Throttletek Throttle Quadrant

[Alex268]

Thanks Hardy,

Well im beating myself up here with chatgpt trying to figure oit what all I need to do if im going to buy this quadrant. Is it actually necessary for me to get the following to get this thing working? Or can I just plug it in and use what you have already programed? This is from chatgpt:

Throttletek B747-400 Throttle USB version
✔ USB cable (comes with the throttle)
✔ PSX installed and working

Optional (if you do want fuel cutoff switches)
✔ Leo Bodnar BBI-32 Button Interface
(Only if you want the extra switches mapped without hacking the throttle's USB)

Optional (only if you want lights later)
✔ Arduino Nano / Leonardo or dedicated LED driver board
(Not necessary right now — you can add this later)

[Hardy Heinlin]

Unfortunately, I don't have the Throttletek, but Will has it, so I'll quote him again. Maybe he knows some more details about the lights interface. Ignore Chatgpt, it has no idea about PSX :-)

I have the ThrottleTek quadrant and it connects to PSX just fine, with one possible exception.

All the switches work, including the fuel control switches. And all the axes work, including reversers. (The reversers have potentiometers; all other axes have Hall sensors.) There is no servo, though; you have to move them yourself.

What is more problematic is hooking up the lights. You need some extra hardware (an "external I/O card", according to their website) to do that. The quadrant comes with some wires that would attach to this hypothetical I/O card, but I have not connected them to anything.

The only functionality missing for me is the lights. Everything else works fine.

I don't know what they were referring to when they said it was incompatible. Perhaps something has changed since I bought mine in 2022. At the time, the owner of ThrottleTek was very friendly and responsive via email. Maybe he can clear up any uncertainties about what works with PSX and what doesn't.




 

[Alex268]

Hahaha fair call. To be honest, anything I asked it, it just drew reference to this forum. Its more like a search function at this point.

Yes please Hardy, any information would be helpful.

Will, sorry if I seem repetitive, I just want to be certain before I buy it. Just confirm that I dont need anything additional if I buy the throttletek (apart from the I/O for the lights) just plug in the USB and map and calibrate?


Regards,

Alex

[Britjet]

If you want it to look and feel like a real 747 quadrant, although it's not perfect, there is only Throttletek.

[Alex268]

Im definitely leaning towards it. Hopefully Will can let me know if it is as simple as plug in, calibrate properly (with their tutorial) and make the assignments. I dont want to get it if its going to be a mission to set it up with all sorts of different additional components just to make it function. Fingers crossed. Once Will gives me the green light on the setup aspect, im going to get it.

[JG]

Alex, failed to be informative on your question re the switches on the Prodesk Sim lever add on's. They all work except for the AT on lever 4. There is no contact for the switch in that HC Bravo lever stub, while the physical switch is present in the Prodesk Sim add on. The fundamental problem with the HC Bravo is it only has micro switches to actuate reverse.....not very useful for PSX. The 2 issues can be sorted in a variety of ways...I'm fiddling to make the act of selecting and using reverse and then stowing the reversers after use as close to the real action as possible. It seems to me that this is quite rightly important to your situation and getting the Throttle Tek is the obvious choice to avoid the above short comings. I would have a high degree of certainty that the Throttle Tek would be fully functional except for fire warning lamps out of the box with PSX. I hope Will might chime in here because while I would love to own a Throttle Tek, I do not.
Cheers, J.G. 

[Will]

Yes, the ThrottleTek quadrant is basically plug and play. First you plug in two USB cables. Then you calibrate in Windows. Then you calibrate in PSX.

All 10 axes work, the fuel control switches work, the A/T disconnect switches work, and the TOGA switches work -- all of this is out of the box, no additional hardware or software needed.

Note that for the switches, the menu of actions that you can assign is what is found in the button dropdowns on PSX's Preferences > USB tab, or else what's assignable as a key press through something like SPAD.neXt (see Keyboard-Summary on p. 30-34 in the PSX manual). If you want to map other actions to the switches, you'll need to inject a network variable, which requires some coding on your part. This is the only way that you can get the Altn Trim and Stab Trim Cutout switches to perform those actions.

TOGA, A/T Disconnect, and Fuel Control Switch functions are all available through Preferences > USB, so you don't need SPAD.neXt or a network solution for those. Those switches will all work out of the box, nothing additional needed.

PSX recognizes all of the actual ThrottleTek switches, of course, so you can map Altn Trip and Stab Cutout onto other things if you want, without using a network solution--I use the Altn Trim switch to raise and lower the landing gear, for example. (Not pretty, perhaps, but it works for me.)

In sum:

All the axes and all the buttons are plug/calibrate/play with the exception of Altn Trim switches and Stab Trim Cutout switches, which need a network solution to perform those actions but could easily perform other actions if you want.

And, as I said on other posts, unless you have additional hardware, the fire lights on the fuel control switches are INOP and the lighting on the base unit is not dimmable. Without additional hardware, the base lighting is controlled by an on/off switch and is either fully on, or fully off. I've left mine fully on for the last 4 years and it's still working just fine. :-)

Let me know if you need more info!

[Alex268]

Will and JG,

You both have been incredibly helpful with these details. This has helped me tremendously. JG, I hope you find a way to make those reversers function, it will help alot of people. I think im going to go with the Throttletek, it will be an amazing addition. Thanks again guys.

Will, much appreciated sir!

Regards,

Alex

[Alex268]

Yes, the ThrottleTek quadrant is basically plug and play. First you plug in two USB cables. Then you calibrate in Windows. Then you calibrate in PSX.

All 10 axes work, the fuel control switches work, the A/T disconnect switches work, and the TOGA switches work -- all of this is out of the box, no additional hardware or software needed.

Note that for the switches, the menu of actions that you can assign is what is found in the button dropdowns on PSX's Preferences > USB tab, or else what's assignable as a key press through something like SPAD.neXt (see Keyboard-Summary on p. 30-34 in the PSX manual). If you want to map other actions to the switches, you'll need to inject a network variable, which requires some coding on your part. This is the only way that you can get the Altn Trim and Stab Trim Cutout switches to perform those actions.

TOGA, A/T Disconnect, and Fuel Control Switch functions are all available through Preferences > USB, so you don't need SPAD.neXt or a network solution for those. Those switches will all work out of the box, nothing additional needed.

PSX recognizes all of the actual ThrottleTek switches, of course, so you can map Altn Trip and Stab Cutout onto other things if you want, without using a network solution--I use the Altn Trim switch to raise and lower the landing gear, for example. (Not pretty, perhaps, but it works for me.)

In sum:

All the axes and all the buttons are plug/calibrate/play with the exception of Altn Trim switches and Stab Trim Cutout switches, which need a network solution to perform those actions but could easily perform other actions if you want.

And, as I said on other posts, unless you have additional hardware, the fire lights on the fuel control switches are INOP and the lighting on the base unit is not dimmable. Without additional hardware, the base lighting is controlled by an on/off switch and is either fully on, or fully off. I've left mine fully on for the last 4 years and it's still working just fine. :-)

Let me know if you need more info!

Hey Will,

I saw some of your older posts discussing erratic potentiometers and reverse thrust calibration difficulties. How has the throttle quadrant been over the years? Is it even possible to upgrade these elements should it be required so they are not erratic and smooth? I ordered mine, its a new build but hopefully they have done improvements. Im very excited to get it, and if I have some questions I hope you dont mind. Ive already watched the video he has on youtube about calibrating using windows first so ill be sure to do that and let you guys know how it goes.

Luckily for me with regards to paint chipping off, the company I fly for is a small operation and I know the interior guys. They told me they have the paint for the cockpit interior so can always touch it up for me whenever needed.

[Will]

Mine hasn't had any paint chip off, but if it does, I might call you. :-)

As for calibration, the issue I was having (if I remember correctly) was that the thrust levers have to be at idle in order for the reverser levers to work, just like in the real aircraft. In PSX, this means the hardware has to be sending the idle position signal, and if it's off by the smallest amount, then pulling the hardware reverser levers won't activate reverse. Any noise in the controller will lock out the reversers.

I fixed this by building a buffer zone in PSX, which guarantees that the "idle" position signal is sent when the hardware levers are pulled all the way back. The buffer is the final 1% of the lever's travel; it's seamless, you don't notice it.

With the reverser levers themselves, you need to play with calibration in PSX so that the hardware idle detent matches the software idle position. What worked for me was setting the mid-point of travel to about 100 on the PSX calibration page.

Similarly, you need to adjust the midpoint of the speed brake axis so that the hardware ARM detent matches the software ARM position.

None of this is really challenging, and once you set it up, you can forget it. I haven't needed to touch the calibration again in the 4 years I've been using the ThrottleTek, except when I lost my PSX .pref file when I changed computers. I had to rebuild the .pref file on the new computer, which meant figuring all this out again. Learning from that experience, I wrote down all the calibration settings that work for me, so now it's straightforward to restore what I had.

I'm happy to share those numbers with you, but I can't guarantee they'll work--some of it depends on how PSX and Java see your various USB devices.

[Alex268]

Mine hasn't had any paint chip off, but if it does, I might call you. :-)

As for calibration, the issue I was having (if I remember correctly) was that the thrust levers have to be at idle in order for the reverser levers to work, just like in the real aircraft. In PSX, this means the hardware has to be sending the idle position signal, and if it's off by the smallest amount, then pulling the hardware reverser levers won't activate reverse. Any noise in the controller will lock out the reversers.

I fixed this by building a buffer zone in PSX, which guarantees that the "idle" position signal is sent when the hardware levers are pulled all the way back. The buffer is the final 1% of the lever's travel; it's seamless, you don't notice it.

With the reverser levers themselves, you need to play with calibration in PSX so that the hardware idle detent matches the software idle position. What worked for me was setting the mid-point of travel to about 700 on the PSX calibration page.

Similarly, you need to adjust the midpoint of the speed brake axis so that the hardware arm detent matches the software position.

None of this is really challenging. It's pretty easy to do, and once you set it up, you can forget it. I haven't needed to touch the calibration again in the 4 years I've been using the ThrottleTek, except when I lost my PSX .pref file when I changed computers. With the new computer, I had to rebuild the .pref file which meant figuring all this out again. Learning from that experience, I wrote down all the calibration settings that work for me, so now it's straightforward to restore what I had.

I'm happy to share those numbers with you, but I can't guarantee they'll work flawlessly. Some of the success depends on how PSX and Java see your various USB devices.

Thanks Will,

All of that makes total sense and fully understood. I would appreciate if you shared the numbers with me just to have a baseline and I can fine tune from there. I just sold my old PC and bought a brand new one. I backed up my PSX so all the .pref and .situ files should all be ready to go. But definitely looking forward to the new setup. Thanks for allowing me to use your numbers as a reference. When the beast arrives ill let you know how it all worked out.

P.s. you can send it for a fresh paint job anytime

Alex

[Will]

My calibration settings:

Throttles (1-4): Fwd -980, center 0, Aft 980
Reversers (1-4): Fwd -980, center -100, Aft 980
Speedbrake: Fwd -996, center 700, Aft 996

[Alex268]

My calibration settings:

Throttles (1-4): Fwd -980, center 0, Aft 980
Reversers (1-4): Fwd -980, center -100, Aft 980
Speedbrake: Fwd -996, center 700, Aft 996

Thanks Will

[Alex268]

My calibration settings:

Throttles (1-4): Fwd -980, center 0, Aft 980
Reversers (1-4): Fwd -980, center -100, Aft 980
Speedbrake: Fwd -996, center 700, Aft 996

Hey Will,

I just recieved my quadrant today. Its quite impressive. Would you happen to know how to adjust the friction for the Throttle levers? Im not seeing anything external, but wanted to ask before I went digging. I was told there as a friction adjustable screw somewhere. I havnt set it up yet as my new PC is still being built, but looking forward to using it.

Regards,

Alex

[Alex268]

Disregard Will, all sorted.