I got curious how strict that requirement really is. I hardly use the base buttons on my STECS as it is, so I had a feeling that putting them outboard would help with mounting ergonomics a bit - my legs are fairly big, so I was hoping that this way, I could bring the levers closer to my body without the base pushing into my thigh. Essentially, I wanted to try out putting a left grip on a right base, and vice-versa. I call this the 'trans' configuration.
For the right grip on a left base, this was all very straightforward. Just put the grip on, plug it into the left connector, and after a default, everything works out of the box. Autoconfig detects the STG-R (albeit as 'MTS-R' in the VkbDevCfg version I used), and everything works like on its usual right base. Despite the fact that this grip is not sold as a sidegrade option, nJoy32 seems to support trans rights just fine. As someone who desires equality for all Gladiender, STECSual and Ruddermantic minorities, hooray, I guess.
Ironically, it looks a bit more bleak for the stuff you can actually make with grips sold standalone. I tried to set up a trans left combo with an STG-L on a right base, and... what's that? Should there not be a connector here? This is making things a lot harder already.
Then I took a look inside. And... it is starting to look even worse. It looks like there is not even a sensor for the right lever on the right base?
Now granted, getting a right base for a left throttle is a pretty niche thing that only a few crazy people like me were going to try in the first place, but it makes me kinda worried for the civil grips that were teased in the old TECS announcement. Usually civil aviation throttles are on the right of the pilot and they often have multiple levers, and this base is clearly not made for multiple levers. Speaking of TECS...
I think the "twin" is not really that fitting in the name for this one. It may say "STECS" on the box, but really it is more of a Single-Engine Control System only. A SECS if you will. And as an aSECSual, I kinda want to do something about it.
Taking a closer look at the circuit boards though, this may turn out to be more difficult than I anticipated.
Taking a look at the main circuit board, and comparing it to the one in a left base, it seems that the connector for the bridge board is smaller, and the analog signals for the second axis are in fact not even broken out of the chip... This means I not only have to do something about the missing MaRS sensor, I also have to find a way to hook it up. Hopes of civil aviation grips getting slimmer and slimmer. Anyway, I digress, enter Project Natalie:
Three custom boards. A grip connector, an adapter for connecting the MaRS sensor, and the actual MaRS sensor (based on reverse engineering, I swapped the connector so I can use cables instead of redoing more boards). I am going to have to solder directly to the chip, so this is going to be a much more invasive bottom surgery than I had anticipated.
So, first step: Glue in the connector. Now, I know VKB hardware designers are not too fond of hot glue, but... you could have avoided this mess by giving me some solder pads - ideally PTHs of course - to solder onto, instead of forcing me to greenwire things. Then use copper enamel wire to hook into GND, VCCA and the two missing microcontroller pins. The solder job is definitely not my best, but instead of risking damage trying to improve it, I decided to stabilize what I had, call it a day and give it a test run. Now to mount the other two boards:
As you can see, not screwed in yet, and I had to do some slight padding on the MaRS sensor, but overall it seems to be in working order. Now just hook it up to an MTG to test if everything works, and...
With everything working as nicely as expected, I can once again remove the tape that masked off the "twin" bit. The TECS change was successful, and this is now a fully functional STECS.