ANOTHER JOYSTICK QUESTIONAIRE

Discussion in 'Warbirds International' started by looseleaf, Jul 4, 2009.

  1. looseleaf

    looseleaf Well-Known Member

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    Hey People;

    It's that time again to ask for some input as what kind of joystick is being used here.


    Please share what kinds you are currently using, what kinds were used before. The good and the bad features of each.

    Details like: USB interface (just in case some oldies are still around)

    Force feed back, Rudder pedals.

    As for me; I have burned-up many Logitech Wingman and Wingman Extremes, two with force-feedback.

    I've worn-out a Saitek Cyborg 3D.

    I went to a friend's house and after he burned-out his 3rd Saitek X52, he bought a CH with rudder pedals and said that was the best joystick ever. After he got used to the rudder pedals he said it works a lot better than the twist feature of his other joysticks.

    I hear a lot of talk about the CH products and the Thrustmaster HOTAS, but these are the most expensive joysticks I have ever seen.

    I am wondering if it's worth it. Maybe I should just buy the cheap ones and just change them when they wear-out?


    Any input will help.

    Thanks
     
  2. reuben

    reuben Well-Known Member

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    I'm on my secind cyborg USB.
    This is wireless, which makes for many haha when batteries run flat.

    I like the cyborg, it's easy to setup so the stick fits.
    It seem kind of 'easy to wear out' though, I swaped to this because firebutton and twist went bad on first one. Now the twist is bad on this one...

    But these have swallowed ther share and then some of dust from sandpapering and crap, stuff have been standing "open" while we renovate the house so...
     
  3. rudeboy

    rudeboy Well-Known Member

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    I want to get some rudder peddles. But then again, it is hard to retrain many old reflexes, I am not used to using my feet to control anything on computers.
    I have owned plenty of other sticks.
    I can't remember some stuff.
     
  4. --stec

    --stec Well-Known Member

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    poor man's hotas setup here: saitek AV8R + pedals from saitek r220 racing wheel. All for less than $100 (and still got a wheel to play racing sims :)). Joystick looks like a cheap toy - very light and "plastic", but aside of that it works all like cyborg except it has 2 throttles. Pedals are new thing to me - still learning to use them instead of twist handle.
     
  5. demian

    demian Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]


    I use too saitek aviator, have it for 1 year and im very pleased.
    3 buttons at the top plus trigger, 2 throttles in the base which u can use as 1 or as two engines in other sims. Hat button for changing views although joy is
    too tall for my taste so its kinda hard to use it.
    Antoher 4 buttons on the base with up-dwn movement which is great because they can be set up in warbirds as 8 different keys. Plus big red button which can be used in "off, 1 or 2" mode and i guess it is for making even more keys!:)
    Joy comes with some fency program for some advanced programing but i never used it , so i wouldnt really know about it. Twist as rudder function, very precise, and after this year its working great. And i have a feeling it will work in the future as well, because joy is overall very hard , and after some time of playing i can really feel pain my right hand. For less than 40 eur i couldnt and i wouldnt dream any better.
    Btw, i never had to calibrate it, just plug in, and it works everytime.
     
  6. Red Ant

    Red Ant Well-Known Member

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    I got a "Black Widow Vibrator". Hated it at first but I actually quite like it now to the point that all attempts to migrate to a different stick have failed because they just didn't "feel right".
    The stick has a throttle lever on the left hand side and a very rudamentary rudder control on the tip of the lever.

    I'd post a picture of my stick but for some reason entering "Black Widow Vibrator" brings up pictures relating to a very different topic. :shuffle:
     
  7. -al---

    -al--- Well-Known Member

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    say no more :D

    edit: WARNING: SPOILER BELOW!






















    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2009
  8. rudeboy

    rudeboy Well-Known Member

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    I would like to try one of those thingies I saw that you can attach to your hat, or your forehead.
    It allows a player to move his head this way and that and the viewpoint moves about. But I can't remember what words to look for in search engines.....
    I probably wouldn't like it for similar reasons why I don't really like foot peddles for computer games; old habits.

    Hey Al:
    After programming a stick like yours [or mine] have you ever spend entire nights assigning this key to that button and that key to this button and on and on and on and then, after the next reboot, noticed that the thing is no longer programmed? I sure have.
    Programming a stick is a lot of work. Nice to have, once you aure become used to using the buttons, instead of keys. But in my case, I have had to reprogram my switches, buttons AND REFLEXES too many damned times.
    I like your stick. Maybe once mine wears out, that one you pictured will still be available in shops???????
     
  9. -al---

    -al--- Well-Known Member

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    hey rude

    @the head thingie: google freetrack

    @the joy: the picture I posted is of what I think redantred has (Black Widow Dildo/Vibrator :D). It reminds me a bit of Intel 386 times... sigh.

    I have a saitek cyborg evo and though I DO program it, I have never had any problems with that. The saitek programming software lets you save your config to a file, and then load it when needed. That is once you finally manage to find a working version of that damned programming software. I have tried downloading from saitek's website, but they never work and always seem like they're missing something. The only thing that works for me is the old version I got on a CD, when I bought the joystick.

    I'm pretty adamant about which function I want on which key, and when I set it up just right and get used to it, there is no force on earth that will make me change it. I'll sooner stop using some function rather than reconfigure it to a different button. You can imagine my pain, when I forget which function was where. I could set it up from the beginning, but if it's not the same way it was before, It bothers me. I can't remember how it's supposed to be, I just know when it's wrong.
    Grrrrrr, and this goes for all the things in RL too, the horror!

    Ah well, enough OT. My cyborg evo survived >2 years of almost constant everyday playtime of several hours. The HAT responsiveness gradually worsened and after a while (~1.2y) it had stopped working. The rudder was never 100% smack in the middle, but it's not a problem in WB (F12 and you're good to go). Worse in other games, you need to wiggle the thing in all directions in-game once in a while, to 'calibrate' it. Overall the stick was a dream when I first got it, it was precise (to a good extent it still is) but with time it got worse a bit. I'd still use it though, and would not even think about buying another one, if not for the broken HAT (my fault, it still had warranty when it stopped working, I was too lazy to do something about it).
    Boy did this turn out long.
     
  10. rudeboy

    rudeboy Well-Known Member

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    I will check it out tks

    I had that. Yep. Now I see the picture, yep.
    That one started to gather dust and grit inside the joint where the stick meets the joint at the base. always a problem in sticks, but in that one, every time I used it, I could rub into the joint and grit would come out of it. I knew what was happenning, it was pretty obvious.

    I had some really funny setups back in the days [386 sx33!!!!!! I don't remember how much ram, it was all I could buy at that time, so maybe, um, a megabite or so???? Was it 4 mB???? Lol. And a Thunderboard sound card. I remember that. And a video card with SVGA (!!!!) and a silly stick from Radio Shack]
     
  11. demian

    demian Well-Known Member

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    So, thats the reason antred not flying with us anymore:)
    He moved to commercial flight sims:cheers:
     
  12. -al---

    -al--- Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, that's right. It grinds there and after that you get some white powder, don't sniff that :p
    My cure for the problem is to apply a drop of appliance oil or similar stuff. The downside is the handle moves around pretty easily after that. Some people don't like that. I sometimes just leave a bit of the dust so that the handle has just the right resistance ;)
     
  13. Red Ant

    Red Ant Well-Known Member

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    Ah, Vibration, not Vibrator! An important distinction. :D
     
  14. vojtas

    vojtas Well-Known Member

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  15. vasco

    vasco Well-Known Member

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    loooooool :D
     
  16. -al---

    -al--- Well-Known Member

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    Well it's your stick, you SHOULD know better :D
     
  17. airfax

    airfax Well-Known Member

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    And I thought that I was TP of the forum.

    wtg Ant!
     
  18. Red Ant

    Red Ant Well-Known Member

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  19. Red Ant

    Red Ant Well-Known Member

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    The Pervert? :p
     
  20. airfax

    airfax Well-Known Member

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    been PM'ing with al again?

    :D