for Saitek users
 

Recently my joystick is not functioning well. I use saitek st290 pro. I don't use it so often but now it's movements become less smooth. I don't know how to describe this. when try to move it gentle and mooth and slowly it moves sudden and then my aim is thrown away.. like... just about to shoot the bugies :evil: to avoid this I then have to use excessive force which makes my arms in pains:mad: even I put some grease but it didn't help it worsened become more unstable :confused:
So I decided to buy my next joystick saitek x52 and looked some reviews from youtube. after I sow this review I'm kind of confused about the relaibility of the saitek products.

Any comment is welcome :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA-dw...eature=related

well, this is without any doubt the best review i have seen :D :D

The X52 is a pretty decent stick.
You'll learn to love all the buttons you can map with the SST.

Problems:

Deadzone:
Is huge - but can be fixed by relocation of the magnets, i.e. put them directly under the hall effect sensor.

Decentering: Was often caused by damaged wires, later models seem to have this issue fixed.
Loss of center still happens, but a short dis- and reconnection of cable in the joystick base solves resolves it.

Conclusion: Awesome stick for the money - sure the G940 will top it, but at a much higher price.

Rem: Get the Basic X52 not the Pro - they are identical.
Plus it saves you money once you consider a 940. ;)


Edit: Is it possible your ST290 just sticks/has increased friction between the spring dish and the base?
If so, triy to apply some grease under dish.
Make sure it's plastic compatible. (Silicone grease or Motorex Bike Grease 2000 f.i.)
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8...8225273499.jpg

I posted a while ago a fix for my saitek. I had the same issue I think your having. I took my stick apart and found the wires coming from the joystick to base section shorted to the conduit it was running thru, rite on the edge. The wires are pretty small and the short was hard to see without a magnifying glass. I pulled the wires to one side and gently filed the rough edge all the way around the condiut. Then I repaired the short in the wires the best I could with some electrical tape. Its been working fine since then and I think that its been since the first of the year.

LOL I posted before I watched the video, I guess if you dont have any electrical tape a hammer will work.

I was considering buying the X50, are they really that bad?

I have the X52 and wouldn't recommend it.

Personally I would wait for the Thrustmaster Warthog Hotas. It will be expensive, but it appears to be very well engineered. It is not available yet but it appears to be almost ready. There is a review at Simhq under Hardware and Software articles.



http://simhq.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5boQrJLp1jA

I took it apart and checked out the innards. Apparently the plastic joints like to grind away and leave a sort of dust on the inside. After cleaning it out it worked OK again, for a bit, but it still does this every now and then.

I keep cleaning and lubing my Saitek Cyborg X (rebadged as the FLY 5) and have the same problem for the same reasons (my AV8R suffered the same problem!) The yoke components are manufactured using the incorrect type of plastic and it grinds away. Not only does it become 'sticky' it develops 'slop' in the centre position as the components wear. The Cyborg Fly 9 (for Xbox) appears to use highly polished Nylon and better materials all round but more expensive - nice movement but has reliability issues with the 'wireless' circuitry. Can't win with Saitek products and will look for an alternative. Why Saitek didn't use the same materials on the CYborg X (which shares the same Yoke design as the FLY9) baffles me as I would have paid more to have a better quality movement.

Actually you cant compare a $100 stick to a $400+ one - not everybody has that budget.

Plus, when it arrives you can expect it to be full of bugs, since it's 1st series.

I use a 2nd hand Saitek X-45. I've had no problems with it except the spring gets a little stiff on occasion, and the throttle isn't 100% smooth - but I've been abusing it for about 5 years now and it still does what I want it to. From what I can tell the X-45 was maybe Saiteks last decent product.

I owned a Saitek Cyborg 3D Rumble Force and also agree that they are poorly built. It was off center from the start and prone to sticking so I had to put grease on it as mentioned for another joystick above.

I'm happy
 

I and my brother had two X45 and they worked pretty well until we broke (all two) the fire switches (meccanical support of the switch) We repaired them but opening the X45's we found a very bad handcraft product. Probably they were the 2th, 3th or my be 9th level of quality because we brought them at very low cost as offert in a big discount.
So we decided to remake al the connections chancing wires when needed. Some time later other switches started braking: the VIEWs ones the FLAPs ones and then we loose precision of the 0 position of a lot of axis. We used them for about 4 years. After that we brought two X52PRO (used ones, on eBay with rudders pedals too) and until now from 1 year, we are very happy for the precision and the meccanical strong of them.
Only I didn't use or try any other model of joy's so I can't compare them vs others.
We didn't opened the X52PRO's but I'm pretty sure that they aren't the 9th quality choise.

owing a X45, a X36, rudder and a cyborg evo, no pb's at all from years except 1 firing button on the x45 that quit working. changed with the one from the x36 (modded for helicopter flying) and here we go again.
Happy with Saitek. good stuff for the money;)

Thanks for the heads up on the X45, I bought a secondhand one listed on Ebay for absolute peanuts and it arrived today. Tried it and works great! I just have to get used to using a 'paddle' type rudder mounted on a throttle .....;)

I'm sorry you don't like the X52.

I bought my own as "broken" from ebay, because of the same failures described here. It took me 5 minutes to fix them.

As described by swiss, you can simply fix the magnets on the parts connected to the stick and remove the slider it's originally positioned in. With this simple and easily reversible modification you can eliminate the sloppy center as well as the non-linear input of the original stick design. Precision is perfect after this mod.

The second problem is the centering spring or rather the plastic part underneath, which is cause of the problem. You can easily fix this as well, either by clamping the spring, if you want less resistance anyway, or by adding a second, smaller spring like it's done in the pro-version or simply by using plastic-grease or silicone-spray to decrease friction between the moving plastic part at the base of the stick and the base of the stick.

Yes, it's a pitty these things don't work from the beginning. On the other hand, you'd be a lot more upset about other joysticks with similar defects but tripple the price ;)

I most surely like mine, especially for games like IL2 and RoF.

What a waste! Give it to me. And me working hard to buy this equipament. :evil:Next time one of you decide to throw away your equipament or destroy it, send me a PM and i ill send my address. :grin:

I agree, it's a shame to destroy a stick that could maybe have been repaired or even suitable for spares. I wanted a better stick and looked at the X50 and X52 but had reservations that I would get used used to a 'paddle' Rudder (having used 'twist' rudders for the last 15 years). These HOTAS devices require a fair amount of desk space and that was a bit of a concern too. The X45 will serve me well in adapting to this type of stick and, being cheap, if things do go belly up it will not be an expensive mistake.

I got my x52 second hand from ebay. I loved it so much I decided to get Saitek rudders as well. The programing took some time to get used to and I tended to push the stick and throttle all over the desk when I got to exited. I fixed the problem by screwing them onto a sheet of chipboard.

I use the x52pro its a solid design i would highly recommend it:)

I got the ffb version of your stick, had it since hmm i dont know, maybe 14 years maybe (i could be wrong my first stick :P and its been a hell of a long time) years, maybe shorter, and its been good to me, my m8 had the MS sidewinder 2 ffb (think thats the name) and when i compared them i thought they felt very similar, but this was a long time ago, ive got some money away for a new stick but donno what to buy!

I'm also a longtime Saitek user, and I've found their biggest problem to be a lack of quality control, having had my original x52 last through 3 years of heavy use, then it's replacement go wonky in six months! I'd not really expect something at the price level of Saitek to last more than 3-5 years of heavy use, and it's hard to beat all those buttons!

I do believe from what I've seen that the early bugs with the x52 are pretty much worked out, and the newest versions of their software/drivers are quite good.

Hi wannebe,

I have bought 3 Saitek products so far...

The cyborg evo force... Complete crap - rudder stopped turning right and hat switch broke (wont work anymore at all) after maybe 6hrs of use

Tried out the aviator... Cheap, too light and input action totally imprecise (stiff and too soft, at varying angles.

The Saitek throttle quadrant ... No bad at all when it works BUT I had to take the whole thing apart and fix it cause sliding up the left slider would also increase input on the middle slider...
that shit can get annoying after a short while.

Conclusion:- their build quality is so poor and the components they use are so cheap, it almost feels like they are having a laugh at our expense. I bought the joysticks cause they
are the only company that make sticks for lefties. And I am here to tell you that I'd rather have a sore wrist then fly with a saitek joystick.

Stick with the simple and brilliant Logitek extreme 3d pro - I have had it for 4 years and its still perfect. Balanced and smooth input action, heavy base and tough. They build their stuff properly.

The Saitek products look good, and thats about all.

Funny, seen it before in the past.

I'm still using my original X-45 8 plus years now I think.

I fly all the time. I must of got lucky.

Albiet I only us the throttle any more and fly with the Microsoft FFB

The X-45 stick is used as a button bay.

Logitechs are why I went to Saitek years ago, Their pots always failed. I went through three of them in less than 6 months. Rudder was always first to fail.

Well i have a Saitek Cyborg 3D Rumble Force for over 6 years and i didnt have a single problem with it. Before this i bought 3 Logitech sticks even from the upper class but sooner or later all of them had the same problem : the rudder control (Z axis) started malfunctioning... I thought the X52 was a good build...