Does the HOTAS 4 have a deadzone adjustment?

[donkclarke]

Good Morning CMDRs,
Does anyone else who flys with HOTAS 4 have an issue where the joystick has a slight creep to the ship movement in-game?
Mine has the smallest amount of roll (it would probably take 10 mins to complete a 360° roll with hands off the stick) and is a small annoyance.
It's due a regrease soon as the creak is coming back, so that may fix it, but a deadzone adjustment for the joysticks zero position would be good, and I can't seem to find an option in the controller menu.
My Mrs would probably tell me i'm having a man look, but if anyone out there knows where this setting is, could you please divulge this information?
Cheers.

 

[KillaALF]

Don't know why this would be different for PS4, but on PC there is most definitely an option to set up a deadzone for pretty much any axis you use. Is there any configuration tool for the HOTAS 4 outside of the game?

 

[Hooplah]

I have two accounts with the PC and PS4 versions. Yes, the Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 for the PlayStation has access to the dead zones. But Thrustmaster controllers are so well designed that I've never had to deal with these settings on the PS. They really nail the needed control sensitively Unlike my PC version which is picky even with the Thrustmaster high end Warthog. It is after all the same buttons on a Dual Shock controller just in a different place. Either works equally well but the HOTAS 4 is plus with great sensitivity and much more inversive. You decide.

Buying and testing the six most popular HOTAS for ED on the PC at great expense (I have no life) I've never had to dial in any dead zones on the PlayStation. If you are getting weird movements then perhaps replace the thing. You should not have to dial in dead zones per my experience playing with all these toys! It took me several years to get to three billion on the PC. I got to 5 billion on the PC less than 200 hours using the HOTAS 4 on the PS. But that is all about my talents with little to do with the controllers. Meanwhile the X and O labels on the buttons on the HOTAS 4 have been wiped clean. Good thing that my hands memory knows where they are there.

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

Yes, I adjusted mine and I've heard anecdotally that several people have experienced drift on the stick. I'm not good enough a pilot for a small deadzone to affect my flying. More important to me is when I'm making that 30/40 mins supercruise passenger delivery I can set the stick down and go and do something useful. If you go to the axis you're wanting to adjust you can expand the (+) by it and it should reveal itself. The post in my sig may have a relevant screenshot I will take a look. I have 'man looks' for things all the time and the missus usually tells me where things are but in ED I'm on my own ;-)

Update: In my screenshots it's not expanded, but if you look at the first screenshot, where you have pitch and roll axis you can press the triangle button. You should then be able to see the deadzone adjustment. I made small adjustments at first to make sure I was using the minimum I needed to.

 

[Bummer]

I have two accounts with the PC and PS4 versions. Yes, the Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 for the PlayStation has access to the dead zones. But Thrustmaster controllers are so well designed that I've never had to deal with these settings on the PS. Unlike my PC version which is picky even with the Thrustmaster high end Warthog. It is after all the same buttons on a Dual Shock controller just in a different place. Either works equally well but the HOTAS 4 is more inversive. You decide.

You're kidding, right?

I'll soon be getting my third Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 because of axis drift problems. The first one began to yaw to port randomly. Landings became quite the challenge. The second one now rotates clockwise, making takeoffs quite interesting. Plus the buttons have become unreliable - the hat has begun to bounce when trying to set pips, and sometimes "down" simply doesn't work.

These are the low end of sticks and do not last long. The warranty is worthless unless you have a Windows box to use to prove to Thrustmaster there's a problem. Poor Thrustmaster can't get it through their heads that there are people who don't use Micro Soft's Virus Empowerment System.

Playstation users are a captive audience for Thrustmaster since this is the only HOTAS licensed by Sony.

 

[donkclarke]

Kind of glad to hear I am not the only one with a small amount of drift and that there is a setting to adjust.
The controller settings menu aren't the friendliest I've come across, but good to know it's there all the same. Will have a better delve into the menu in tonight's session!
Thanks CMDRs.

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

I have two accounts with the PC and PS4 versions. Yes, the Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 for the PlayStation has access to the dead zones. But Thrustmaster controllers are so well designed that I've never had to deal with these settings on the PS. They really nail the needed control sensitively Unlike my PC version which is picky even with the Thrustmaster high end Warthog. It is after all the same buttons on a Dual Shock controller just in a different place. Either works equally well but the HOTAS 4 is plus with great sensitivity and much more inversive. You decide.

Buying and testing the six most popular HOTAS for ED on the PC at great expense (I have no life) I've never had to dial in any dead zones on the PlayStation. If you are getting weird movements then perhaps replace the thing. You should not have to dial in dead zones per my experience playing with all these toys! It took me several years to get to three billion on the PC. I got to 5 billion on the PC less than 200 hours using the HOTAS 4 on the PS. But that is all about my talents with little to do with the controllers. Meanwhile the X and O labels on the buttons on the HOTAS 4 have been wiped clean. Good thing that my hands memory knows where they are there.

In regards to you last point of the worn icons, I etched them on to mine. Just in case, tis a good thing, because I didn't play for month and totally for got which was which.

 

[TWitko]

My Hotas is basically fine ... no drift. Just sometimes, especially after some wild combats (as I shake that unfortunate stick quite violently) I encouter some small drift. Small "slap" on the top of stick with one figer or two helps ... but I own Hotas for two weeks only, so it's posible it'll worn later (?)

Anyway as was stated already, there should be some deadzone setting available .. as far as I can remember -> Options/Control if I'm right (not at my PS4 now)...

TW

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

When new, I had no problem with squeaking, a couple of 10 hour days later, experience it. I took them apart, lengthed the springs about an inch and developed a significant drifting effect. Did as labrunning suggested and adjusted my yaws and pitch a wee bit, and after several adjustments. It's been steady and straight as an arrow ever since. A trip from the star to Hutton only has about a one inch drift. Knowing that, I adjust my approach an inch and forget about it for the next 80 to 90 minutes. One inch in 90 minutes is probably the best it will ever be.

Because of the duration involved in that mission, it's a great place to adjust ones settings. A small adjustment, test for 10 minutes and readjust agian, and again and again, till it's tolerable.

 

[Iron Body]

I also have both PC and PS4 accounts and use my 6 month old HOTAS 4 on both machines with the same custom bindings.

On the PC there is no drift whatsoever, and I'm using default dead-zones.
On the PS4 there is occasionally a slight drift in either roll or yaw. I just flick the stick to one side briefly and that usually cures it. But on a Mug run I do have to correct it every 10 minutes or so.
As to the creaking - I quite like it. It sounds like an old wooden sailing ship, where you have to correct the steering to maintain a course.

On landing or fighting, the drift is not noticeable. So I won't be modifying the stick to cure the creak, especially if that creates more drift.

 

[TWitko]

I love my Hotas4 and I really appreciate it (see my posts about it all around). I'd buy it again and again. Simply, I can't imagine to play ED without it, now ... but honestly, we should admit it's quality is corresponding to it's price .. it's quite cheap plastic stick. Howgh ..

I believe, we (console players), deserve some higher quality option. Let me ephasize "OPTION". If you don't want to spend your life savings for gaming stick, just buy HOTAS4. It's great, no problem at all and you'll enjoy it .. But I'd like to have option to buy something significantly better - I mean - quality, material, feeling .. more buttons to assign ... and I'm ready to pay additional penny for it. I hope one day, sooner or later (yes, sooner sounds better ), there could be such option and I'm looking forward to it. Meantime, I enjoy that H4, even I must become reconsiled to some of its weak points ..

TW

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

I love my Hotas4 and I really appreciate it (see my posts about it all around). I'd buy it again and again. Simply, I can't imagine to play ED without it, now ... but honestly, we should admit it's quality is corresponding to it's price .. it's quite cheap plastic stick. Howgh ..

I believe, we (console players), deserve some higher quality option. Let me ephasize "OPTION". If you don't want to spend your life savings for gaming stick, just buy HOTAS4. It's great, no problem at all and you'll enjoy it .. But I'd like to have option to buy something significantly better - I mean - quality, material, feeling .. more buttons to assign ... and I'm ready to pay additional penny for it. I hope one day, sooner or later (yes, sooner sounds better ), there could be such option and I'm looking forward to it. Meantime, I enjoy that H4, even I must become reconsiled to some of its weak points ..

TW

DITTO!

 

[damon8r351]

Mine drifts like this occasionally, and it's always to port. When it happens, I'll just unplug it, move the stick around in a few circles, twist it a few times, give it a couple more circles, then plug it back in. Usually seems to fix it.

 

[Hooplah]

You're kidding, right?....

No, I'm not. But I only bought one Thrustmaster HOTAS 4 for the PlayStation which works perfectly without adjusting the dead zones. It worked well enough for me to make 5 billion credits before I wore off the X and O logos on the buttons and still works great. But in a global world others will have issues. Given the manufacturing process no controller will work perfect every time.

I went with two Saitek X-55s now using an X-56 waiting for it to eventually fail on the PC. But when it works no other controller comes close to programming all the massive controls available in ED. The programmers totally nailed it. The hardware guys/gals and quality control dropped the ball. Thus I went with the 3 year warranty as that yaw spring will eventually fail. Meanwhile I enjoy an amazing controller system playing ED that all others are lacking. I own all the others. You want to buy one? My Thrustmaster Warthog joystick and throttle is in the hallway gathering dust.

 

[Nic Kowalski]

Same here, found a small, slow pitch movement of the ship if I leave the stick, in my first session with the Hotas4. There's some....don't know the exact word in English sorry, but there is some "room for movement" of the stick in the center before the feedback force comes in, and if I move it around this area (so very small movements) and leave it again, the slow pitch goes away. I will try to apply a little deadzone, I think this will solve the problem. Pretty happy with my new Hotas4, but I would definitely buy a better set if it were available for the PS4!

 

[madmattnz]

I’ve been playing with my HOTAS 4 since launch and have also been having the same drift problem so I have already had to adjust the dead zones several times. The main movement is yaw to the left but it does roll too. The doesn’t help in the galaxy map or when taking screenshots. Sometimes it is worse than others and I often manoeuvre left to right using yaw - by holding the yaw against the drift seems to help.

Like others I would love to have a better quality option. If it continues I may have to contact Thrustmaster but have heard that they want proof - difficult to do on PS4!

I might try nemo’s trick with the springs soon to see if that helps as the warranty will run out soon (I bought it months before ED PS4 release)

 

[Lngjohnsilver1]

Yes it has drift, yes its sh*t quality. Yes its our only option on PS4 - stop talking about PC options its not relevant.

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

Yes it has drift, yes its sh*t quality. Yes its our only option on PS4 - stop talking about PC options its not relevant.

The latter portion has been an issue and a pet peve with me since before launch. Yes, I'll agree that some issues apply to all formats, but I'd assume the reason we each have our own catorgory its for each to discusss, the issues realating to the individual formats. Yes, we all play the same game, but how we accomplish it is entirely different.

 

[Bummer]

No, I'm not.

It's nice to hear you got the good one.

Don't get the wrong idea, I use the HOTAS 4. Indeed, I recommend it. I'm just being honest about the quality I've seen from the Thrustmaster HOTAS 4. Your original statement

But Thrustmaster controllers are so well designed that I've never had to deal with these settings on the PS.

amazes me. My first one began to drift after little more than a month. The second one is suffering both axis drift and button operation problems, though it did take much longer. Look, feel, and button placement are great. Internally they don't seem to do so well.

I think a HOTAS is the only way to fly, I just make sure I have a replacement plan.

 

[spacedog81]

I cant find deadzone settings for elite. My hotas 4 is only 2 months old and has issues. Did frontier remove deadzone settings?

Edit: i found the deadzone sliders BUT why wouldn't ot let me adjust the slider with the mouse?