cougar mfd lcd screen manufacturer

For a very long time now I"ve been looking at options for putting screens behind my MFDs and seen many different solutions which do the job but could be refined and made easier if there were something that was made specifically to fit the TM cougar.

I"ve reached out to a number of manufacturers to address this and requested pricing for a dedicated screen to fit the back of the cougar. I"ve requested the initial specs as follows to give them all a benchmark to start with:

Abouty ten years ago I was sitting in my Obutto Ozone cockpit, with three cheap 24 inch LCD monitors and a Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS. DCS A-10C Warthog (not DCS World) was my game of choice, and VR didn"t exist.

The Ozone Obutto Cockpit setup I started with. Three 24 inch BenQ LCD monitors, a HOTAS Warthog, and the two panels i had purchased from Glider_UKon the ED Forums.

The next thing I wanted to add was a main instrument panel. I had been reading on the forums about exporting the gauges to a second monitor, so I bought a cheap Acer 19 inch LCD and bolted it onto the Obutto with the cheapest eBay VESA wall mount.

This is what Helios does- it exports the data from DCS and displays them on gauges on a seperate monitor. The same program is being used today on the monitor behind my Main Instument Panel. If you had a touch screen monitor, you could even use it to display and push all the buttons in the cockpit!

To make my first panels, I purchased 3mm thick plastic sheet from a hardware store in Australia (Bunnings). They still sell it today, its about 50 bucks for a large 1200mm sheet and used for pool fencing/screening etc, and comes in white or clear. Be aware that it is PVC and is not able to be laser cut/engraved.

Want to seriously enhance your combat flight sim immersion with real displays for your Thrustmaster Cougar MFDs BUT not interested in making your own or waiting for Cubesim stock?  Comes with 12v power supply( NORTH AMERICA ONLY!), each, as well as all mounting hardware, including optional tabs for using the base table mount that comes with the Thrustmaster Cougar MFDs!

These screens are compatible withAssembly and setup instructions included via email for DCS and Falcon 4 BMS flight sims.This product is 3D printed and some cosmetic artifacts are to be expected from the additive manufacturing process.

MFD Cougar is a great hardware option for the gamers that don"t want to / can"t use a VR headset, and need extra physical buttons. In DCS World, combined with Helios Virtual Cockpit (free software), you can export on a second monitor all the in-game screens. By attaching the MFD Cougar over the second screen, you can push the buttons while looking at the simulated screens of the airplane, in the middle of each of the 2 controllers. Good quality and quite a few mounting options (with or w / oa LCD screen). The brightness of the buttons can be controlled via software or by pushing a combination of the physical buttons (14 + 15 + BRT up or 14 + 15 + BRT down) and is memorized within the device itself.

MFD Cougar is a great hardware option for the gamers that don"t want to/can"t use a VR headset, and need extra physical buttons. In DCS World, combined with Helios Virtual Cockpit (free software), you can export on a second monitor all the in-game screens. By attaching the MFD Cougar over the second screen, you can push the buttons while looking at the simulated screens of the airplane, in the middle of each of the 2 controllers.

Coming out in mid-October from Thrustmaster is a pack of 2 MFD"s with fully-programmable buttons. Retail price will be somewhere around $95 (compared to Aimsworth"s MFD"s which are around $1000). The screens don"t work (just pictures) but this is a really neat and affordable idea.

Thrustmaster wrote:For diehard flight simulation fans, Thrustmaster is proud to offer a pack of 2 MFD Cougar modules, taking users another big step towards total immersion in flight sim games. The ideal companions for joysticks and yokes on the market, the MFD Cougar Pack lets virtual pilots enjoy more realistic flight conditions than ever before.

Thrustmaster, inventor of the joystick and responsible for major innovations such as the HOTAS Cougar and T.16000M, is continuing to expand its product range for flight sim fans with the launch of the Multi-Function Display Cougar Pack. The MFD Cougar is a panel of buttons and switches onto which the user can program their choice of functions for any given game. This revolutionary device therefore provides shortcuts which are far more practical and intuitive than the standard method of using a keyboard and mouse for various actions in games.

The MFD Cougar modules from Thrustmaster are replicas of those found onboard the legendary U.S. Air Force F-16 jet fighter aircraft. They are compatible with all military or civil flight simulation games supporting multi-USB.

Each of the 2 MFD modules in the pack features 20 buttons and 4 switches, for a total of 56 programmable controls! 2 programmable LEDs per MFD facilitate identification, in particular during programming phases. The programming interface can even accommodate up to 8 MFD modules at the same time. Finally, each MFD module features an internal memory, which saves all of your settings and preferences… even when used on a different computer.

The MFD modules feature a multi-position base, allowing users to adjust them to the perfect viewing angle. They are also weighted and equipped with non-slip grips for complete stability when using the controls. Both MFD modules are also detachable from their base: users can therefore attach them to a monitor if they wish, or to the inside of a simulated cockpit…[Gunner & STRIKER

The installation CD contains plug-ins which instantly configure both MFD modules for the Microsoft® games "Flight Simulator 2004" and "Flight Simulator X", with a choice of 3 presets: Generic/Light Aviation/Airliner: each control on the MFDs will be preconfigured for these games.

Each MFD module comes equipped with Plexiglas™ windows, between which the user can insert one of the 10 preprinted cardboard cutouts included in the pack. The different presets for Microsoft® Flight Simulator X are indicated on the cutouts, and blank cutouts are also included for customization with any other game. (I"m sure someone will eventually put small lcd displays behind them.)

Added a few more pics with the Syncmaster U70"s. The LCDs slide right behind the MFD bezel and are held in place by the back braces like they were made for each other. They fit so perfectly, the LCD is held right against the back of the bezel.

Gunner that"s gorgeous! Have you considered turning the U70 on it"s side and finding a way to rotate the screen output? You"d have a lot of bulk hanging off the top/bottom ends of the MFD frame but if it"s going to be set into a forward cockpit panel, you could easily hide all that.

Beaker wrote:Gunner that"s gorgeous! Have you considered turning the U70 on it"s side and finding a way to rotate the screen output? You"d have a lot of bulk hanging off the top/bottom ends of the MFD frame but if it"s going to be set into a forward cockpit panel, you could easily hide all that.

Rotating the screen is very easy with the software, but you actually have more room in landscape orientation. If you rotate vertically you still lose the same amount, it"s just side to side, and the LCD would interfere with the backup ADI & fuel flow gauge on the right, and RWR on the left.

Can anyone point me toward any other threads that talk about using the status.jason to automate/animate the center boxes of the MFDs? I do have VR, but am holding off on playing with it until I get myself an eGPU for my gaming laptop—which handles screen displays just fine, but gets jaggy and aliased as hell when in VR (especially things like stations and whatnot when they"re nearby). I figure all this non-VR flight time will give me time to learn by muscle-memory and touch where all the buttons on the MFDs are. In the meantime, I"d love to have relevant data displayed on my backing displays.

Everything is setup and tested. The LCD panels are working using the on-cpu intel graphics. With UltraMFCD I was able to export the MFD"s from the A10-C to the MFD displays. There is an issue that causes poor fps on the exported displays with the latest Nvidia series of drivers. Reverting to an older version is the work around. Just since I installed UltraMFCD the website for the app has disappeared. Not sure what the deal is there but the Cougar "real" MFD MOD project was a complete success. I will post photos soon of the working exported displays during flight.