my TWCS throttle has given up the ghost

[finglonger]

like title says throttle is more or less kaput, none of the buttons are working so took it apart and one of the wires has snapped, will try splicing it later as a temp fix.

now im looking for a new hotas.
question is how well are the x52 pro lasting these days since logitech now make them? had one of them before and it barely lasted 18-24 months before it failed and at the time they were well known to have a design flaw which caused them to fail

also thinking of the x56 rhino but as that has toggle and radio switches im not so sure thats worth the extra cost, might seem a dumb question but does ED cope with or have much requirement for the toggles... does seem like this stick has more toggles than buttons and cant really see much use for toggles in ED

real question here is are they worth the money or am i looking at something which fail after a few months?

 

[Prasinus]

The 'temp fix' on my TWCS has worked well for ages, just soldered in a bit of wire so the movement of the throttle didn't pull on the joints.
I do have to keep cleaning the mini-joystick though.

 

[d8veh]

X52 is a nice HOTAS for ED. The button layout is very well suited to the game. The Yaw spring breaks at around 1000 hrs. You can't buy spares, but they're fairly easy to make from springs that you can buy from Ebay for nearly nothing. I expect my modified spring to last a lot longer than the original, I've had this set for 7 years and it's done about 3000 hrs - half of that with modified spring. I have another set that has done around 3000 hrs, also now with modified spring, and I used very expensive Virpil sticks for around 3000 hrs. The Constellation Alpha has the same spring as the X52 and also broke at around 1000 hrs. Virpil supply spare springs FOC.

 

[finglonger]

X52 is a nice HOTAS for ED. The button layout is very well suited to the game. The Yaw spring breaks at around 1000 hrs

yes i loved mine.. the thrustmaster took a lot of getting used to and does (did) the job
problem is when saitek made the x52 they had a habit of failing just after their guarantee expired. throttle detent failed at 6-8 months.. thats something you learn to live without.. the rest of the throttle died after the guarantee expired

maybe im old school but i expect my sticks to last more than a couple of years or 2 or 3 games of Daily Thompsons Decathalon... £10 for a stick is one thing but when your now spending over £100 you expect it to last.. in comparison my bargain basement thrustmaster t1600 fcs hotas lasted over 6 years and that cost less than £100

 

[d8veh]

yes i loved mine.. the thrustmaster took a lot of getting used to and does (did) the job
problem is when saitek made the x52 they had a habit of failing just after their guarantee expired. throttle detent failed at 6-8 months.. thats something you learn to live without.. the rest of the throttle died after the guarantee expired

maybe im old school but i expect my sticks to last more than a couple of years or 2 or 3 games of Daily Thompsons Decathalon... £10 for a stick is one thing but when your now spending over £100 you expect it to last.. in comparison my bargain basement thrustmaster t1600 fcs hotas lasted over 6 years and that cost less than £100

I suspect that in the past, we never used sticks for thousands of hours, like we do today.

My throttle detents didn't last more than a few days. That never bothered me because I simply removed them and did without. A zero throttle detent would be useful as long as it's not too fierce,

I think we expect too much from these devices. To make them last 5000 hrs would make them extremely expensive. My Virpil setup cost close to £1000.

 

[metatheurgist]

I actually prefer the throttle without the detent.

 

[Zak Gordon]

My stick has lasted my 7 years of regular use (and was second hand and god knows how old).

A Logic3 Star Fighter; It only has a throttle lever, 4 triggers, a 'hat' switch and no 'twist', so probably most would not look at it, but i like it and it works great for ED. It cost me £10 about a decade ago, and after i got it from a dusty local computer fix-it store it gathered some more dust for a few years in a box in my house, until i got the Freespace and Independance War series from GOG. I need to use keyboard and mouse as well, but that is what i'm used to in Elite.

Edit: this is the second time i've posted this info in this type of thread, and i guess it is just to show you don't HAVE to throw hundreds at the problem.

 

[yorky3093]

like title says throttle is more or less kaput, none of the buttons are working so took it apart and one of the wires has snapped, will try splicing it later as a temp fix.

now im looking for a new hotas.
question is how well are the x52 pro lasting these days since logitech now make them? had one of them before and it barely lasted 18-24 months before it failed and at the time they were well known to have a design flaw which caused them to fail

also thinking of the x56 rhino but as that has toggle and radio switches im not so sure thats worth the extra cost, might seem a dumb question but does ED cope with or have much requirement for the toggles... does seem like this stick has more toggles than buttons and cant really see much use for toggles in ED

real question here is are they worth the money or am i looking at something which fail after a few months?

I found that I had to uninstall the thrustmaster install on my computer then reinstall