It's been almost four years that I wrote the review for the FCC. At the time, pressure mods were fairly a new technology in gaming and quite unknown to the community. Still, the FCC was distributed along quite a few users and received great feedback from the community. Last year unfortunately, the manufacturer of the force sensor decided to stop producing the main component of the FCC, Arend had to stop the FCC production. At first it sounded like a bad news but some of us were quite convinced that Arend would, after a short period of 'vacation' think of a new design, even better than the original one!
At the end of the FCC1 production, a weird request was done which would influence the design of the soon to be FCC2. Some cockpit builders started requesting FCCs fitting a real cockpit stick base that is quite smaller than the Cougar base. Yet that base wasn't produced and only available to motivated cockpitbuilders through homemade work. Still, the challenge was there and Arend embraced it, creating a "special FCC" not larger than 58mm fitting the dimensions of the real F-16 stick base. That prototype designed along the same concept of the FCC1 could not be installed into a Cougar base.

The initial FCC1 cockpit prototype.

The decision made by CTS to stop production of the sensors, buried the cockpit FCC project with only a few prototypes produced. But the idea remained and if we were to produce a FCC second generation, it would fit a cockpit base and a genuine Cougar base. So as foreseen, after a short break Arend started getting insomnia, thinking about a new design. He decided to use strain gauges instead of the laptop cursor force sensor used in the FCC1 and went for the best design, using 2 gauges per axis to provide better temperature control and having the gauges correct one another along the same axis: The FCC2 was born.

The FCC2 components, Note the Cougar mounting plate, and the lack of FCC plate - Something I will probably take care of in the near future.

The prototype arrived at my place a short while after. The material used is stainless steel as with the FCC1 and the plates have been laser cut by a well known member of the simbuilding community. Installation was straightforward. It's the same kind of install as with the older FCC. The main differences being the longer wires (to allow installation into a cockpit) and the Cougar mounting plate that needs to be placed between the Cougar base and the main body of the FCC2. When I first looked at the prototype, I was really concerned by the very thin gauges wire between the forceplate and the PCB. They look very fragile and although the FCC is not supposed to be moved from one base to another, I do feel extreme care must be taken when installing. The wires are well protected between the metal plate and the PCB so you shouldn't be able to damage them with an inadvertent move of your fingers but don't go there with any kind of tool unless you really want something bad to happen. After a dozen installations moving the FCC from a cockpit base to another to a Cougar base, i'm less concerned with the wires, still one needs to be careful.

[Edit] Arend protected better those wires in the production runs - so it won't be a problem in the future.

As with any pressure mods, the electronic pots will need to be centred upon initial installation. The procedure is clearly explained in the manual and doesn't change from the FCC1. But since we know it's better to center the pots once the FCC has been installed, it might be tricky to do when the FCC is installed into a cockpit base. To solve that issue, Arend switched the electronic pot from a vertical screw to a horizontal screw. That way, the adjustment can be made without taking apart anything of the cockpit as long a s two holes are made to fit in the cockpit base. Notice that this should not pose a problem with the adjustment in a cougar base.

I always test first ingame to get a feeling for the mod. Only after do I start the analyser and Cougar software suite to test deeper the response of the axis. I feel that the most important feedback is the one we get in the cockpit and not the one we have in the analyser, I know - I am not a purist on that one :-) So right after installation, i went directly in flight with Lomac, which always has been to thoughest flight sim to master with the Cougar for me. I used the same curve and deadzones settings of my older FCC (center deadzones at 6% and variable curves according to the RNG position) My initial reaction was ... splendid - the response on the axis was just perfect and stability around the center was very precise. Still I have flown force cougars for the best of the last four years, so no getting used to was required, unlike when I tested the FCC1. I continued flying Lomac for the whole evening - I couldn't work on the review, I had to fly :)

Since I can't be complete without analysing the axis response in Foxy analyser, I finally started that aspect of the test. The cursor is dead on the axis lines when centered and the moves along the reference axis remain perfectly on the green lines without any conscient effort. So response along the axis are just perfect. I then planned to draw a circle and the first try gave an odd shape. I tried a few dozen times, without getting any better result. So I connected my beloved über2 and tried to draw a cercle as well. the conclusion hit me in the face. The problem was not the Cougar - it was me :) Believe me I even tried to draw a cercle with a pen on a sheet of paper ... that didn't turn out very well. But here's my best shot anyway :)

I have been used to always use the same profile for all my joystick files. My custom profile enables a 6% center deadzone for X and Y axis and variable curves for both axis according to position of the RNG knob. My initial test flights were done with those settings but I had the feeling the FCC2 was screaming to lower the center deadzone settings. So I directly went for the worst and applied zero deadzone on X and Y axis and see what would happen in Foxy Analyser. My initial FCC2 testbed was not grounded and at zero deadzone a great deal of signal instability was occuring around the cursor, making the FCC2 really though to use precisely near the centre position. Not good, but that's the very purpose of beta test! After some head scratching, Arend found the cause of the problem and instructed me to ground the FCC PCB. And there it was a rock stable cursor at zero deadzone on the centre position! I was a happy beta tester, my initial impression told me the FCC2 was even more precise than the FCC1, and I was about to find out.
Throughout my testing, Arend was already working on Run1 and all FCC2 were modified to overcome the signal interference around the cursor position.

The initial problem solved, the FCC2 proved to be very precise stick. I continued testing at zero deadzone both in Foxy and in flight although never did I think that I would actually use such a setting. What striked me the most is the precision of the return to centre position. Before, I had a tendency to overcorrect the level out of my turns because I was chasing the neutral point, that's the reason why I started applying center deadzones. With the FCC2, the deadzones can be lowered - even to zero - without any fluctuation around the centre position. That's where we really feel the two strain gauges per axis. they compensate each other and work together to provide a dreadfull return to centre. The lowering of the deadzones increase the precision in flight, especially in tricky solution such as formation flying, unguided weapon delivery, refuelling, carrier landing, ... Indeed in those situations the stick is constantly near the centre and minor adjustements need to be made. The smaller stick motion the better the adjustement. Longer stick motions (because of the deadzone) increase the chance of overcorrection. But I must confess: that's the theory. In the end it's the pilot's abilities which prevail. A skilled pilot with a large deadzone might fly more precisely than a rookie pilot with a smaller deadzone setting.
I wanted to show you videos of the Foxy testings but all softwares I tried (thanks OddangryShot for your help) didn't record the exercise properly. Quite often the cursor wasn't recorded, spoiling the task, So with apologies, I will post only pictures.
The two following pictures show a serie of rapid deflections to one side, releasing the stick to let it centre. Notice that the cursor did not cross to the other side.

Finally, here's a picture illustrating the stick moving into each diagonal and being released to allow to centre itself. Once again the centring is perfect

Conclusion:

For the cockpit builder among us, and there are more and more nowadays, the FCC2 is a blessing because it's fitting a real stick base. We all know that using the cougar base in a realistic cockpit involves problem with panel placement as well as position problem. From it's design, the FCC2 is perfectly suited for the cockpit installation, where other similar mods fall short. The versatility of the FCC2 is a great asset as well, allowing to switch the FCC from a cockpit to a genuine Cougar base. One mod fits all. I do really like that.

If you have no pressure mod yet for your Cougar and you fly mainly jets, the FCC2 is perfect for your needs. If you do already own a pressure mod, is it worth upgrading? Well that's a tricky question - unless you're a pitbuilder.
Flying with the FCC2 will allow you to dramatically decrease your centre deadzones and get increased precision around the cursor position. That will definitely help some tricky phases of flight but each has to consider if it's worth the investment. Bear in mind though that support of the FCC1 will become very difficult because of lack of spare parts (luckily we hardly need them) but the FCC2 support will be first class service provided by one of ours.

The FCC price is 310 euros shipping included anywhere in the world. Arend works in batches and you will need to contact him to get your name on the preorder list. Payment is made via Paypal.
The website for the FCC: http://www.eaglevision.nu/fcc.asp
At this time the stick base pictured above is not commercially available yet - It's still a prototype but i am confident it will become available very soon, I'll make sure to post on the forum about it.

Thanks to Arend for his hard work and dedication to this project! I know it was much more work for him than anticipated to make this second FCC version a reality.

Red Dog
Dec 2nd, 2006