Fighterstick USB

24 button positions!

* The Fighterstick USB is the shining star of programmable CH joysticks. With more bells and whistles than you can possible imagine, CH designed this granddaddy of joysticks to keep you busy for hours on end. You may need an excuse as to why you won't be in to work tomorrow!

If you've used CH gear before, there won't be any big surprises on either controller. The Fighterstick incorporates X and Y axis trim wheels, a throttle wheel (less relevant here, but nice if youre using it as a standalone), four buttons, three 4-way hats and one 8-way hat. (The Pro Throttle adds three buttons, three more 4-way hats, an 8-way hat and a thumbstick that doubles as a mode selector).

CH units are solid and well-constructed. The Fighterstick is slop-free and precise without being as arm-wrestling stiff like ThrustMaster's Cougar. Our only complaints about the entire setup are the same pet peeves we've always had about the CH throttles no detents whatsoever, and they use a slider instead of a pivoted throttle. Anyone familiar with CH HOTAS gear can testify that these are minor complaints in the face of their generally good ergonomics. The only obvious differences between the USB and the old gameport gear are the Pro Throttles thumbstick and the mode indicator LEDs on the bases of both units. Both features are welcomed improvements; more on this later.

There is a great deal of versatility provided by Control Manager. Any axis or hat on any device can be programmed either as a DirectX compliant control device axis or keystroke. All axes can be individually adjusted for sensitivity, gain, and preferred deadzone range. Chorded keystrokes are simply a matter of prefacing the desired keys with the string HOLD in the correct field. The stick and throttle handled triple-keystroke chorded commands without trouble. The thumbstick on the throttle front is especially useful it can act as either a control axis or a mouse. This makes it very handy for simulating rudder control if you dont have pedals. A nice feature is the option of having a mouse control right there on the HOTAS, too. Very few simulation feats are more awkward than having to take one hand off the controls to reach for the mouse while barreling down on a target at 600 knots.

The thumbstick (or joystick button 3 your choice) also performs as a mode selection switch to cycle between as many as three modes if so desired. Any control can act as a shift button as well, doubling the already impressive number of commands. The end result is more individual functions programmable in a single map than our math skills are up to measuring. We think it comes out to something over 250 between the two devices. It'll take people smarter than us to memorize all of the functions and we're pretty smart!

Features:

  • Compatible with Windows 98 / ME, 2000 and XP (requires Direct X) for PC, plus MacOS
  • 3 axes and 24 buttons (three push buttons, one mode switch button, three 4 way hat switches and one 8 way point of view hat)
  • Total of 132 programmable functions with the new Control Manager software (included)
  • Three separate programming modes accessed on the fly via mode switch on handle
  • Color LED's to indicate mode selection
  • Realistic F-16 handle
  • Side slide throttle wheel
  • Dual rotary trim controls allow for precision adjustment of ailerons and elevators
  • Large sturdy base
  • Easy USB installation
  • Quality components and construction
  • Two Year limited warranty
The units come with a one-page quickstart sheet, and a driver CD. The versatility of this gear almost cries out for a printed manual, but the electronic docs (which double as the Help files) were enough to get us up and running without any trouble. Its probably a good idea to sit down and read most of the Help through before getting too fancy with the Control Manager programming interface as there are a number of significant changes from the old Speedkeys utility used under the Win95/98 legacy. See section below on the Control Manager package updates. Installation under Windows XP is almost effortless. First, the devices are plugged into an open USB port. XP handled this for us with no user intervention, recognizing the stick, throttle and buttons accurately and installing them as HID-compliant controllers. The next step is to install the drivers. The driver CD that ships with both devices may be out of date by the time your get your unit, so make sure to get the current drivers from CH's technical support page described below. Once the new drivers are in place, XP will recognize the updated devices and run the New Hardware wizard several times for each device. No user intervention is required, and the whole process takes less than five minutes from start to finish. Once installed, the devices can be run in several modes. The default on-boot configuration is Direct, which presents each device to the operating system as a separate device with standard button and axis assignments. Programmed configurations are run in Mapped mode, and Disconnected mode can be used to hide the devices from the operating system. In Mapped mode, devices can either be presented to the operating system individually, or packaged into a virtual device that shows Windows a single joystick with the chosen number of buttons and axes. Programming and mode selection are handled by a simple, efficient GUI that allows most functions to be designated with a few mouse clicks.