Hardware & Technical Saitek x55 rhino

[doc101]

I've been getting quality hours in with the X55 and generally I'm pretty happy with it. It has however started to squeak when twisting for yaw which many others have reported. If that doesn't settle down I'll look into taking the stick apart to lubricate it.

The other main issue isn't they haven't got the tolerances 100% right with the return collar. It sticks occasionally on the shaft if I use the softest red spring (this means the stick doesn't properly centre), so I'm using the yellow spring atm. Hopefully this will wear in as I prefer the red spring.

 

[warbaby2]

I've been getting quality hours in with the X55 and generally I'm pretty happy with it. It has however started to squeak when twisting for yaw which many others have reported. If that doesn't settle down I'll look into taking the stick apart to lubricate it.

The other main issue isn't they haven't got the tolerances 100% right with the return collar. It sticks occasionally on the shaft if I use the softest red spring (this means the stick doesn't properly centre), so I'm using the yellow spring atm. Hopefully this will wear in as I prefer the red spring.

I had that too... seams that the shaft and ring, both being plastic, have some excess material around them. It should go away with normal wear, but if it's too annoying, you can use a nail file to carefully file some of it off and lubricate the stick afterwards with either teflon lube or silikon spray. I did that yesterday, and today I can use the yellow spring without much friction.

Look here, for a closer explanation of what you can do.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

booo!

that code is good till july so dont panic.

that warthog on box is showing up as £250 for me..... may have been pricing error.

its a good stick no doubt, nicer than the rhino, but for me £100 difference is the difference between just about justifying it and not..... (truth is i probably would have got an x52 if i could have found one for £80 which is what they were 6 months ago.


but the other problem for me with the warthog is, it doesnt have a twisty z axis for yaw, the x52 & X55 does.

 

[OldSalt]

I have been following the X55 since it was announced and this thread has been very informative because I have been thinking about upgrading from my X52 Pro.

I have had the X52Pro for about three years and it replaced an X45 which I had owned for so long I cannot remember. I gave it to a friend. I know Saitek has a reputation for quality issues but not only is my Pro as good as the day I got it, the X45 is still going strong too. Maybe I got lucky but I'm not a great believer in any luck you don't make for yourself.

So, the X55. In the YT reviews I can't see a lockout for the twist rudder, could someone confirm that you can lock the stick as I have never been able to get my head round them and I use pedals anyway ? I also like the covered top switch on the 52, in ED its handy to avoid embarrassing boosting in stations !

I am tempted more by the split throttles but for ED I am not sure it would do that much for me. I am thinking I will probably wait until more user reviews come out and prices settle. That said I've just seen a new X52 Pro on Amazon for £231 ! What's all that about ?

 

[warbaby2]

Well, I payed 199€ with an Austrian webshop, and I also had free shipping because of that... but prices on the net seam to be all over the place.

About the rudder lock the x52 had, there is none, but I guess you can configure in the Software for it to be shiftable... or disable it all together.

 

[Arla]

So, the X55. In the YT reviews I can't see a lockout for the twist rudder, could someone confirm that you can lock the stick as I have never been able to get my head round them and I use pedals anyway ?

From what I've read, you can disable the twist axis so it doesn't register movement but there's no physical lock to keep it from twisting.

 

[Iskariot]

I have been thinking about buying a X55 for a while now but all the reports about problems make me hold back.
I know they can be resolved, but I feel a HOTAS in that price class should not have problems like this, and it should not be the customer who has to resolve them. It irritates me that Saitek would ship this HOTAS like this and it makes me lose trust in them.

So, now I am thinking about buying the Thrustmaster Warthog. I will have to spend far more than I wanted to, but I hope this product is at least a finished product that does not require the customer partaking in the production process .

I read it has no twist axis like the X55 Rhino.
Do any of you think I will be missing that feature?
(There is no way I will be buying pedals.)

 

[karacho]

for me the twist axis is a must for ED.

 

[Aleksej]

I have been thinking about buying a X55 for a while now but all the reports about problems make me hold back.
I know they can be resolved, but I feel a HOTAS in that price class should not have problems like this, and it should not be the customer who has to resolve them. It irritates me that Saitek would ship this HOTAS like this and it makes me lose trust in them.

So, now I am thinking about buying the Thrustmaster Warthog. I will have to spend far more than I wanted to, but I hope this product is at least a finished product that does not require the customer partaking in the production process .

I read it has no twist axis like the X55 Rhino.
Do any of you think I will be missing that feature?
(There is no way I will be buying pedals.)

Twist axis is a must have for ED. As for rudder pedals they are good for lateral and vertical thrust.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

).

I read it has no twist axis like the X55 Rhino.
Do any of you think I will be missing that feature?
(There is no way I will be buying pedals.)

put it this way, it was a show stopper for me

even though it is slow, it can be handy for fine tuning when scooping or docking.

of course you can get around it, and am sure you will get used to not having it....... but for all that money I personally would not want to be "getting around" issues,

the way I look at it is, build quality issues I imagine will be fixed in later manufacture runs.... if my stick develops a fault / annoyance, I will do what I usually do, wait till the warranty is about to run out and get it replaced.

This is what I did with my fanatec racing rig and that turned out ok . Even out of warranty, the sales of goods act in the uk will help if need be in the UK, maybe you guys have something similar??? (I had a TV repaired FOC using that)

 

[Aleksej]

I have been following the X55 since it was announced and this thread has been very informative because I have been thinking about upgrading from my X52 Pro.

I have had the X52Pro for about three years and it replaced an X45 which I had owned for so long I cannot remember. I gave it to a friend. I know Saitek has a reputation for quality issues but not only is my Pro as good as the day I got it, the X45 is still going strong too. Maybe I got lucky but I'm not a great believer in any luck you don't make for yourself.

So, the X55. In the YT reviews I can't see a lockout for the twist rudder, could someone confirm that you can lock the stick as I have never been able to get my head round them and I use pedals anyway ? I also like the covered top switch on the 52, in ED its handy to avoid embarrassing boosting in stations !

I am tempted more by the split throttles but for ED I am not sure it would do that much for me. I am thinking I will probably wait until more user reviews come out and prices settle. That said I've just seen a new X52 Pro on Amazon for £231 ! What's all that about ?

You can lock any axis you want in Saitek Software both for Stick and Throttle.

As for price of X52 Pro they are sold by different companies via Amazon, so it is not Amazon selling them. So if the company thinks it can sell X52 Pro for £231 let it set this price. They can set the price of £10000 but this does not mean that someone will buy it.

 

[Ayo]

I have been thinking about buying a X55 for a while now but all the reports about problems make me hold back.
I know they can be resolved, but I feel a HOTAS in that price class should not have problems like this, and it should not be the customer who has to resolve them. It irritates me that Saitek would ship this HOTAS like this and it makes me lose trust in them.

So, now I am thinking about buying the Thrustmaster Warthog. I will have to spend far more than I wanted to, but I hope this product is at least a finished product that does not require the customer partaking in the production process .

I read it has no twist axis like the X55 Rhino.
Do any of you think I will be missing that feature?
(There is no way I will be buying pedals.)

Twist is very helpful if you don't want pedals. You need to map Yaw to something for precise aiming and an axis is more precise than buttons.

 

[Iskariot]

for me the twist axis is a must for ED.

Twist axis is a must have for ED. As for rudder pedals they are good for lateral and vertical thrust.

put it this way, it was a show stopper for me

Twist is very helpful if you don't want pedals. You need to map Yaw to something for precise aiming and an axis is more precise than buttons.

Thanks for the replies.
That leaves me hanging in limbo again .

No Warthog for me then.
Perhaps I should try my luck with an X55 after all.
I think buying a good Joystick is the most difficult computer related thing I ever did.

 

[wergor]

Well, I payed 199€ with an Austrian webshop, and I also had free shipping because of that... but prices on the net seam to be all over the place.

i think we may have both ordered fom the same shop are you from austria too?

 

[PsychoDeli]

Thanks for the replies.
That leaves me hanging in limbo again .

No Warthog for me then.
Perhaps I should try my luck with an X55 after all.
I think buying a good Joystick is the most difficult computer related thing I ever did.

I feel your pain, I went through this exact same thing!

I considered:

Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS - Cheap! My thoughts were that I could test the waters and if I then want to upgrade I have only lost about £30

Thrustmaster Warthog - Expensive at £250 but amazing quality and accuracy but for me, I must have a twist on the stick. I did not want to buy s seperate set of pedals. I certainly did not want to have to hook all this equipment up every time I want to play

Saitek X52 Pro - The most popular stick so I thought there will be plenty of support and I still believe this is true. Also, at £109 it is quite a cheap option. However, it is more than 10 years old, so maybe investing in newer tech is a good idea?

Saitek X55 - A set with more buttons than I have thoughts! There are MANY great things about this stick, so I will only highlight the few that worried me
- The trigger is only single phase (Do I really need ANOTHER button)
- It is brand new, so support might still be dodgy (True in some cases but getting better all the time)
- Some people said the build quality was sub-par (If you read a few they are being a bit picky and sure, if you make thousands of a product there will be the odd fault. Majority of reviews are positive)

So, I now have on order a X55 Rhino which should hopefully be here next week

Good luck with your choice

 

[OldSalt]

Well, I payed 199€ with an Austrian webshop, and I also had free shipping because of that... but prices on the net seam to be all over the place.

About the rudder lock the x52 had, there is none, but I guess you can configure in the Software for it to be shiftable... or disable it all together.

Thanks,

Thats a big put off for me, wonder why they dropped it when they are trying to sell their pedals as part of an integrated system. Weird.

 

[jgm]

I think buying a good Joystick is the most difficult computer related thing I ever did.

I've been reading this and other threads around joysticks and have decided to take the plunge with the X55. I figure that if it doesn't work I can always return it, and if it does work I will be happy that I have picked up what should be the best of the available options.

But what I really want to be doing is playing ED so stopped reading and just ordered something.

 

[Iskariot]

I feel your pain, I went through this exact same thing!

I considered:

Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS - Cheap! My thoughts were that I could test the waters and if I then want to upgrade I have only lost about £30

Thrustmaster Warthog - Expensive at £250 but amazing quality and accuracy but for me, I must have a twist on the stick. I did not want to buy s seperate set of pedals. I certainly did not want to have to hook all this equipment up every time I want to play

Saitek X52 Pro - The most popular stick so I thought there will be plenty of support and I still believe this is true. Also, at £109 it is quite a cheap option. However, it is more than 10 years old, so maybe investing in newer tech is a good idea?

Saitek X55 - A set with more buttons than I have thoughts! There are MANY great things about this stick, so I will only highlight the few that worried me
- The trigger is only single phase (Do I really need ANOTHER button)
- It is brand new, so support might still be dodgy (True in some cases but getting better all the time)
- Some people said the build quality was sub-par (If you read a few they are being a bit picky and sure, if you make thousands of a product there will be the odd fault. Majority of reviews are positive)

So, I now have on order a X55 Rhino which should hopefully be here next week

Good luck with your choice

We went through virtually the exact same thought processes, although I seriously consider(ed) the CH HOTAS too. I had a CH stick for years and the thing was truly indestructible. But the CH sticks have no twist on the stick either. The CH throttle has a sliding movement which I do not like very much. Also the CH HOTAS is a bit lacking in the button department. But the durability of CH is tremendous.

I recently read that the X55 was actually a little bit better quality-wise than the X52Pro.
I do like the design of the X55 very much.

I think I will wait a bit longer.
I still have an old and little used X52 lying around somewhere.

 

[Darkrunner]

Picked up my X55 this weekend and have been playing with it a bit. So far my only complaint is "I'm not happy with the button layouts"!

Now, I've done a bit of searching and the only real post I've come across on someone showing their button layouts included them having the foot peddles. Which I do not have.

So does anyone have a layout (that they're happy with) on how they have their setting up for the X55 they're willing to share?

Thanks!

 

[Darojax]

I haven't got mine yet, but wouldn't it make sense to have the pitch and roll on the Y and X axis of the yoke, the Yaw on yoke-twist (instead of rudder pedals) and then have the thrust up/down/left/right on one of the hat switches on the throttle?

Would also be very interested to hear how those with the X55 currently have it set up!