Hardware & Technical Need input on the Warthog.

[Don_Von_Hulio]

How long before buttons go soft and if they do are they easy to fix.
And how long have you owned it.

Reason i ask is my X55 yaw spring snapped and several switches on the throttle and stick are also completely soft with zero tactile feedback. Im gonna find a spring tomorrow for it but im tired of listening to plastic squeak constantly if i dont grease it every day and the stick is only going to get worse with time. It will be two years old come new years.

Planned obsolescence? Yep.

 

[Chris Simon]

How long before buttons go soft and if they do are they easy to fix.
And how long have you owned it.

Reason i ask is my X55 yaw spring snapped and several switches on the throttle and stick are also completely soft with zero tactile feedback. Im gonna find a spring tomorrow for it but im tired of listening to plastic squeak constantly if i dont grease it every day and the stick is only going to get worse with time. It will be two years old come new years.

Planned obsolescence? Yep.

You can't compare the quality of the Warthog and the Saitek crap.
Personally, I tried everything and I can assure you that the Thrustmaster equipment will probably survive you.

I don't have Warthog for only one reason - it doesn't have a twist rudder and I can't use the pedals. But if I could, I wouldn't use anything else. My friend has over 3000 Elite hours on Warthog (plus more on other sims) And that thing looks and feels like fresh out of the box.

 

[Spook 00]

You have to wiggle it to get input [smile]

 

[Scrogg]

Congrats on getting that much out of your X55. I got less than 50 hours before mine had to go back for warranty replacement. The one they sent me to replace it is still in the box.

I finally got fed up and bit the bullet and got the warthog, It was not easy to pay that much for a joystick but now I at least don't have to worry about it. My only regret is the money I wasted on the X55 because I wanted to "save" money

I've had it for over a year now with probably 300+ hours on it and it looks and feels like it did day one except for the yellow arrow sticker on the stick which has worn off. I do miss the twist action for yaw the X55 had but since I also enjoy WWII flight sims I grabbed the crosswind rudder pedals as well. I was not going to give Saitek/Madcatz anymore of my money for a set of their pedals.

If you want a HOTAS that feels solid and not worry that you are gonna snap it off in a heated dogfight, then I can highly recommend the warthog.

 

[Karnath]

I got 2 years out of my X52 Pro, then replaced it with the Warthog and never looked back. The quality / feel is outstanding

I do miss the rudder on the stick but thankfully I use the clutch and accelerator pedals from my Logitech G920 as the rudder now.

 

[KillaALF]

November 19, 2012 - that's the date when I ordered mine (for DCS: A-10C) together with Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals to replace my Thrustmaster Cougar (FSSB modded)/CH Pro Pedals. There was/is nothing wrong with my Cougar/CH pedals, I just wanted something new and the fact that in DCS: A-10C it just works without any fiddling around in setting in up pushed me over the edge and made me click that "Buy now" button.

The buttons on the stick/throttle still feel like they did when I took it out of the box, or at least I can feel no discernable difference. Heck, the whole HOTAS looks and feels like its new and I've got 1000s of hours on it. So no input from me on how easy those buttons are to fix - they've yet to break. Probably the best investment in gaming peripherals I ever made.

Now I have my eyes on the MFG crosswind pedals - the Saitek pedals do work (nothing broken there either), but I just want something more equivalent to the quality of the HOTAS.

 

[mach1ne]

I had the x55 for about 6 months before one of the buttons went soft. Got this replaced under warranty but the x55 was out of production so they gave me a x56. The joystick was great and I loved the two thumbstick joysticks as it was brilliant for ED...sadly this only lasted 6 weeks before the z rudder (twist) stopped working, so back to madcatz. They had agreed to replace it again and the day that they were supposed to ship the new one they informed me that they could no longer help me and said Logitech are now looking after Saitek products. After weeks of writing on their so called support forum I finally got a replacement which I did not even open, I sold it on eBay as I had bought the warthog. The upside to all this hassle was that I got to keep my old x56 which I looked at fixing, but apart from the potentiometer which I found on eBay, there were no spare parts anywhere. Saitek did not even have them. So this is now on eBay as a working joystick with z rudder fault, so the sale of the two will pay for the warthog I bought.
The two do not compare and once the 'sticktion' issue was addressed (see YouTube for that) the joystick is awesome! I miss the twist rudder of the x56 but you can change settings in ED to use and rudder by the amount you move the axis on the joy and also there are plenty of buttons on the throttle which can be mapped to do the rudder.
The other thing I did was to buy a set of way overpriced but brilliant joystick clamps from monstertech.

So if you want to risk a great joystick but has technical issues and cheap build quality then Saitek but if you want robustness and a state of the art joystick and you can live without a twist handle then the Warthog is the way forward in my opinion.

 

[Ser Xav]

I'm really not liking what I keep reading about the x-56. I have one that is currently in perfect working order and I think its brilliant. I don't know how I managed to miss the negative reviews and comments of the x-56 before getting it. I seriously considered the warthog but for a couple of reason I decided to go to the Saitek product, no rudder on the stick of the warthog probably being the primary factor. Feel like I'm sitting on a ticking bomb with the Saitek now...!

 

[Chris Simon]

I'm really not liking what I keep reading about the x-56. I have one that is currently in perfect working order and I think its brilliant. I don't know how I managed to miss the negative reviews and comments of the x-56 before getting it. I seriously considered the warthog but for a couple of reason I decided to go to the Saitek product, no rudder on the stick of the warthog probably being the primary factor. Feel like I'm sitting on a ticking bomb with the Saitek now...!

This is a problem with forums - they usually only give negative feedback, because why would anyone join in if everything's working, right?
You may as well be lucky and use your X-56 for years. The problem with Saitek really just is the inconsistency in quality. Simply put, if you are unlucky, you will have the HOTAS fail on you three times in a month.
I was using my X55 for almost two years. Then it broke and then every consecutive replacement I received broke within a month of use. So that's why I'm a bit salty towards them, but it doesn't mean yours won't serve well.

 

[Zayphod-B]

Had the Thrustmaster Warthog about a year now and have to admit it's an awesome well made piece of kit. However the grey thumb button on the joystick has failed in the down direction and slowly failing in the up. Sadly this is the only button that's not screwed to the assembly but glue gunned into an almost impossible to get to crevasse.

Regarding the MFG Crosswinds - Get them, this is without doubt the best gaming peripheral I have ever owned they are a quantum leap above anything else on the market and feel absolutely amazing (they do them in Black now too).

 

[Zedfragg]

I purchased a Thrustmaster Warthog purely for ED back in 2015. Still going exceptionally strong!
Although, I admit at first I was one of the few that was a tad bit disappointed with internal construction.

The gimbal sometimes suffer stiction for some users out of the box. This is due to being constructed from injection moulded plastic on the inside.
This was fixed quite easy using Calcium Carbonate grease (Non-plastic reactive grease is VERY important) and sanding down the edges on the injection moulded joints.
I did, however, kill the hall sensor by accidentally shearing a wire by putting a part of the gimbal in backwards (WINNING) the second day I had it...
Thankfully, I can solder!

However, I'm a finicky git and chances are 7 out of 10 wouldn't even notice the stiction.

That being said, hands down the best HOTAS I have ever used, quality is up there as the premiere flight stick feature-wise and programming it (once you get your head around the scripting) is a doddle.

 

[anfieldmarauder]

I am buying the Warthog at the end of the month as a Birthday treat for myself - I have the Logitech G27 wheels & pedals ....any chance you could let me know just HOW you managed to use the wheel in combination with the Hog? It would save me a lot of cash on rudder pedals ....any help would be brilliant - Cheers Cmdr

 

[DD_Crash]

Shouldnt be a problem, just assign the axis in ED