Newcomer / Intro Cougar HOTAS setup suggestions, please

Quartz-1

Q
I let ED sit on my PC far too long so I decided to finally fire it up and I'm doing the training missions. Now, I have a Cougar HOTAS (NOT the MFD - yes, I have done a search and found that out) and rudders and would appreciate suggestions for the setup which do not involve Foxy. Just plain Windows button mapping for now, please. I have the microstick mapped as axes 7 and 8.

So far I've mapped the black 4-way hat on the stick for manoeuvre thrusts, and have the castle switch and the thumb switch left. On the throttle, I've mapped the Spd Brk for Frame Shift (forwards) and landing gear (back), the rotaries for sensors, and the comms switch for panels 1-4.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Does Cougar have a 4-way POV hat on the throttle? If so, I'd map the lateral/vertical thrusters there.

On the stick, use the black hat for power management - Left(power to systems), Up(power to weapons), Right(power to engines), Down(balance power) and the white hat for weapon management (switching fire groups, retracting hardpoints,...) or targeting (next target, next enemy, highest threat,...). You can also bind the same hat for the navigation through menus and panels around the cockpit (those bindings are separate and won't interfere with the primary function when outside of a menu).
Red button, I'd probably use for "Target ahead". If the third thing that looks like a POV hat is actually a POV hat, you can use it for switching the Nav/Target display(left), Comms(up), Ship management(right), Role panel(down)

I have no idea about the throttle hats and buttons, but you can bind them as you go. You'll need to handle at least the landing gear and other stuff you can discover and bind later.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
On my Cougar I have thrusters on the radio switch which is what Chris is suggesting. FSD is on Uncage (push down) Boost is push down on microstick (cursor enable)

Missile step is next fire group. Shifted missile step is switch HUD modes.

TMS is all targeting (ahead, next, previous, cancel)

Ship functions are on DMS (cargo, gear, hard points)

CMS is navigation like next system in route, system map, Galaxy map

Paddle switch is FA off (hold)

Hat switch is pip management

I have additional shifted functions such as TMS Up is 75 percent throttle

It's all a matter of preference, but those are some of mine. I have FSS and DSS on a X Box controller
 
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Chris Simon

Chris Simon
sinisalo said:
On my Cougar I have thrusters on the radio switch which is what Chris is suggesting. FSD is on Uncage (push down) Boost is push down on microstick (cursor enable)

Missile step is next fire group. Shifted missile step is switch HUD modes.

TMS is all targeting (ahead, next, previous, cancel)

Ship functions are on DMS (cargo, gear, hard points)

CMS is navigation like next system in route, system map, Galaxy map

Paddle switch is FA off (hold)

Hat switch is pip management

I have additional shifted functions such as TMS Up is 75 percent throttle

It's all a matter of preference, but those are some of mine. I have FSS and DSS on a X Box controller
Click to expand...
Sounds great. Good somebody familiar with the Cougar could chime in.
I'd just like to add something I forgot earlier - it's a good idea to have your boost button as far from landing gear button as possible. For... reasons. :D :D
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Correction. I had moved 75% throttle to shifted CMS Up and shifted TMS Up is now target hostile. The shifted function is awesome and all this is done as DX, no Foxy needed. Just map everything in game.
 

Quartz-1

Q
sinisalo said:
Correction. I had moved 75% throttle to shifted CMS Up and shifted TMS Up is now target hostile. The shifted function is awesome and all this is done as DX, no Foxy needed. Just map everything in game.
Click to expand...

How do you shifted modes? Noddy steps, please - I'm back to being a noob. And how do I set up deadzones? I did't seem to be able to add them when I assigned the axes.

Chris Simon said:
I'd just like to add something I forgot earlier - it's a good idea to have your boost button as far from landing gear button as possible. For... reasons.
Click to expand...

The best of reasons, I'm sure. :)
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
Shifted is the pinky switch. S4 I believe. You can map a second command to all inputs when holding S4. In effect doubling how much you can cram on there.
 

Quartz-1

Q
Chris Simon said:
Does Cougar have a 4-way POV hat on the throttle? If so, I'd map the lateral/vertical thrusters there.
Click to expand...

The Cougar joystick has a 2-level trigger (buttons 1 and 6, a button on the side (5), a button on the front (2), an 8-way POV hat, a 4 way hat (7-10), a 4-way castle switch (11-14), a 4-way thumb hat (15-19), a small pinky button (3) and a pinky paddle switch (4).

sinisalo said:
Shifted is the pinky switch. S4 I believe. You can map a second command to all inputs when holding S4. In effect doubling how much you can cram on there.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you.
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
I think since this is DX that any button could act like S3. But from years of flying Falcon 4 with Foxy profiles it's ingrained that S3 is used for shifted commands. It's also most natural since you are always in position to hit S3, unlike other possible combinations.

I haven't touched deadzones. Microswitch and range are unassigned for now. I calibrated in CCP and downloaded that to the stick and it feels good. Didn't feel the need for custom curves or deadzones.
 
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sinisalo

sinisalo
Based on what you said I meant S3, not S4. S4 must be the paddle switch which I use for FA off. The small pinky button is what I use for shifted commands.
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
I was going to suggest the EDRefCard site ( https://edrefcard.info/ ) but the only cougar file I could see seems to show the stick as not recognised. If one of you cougar users could try to put your binds on there and if it is unrecognised perhaps flag it up to the site owner so he can add it (there is a thread in Player Tools forum). Of course, only if you feel like it. :)
 

Quartz-1

Q
Okay, so I've been setting up the bindings. How do I print them out for reference? The Binds file is XML and not exactly eye-friendly.
 
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