Good bye my old joystick boi! :(

It's gone. My ol' Thrustmaster T.16000M. It served me well for three years and together with the Oculus CV1 they totally changed the way I play Elite. 😢
All of the sudden yesterday the yaw axis went crazy. It gets stuck on the -x axis (turning left) even when I give the +x input (turning right). So I'm out of Elite until next week on Tuesday, when a brand new THRUSTMASTER T16000 FCS Space Sim Duo will hit my VR room. I tried playing with the xbox360 joypad but it's a big no no no in VR because of the complexity of keybindings. So I decided to hold my breath and make a big step ahead by going super cool with DUAL JOYSTICKS. 😎

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Yes I could buy the Thrustmaster HOTAS set that every serious VR player uses, but I'm a hard left handed and there's nothing I could do adapt my brain to fly with my right hand. I tried hard but I felt like having a handicap, so I gave up and set the joystick to left hand mode. Since than I'm one thing with my ships.
I gave a try to dual joysticks last year. I borrowed a right hand TM from a friend and wow it was so cool. It felt like a real futuristic sci-fi experience. Plus I have a large set of buttons to accomodate the 2000 keybinds of Elite xD

Damn... I'm so excited...can't wait!!! :love:


Big edit here:
So I got my THRUSTMASTER T16000 FCS Space Sim Duo from Amazon two days ago. It took two game sessions to find the sweet key binding. Now I can play ED in VR without touching the keyboard except those weird moments you need to type a system name. Every function is assigned to the two joysticks (I have plenty of buttons).
I decided to make it interesting by playing exclusively FA-off from now on. It feels so natural. I have to get the hang of it, like learning to fly a "submarine"... but man, I have a new toy to play. I'm very satisfied.

ED with two joysticks and FA-off shines! 😎:coffee:
 
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I adapted to use a HOTAS - but am no longer a 'hard' lefty after 40 years or so of 'dextro' tools being the norm... (prefer the 'sinister' tag really)
Have a ball with twin sticks, sounds great!
 
Same yaw deficiency happened to me the other day. I found out the problem was this little section i circled out in the picture; it was unintentionally turning to one side whenever i pushed my hand down to grab the stick.

Seems the screws were loose, i tightened them and i'm still good to go. Just wanted to let you know in case you need a spare for that wonderful dual setup

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How do you control your thrust? It seems it would be a pain to hold the joystick forward as opposed to adjusting a throttle.

The joystick has the analogic throttle control on the bottom front. I have it set forward only, by now. I will set it full once I get used. The stick x/y axis are bound to lateral/vertical thrust, the up/down hat is bound to forward/backward thrust. The analogic throttle works nice to set blue zones and base speed in general, while using the hat to increase/decrease the speed above and below the set speed. This system shines in FA-off combat. I'm thinking about using a joystick curves software to improve vertical and lateral thrust dynamics as the ingame sensitivity is way too high. I want to make it more smooth and progressive.
 
Same yaw deficiency happened to me the other day. I found out the problem was this little section i circled out in the picture; it was unintentionally turning to one side whenever i pushed my hand down to grab the stick.

Seems the screws were loose, i tightened them and i'm still good to go. Just wanted to let you know in case you need a spare for that wonderful dual setup

View attachment 131752

Yes I tried this workaround and it didn't work. So I disassembled the handle and discovered that the z-axis sensor is gone. I could try some electronic spray but the joystick has also deadzone issues and the primary trigger sometimes it doesn't make contact (I guess it is the little white gum magnet cap). With simple spare parts I could even repair it, but this type of work bores me a lot... and I've been intending to buy the new combo so... hey I'm having a blast flipping my ship in the void in full 3D xD
 
Dual stick user here!

I love it.

I cheat though, I have a set of racing pedals and I use the accelerator and brake for forward and backward thrust. SRV is a blast as I am sure you can imagine!!!
 
Dual stick user here!

I love it.

I cheat though, I have a set of racing pedals and I use the accelerator and brake for forward and backward thrust. SRV is a blast as I am sure you can imagine!!!

I know that feeling. I borrowed my brother's G27 and played Elite the same way months ago.... space cars... you know :D
 
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