WARDOGS HOTAS Setup: EdgeTX Flight Stick and Throttle Guide

HOTAS stands for hands on throttle and stick: a joystick plus a dedicated throttle, usually with switches around them. The setup documented here does not use that hardware at all. It uses a RadioMaster Pocket — an FPV radio transmitter running EdgeTX — and makes it show up in WARDOGS as a normal joystick, with no vJoy and no Joystick Gremlin in the chain. Those two tools are the usual answer when a device does not present the inputs a game expects, and the video's headline claim is that this route skips them entirely.

The source is a single creator video, “How to Use an FPV Transmitter in WARDOGS (EdgeTX HOTAS, No vJoy)” by OneShotStudios, watched just under 120,000 times at the time this material was collected. Everything on this page comes from it. The creator says any RadioMaster Pocket works with this method, and that other radios running EdgeTX will likely behave the same way — but that their menus look different, so the same process applies with different screens.

The video opens with a warning that matters more than any menu on this page: a specific EdgeTX version is required, and the version it names is Centurion V2.10.5, selected for the RadioMaster Pocket on the EdgeTX download page under the “For users” tab. Nothing in the material says a newer or older EdgeTX release behaves the same way, so treat that number as the documented configuration rather than one option among several.

The flashing steps as described:

1. Connect the radio with USB-C in DFU mode — the radio switched off with the cable plugged in.
2. Use the data port on the top of the radio, next to the antenna. The creator states the bottom port is for charging only.
3. In the flashing tool, find the radio as an STM32 bootloader device. If it is missing, the video points to online solutions rather than giving one.
4. Select the 2.10.5 firmware, confirm it is the version on the radio, and start flashing.

After the flash, the video starts from a clean model preset rather than editing an existing one, and names it. That is the model every remaining step is applied to — the USB mode in the next section, the channels after it, and the switches at the end.

Two switches in the model's settings turn the radio from a transmitter into something a game reads as a controller. Both come from the same screen:

• Enabled features → USB joystick: classic → advanced. The default is classic, and the video changes it to advanced — clicked once, then scrolled right to commit the value.
• Interface mode → gamepad. The video calls this the mode that should be selected, and sets it to gamepad.

These two are prerequisites rather than preferences: the channel settings in the next section describe what the radio sends, and this section decides that the radio sends it as a gamepad at all. The video presents them in this order and does not show what each option does on its own.

The creator is explicit that this part took him the longest, and the reason is stated: WARDOGS does not accept everything the radio can send. Channels 1 to 4 are edited in Channel settings on the model screen, and the four rows below are the exact selection he landed on.

The reason for the rotation names is the one given in section 01: this is not a real HOTAS, and its USB HID values differ, so the plain axis names did not register in WARDOGS while rotation X, Y and Z did. Channel 4 is the exception — it is not an axis row at all but the SIM source set to THR, which is the throttle.

Channels 4 through 8 are left alone during this step, because they are not the stick. The video also points out that the result was checked rather than assumed: the axis rows above are what the creator ended up working with after trying several other input selections, and the specific combination is the one that let every remaining input work without overriding a button.

The axes cover the stick and the throttle. The switches on the radio are handled with a different mechanism, and the video explains the mental model: to the game a two-position switch looks like a keyboard key — the key is not pressed, then it is pressed, then it is not pressed again. That is why they can be bound at all, and it is also why the switches have to be declared as two-position rather than left as three-way toggles.

1. Long-press the system button and go to the hardware tab.
2. Set SA — and the switches that follow it — to two position. The creator notes that these switches can come out of a firmware install unbound, so they may need setting again.
3. He states that every switch in the group he names is two-position, with two exceptions: SB and SC are the three-position switches, and he uses those as two-position too, because he does not think WARDOGS picks up three-position mode. He says he did not try them in three-position mode.
4. Check the result in Monitor channels by flipping each switch and watching the channel move.

The buttons get one more step. In Channel settings, channel 9 is switched to mode button, with the starting value at zero — the video says starting at one also works, and that zero is simply where he left it. This is where the transcript used for this page stops mid-sentence, so the remaining switch-to-key assignments are not reproduced here; the channel-9 row is the last step the material documents completely.

Once the radio presents the axes and the switches as inputs, the video's position is that the remaining work is ordinary binding inside WARDOGS. Its own summary of the pipeline is that this covers the EdgeTX version, the USB joystick setup, the axis mapping and the switches — “which is all you need to then bind in WARDOGS”.

What the material does not contain is the other half of that sentence: which WARDOGS action each axis and switch is bound to, and any deadzone or sensitivity value for a radio used this way. Neither is stated, and neither is guessed here. The creator's comment on the outcome is a qualitative one — that flying in WARDOGS feels great with the controller set up properly — rather than a measurement against another input device.

That gap is what keeps the comparison honest. There is no test in this material of the radio route against a gamepad or against mouse and keyboard, so there is no ranking to copy. What the video does support is the shape of the trade: this route needs one specific EdgeTX release and a specific set of axis names, and in return it needs no vJoy or Joystick Gremlin, because WARDOGS picks up the device as it already presents itself. For how the aircraft itself behaves once you are bound, the helicopter control guide covers the in-game side, the sensitivity numbers that exist are collected on the best settings page, and the game itself is sold through the channels listed on the where to buy page.

This section exists because the second video in this material is a general flight-sim gear comparison, not a WARDOGS test. “Cheap Vs Expensive: How Much Better Is High-End Flight Sim Gear?” by Dawid Does Tech Stuff has about 192,000 views and works upward through three price tiers. Nothing in it is measured in WARDOGS, so its opinions are quoted as general flight-sim impressions and kept separate from the setup above.

• Logitech Extreme 3D Pro — the budget tier. Bought new for 50 Canadian dollars. Described as a serviceable, apparently bulletproof stick with a wobbly centre and a small throttle lever on the base that he rates as its weakest part.
• Thrustmaster T.16000M — the middle tier. Sold either as a stick alone or as a HOTAS with a separate throttle. He prefers the stick to the Logitech one and notes it carries more buttons on the base while the Logitech carries more on the stick top. The separate throttle of the bundle is the part he criticises hardest, describing it as sticky and loose at once.
• Winwing Orion 2 — the high-end tier. The video covers it last. The transcript in this material cuts off during that part, so the verdict is not reproduced here. Other high-end names are mentioned in passing rather than reviewed: Virpil, VKB and MOZA.

The one transferable point is structural rather than a product verdict: across every tier, a HOTAS is a joystick plus, ideally, a dedicated throttle with switches around it — which is exactly the hardware the radio route in sections 02 to 05 substitutes for. That substitution, not a purchase recommendation, is what this page can support.

Everything above is quoted from the video named next to it, down to the firmware version and the channel rows. The following items are not in that source at all, and they stay open instead of being filled in:

• Which WARDOGS action each mapped axis controls (Unconfirmed) — the video names rotation X, Y and Z but never says which becomes pitch, roll or yaw in game.
• Any binding, deadzone or sensitivity value for this setup (Unconfirmed) — the video stops at “all you need to then bind in WARDOGS”.
• Whether newer or older EdgeTX releases work (Unconfirmed) — only Centurion V2.10.5 is documented, and the video says a specific version is required without listing alternatives.
• Whether other EdgeTX radios behave identically (Unconfirmed) — the creator expects they will, with different menus, but presents that as expectation rather than testing.
• The three-position behaviour of SB and SC (Unconfirmed) — the creator says he did not try them in three-position mode.
• The rest of the switch and button mapping (Unconfirmed) — the transcript used for this page stops mid-sentence in the channel-9 button step.
• Any comparison against a gamepad or mouse and keyboard (Unconfirmed) — no input-device comparison exists in this material, so no ranking is claimed.
• How this setup behaves in the current build (Unconfirmed) — the video is not dated against Patch 0.11 or Season 1, and no later source re-tests it. Current patch history is on the updates page.

One consequence is worth stating plainly: this is a working configuration reported by one player on one radio, not a supported feature list. If a step does not match your screens, the version number is the first thing to check, because that is the one item the source calls a requirement.