Is it this throttle?
http://wargameguru.weebly.com/classic-review- … s-throttle.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20010714000004fw_/ … les/ENGSFST.PDF
http://web.archive.org/web/20000302144058fw_/ … fsthrottle.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20001109071200fw_/ … om/faq/faq.html

Driver, software, and manual links are available on their main page by clicking on the appropriate controller:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000302071106/htt … .suncominc.com/

List of all files archived:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sunco … roducts/files/*

Some crap I've messed with in the past would only see throttle, and half the buttons on fancy flight sticks as a second stick, like if you had one on a splitter. So things had to be configured that way. Possibly, incomplete gameport emulation on a USB adapter would cut out the lines a second stick would use and you'd be stuck with 2 axes and four buttons.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-09, 01:20:

Is it this throttle?

Hey Cyclone3d, yes that's the one.

That's mighty helpful of you and a rather nice infodump on the HOTAS. Appreciate all the direct links. I read through the FAQs and looked at the resources - the manual looks like the one I have here. I couldn't see any alternative DOS utilities unfortunately. I wonder where the Vogons driver library one is from, I might try and unpack some of the Windows installers from the drivers CD I have here and see if it might also be hiding some DOS tooling. The one the site seemed to only contain a .inf file.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-06-09, 02:46:

Some crap I've messed with in the past would only see throttle, and half the buttons on fancy flight sticks as a second stick, like if you had one on a splitter. So things had to be configured that way. Possibly, incomplete gameport emulation on a USB adapter would cut out the lines a second stick would use and you'd be stuck with 2 axes and four buttons.

Interesting to know. In this case I'm connecting the joysticks gameport directly into a the gameport on the AWE64 Gold so there's no adapters in between.

My actual problem is with the DOS utility not detecting the throttle. This sofware writes the button mappings onto the throttles onboard memory from pre-defined profiles so you don't have to do it by hand every time. I believe this happens over the keyboard connection, and for some reason it's failing to detect the throttle having been connected to the system. While the throttle is clearly capable of detecting and sending key presses over the same connector.

Basically the throttle has two modes - called internal/external that is toggled by the buttons on it. One is to pass through the buttons of any joystick attached to it as gameport button presses (pin-wise) so it works as if it were connected just by itself.

The other mode is to have it in a programmed mode where it detects a button press on the joystick and interprets those into whatever you programmed it to send as key presses over the DIN or PS/2 connector instead. The throttles button presses I believe are always mapped to sending keyboard inputs and behave like this. Both of the above modes seem to work ok, it's the profile programming that fails.

"To load a template into your F15 Eagle from the DOS prompt, enter the program name EAGLE followed by the template's .KEY filename.

For example, Flight Simulator 4.0 users would enter:
EAGLE FS4.KEY [Enter]"

I've attached two screenshots of what happens if I try to use EAGLE.EXE.

A) is without commandline parameters.
B) is with a .key file as parameter.

I've also tried it with both /1FS4.KEY and /2FS4.KEY without any changes.

I wonder if it is a weird compatibility issue with the AWE64. What happens if you tell it to continue?

Not a bad idea, I'll test it with my GUS Classic and see if that helps any.

If I press continue it just goes into the profile planning view where you can record keyboard inputs for the buttons and save them into a .KEY file to make a profile. It doesn't seem to offer any ways to actually upload or interact with the stick itself. A few of the options relating to something called command processing (if I remember correctly) are greyed out.

I also tried installing Windows 95 and some work into setting up the HOTAS on it, but no luck getting it to detect yet.

Alright, it turns out it wasn't a problem with the sound card.

I've done some further research on the throttle and uncovered some things about the history of the companys devices. They released altogether what seems like five different sticks under the Strike Fighter Series moniker - some of which are also programmable and all of which also look approximately the same, which is what lead to the confusion.

Namely:
Strike Fighter Series - Eagle, the original programmable joystick.
Strike Fighter Series - Hawk, a four-button + hat joystick which I believe was a more stripped down version.
Strike Fighter Series - Raptor, which was designed to be CH Flightstick Pro compatible.
Strike Fighter Series - Talon, another programmable joystick, just a few steps down from the Eagle.
Strike Fighter Series - Flight Controller, which is what I currently have and I've not been able to find much on yet.

They introduced four or five sticks in the series in all, and the throttle was made a few years after the Eagle.

Apparently they ran into legal trouble with Thrustmaster which they were competing with, that meant that the Eagle series stick couldn't be produced anymore. This might be partwise what lead to the creation of the throttle.

It turns out that EAGLE.EXE is intended for the Eagle stick as it's named. There's a second program called SPI (Shared Programming Interface) that I was able to hunt down now from a different source than the original site linked above that the file was missing on. SPI seems to be meant for programming the throttle and seems to be a Windows program. I'll see if I can get that working a bit later under Windows 95.

For reference here is where I found a copy of SPISetup.exe, https://web.archive.org/web/20040625163539/ht … re/SPISetup.exe

If it works out I'll see about adding it to the Vogons Drivers library.

Great news!

I was able to get SPI set up after going through their weird procedure of assigning an identification code for each of the buttons. It looks like I have a fully functioning throttle now!

You can find this under Setup->Controller Setup after having set up the list of controllers you have.

SPI gives you a list of the buttons to set up and the codes associated with them. If you're uncertain which button is being referred to by name you can use the "Edit Program" view as a cheat sheet. Then you switch the throttle into programming mode and hold down each button at a time and input it's code using the "Controller response" textfield (it will clean it's input every now and then, this doesn't matter - just keep hitting the buttons). This should only need to be done once to make the controllers ready for programming any number of times.

eg. (these are all listed in the program)
Joystick Trigger = -a01
SFS Throttle Pinkie button = -b01

This is effectively the same method you use to program inputs into the throttle manually, so I suspect that this takes up one of your four on-board programmed slots but I haven't confirmed this yet. It's also possible to do multi-slot programming using this method but you need to set up an individual identifier per each button per each slot. After the programming the button at any rate outputs what you programmed for it in SPI.

It is not possible to program Weapon Select Switch or Boat Switch on the throttle.

When you click "Enable Program" from the main menu of SPI the program shuts off, this is apparently normal and not a crash since the HOTAS was programmed succesfully after I tried pressing some of the buttons.

I hope this will be of some good help to anyone else who wants to learn how to program their Suncom SFS Throttle or their other programmable devices.

Appreciate the responses from cyclone3d and BitWrangler to help figure this out.

Now how can I contribute SPISetup.exe onto the Vogons Driver Library?

I can't seem to be able to login with my forums account and I'm not allowed to PM SquallStrife either because I've only recently registered.

Forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place, but I'm just looking for some help. I have had the SUNCOM stick and dual throttle in my garage for quite a few years. I decided to buy a 15 pin to USB in hopes of getting it hooked up and running again. That's when I realized it has an old school round connector that looks like something we used to use to connect a keyboard to the computer. Does anyone know: 1. Can I use it without hooking this part up? 2. Is there some sort of converter for the round connector, and if so, what is it called and where do I get it? 3. Could it maybe just be a keyboard pass-through, and maybe I don't need that part hooked up at all?

I appreciate any help at all, including a re-direct to wherever I'm supposed to be asking this question.

Thanks!

stick: Suncom SFS Flight Controller
throttle: Suncom SFS Throttle 7-1050-0004

AdrianF-15E wrote on 2021-06-26, 20:35:

Forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place, but I'm just looking for some help. I have had the SUNCOM stick and dual throttle in my garage for quite a few years. I decided to buy a 15 pin to USB in hopes of getting it hooked up and running again. That's when I realized it has an old school round connector that looks like something we used to use to connect a keyboard to the computer. Does anyone know: 1. Can I use it without hooking this part up? 2. Is there some sort of converter for the round connector, and if so, what is it called and where do I get it? 3. Could it maybe just be a keyboard pass-through, and maybe I don't need that part hooked up at all?

Hey Adrian,

Sorry to get back to you so late - I hadn't logged in for a while.

The DIN/PS2 connectors are for keyboard passthrough and programming. Unfortunately keyboard connection going to the PC is also used to power the throttle, so unless you are able to provide it also with appropriate power you might not get very far with the gameport to USB adapter. It may however work just fine with your joystick, though mileage may vary depending on the brand.

I know there are several USB conversion projects online that you could follow, and I did come across this adaptor that looks promising - but I don't know how well it might work.

https://realsimulator.com/fusba/

Best of luck!