CH Throttle Quadrant

[zuma75]

After getting my controllers straightened thanks to the help I got on the ATAG forum, I'm really liking all the levers on my new CH Throttle Quadrant. It seems to have some issues though. Some of the levers seem a little twitchy. If I map my elevator and rudder trim to them, the trim wheel or stick in game twitches back and forth a bit. Not a lot, but you can see it moving.It never did this with the rotary switches on my Saitek X35 Throttle. When I check in CH control manager they are twitching back and forth only about one degree, but you can see it. I had a hard time mapping at first as the game was recognizing a lever I wasn't moving. If I rock it back and forth sometimes I can get it to stop.

Can someone with one of these let me know if this is normal behavior for the CH Throttle Quadrant, or do I have a defective unit? Snapper, I think you said you have one in one of my other posts.

Thanks for any help!

[ATAG_Snapper]

Hi Zuma,

I use the CH Quadrant and two of its levers are assigned to elevator and rudder trim. I've had no issues with jittering. IIRC you need to calibrate the axis using CH Manager (free download from the CH website). If that doesn't help then it sounds like the potentiometers are bad, in which case you should contact CH of the retailer.

Good luck!

[zuma75]

Hi Snapper, I did calibrate it in CH control manager and no change. I contacted CH and they said they weren't sure if it should be twitchy, so that was no help. They did say to return it if i thought it had issues though and let them know how I made out.

I just had to return two new CH Pro Throttles to Amazon as they were both missing the rubber feet. CH is sending me some rubber feet in case the next one is missing them as well. CH stuff has always been great. My Pro Pedals are 13 years old and still work well. Looks like maybe some bad QC at their production facility if both my throttles were missing the feet.

If yours isn't twitchy, then I'm going to return the Throttle Quadrant for another. It must be defective as I don't get the twitch if I map my trim to the Saitek rotaries or slider on the MSFFB2.

Snapper, thanks for your input!

[ATAG_Deacon]

Zuma,

I've been using the CH Throttle Quad for 5 years without issue or twitching...hope you
get CH to replace the one you have! Essential piece of gear!

~S~

Deacon

[dburne]

I just recently added the CH Throttle Quadrant to my TM Warthog setup.

I need to go in and re-assign trim , mixture, prop, radiator to it and see how it does for me.

[zuma75]

I just got my replacement Throttle Quadrant from Amazon. It is doing the exact same thing. Twitchy levers. The trim wheel and stick vibrate back and forth in game. I tried it on my wife's and daughters comps, and it does the same thing on theirs. This one also has something rattling around loose inside. After watching a video on YouTube of how to take it apart, it looks like the circuit board was not slid into the holder slot during assembly and is rattling around loose. This makes two Pro Throttles shipped without feet and a poorly assembled Throttle Quadrant. I'm waiting to hear back from CH about the problems.

[ATAG_Bliss]

I just got my replacement Throttle Quadrant from Amazon. It is doing the exact same thing. Twitchy levers. The trim wheel and stick vibrate back and forth in game. I tried it on my wife's and daughters comps, and it does the same thing on theirs. This one also has something rattling around loose inside. After watching a video on YouTube of how to take it apart, it looks like the circuit board was not slid into the holder slot during assembly and is rattling around loose. This makes two Pro Throttles shipped without feet and a poorly assembled Throttle Quadrant. I'm waiting to hear back from CH about the problems.

That is soooo odd. I've had my throttle quad for the majority of a decade now and have never had any problems with it. But I think I do notice the same trim wheels in place twitching from time to time. The animations of many of those in clod are very notchy to say the least, so it would definitely stand out more. IMO, if you have calibrated the device in the CH manager and while after hitting the apply button, you don't see the levers twitching around violently, I think you're fine. I think Clods animations of the trim wheel / stick movement etc., are personifying the issue more than it really is. I guess the way to test if you have a real indication of a problem or not is if you actually notice the plane trim moving (not the notchy animation). Like your plane goes up and down / or yaws because of trim.

Also, a few of my CH devices all have loose parts inside (make noise) they all work just like the day I bought them though :)

[zuma75]

Thanks for the feedback Bliss! I think something is definitely wrong with the Quadrant. It does move the stick in game when mapped to trim and plane cavitates up and down ever so slightly.Not much but you can detect it. It does not do it with the rotaries on the Saitek X36 or slider on the MSFFB2 mapped to trim. Even trying to map it is a nightmare. No problems mapping the MSFFFB2, Saitek X36, or CH Pro Pedals. As soon as I add the Throttle Quadrant and try to map, it immediately senses one of the levers as input and makes it almost impossible to map the other devices. It fills in the map box right away. I clear it and it jumps right back in. I have to keep moving the levers to get the input to calm down so I can map the other axis's. It's like some levers are continuously sending out input signals. Also the first Throttle Quadrant I got didn't have anything rattling around inside.

My Pro Pedals are about 13 years old and no major problems with them. Great product! CH support has been great. I have them looking into it now. Hopefully they will figure out what's happening.

[I_B_Spectre]

Thanks for the feedback Bliss! I think something is definitely wrong with the Quadrant. It does move the stick in game when mapped to trim and plane cavitates up and down ever so slightly.Not much but you can detect it.

Depending on your realism settings, you may be seeing a phugoid oscillation rather than autonomous trim change oscillation. Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phugoid

The cockpit animations are not smooth on my system, but flight control inputs seem to be smooth.

[zuma75]

I would say that could be a possibility I_B_Spectre, except that it seems like the throttle quadrant is putting out signal when nothing is being moved. I can't map any other controller as the box fills instantly with one of the throttle quadrant axis's. I have to fiddle with the quadrant levers, and keep opening up a box until it doesn't fill instantly with one of the throttle quadrant axis's. If I unplug the throttle quadrant, no problems. The box doesn't fill until I actually move the axis I want to map. Thank you for your input though!

[Screamadelica]

Hi Zuma

I have the same issue with my CH Throttle Quadrant, but only in the DCS P51D Mustang and then only really visible on the ingame throttle lever. It behaves exactly as you described, I tried assigning a lever to zoom view once and felt like the aircraft was about to shake apart! I have posted about this on the DCS forums and quite a few people seem to have this issue with the only solution being "get used to it". I also tried posting at the CH Hanger but had no response from CH and no one was really able to help. I haven't got the same problem in Cliffs Of Dover, everything there seems quite smooth ingame. It could be the connectors for the wires to the pots that are loose, these seem to be the weak point in the CH set up, everything else is built like a tank! However opening the unit will void your warranty. A jitter of 1 point value is about right for these pots, apparently that is as accurate as they can make them. One solution was to assign the throttle lever to the slider on my Thrustmaster T1600 M joystick. Smoothed it right out but doesn't feel as good as using the throttle quad. It may also be worth checking that you haven't got multiple keys assigned to the same function, sometimes doubling up can cause a conflict. The only other thing I can suggest is see what other throttles people are using that don't have this issue. Good luck and let us know if you find a fix.
Cheers, Scream. :salute:

[zuma75]

Hi Screamadelica, I posted on the CH Hangar and didn't get any replies either. I did get someone form their customer service who was going to look into it, but I haven't heard back from him in a few days. I also tried the throttle quadrant in Rise of Flight. It does the same thing with the trim wheel on the SE5, so I don't think it's a problem specific to CLOD.
I ended up shipping it back for a refund today. I'll stick with my Saitek X35 throttle until the X55 comes out. The X35 works great with just one problem. Sometimes you have to unplug and replug it to get it to be recognized again. I try to remember to check it before I launch the game. I can live with that for now. It's too bad, as I really liked all the levers on the quadrant, just not how twitchy they were.

[mop]

I am working on building my own controller, so I bought a Teensy 3.1 (connects to the computer via USB) and hooked up a pot on a bread board for testing. The ADC (Analogue to Digital Converter) on the Teensy gave me a range of 0-1023. This is 10 bits over the voltage range of 0 to 3.3 volts. My understanding is that with the pot turned to one extreme, the voltage at the pin that is read is 0 and the ADC output is 0. With the pot turned to the other extreme the voltage is 3.3 volts and the ADC output is 1023.

However with the pot turned to somewhere in the middle and not being manipulated, the value read jittered, plus or minus 10 to 15. Talking to electronic engineers I know, I was told to check the power supplied by the USB connection (and/or just at the read pin I guess). If this fluctuates at all the voltage being read may fluctuate and give jitters. This is the importance of the power being supplied to the throttle quadrant. Maybe you should check your USB power.

Now I have a CH Throttle quadrant and I don't have a problem with it. One possible difference is that my quadrant is connected to the rear USB ports, the connectors for which are mounted directly on the motherboard. For convenience the Teensy was connected to the front USB ports, which are mounted on the case. I don't know if that would make any difference, but at some stage I will test it.

Hope this helps

[zuma75]

Hi Mop,
Thanks for your help. I thought that it could be possibly be an issue with my USB Hub, so I did try connecting directly to the USB ports on my mobo. I still got the same thing connected directly to the motherboard. My X35 throttle wheels work fine on either the Hub or mobo.
I ended up returning throttle quadrant as I never heard back from CH customer service.

[Uwe]

My Ch pedals have done that since day one.