Post by Sandy on Feb 3, 2016 1:44:15 GMT -5
I may as well let you in on a bit of my life.
Generally, my luck is average to slightly below. Take for example, last week. Sitting down to one of my usual weekly flight nights with my buddies who do the combat sim stuff (we've recently locked into migrating to the new "IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad/Battle of Moscow" series, and leaving the 15 year old original IL-2 series to finally wither away.) As I was getting all set to fly, my house went dark for a moment. Unusual, but not unheard of. I didn't think much of it, feeling confident in my array of commercial level surge protectors and the fact I have my system set to not automatically restart, in case there are multiple power ripples.
Anyway, I use a ThrustMaster WartHog HOTAS as my promary flight controller, with CH pedals and TrackIR5 as my main supporting bits. I've invested in this gear because I love to simulate flight, but I'm not a gentle man with my gear. It has to be able to take my abuse. I fully trust ThrustMaster gear for this reason... My previous Cougar HOTAS set, which I bought used, lasted me over ten years before I had it completely worn out. I expect the same or better from my WartHog.
... Except ...
Even ThrustMaster gear is susceptible to voltage spikes. The throttle quadrant especially is known to be sensitive to voltage fluctuations.
Well, last Tuesday, when the lights went outm then came back on almost immediately, I didn't expect anything bad. I waited a bit, then determined that the local power seemed stable and restarted my system. All seemed fine, I rejoined the multiplayer server my buddies were on and got ready to taxi out. That's when I noticed my throttle response was missing. And so were all the controls I had mapped to my throttle. Well, crap, thought I. So I backed out of everything I had running, and started the troubleshooting sequence from a fresh boot. Two hours later, I admitted defeat. My throttle was completely dead. The best I could get was a "boop" from Windows saying it recognized *something* was plugged into the USB port, but it was unable to determine what. Dang it.
So I communicate with ThrustMaster/Guillimotte (sp?) and they ask for all kinds of things, including a video uploaded to their private servers. Done.
In the mean time, I'm at wit's end. Flying sucks when you're used to using a full HOTAS set and you have to re-learn keyboard commands for all the various sims you fly. You guys know what I mean, I'm sure.
And I may have mentioned this to my wife on more than one or (fifteen) occasions. So she decided to take me out to the local casino to get some freebie she had earned, and take my mind off my busted flight controller. Although all I was thinking was "how can I afford a casino venture AND the repair of my WartHog?".
My bride (of 29 years) to the rescue... playing penny slots she hits a nice jackpot. Had to fill out tax paperwork. Armed guards brought a stack of cash over. She tells me "Now you can order those repair parts you wanted." Yeah... and a bit sarcastically I add "It would be easier to buy a new one." She says "Do it!" and smiles.
New WartHog arrives Thursday.
Yeah, it's nice to have a wife who loves me.
Generally, my luck is average to slightly below. Take for example, last week. Sitting down to one of my usual weekly flight nights with my buddies who do the combat sim stuff (we've recently locked into migrating to the new "IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad/Battle of Moscow" series, and leaving the 15 year old original IL-2 series to finally wither away.) As I was getting all set to fly, my house went dark for a moment. Unusual, but not unheard of. I didn't think much of it, feeling confident in my array of commercial level surge protectors and the fact I have my system set to not automatically restart, in case there are multiple power ripples.
Anyway, I use a ThrustMaster WartHog HOTAS as my promary flight controller, with CH pedals and TrackIR5 as my main supporting bits. I've invested in this gear because I love to simulate flight, but I'm not a gentle man with my gear. It has to be able to take my abuse. I fully trust ThrustMaster gear for this reason... My previous Cougar HOTAS set, which I bought used, lasted me over ten years before I had it completely worn out. I expect the same or better from my WartHog.
... Except ...
Even ThrustMaster gear is susceptible to voltage spikes. The throttle quadrant especially is known to be sensitive to voltage fluctuations.
Well, last Tuesday, when the lights went outm then came back on almost immediately, I didn't expect anything bad. I waited a bit, then determined that the local power seemed stable and restarted my system. All seemed fine, I rejoined the multiplayer server my buddies were on and got ready to taxi out. That's when I noticed my throttle response was missing. And so were all the controls I had mapped to my throttle. Well, crap, thought I. So I backed out of everything I had running, and started the troubleshooting sequence from a fresh boot. Two hours later, I admitted defeat. My throttle was completely dead. The best I could get was a "boop" from Windows saying it recognized *something* was plugged into the USB port, but it was unable to determine what. Dang it.
So I communicate with ThrustMaster/Guillimotte (sp?) and they ask for all kinds of things, including a video uploaded to their private servers. Done.
In the mean time, I'm at wit's end. Flying sucks when you're used to using a full HOTAS set and you have to re-learn keyboard commands for all the various sims you fly. You guys know what I mean, I'm sure.
And I may have mentioned this to my wife on more than one or (fifteen) occasions. So she decided to take me out to the local casino to get some freebie she had earned, and take my mind off my busted flight controller. Although all I was thinking was "how can I afford a casino venture AND the repair of my WartHog?".
My bride (of 29 years) to the rescue... playing penny slots she hits a nice jackpot. Had to fill out tax paperwork. Armed guards brought a stack of cash over. She tells me "Now you can order those repair parts you wanted." Yeah... and a bit sarcastically I add "It would be easier to buy a new one." She says "Do it!" and smiles.
New WartHog arrives Thursday.
Yeah, it's nice to have a wife who loves me.
