Thrustmaster T-flight HOTAS One - Anyone else having Yaw problems?

[Mole HD]

LOL, not everyone, I trapped into and googled for this stick...

I was about to get this TM but after all I read, I rather get a nice Glenfarclas instead. Shame there is no reliable t- h-rustworthy solution. I used to have the very expensive TM combination back in the days for my falcon, and it never disappointed, not a single day.

Logitech took over the Saitek brand from MadCatz...the build quality and customer support now is chalk and cheese from the old Saitek/MadCatz built stuff.

I have the new Logitech RGB X56 after using the old Saitek X56 for nearly 2 years...I sent an email to Logitech support telling them it had started to yaw drift (once in every hundred hours of heavy use) and they sent me a brand new Logitech made RGB X56 no questions asked, I sent the old Saitek X56 to a mate...the 2 year Logitech guarantee does what it says on the tin...but I'm a bit of a Logitech fanboi in the first place...keyboard, mouse, G13 game controller, X52 Proflight (in a box in the cupboard)... and the X56 of course...

Stick a Logitech or Corsair badge on something and I'll buy it

 

[I.M.StarStuff]

Dr Seuss

I've been having some kind of phantom input happening on the twist yaw. I'll be not touching the stick, and my ship will suddenly yaw to the left a little every few minutes

I have experienced this , very annoying.
Miraculously it was all gone when i added another Point Defence.
I experienced it with more than one ship, and it almost make me break my joystick.
I think it is a "symmetrical balancing" issue, as it happend to me every time when i had a Point Defence on the Left or only on the right side.

 

[Alec Turner]

This twist/yaw fault on the T.Flight is a very common fault, easy to fix if you know how to use a soldering iron (I've got 3 of these sticks and have fixed all of them at least once). Remove the 4 screws down the side of the main joystick. The stick then comes apart (gently ... there are thin wires in there). On the top of the inner shaft is a little black square piece with three wires coming out of it, one of these will have come unsoldered. The wires may have some rubbery gunk protecting the contacts - carefully remove this with a sharp knife. Now resolder the loose wire (it might not be completely off yet in which case just melt and reset the existing solder). You need to be careful 'cos the wires are super thin but once resoldered you should be good to go for another 6 months or so. Don't bother putting new protective goop over the contacts, not really necessary and just makes it harder to repair next time. Putting the stick back together is a bit fiddly but be patient and it'll all fit eventually. Make sure the little wire spring clip is correctly located otherwise you'll find the stick won't twist.

 

[Requiem Mortis]

To go with Alecs post above

Spoiler: Picture

Picture is actually of the PS4 version of the stick but the internals are just the same as the Hotas One so it's a valid illustration of the parts.

 

[Alec Turner]

To go with Alecs post above

Picture is actually of the PS4 version of the stick but the internals are just the same as the Hotas One so it's a valid illustration of the parts.

Brilliant - so yeah, that's the little spring thing which needs to go like this ..

Spoiler

And the bit with the three wires which need soldering back (including "rubbery gunk") is circled below ..

 

[Alec Turner]

Found it! Here's the video I learned my repair skills from ...

Edit: and found a better image from there of the bit that needs resoldering which I've edited back into my previous post.

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Nice one Alec

 

[Alec Turner]

One further note just to say that the first symptom you'll see of this fault is a slight intermittent input (typically to the right) on the yaw control. Initially this may be below your deadzone threshold but as it gets worse you'll start to start to notice (especially in camera view) a constant drift off to the right. Eventually yaw stops working altogether (presumably when the wire is completely off). You may find you'll need to strip a bit more of the wire that needs resoldering. Again, do this VERY carefully 'cos those wires are incredibly thin. Also note that you can usually tease a bit more wire up out of the inside of the white shaft if you need it.

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

LOL, not everyone, I trapped into and googled for this stick...

I was about to get this TM but after all I read, I rather get a nice Glenfarclas instead. Shame there is no reliable t- h-rustworthy solution. I used to have the very expensive TM combination back in the days for my falcon, and it never disappointed, not a single day.

Honestly you can get more out of an elite controller than a hotas. It doesn't give you that giddy feeling like the hotas but if your creative with the button mapping you can make combinations with the back paddles that are normally not possible. The bonus is it can be used for other games too.

If you can fix it like the others posters have suggested then great but if you haven't bought a hotas yet then I'd go for the elite or wait for the elite 2 to come out since it will have more button mapping combinations.

 

[MaxG10]

@Sensei Jacksama Thanks, I had a look at that elite controller, but I guess them pedals would be always "in the way", not sure though, expensive piece anyways. I dread not having a decent PC to run elite from with a joystick like @Mole HD mentioned. Only an xbox not even 1x here, and apart from that couple of Mac's and we know that went sour eith EDH, unfortunately.

What I miss most to be honest is a chance to have a different color scheme, this orange on black stuff is hard to read for older eyes from a distance, and mine are ruined from orange and green IBMs ack in the days.... that is many many days. LOL

Watched a few videos by a chap who calls himself CMDR Exiguous, and he had a video of his gear, coming in at around 10k..... yeah, 10,000!!! Impressive and I admit that is a helluva setup he built himself. Let alone the VR stuff for elite must be stunning.... Geeze, you can burn serious money for gaming at home.

Just reading the second part of a very good SF, called The Three Body Problem, very interesting indeed, anyways, sorry for ranting.... having a bad day here.

so long
MaxG10

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

@Sensei Jacksama Thanks, I had a look at that elite controller, but I guess them pedals would be always "in the way", not sure though, expensive piece anyways. I dread not having a decent PC to run elite from with a joystick like @Mole HD mentioned. Only an xbox not even 1x here, and apart from that couple of Mac's and we know that went sour eith EDH, unfortunately.

What I miss most to be honest is a chance to have a different color scheme, this orange on black stuff is hard to read for older eyes from a distance, and mine are ruined from orange and green IBMs ack in the days.... that is many many days. LOL

Watched a few videos by a chap who calls himself CMDR Exiguous, and he had a video of his gear, coming in at around 10k..... yeah, 10,000!!! Impressive and I admit that is a helluva setup he built himself. Let alone the VR stuff for elite must be stunning.... Geeze, you can burn serious money for gaming at home.

Just reading the second part of a very good SF, called The Three Body Problem, very interesting indeed, anyways, sorry for ranting.... having a bad day here.

so long
MaxG10

The pedals are an easy fix. I bought a set on Ebay from China and took some bolt cutters to trim them down. Then i filed it down to smooth the edges. If you mess it up it's no big deal they are cheap to replace and you can get this stuff called Sugru which is a moldable plastic and can make your own custom design. I couldn't stand how they felt so I trimmed it down so they dont get in the way

 

[tafkabb]

Found it! Here's the video I learned my repair skills from ...

Edit: and found a better image from there of the bit that needs resoldering which I've edited back into my previous post.

I've taken mine apart twice now and cleaned it, and that's worked fine. It's 18 months old now.
If I get what looks like a more permanent fault, I'll try this. Thanks

 

[Guywired]

In the same boat, it's so random..

I can go weeks with no issues and then weeks where it's unplayable.

Will prolly give this a go sometime in the next couple of months. VERY disappointing, Thrustmaster.

 

[Mole HD]

Besides the T-Flight series of HOTAS being fairly cheaply made, there's a lot of folks been using them on PC for years with very few issues...following the general maintenance tips provided here of course. I've a feeling it's somehow tied into the Microsoft Xbox drivers as well as the physical build problems with the T-Flight....and don't go telling me that the HOTAS one is different...I can plug it straight into my PC and have it working with the same driver set as my ancient T-Flight I dug out of a cupboard...it's the same stick with fancy coloured buttons and an added Xbox button which doubles as the Windows key on it.

The more expensive HOTAS rigs are built and designed for general physical maintenance in mind for prolonged use...regular maintenance like silicone greasing of bearings and gimbals/springs etc to get the best useage out of them as well as regular driver suite and software updates from the manufacturer...the T-flight series was never designed with that in mind. It's more designed and built in the same vein as a standard plug in and play Xbox controller...a throw away and replace when broken piece of hardware rather than a longer term use thing...

To add to that, the slapped on Xbox drivers that seem to have been hastily implemented with no calibration software as part of the driver suite...it's going to go wrong somewhere.

 

[ExoForce]

Thrustmaster T Flight Hotas 4 Repair

The T Flight Hotas 4 is a joystick controller manufactured by Thrustmaster in 2015 that is used for specific flight simulation games. Model number 4169083 is currently supported by PC and PlayStation 4.

www.ifixit.com

Twist problem - a tiny drop of WD-40 for the first aid.

I am looking at Hotas 4, it has 3 time smaller deadzones then Hotas-X (those are programmed in the driver on purpouse, a guy on other forum did measuring)

 

[tafkabb]

Thrustmaster T Flight Hotas 4 Repair

The T Flight Hotas 4 is a joystick controller manufactured by Thrustmaster in 2015 that is used for specific flight simulation games. Model number 4169083 is currently supported by PC and PlayStation 4.

www.ifixit.com

Twist problem - a tiny drop of WD-40 for the first aid.

I am looking at Hotas 4, it has 3 time smaller deadzones then Hotas-X (those are programmed in the driver on purpouse, a guy on other forum did measuring)

Neither are compatible with Xbox

 

[Mole HD]

Neither are compatible with Xbox

Same stick, different drivers...the only physical differences are the button icons and added Xbox button on the HOTAS one.

 

[GraphiteGB]

The hot melt glue bad application is likely one of the issues with the hotas, its application is meant to move the stress point off away from the wire joins and add it to the sleeve of the wire... This way when correctly applied the wire movement is actualy not at the solder point and moved away from the solder, due to the Hot glue not bonding with all three wires sleeves correctly its not moving the stress away from the wire strands, this is were quality controll is dropping as the glue is likely not getting hot enough to bond with all three sleeves of the wires...

Power saving models have a second switch not just a trigger which cuts of power or they will use up Power constantly...

 

[Edarn]

I bought a T. Flight (ace combat edition)... 2 weeks later (maybe 20~30hours play) I got issues mainly with pitch and roll.
Then, issues started appearing with the Right Flight Assist on the back of the throttle.

Sent it back to amazon and got another one... I took 3 week before I started to get pitch/roll issues. I don't have the RFA issue on this new hotas... but still annoying.


Should I send it back again?
I suppose it will be the same if I get a new trhustmaster hotas. I guess for 80€, durability is not an option.

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

I bought a T. Flight (ace combat edition)... 2 weeks later (maybe 20~30hours play) I got issues mainly with pitch and roll.
Then, issues started appearing with the Right Flight Assist on the back of the throttle.

Sent it back to amazon and got another one... I took 3 week before I started to get pitch/roll issues. I don't have the RFA issue on this new hotas... but still annoying.


Should I send it back again?
I suppose it will be the same if I get a new trhustmaster hotas. I guess for 80€, durability is not an option.

You've got the same problem I had. The answer depends on you. If you are good at taking things apart and DIY projects then try the fixes some of the other posters have suggested. If not then get a refund. The elite controller is a good alternative if you are creative with the in game button mapping and the elite 2 controller is coming out too. It's up to you though.