I love my little USED Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X I picked up for $35. Plug and play. My ships fly great and the SRV handles nicely with it. I'd have a real tough time justifying the cost of those big money HOTAS units. I guess if I was more than just a casual gamer then maybe, yeah, possibly. They do look nice and all...
Hardware & Technical Just found this new HOTAS manufacturer, Oh my.
- Thread starter CMDR NightsLong
- Start date
To be fair, the virpil equivalent of an X56 costs four times as much (and I have my doubts about how much of a legal obligation a company on the other side of the planet has when it comes to warranty replacement...) It's good to have choice.
Yea I know
but I paid around £300 for the full CH setup iirc and if I was doing it now I'd be torn between the CH and the VirpilEdit: Also I believe the Warthog and throttle was around £350 at the time. Could be wrong though. My choices at that time were between Warthog and CH. Went CH in the end.
Last edited:
I have a Virpil Mongoos + WarByrd for my left stick and it is pure heaven!
I have a CH Fighter for my right stick and it is certainly sufficient, but the hard transitions on either axis is a real bummer compared to the Virpil. That being said, I do love the hat on the side of the stick and will miss it when I eventually swap it for another Virpil.
No assembly required unless you want to change out the gimbals/springs from the default, ready right out of the box. Even then, it is very simple.
Twin sticks are bad for accuracy anyways. If you use pedals you can slap 2 axes on them (toes/slide) and 2 on either stick. No twist needed, accuracy retained.
I have a CH Fighter for my right stick and it is certainly sufficient, but the hard transitions on either axis is a real bummer compared to the Virpil. That being said, I do love the hat on the side of the stick and will miss it when I eventually swap it for another Virpil.
No assembly required unless you want to change out the gimbals/springs from the default, ready right out of the box. Even then, it is very simple.
Twin sticks are bad for accuracy anyways. If you use pedals you can slap 2 axes on them (toes/slide) and 2 on either stick. No twist needed, accuracy retained.
Last edited:
Dem prices tho.
They are seriously taking the proverbial on the prices of these things now.
They are seriously taking the proverbial on the prices of these things now.
Pricey indeed, but it doesn't worry me. With all metal (and simple) gimbals and springs, I will be taking mine to the grave. The Logitech/Thrustmaster/etc sticks will eventually cost you more, assuming you play flight games in particular. Those sticks never last more than a handful of months with me before the twist axis fails or their accuracy begins to plummet so badly I have to deadzone the center out. Pass. You get what you pay for. Cheapest joystick I'd go for is the CH Fighterstick.
Last edited:
Really, we need to build our own home-brew HOTAS. some of us have metal workshops; a lot of switches/joystick/sensor mechanisms are off the shelf components these days, it's really just the electronics and configuration software that are the challenge as far as I can see. There must be a bunch of geeks somewhere working on this...
Last edited:
Virpil are cheap compared to the aternative VKB (are these american?)
https://flightsimcontrols.com/
Last edited:
It's funny, the T16000 would last a lot longer if the twist axis was also hall-effect. That said, Thrustmaster/Amazon were happy to do warranty replacement on mine after a year. When it gets to the end of the warranty I'll be taking it apart and trying some potentiometer cleaner on it, as I've had that work well on other things previously. Had a CH years ago (we're talking serial connection era) and could never get it to centre properly (though I'm sure things have changed).
I thought VKB were also Russian - in fact they could be the same people?
Last edited:
I have to calibrate my CH 1/3 times to correct for very slight X drift, but once I do it has no issues. My Virpil never has any such issue. Still the cheapest stick I would go for. I thought Railguns were really difficult until I got the Fighterstick.
VKB is Russian, Virpil is based in Belarus.
Last edited:
I have a Warthog HOTAS, which I have used for a few years now, but I would hesitate to recommend it. Don't get me wrong, I think is is great, but three buttons on the joystick and two on the throttle have failed. Some within it's first year of use.
I suspect there are cheaper options that better value for money.
I suspect there are cheaper options that better value for money.
The only option with a decent number of buttons cheaper than Warthog/Virpil/VKB is the CH Fighterstick.
That desk mount is probably making other manufacturers slam their heads on their desks. One wonders how much vigor it can handle, though. My X-56 sits nice and still under all conditions using nothing more than my very large mouse pad.
Shame that there doesn't seem to be one for the throttle as well. (Edit: I see the adapter now for the throttle.)
On this particular topic, if a replacement for my X-56 does not have the analog thumb sticks (both of them) that can be used for handling directional thrust, it's an automatic no from me.
Riôt
Shame that there doesn't seem to be one for the throttle as well. (Edit: I see the adapter now for the throttle.)
On this particular topic, if a replacement for my X-56 does not have the analog thumb sticks (both of them) that can be used for handling directional thrust, it's an automatic no from me.
Riôt
Last edited:
The desk mount is really only ideal for Virpil/VKB style sticks because they are much taller than typical joysticks, and a bit uncomfortable on a desktop because of this. The gimbals add quite a bit of height. It would make a typical joystick more comfortable I suppose, but they are so short that they aren't uncomfortable as is. I can't imagine someone paying for desk mounts just to zip tie a Logitech onto it that costs less than the mounts.
Analog thumbstick for thrusters is certainly awesome for a stick/throttle setup, but not needed at all with dual sticks and pedals. I honestly wouldn't have anything to assign one to, and I never have to touch my keyboard.
Last edited:
Pretty neat solution
Last edited: