Hardware & Technical New HOTAS; tell me just how dumb I am.

[Stealthie]

I went to an auction (a real auction rather than an online one) and, among all the other items from a house-clearance, was a Logitech X56.
It didn't come with the extra springs, or the little palm-rest, and it was untested, but it was up for sale with a reserve price of £40 in an auction room full of people hoping to unearth lost Picassos and job-lots of Spode crockery.
I waved my lollipop once and it was mine, for the princely sum of £45! (ironically, exactly the same amount that I paid for my old X45 nearly more than 20 years ago)

Got it home, plugged it in and it all worked except for one of the hat's on the throttle.
I've fixed the wiring on a few of these before, and I know they're a bit fiddly inside (the throttles, that is. The joystick is easy to work on), but I pulled it apart, found a wire broken off a PCB, soldered it back on, spent about 2 hours rebuilding it without getting any of the wires snagged anywhere, and it works perfectly.

I'm not really a fan of macro's or multi-function keybinds so I won't have a lot of use for the Saitek/Logitech software which, hopefully, will reduce the amount of problems I have with the HOTAS.

Only problem with it is that I want to attach it to the seat in my command-module and the size of the joystick base makes that difficult.
Fortunately, despite the size of the joystick base, there's naff-all inside there except a small PCB which is a hall-effect sensor and a USB interface.
I currently have a plan to make a Warthog style base out of a short length of 110mm drainpipe and then machine circular plastic plates for the top and bottom, which'll make it much easier to mount to a base poking out of my chair, between my legs.

I notice that there are extension-tubes for these joysticks available on ebay.
Not entirely sure it'll be wise to attach something that will allow me to apply more force (by accident) to something that is already not terribly robust but I might give one a go, just to see how it feels.
To be fair, the joystick (this one is the Logitech version, and the most recent black/grey version rather than the one with the lurid blue graphics) doesn't seem squeaky or creaky and it seems fairly solid, even though it's not especially heavy.

So, there we are.
I'm now the proud owner of one of the most maligned mid/high-end HOTAS' around.

 

[Chris Simon]

I went to an auction (a real auction rather than an online one) and, among all the other items from a house-clearance, was a Logitech X56.
It didn't come with the extra springs, or the little palm-rest, and it was untested, but it was up for sale with a reserve price of £40 in an auction room full of people hoping to unearth lost Picassos and job-lots of Spode crockery.
I waved my lollipop once and it was mine, for the princely sum of £45! (ironically, exactly the same amount that I paid for my old X45 nearly more than 20 years ago)

Got it home, plugged it in and it all worked except for one of the hat's on the throttle.
I've fixed the wiring on a few of these before, and I know they're a bit fiddly inside (the throttles, that is. The joystick is easy to work on), but I pulled it apart, found a wire broken off a PCB, soldered it back on, spent about 2 hours rebuilding it without getting any of the wires snagged anywhere, and it works perfectly.

I'm not really a fan of macro's or multi-function keybinds so I won't have a lot of use for the Saitek/Logitech software which, hopefully, will reduce the amount of problems I have with the HOTAS.

Only problem with it is that I want to attach it to the seat in my command-module and the size of the joystick base makes that difficult.
Fortunately, despite the size of the joystick base, there's naff-all inside there except a small PCB which is a hall-effect sensor and a USB interface.
I currently have a plan to make a Warthog style base out of a short length of 110mm drainpipe and then machine circular plastic plates for the top and bottom, which'll make it much easier to mount to a base poking out of my chair, between my legs.

I notice that there are extension-tubes for these joysticks available on ebay.
Not entirely sure it'll be wise to attach something that will allow me to apply more force (by accident) to something that is already not terribly robust but I might give one a go, just to see how it feels.
To be fair, the joystick (this one is the Logitech version, and the most recent black/grey version rather than the one with the lurid blue graphics) doesn't seem squeaky or creaky and it seems fairly solid, even though it's not especially heavy.

So, there we are.
I'm now the proud owner of one of the most maligned mid/high-end HOTAS' around.

I've had X55 for several years. (I started Elite on X52Pro but quickly destroyed it and bought X55 after that)
Despite what people are saying, I can't really complain all that much.

What ultimately failed on my X55 - well, not failed as in "stopped working" but rather "became annoying to use" - was the POV hats on the stick. Those really ARE flimsy. On the other hand, I was using it for 4-8 hours a day for almost four years, so... yeah.
But other than that, it's a decent kit if you're a bit lucky and don't buy a dud.
I loved the throttle in particular. It was comfortable, precise and smooth. The throttle I've got now is much worse, the only saving grace being an analog mini stick for thrusters.

So yeah. I think that unless you got unlucky, it should serve you well.

Nopt sure about your planned mod though. It would require more than just an "extension pipe". The base and the mechanism of the stick is mostly plastic and I'm afraid it won't last long. You'd have to manufacture some sort of contraption to deal with all the forces the stick exerts on the base (Some cage with springs and dampers or something) otherwise you're going to rip something off first time you hit them mechanism's hard stop.

 

[Dragsham]

Love my saitek clone. Its better made than the original. New as well. Paid 200+ quid for it lol
So Op nice result

 

[Stealthie]

INopt sure about your planned mod though. It would require more than just an "extension pipe". The base and the mechanism of the stick is mostly plastic and I'm afraid it won't last long. You'd have to manufacture some sort of contraption to deal with all the forces the stick exerts on the base (Some cage with springs and dampers or something) otherwise you're going to rip something off first time you hit them mechanism's hard stop.

This is exactly what I'm concerned about.

There's probably a reason why fighter jets have a small joystick these days, rather than a centre-stick.
When you're flying a Cessna, it's probably better to have a larger range of movement so you can make exact inputs more easily.
For a fighter pilot, OTOH, it's probably more important to be able to apply large movements quickly, without having to move your arm around a lot.

ED is the sort of game that requires quick movements rather than accurate ones so a long stick probably isn't going to be helpful and, as you say, if I make a quick, large, movement and push the stick to it's limit in any direction, the extra leverage probably going to cause something to break.
I do also like to play more sedate flight-sim's, though, so the extension might be better suited to that.

I'm currently thinking I'll make a new base for the joystick which can bolt to my seat via the top or bottom of the base.
For ED I could bolt it to the seat by the bottom of the base, and use the stick without the extension (option B, below).
For more relaxed flight-sims, I could bolt it to the seat by the top of the base, fit the extension and then the stick would be in the same place (if I make the base as tall as the length of the extension) but it'll have a larger range of movement (option A, below).

Spoiler: Comparison of Joystick mount options

Thing is, my man-cave is a really narrow room (or a very spacious closet, depending on your point of view) and I just don't have space to fit the X56 base to the side of my chair so it's got to be a centre-stick... and the X56 base won't fit between my legs.
That being the case, I've got to make a new base for the X56 before I can use it, so I might as well try and make it as useful as possible.

The other thing is, I'm a great believer in the saying that goes "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link".
Fitting the extension is likely to put extra stress on something and if, say, the joystick shaft starts to break I could make a metal replacement for that, but that's going to put more stress on the joystick's collar, or gimbal, and it's likely something else will break instead.

So, erm, yeah.
I might pick up a 10cm extenson, just so I can calculate exactly how tall to make my new base, but I definitely won't be using the extension with any game/sim that's likely to result in me waggling the stick around like a rock-ape.

+EDIT+

In other news, has anybody else seen the Hori Flightstick?
While looking for a cheap(ish) new, HOTAS, I noticed this and thought it looked like a decent option.
Trouble is, after reading a few reviews of it, apparently "some" of the controls are just cosmetic, and aren't actually functional.
Bit of a shame, cos it looks like a decent HOTAS, but I thought it might be worth mentioning in case somebody is thinking of buying one.

HOTAS Flight Stick for PlayStation®4

UK Site for World renowned video game peripherals & accessories company, Hori. Learn More!

hori.co.uk

 

[Chris Simon]

Yeah. The reason why old/simpler airplanes and helicopters have long sticks has one reason - greater leverage. Necessary in aircraft without "power steering".
I think the greater precision that comes with it is kind of a by-product.

To be honest, I would also want a centre stick but never really gathered the courage to cut into my hardware to modify it. Hell, I've been peevish about my sticky throttle for two years now, but never tried to fix it, even though there's even an official mod kit for it, readily available for purchase and it's really just a matter of unscrewing something and screwing something else in its place.
Though the fact that you got your 56 extremely cheaply will help you overcome this dread, I think.

If you don't overdo it with the length, I guess you should be okay. You're probably going to have to at least come up with a solution for heavier spring, though. X55/56 were always on the softer side of the spectrum and lenghtening the thing will not help the feel, I'm afraid. And nobody wants a floppy stick.

Good luck with the mod in any case. I'm looking forward to your solutions. Keep us posted!