How to mount a Saitek X-55

Tsunami

T
Hi all, first post here so please be gentle.
OK, my X-55 arrived in the post yesterday and (of course) the first thing I did was set it up and take it for a spin in Elite.
After a fair bit of fiddling with knobs and dials (ooohh er missus) I decided that while I generally love it to tiny little bits, the throttle, even on the lowest stiffness, was causing problems with the whole of the body sliding around my desk. Not that surprising as I have a melamine faced desk.
Ok, so I have a few requirements:

1/ I don't want to have it bolted permanently to the desk (amazingly I do other things at my computer that require me not to have whopping great controllers right next to the keyboard permanently).
2/ I don't want it fixed to the arms of the chair either, partly for the above reason and partly as I don't want to have to move my chair away from my monitors.
3/ I don't mind drilling holes in my desk

So, to summarise, it needs to stop the throttle moving while rapidly changing speed and it needs to be easily removable.

After a certain amount of brain usage (burning smell and steam coming from ears) I came up with the following idea.
Take 8 shelf support pegs (the type you get in furniture flat packs) and drill holes for them so the controllers fit onto them. This will stop entirely any sliding.
Ok, now some measurements: The pegs I used are 4.9mm diameter and require 5mm holes. The mounting holes in the controllers are 6mm.
The positioning of the holes can be found by downloading the mounting dimensions info from the Mad Catz website.
I printed out the image after scaling it correctly, but you can do the same thing by measuring a piece of paper to 164cm by 204cm.
I then used it to mark the centre points for the holes and carefully drilled with the 5mm drill.
The end result is a set of four pegs for each unit that prevents them from moving under all but the most extreme provocation.
Hope this has been of use to someone, if you have any questions, please ask, tho I don't off hand know where to get the shelf pegs (I looked in a random box in my garage/workshop and there they were :) )

Dave
 

Ferret06

Ferret06
My X52 came with sucker pads that you can either use or not.

Same as you my stick is fine but the throttle moves.
Fitted the sucker pads to the throttle only, has not moved since.

Also means i don't have bolts sitting in my desk winking at me when the hotas is not in use and packed away.
 

Tsunami

T
Ferret06 said:
My X52 came with sucker pads that you can either use or not.

Same as you my stick is fine but the throttle moves.
Fitted the sucker pads to the throttle only, has not moved since.

Also means i don't have bolts sitting in my desk winking at me when the hotas is not in use and packed away.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I didn't get the suckers.
That's the advantage of this, if you need to move the controllers it's easy and the pegs just pull out of the holes and can be stored in the holes on top of the controllers :)
 

Arksun

Arksun
I don't know what country you're in, but here in the UK if you wanna just stick something down easily, without any sticky residue that you would get with tape or glue, we just use Blu-Tac. Place four or more small dollops of that under the base, press it down firmly onto the desk in a down and slightly sideways motion and it should hold ok (unless you get really violent with your stick movements)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack

Doesn't get easier than that :)
 

Benzine

B
Arksun said:
I don't know what country you're in, but here in the UK if you wanna just stick something down easily, without any sticky residue that you would get with tape or glue, we just use Blu-Tac. Place four or more small dollops of that under the base, press it down firmly onto the desk in a down and slightly sideways motion and it should hold ok (unless you get really violent with your stick movements)


Doesn't get easier than that :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, Blu-Tac works for me, it's easy to remove and keeps my throttle and stick nicely immobilised and I can move it whenever I like without any mess. I'd try that first, then self adhesive velcro if you've still got problems..drilling the desk seems a bit radical :eek:
 

Tsunami

T
Clearly this isn't as popular a method as I'd hoped :)
I would just like to point out that by calling it a "desk" I probably over egged it a little.
When I first moved in here many moons ago, I didn't have any kind of desk area so I bought a piece of melamine covered chipboard and promised myself that I would get something better as soon as I could.
Well, years later and here I am with my crappy chipboard still, and TBH it's done the job. So for me, drilling a few holes in it is hardly a terrible thing.
Maybe I thought others might be in the same position and would value some input.
Maybe I was wrong.
By the way, having completed my first session with the throttle held in place using this method, it's so much more positive than it was, I was constantly having to allow for the possibility of the base sliding around and that was a pain, but this is great :)
 
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Blastbeats

Blastbeats
I used two night stands on both sides of my chair, and I used industrial strength Velcro I bought at Michaels. Works fine for now.
 

Athan

Athan
Arksun said:
I don't know what country you're in, but here in the UK if you wanna just stick something down easily, without any sticky residue that you would get with tape or glue, we just use Blu-Tac. Place four or more small dollops of that under the base, press it down firmly onto the desk in a down and slightly sideways motion and it should hold ok (unless you get really violent with your stick movements)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack

Doesn't get easier than that :)
Click to expand...
In fact I get away with a single piece of blu-tac on each of the stick and throttle units and I only use them because it turns out my desk isn't entirely flat so they're there to stop either unit from wobbling.

Having said that I guess some folk prefer a stronger spring (I use the second weakest) and/or like to really yank the controls around. Apparently I have a lighter touch than that.
 

Bernie65

Bernie65
I use some 3M Dual-Lock strips at the forward edge to stick them to the desk. Fairly stable without play and easy to remove by tilting the back upwards. When not in use, the black patches on the desk are hidden under keyboard, ashtray and beer cans ;)
 

Aussiedroid

Aussiedroid
Some of the non-slip backing stuff an earlier post linked is what I use. Just connected it to the back end of the controllers with some double sided tape. Works really well for me on a stained wooden finish. Just make sure you wipe down under the controllers (keep desk clean) to keep it dust free and it remains very sticky when a tiny bit of pressure is applied. I only had some movement on the throttle though, mainly in combat, so wasn't too bad.
 
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