to the first detent. I don't fully understand but I assume this is not the expected behaviour? One button should correspond to one button a register line?

[gm1]

Nevermind, I managed to fix it. I must have muddled something up previously. I can't reproduce it by increasing the number of buttons which I suspected might be the initial cause. To fix, and remove the excess registers, I just hit the Default button under the Tools tab and reconfigured everything as per your instructions in the thread. Thank you once again for all the help!

[Delta]

Not sure how that happened, maybe your firmware and devcfg versions being quite far apart? It almost looked as if it had two entries for the TMW adapter.