Cougar owners: Order spare pots!

Discussions about Cockpits, Joysticks & Setups
Funky
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Post by Funky » Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:04 am

1st post here!

I got my Cougar about 3 weeks ago, and when I recieved it two of my knobs were inop right out of the box !!! I called them and ordered replacements not only those knobs, but all the pots, speed brake switch, and a few other stuff. Right after that I opened up the throttle and de-greased everything thing, since the grease they use is just horrible, and way too sticky. I moved my detents ( broke a screw on one of the detents and had to take it out since the screw is metric and its hard to find in US) then after a while trying to find a good lubricant, ended up just using thick SOAP as one!!!
Now its working pretty good, but I'm thinking the soap is probably gonna dry out sometime soon... so if anybody has any suggestions I'll be glad to hear from them.

Also, I've been looking into buying the FCC mod but I cant find a link to where I'm supposed to place my order at...

Funky,
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Burner
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Post by Burner » Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:26 am

Nice mod, I too have been considering using soap to lube up the throttle as the tutorial at Cougar World suggests. Did you also line the cylinder with aluminum foil to give it an even lower static coefficient of friction? I think most of the stick in the throttle track is due to material choice and not grease selection.
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:34 am

Radio Shack sells grease that I've been using and my throttle is real light to feather up and down...
Funky
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Post by Funky » Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:51 am

Hi Burner and LD... I dont think you guys have recognized me yet. This is Vala.

About saop; My throttle has had the soap on it for about a week now and so far it feels real smooth, but everytime I open it up it looks a bit dryer... I dont know what's coming up next.

About foil. DONT TRY IT !!!!! I did that in the most perfect way possible, and I used crazy glue to make it stick. After the piece of foil was tight inplace I tired to put the baring on, the tube would not fit in the baring anymore :shock:. I ened up prettymuch sanding the aluminum peice and the glue off of the throttle, and hey, you dont want to go there. I used 3 different kinds of modeling sand papers to get it like the way it was in the begining, but never gained the inital smoothness on the tube.

LD After your sugesstion about the grease from radioshack (10 days ago) I went out to radioshack and bought their stuff. What I have is an electronics lubricant (that by the way contains or is tephlon) that does no harm to electronics and plastic and comes in a pen size container with a "precision drop" end. I didnt want to put it in the throttle right away, so I started messing with it on my fingers to see if it sticks, but after a few minuts it started sticking, or in other words, I felt a lot of statick friction. Since static friction was soemthing I'm trying to avoid, I didnt go with it. Maybe I had the wrong grease..

Now back to soap; I've come to notice that soap is however not the best lubricant for the detents, since it slowly dissapears from the surfaces. Last night I decided to put some of that radioshack stuff on the detents, and it feels fine so far.

Vala

PS. do you guys know where I can order FCC?
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:05 am

Hey, Funky!!! :lol:

The grease I have is a generic one (not the small tube you're refferring to). My throttle is light as a feather, that's all I can say! I'll see if I can dig up lubricant around here somewhere and give you a product number/name.

The FCC mod has been discontinued for the time being, but to find more info or to contact the person who makes it go to Cougar World and search the forums.

The other force sensor option is the FSSB made by realsimulator.
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:35 pm

RadioShack Multi-Purpose Lube Gel part no. 64-2326

I also remembered that I loosened up the friction plate some a while back, so the throttle axis "rolls" with a little less friction and of course I have the friction lock released almost all the way too. Some guys (modders) take it out completely I believe, take a look at the forums at Cougar World. That would be the place to ask these kind of questions!

Lawndart
Funky
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Post by Funky » Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:32 am

Thanks very very much LD for the info on the Lube... I'm probably gonna go out there have have them order that for me. Seems like I'm gonna have some fun time cleaning up all the soap in the throttle :oops:

Also, please drop me a line if you hear anything from Toast, or know anything about what's going to happen with the traning sessions that we used to have.

Funky (does that really fit me ? :wink: )
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:33 pm

Funky wrote:...Funky (does that really fit me ? :wink: )
Lawndart... does that really fit me? No one got more questions about how they received their callsign than I did while visiting the Thunderbirds a while back. Truthfully it has no meaning aside from riming with my last name and the airplane I fly IRL is nicknamed the Lawndart (as well as my favorite military airplane too, the Viper a.k.a. Lawndart) among other names, but I certainly haven't "dumped" the Delta for quite some time now, so it's not entirely reflecting on my performance although I did buy the farm for the entire team a few times as Lead. :lol: Most of the real world callsigns are just given to you. It's commonly not the pilot that gets to pick himself, but in our case on the team it's a little mix of both! I think Funky works great IMHO and it distinguishes you from the rest of the pack, but it's your call (sign).

Toast has been back home in the Queen's country for about a week I believe. I'm sure you'll find him online soon...

Cougar tip of the day:
For better throttle precision, take the flat side of a toothpick and wedge in into the cradle for the pot inside the throttle to really secure the pot in place, so it doesn't move around at all when throttling up and down.
Funky
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Post by Funky » Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:22 am

I'll got with Funky then !

And about your tip for the cougar, I'm guessing I got locky or something couse my pot is placed solid as a rock!

if you were up for a bit of flight, I'll go for it anytime... And by the way, did you say you have FSSB installed in your stick ?if so, How do you like it?

-Funky
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Sat Nov 12, 2005 3:10 am

I've been flying all evening/nite already (it's the norm around here ya know :wink: ), we'll see if we can't get you up and tryout again sometime soon though.

I don't have the FSSB (yet), I'm using the NXT w/ Hall Sensors which is almost tailor made for aerobatic flying and I like it a lot!

LD
Funky
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Post by Funky » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:52 pm

I went out and bought the lube you told me about... it seems like I found the ONE !!

Anyways, I'm really thinking about FSSB, and infact I dropped them an email today. The only problem is that the thing is FREEKISHLY expencive, especially for an $8 an hour worker like me; but I understand becoming a VTB takes dedication, and I'm doing my part :D

See ya up there, and BTW I migh actually post a little video of myself flying a Level-D on the main forum.

-Funky
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