The aim of this guide is to expose a few tips and axis / button mapping suggestions for the Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick and Quadrant. You can use many other joysticks like the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro or an Xbox controller but we find this TCA combo very efficient since you have plenty of axes and buttons you can map.

Middle Control Mapping Tips

Below is our recommendation for your Joystick mapping in Middle Control. You can buy the TCA sidestick and TCA quadrant separately. We recommend mapping focus to buttons instead of an axis, since you will get more precise control.  If you want to know how to map a joystick action to a Middle Control action, feel free to check out our complete youtube tutorial here.

You can also buy the Thrustmaster TCA Add-on that gives you two additional axis, that you can use for Zoom speed and ISO for instance, giving you even more control. We found that mapping focus to the rudder trim button gives a nice control too.

Adjustments to make on the TCA Series

Thiese joysticks where initialy designed for flight simulation so there are a couple of modifications you can bring to make them more suited for live camera control. The first one is remove the detents, those “clicks” that occur when you move the levers up and down. In order to do so on the TCA quadrant. You just unscrew the two U-shaped parts at the bottom and you reverse their position and screw them back.

On the sidestick, you can also disable the detent at the end of the slider by pulling off the knob and unscrewing the small plastic part.

We also recommend that you disable the reverse lock system by moving the throttle switch to one and pulling back on the reverse lever at the same time. This way, the lever will always move from one extreme to the other extreme without you having to pull back the reverse lever.

Finally, at the back of the TCA quadrant, next to the USB cable, you can adjust the strength of the levers. So that they won’t slide too easily.

That’s it ! Please let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions on using this system with Middle Control!