Help, PFC, ELITE, Yoke, TQ's

[ak49er]

Captains, I have purchased two TQ's and a yoke manufactured by PFC, the yoke is a AETI's AFCS II Flight Simulator Control Yoke, and the TQ is a PFC Multi-engine TQ. All components have a DB15 (MIDI, Gameport) Female "out." I have disassembled the TQ and cannot figure out how to wire the cable as all Pot's are soldered to a PCB, and I cannot easily trace out. Is there a no-brainer way to wire up a cable, and will this device work without software (drivers) if I use it through FSUIPC.
PFC, ELITE will not provide any customer support to me as I have bought these as used (refurbished) items from the original owner. Of all the flight sim companies I have dealt with these enterprises seem to be the least helpful. Does any one have any solutions? Thnks in advance.

[AndyT]

There are Gameport to USB adapters. You might try one of those.
Here is one;
http://www.usbcable.com/47-1932.htm

[ak49er]

Yes I have several of these products, smaller in size, the problem remains though, the "out" on the devices is female, the in on the USB to Game port device is female, I cannot find a pre-made male to male cable here in town, so I bought the DB15 cable ends and cable, now I need to know how to wire it.....is it as simple as just making sure all the pins are connected to a conductor (matching both ends) and letting the computer figure otu what's what,, or is that what drivers do....will FSUIPC take care of that ....? The yoke most likely has tow pots, and twelve or so buttons, one tq has only one pot, and the ohter tq has six pots.....

[AndyT]

Ok, 2 simple answers.

1. Just wire the connectors straight thru. All the twisted wiring is already done inside the unit.

2. Buy a gender changer.
http://www.coolgear.com/Adapter-Gender_Changer.cfm

[Peter Dowson]

All components have a DB15 (MIDI, Gameport) Female "out." I have disassembled the TQ and cannot figure out how to wire the cable as all Pot's are soldered to a PCB, and I cannot easily trace out. Is there a no-brainer way to wire up a cable, and will this device work without software (drivers) if I use it through FSUIPC.

I am pretty sure the AETI/PFC game port yoke has standard X/Y axis connections, but the buttons on it are wired through circuitry which emulates a CH game port FlightStick. The buttons are in a "single button only" arrangement, encoded to allow up to 14 buttons -- using the 4 button lines in a Game Port as a 4-bit number, with 0 and 15 unused, leaving 14 valid combinations. You don't get multiple press indications.

So, if you can get it connected via a game port adapter, you will be able to use it fully with a windows CH Flightstick driver (if you can locate one -- check PFCs website for starters).

OTherwise, using one of Windows' default drivers, you should still get indications from the buttons in FSUIPC, but they won't be easily usable via the normal options. You would have t0 use FSUIPC's conditional programming facilities (see the Advance User's guide) to decode the assorted combinations you will get. (The Windows "game controllers" test window will help there).

Sorry, I don't know anything about PFC's Game Port TQ. I didn't know they even made one for a Game Port -- their normal TQ has 6 axes, and there's no way you can get 6 axes on a Game Port.


Regards

Pete

[Kennair]

ak49er,

I would remove all traces of circuitry from both yoke and TQ and get hold of a USB joystick card from any number of online suppliers, wire up your pots and buttons to the new joystick and have full, no fuss control over all axis whether in FSUIPC or FS.

This older hardware is great for the mechanics but not so for electronics.

Just my 2c worth,

Ken.

[Prof Bill]

Totally agree with Ken.

I usually strip all the electronics out except the poteniometers and leave if they are 10k.

My favourite USB card is from Leo Bodnar http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/

The BU0836X is a feature rich card and terrific value for money here in the UK. It is also very user friendly and easy to instal with advice available from Leo if required.

Bill.

[PDT 200]

On the site that has FSUIPC there is a download for the PFC DLL that handles the COM port equipment. http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html
It's 11 boxes down. Also there is a new FSUIPC as of 4/28/08 for FS9 and below and a new one for FSX.
Regards,
Brian