Wich joystick to buy?

[WTE_Galway]

Actually I would choose a good FFB stick over a Hotas as FFB really helps you on the edge of stall but that's just a personal preference.

Unfortunately their are no really good FFB sticks around anymore. The FFB stick to beat all FFB sticks was the MSFFB2 but they are hard to come by new and also I have heard they are hard to setup with win7 especially 64 bit.

[nearmiss]

The MSFT Sidewinder Forcefeedback 2 is an excellent stick.
It has a twist handle for rudder as well.
You can probably find a good used one pretty reasonable.
MSFT no longer produces it, but it is still a top choice, even used.

The CH Products are excellent, but the hotas package is expensive
Pedals $100 or more, Flighterstick $150 or more, Throttle $100 or more.
You have to have pedals with Fighterstick, because there is not twist handle rudder.

The Saitek Aviator is a nice stick with twist handle that isn't too back, not sure who makes it.

[albx]

i'm just using this http://www.thrustmaster.com/files.as...D=155&Images=1

it's precise and cheap..

[Chivas]

The only cheaper stick I've had is the Saitek Aviator which worked well, but I didn't have it long enough to see if it stood the test of time. I've also had all the high end CH, Logitech, and Saitek HOTAS, but they all have flaws of some sort. Although the latest Logitech drivers have greatly improved their product.

Your best bet is still the MSFF2 joystick which can still be bought on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/MICROSOFT-SIDEWIN...me_Controllers

[FAE_Cazador]

If you can, before buying, go to a department store or shop and grab the joystick with your hands, feel the grip and see how it accomodates to you. Some Joysticks are too big for people having small hands. In such case , not all buttons can be reached easily, forcing you to change the position of your hand in critical moments.

Cougar and CH joysticks are IMHO for big hands. In Saitek's X52 and Cyborg Evo series you can adjust the position of the rest for your hand so it's suitable for the smallers.

And in case you were left-handed, X-52 is the better choice as you can adapt it to your right or your left.

[TheGrunch]

I have the original PC Saitek Aviator, and I love it, feel-wise it's an excellent stick, but....after only 2 weeks the auto-calibration feature on mine went really dodgy and the second throttle is now all but useless, since during flight it can do anything from just wandering between about +-10% throttle setting to losing half of the range of the axis, so it's calibrated so that the middle of the axis is at the bottom of the throw and the end of the axis is at the bottom of the throw. If I'd had it set to elevator trim I could only trim down once it went crazy. And there seems to be no way to fix the problem bar deleting a certain registry key and restarting the computer.

Saitek's tech support are now unbelievably appalling. Time was I'd have been shocked to hear someone say that, but now they've been bought out by Mad Catz they really are awful. I am IP banned from the Saitek forum, apparently. Funny that, since it told me that as I was trying to register my first ever account on there to ask for help with the Aviator. Perhaps that's how they keep the numbers down in the tech support forum. Pre-banning.

I was lucky, though, other people have had the same problems on more than one axis, including the main X and Y axes.

I was a bit concerned that the same problems were spreading to the main throttle, which would have made the whole stick useless to me, but the worst that has happened with the main throttle is the aforementioned +-10% wandering.

In the end the best solution was simply not to install the Saitek software (used JoyToKey instead for view hat mouse emulation, since that was all I used the Saitek software for anyway), since the software was what seemed to be causing the majority of the trouble (the trouble seems to come on from task-switching during play...or just completely randomly, take your pick). I'm not sure that the problem's been eliminated, though, since I haven't really flown since I uninstalled the Saitek software ages ago. It seems like the problems take a while to set in after you make a change like changing the USB port that you use, or something like that.

Another complaint is that the spring-loaded button to connect the two throttles together is really cheaply and badly made and after flying a twin about a month after buying the damn thing, mine is now stuck tied together and won't come unstuck no matter what I do from standard pushing it in up to much more delicate or much more violent means...possibly I'll have to saw the little dowel that connects from the first to the second throttle in half.

Finally, the hand rest for the stick was also really tacky, and I couldn't get the cheap screws to go into the hand rest the whole way, so it was never on tightly and it just sat there and rattled aggravatingly until I took it off.

Those are the BAD things. But, the stick itself is very nice to use. I'm probably going to replace the board that came with it with one of Leo Bodnar's boards because they're so much more reliable. What's the NEED for an auto-calibration function, especially one so useless and glitchy? It's a good job I bought the stick with the Bodnar board in mind (along with extending it with a length of PVC piping to see what a longer-throw stick is like).

To be honest, if you're not bothered with FFB or a throttle and you really need reliability, I'd go with the CH Combat Stick, since it's about the same price as the X-52 the others have been suggesting but is far more reliably made. For a cheaper and equally reliable option, you can really only buy a controller board (Leo Bodnar's BU0836 are the best option according to most) and make a stick yourself. Here is a good thread for you made by a bloke in a similar situation.

[janpitor]

I would suggest Logitech extreme 3D PRO. I have it probably about 7 or more years..i dont remember precisely, and it is very precise. No bumps, but last year i had to put a little bit of harder paper between the sensor and body of joystick to eliminate a little bit bigger center zone with no force.

The other possibility is FFB version of this joy, which my mate owns, but he has it for a short time, so i cant speak about reliability.

[Sokol1]

-If i could buy core logics and pots, happily would make my own, but i don't know how, that's even more difficult here.

You can. Use USB card like Leo Bodnar Bu0836 (8 axis, 32 buttons, HAT), or D.I.Y. Mjoy8/16 to eletronics (6/8 axis, 24/112 buttons, HAT) or similar cards, and automotive U-Joint for gimbal, and cheap HALL Sensor like Allegro A1321-EUAT instead pots.

http://www.jpfiles.com/hardware/uni_stick.pdf

Sokol1

[Armatian]

Originally Posted by Sokol1

You can. Use USB card like Leo Bodnar Bu0836 (8 axis, 32 buttons, HAT), or D.I.Y. Mjoy8/16 to eletronics (6/8 axis, 24/112 buttons, HAT) or similar cards, and automotive U-Joint for gimbal, and cheap HALL Sensor like Allegro A1321-EUAT instead pots.

http://www.jpfiles.com/hardware/uni_stick.pdf

Sokol1

Very much appreciated, that was the part i was missing, the only way to long lasting is through non-contact, like optical or this way.
Are those hall sensors precise and progressive enough?

[swiss]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

Unfortunately their are no really good FFB sticks around anymore. The FFB stick to beat all FFB sticks was the MSFFB2 but they are hard to come by new and also I have heard they are hard to setup with win7 especially 64 bit.

There are:

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming...s/devices/5855

but the Pro is beefier, at least thats my understanding

The Pro uses the same hardware.
Differences are:

- 2nd spring
- some alloy trimm knobs instead of plastic
- different MFD(which nobody needs)

that's it.
Safe the money for pedals.