Thrustmaster T-flight HOTAS One - Anyone else having Yaw problems?

[chenzo1331]

out of curiosity, what version Xbox is everyone having these issues on? ie, Xbox 1 base, Xbox 1 S or XBOX 1 X?

i have a One S and still occasionally have the yaw issue. but when i played on my son's One X, same HOTAS, i never had any issues.

yeah,i can second this. I had normal xbox one and hotas was going bonkers after a few months. I ended up not using it until i upgraded to xbox one x. When i got it, i thought id try and fix the hotas for 4k elite fun, but its just worked and has done fine since.
I think it is an issue that relates to ram amount personally. I may be wrong, but ive had similar issues on pc with controllers in the past and always fix it by either constantly freeing up system resources or upgrading my ram.. Can you delete temporary files on xbox? that was a fix that worked on pcs, and im fairly sure you could delete temporary files on the 360.. may solve the issue

 

[GraphiteGB]

yeah,i can second this. I had normal xbox one and hotas was going bonkers after a few months. I ended up not using it until i upgraded to xbox one x. When i got it, i thought id try and fix the hotas for 4k elite fun, but its just worked and has done fine since.
I think it is an issue that relates to ram amount personally. I may be wrong, but ive had similar issues on pc with controllers in the past and always fix it by either constantly freeing up system resources or upgrading my ram.. Can you delete temporary files on xbox? that was a fix that worked on pcs, and im fairly sure you could delete temporary files on the 360.. may solve the issue

Would more likely be quality of the ports and the Shielding and pin connections... plus less RF interfrence given out on Newer wifi card and the Wifi direct for wireless controllers, Not messing up the analogue voltage signals or adding ripple noise to USB cable...

 

[graflex22]

quick update:

i have taken both my Thrustmaster HOTAS apart and thoroughly cleaned the potentiometers. i pulled the pots out of their housing and sprayed them generously with electrical/electronic cleaner. after doing so i turned the little plastic axle shaft that comes out of the potentiometers. when doing this i could actually feel them become slightly looser and turn more smoothly.

now, i have no doubt that while i was able to clean out any contaminants that were inside the potentiometers causing issues, i probably also cleaned out any lubricant that was inside the pots. so, while both HOTAS now work perfectly i probably drastically shortened the lifespan of each individual pot since there will be direct wear due to metal on metal contact.

but, until Xbox gets higher quality options for a HOTAS i'm not sure what else to do.

 

[Slaani Ludlow]

I just got my 4th warranty replacement from Amazon. They don't even ask much questions anymore. They just sending you a new one.

First two HOTAS did develop the yaw drift issues after some weeks.
On the 3rd one however the yaw was fine but I got ghost inputs on X AND Y axis. It was absolutely horrible, even worse than the yaw drift before.

I don't bother anymore with dismantling and working on the potentiometers. It's waste of time. As after a few weeks the problems come back. I just ask for replacements every few weeks / month I guess.

 

[tafkabb]

I just got my 4th warranty replacement from Amazon. They don't even ask much questions anymore. They just sending you a new one.

First two HOTAS did develop the yaw drift issues after some weeks.
On the 3rd one however the yaw was fine but I got ghost inputs on X AND Y axis. It was absolutely horrible, even worse than the yaw drift before.

I don't bother anymore with dismantling and working on the potentiometers. It's waste of time. As after a few weeks the problems come back. I just ask for replacements every few weeks / month I guess.

Touch wood I haven't had any issue with my third. I bought it last year

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Mine is out of warranty I've had it open a few times to clean the yaw pot, which temporarily fixed it but the time between the problem recurring was getting shorter. So I performed some transplant surgery and swapped the Rocker and yaw pots. It's working well now. Even cured the problem I was having with plotting routes. Seems the yaw twitch was interfering with the plot route selection.

 

[todd92371]

I created a thread about this topic. But, I wish someone would fix these on the side with upgraded parts and charge a fee. I would pay to have one upgraded to be better.

 

[Cmd R3v]

For what its worth. I think its less of a potentiometer and more about the super thin wiring and solder joints.
I've had mine for over a year now. I've had the yaw drift twice so far. First time it happened I open up the control stick and rerouted the wires just like everyone else does and it went away. Second time it happened I figured, "ok, routine maintenance time", opened the stick up and while checking the slack in the wires the white one came loose. I Imagine all the movement has weaking the solder joint over time. Being a crafty person I just cleaned off the hot glue they use to secure the wires to the terminal after soldering and then resolder them. I ended up dong this to all three, and then reapplying hot glue to the terminals afterwards. That was 6 month ago and so far I have not had anymore drift appear and its running smooth and precise. I think maybe the solder joints could be the major issue as they seem to be on the thin side in my opinion. I also had to coax some wire up out of the base to help relieve the stress that shorting the wires for resolder caused. Given all that, if I have to go in again I will probably end up having to replace those wires with new longer one.


Also, I trained myself to be on the gentle side with the stick as I know its plastic. Its hard to remember when your in a dogfight, but for me at least it was worth it for the longevity of the unit. I wish we could use the good stuff like the warthog. That would be great.

Full disclosure, I have had to mod the plastic casing on mine so it would fit into a custom deck. Voided the warrantee instantly, but so be it. I like my control deck.

 

[graflex22]

For what its worth. I think its less of a potentiometer and more about the super thin wiring and solder joints.
I've had mine for over a year now. I've had the yaw drift twice so far. First time it happened I open up the control stick and rerouted the wires just like everyone else does and it went away. Second time it happened I figured, "ok, routine maintenance time", opened the stick up and while checking the slack in the wires the white one came loose. I Imagine all the movement has weaking the solder joint over time. Being a crafty person I just cleaned off the hot glue they use to secure the wires to the terminal after soldering and then resolder them. I ended up dong this to all three, and then reapplying hot glue to the terminals afterwards. That was 6 month ago and so far I have not had anymore drift appear and its running smooth and precise. I think maybe the solder joints could be the major issue as they seem to be on the thin side in my opinion. I also had to coax some wire up out of the base to help relieve the stress that shorting the wires for resolder caused. Given all that, if I have to go in again I will probably end up having to replace those wires with new longer one.


Also, I trained myself to be on the gentle side with the stick as I know its plastic. Its hard to remember when your in a dogfight, but for me at least it was worth it for the longevity of the unit. I wish we could use the good stuff like the warthog. That would be great.

Full disclosure, I have had to mod the plastic casing on mine so it would fit into a custom deck. Voided the warrantee instantly, but so be it. I like my control deck.

i believe you are correct about the wires, but still think that the Potentiometers are sometimes the issue.

on my first HOTAS the issue was most definitely the wires as adjusting them in the case took care of the yaw issues.

however, on the second and third HOTASs no amount of adjusting the wires helped and only removing the potentiometers from their respective housings and cleaning them with CRC Electrical cleaner solved the yaw issues.

 

[Cmd R3v]

i believe you are correct about the wires, but still think that the Potentiometers are sometimes the issue.

on my first HOTAS the issue was most definitely the wires as adjusting them in the case took care of the yaw issues.

however, on the second and third HOTASs no amount of adjusting the wires helped and only removing the potentiometers from their respective housings and cleaning them with CRC Electrical cleaner solved the yaw issues.

I can see that happening. Im sure those potentiometers are just off the shelf types and not engineered for this kind of abuse. Probably designed for a radio volumn or similar.

 

[happyoutkast]

It's a design flaw in the stick with how the wires are routed to the sensor, and some unnecessary plastic in the stick which adds constant pressure to the sensor.

The combination of the two issues produces the yaw problem after some time. Warranty replacement will get you a new one, but with the same design flaw that Thrustmaster still hasn't fixed even after all these years for some inexplicable reason.

The only permanent fix I've found has been to disassemble the stick and correct the design flaws myself. That fixed the problem quite nicely.

Now the only yaw issue I ever have is when first using the hotas, but that's no different than the throttle and other axis issues I have too. The Thrustmaster has an automatic calibration in it (no manual calibration at all). Moving the relevant controls along their full axis a few times makes the hotas calibrate and it works fine for the most part. The only issue I have then is the yaw going a little bit wonky when placing my hand on the stick due to the change in weight and pressure on the stick (and the yaw sensor, it really is a horrible design). Again, moving along the full axis fixes it.

I will recommend that if you choose to take it apart, do so with care. The solder points on the wires is very cheap and flimsy, and break easily. A little hot glue at the wire solder connections to reinforce the wire and connection helps a lot. Reroute the wire for the yaw sensor, and remove that stupid piece of plastic across from where the sensor slides into the stick (all it does is put pressure on the sensor, it's stupid and 90% of the source of the problem).

If you're not comfortable with taking it apart, don't. Do so at your own risk.

 

[MaQD]

Yaw problem it's 100% hardware failure due to poor quality potentiometer. It's not even poor solder quality issue because resoldering the potentiometer can help for few days and problems back. The problem is bad quality of pot itself. Generally there isn't work around to easily solve the problem. Cleaning can help for few days/weeks, if someone plans to use WD-40 then chose Electrical Contact Cleaner Spray version (silver-black can) not the standard one (blue can).
About replacements: the pot it's 9mm Rotary Potentiometer, Linear, 100 kOhm, 5 VDC, 50 VAC, Tolerance 20%, 1 Turn Flatted D Shaft and probably it's customized CTS 251 series. Problem it's there is no equal replacements on the market and closest I found its CTS 251B12T104A2NB (where tolerance is 10% but other parameters fits), but I can't test it because it's only available in some US stocks and costs of shipping it to Europe it's approx 30% of new hotas so it's not very remunerative business. But if you guys are living in US and soldering isn't problem then you can give a try and share some results.

 

[Cmd R3v]

Yaw problem it's 100% hardware failure due to poor quality potentiometer. It's not even poor solder quality issue because resoldering the potentiometer can help for few days and problems back. The problem is bad quality of pot itself. Generally there isn't work around to easily solve the problem. Cleaning can help for few days/weeks, if someone plans to use WD-40 then chose Electrical Contact Cleaner Spray version (silver-black can) not the standard one (blue can).
About replacements: the pot it's 9mm Rotary Potentiometer, Linear, 100 kOhm, 5 VDC, 50 VAC, Tolerance 20%, 1 Turn Flatted D Shaft and probably it's customized CTS 251 series. Problem it's there is no equal replacements on the market and closest I found its CTS 251B12T104A2NB (where tolerance is 10% but other parameters fits), but I can't test it because it's only available in some US stocks and costs of shipping it to Europe it's approx 30% of new hotas so it's not very remunerative business. But if you guys are living in US and soldering isn't problem then you can give a try and share some results.

Thanks for the Parts idea. I am curious though, what difference will the change in tolerance make do you think? will it become more sensitive to yaw inputs? or will the software have issues with it do you think?
I freely admit that I know just enough about compnents to be dangerous and shouldnt be left alone for long.

 

[MaQD]

Thanks for the Parts idea. I am curious though, what difference will the change in tolerance make do you think? will it become more sensitive to yaw inputs? or will the software have issues with it do you think?
I freely admit that I know just enough about compnents to be dangerous and shouldnt be left alone for long.

Tolerance means only maximum ohm deviance to nominal value of resistor. So 20% tolerance for 100 kOhm means max value range its 80-120 kOhm and for 10% its 90-110 kOhm and it will not have impact to sensitive. More important is another parameter like mechanical angle or effective electrical angle. To be honest I don't have idea how looks that parameter for original pot. I tested some standard 9-10mm 100 kOhm pots like BOURNS PTV09A-4225F-B104 and PTV09A-4020F-B104 (I cut shafts and modified cover to fit it) where mechanical angle is 280 degrees (standard for most pots) and when I manually turning shaft from min to max I get corresponding yaw, but problem its maximum stick turn don't match to pot turn so I received only 10-20% of yaw with max stick turn. Conclusion is that original pot have far less mechanical angle than standard pots. I don't know how looks exactly mechanical angle in that CTS part because for that part number there is no corresponding value in 251 series technical specification but I assume that 104A2 it's approx 50 degrees (because 104A1 its 40 degrees, 104A3 its 60 degrees, 104A5 its 110) and probably it should fit. Also that part number is recommended as replacement for t16000, so there is big chance that it will also fit to hotas one.

Also if you can live without yaw in the stick and locking yaw by that plastic blockade don't resolve problem (and often its don't' resolve it because even is you lock it then still pot is messing around) then you can cut pot cables (or even remove pot) and then connect blue cable with white (and isolate grey), and problem its solved. I'm using it in that why right now, well it's better than xbox pad but worse than full hotas functionality.

Also all parts modifications / replacements you are making on your own risk and you must be aware that you can damage your xbox or pc in that way.

 

[Cmd R3v]

thanks for the run down. And yes, I remembered about tolerance precisely as I was reading your post about them. tolerances regarding resistance values. Yes.
When I originally read it I was thinking mechanicaltolerance, as in precision of movement terms. Your explanation makes much more sense now.
I also agree about the "better than a game pad, but worse than a 100% functioning Hotas. Its really hard to go back when you've played with a stick.

Also all parts modifications / replacements you are making on your own risk and you must be aware that you can damage your xbox or pc in that way.

As for modding, that was the first thing I did. Made myself a desk to hold it all so I can sit in my recliner and fly my Cutter in style. Also, its nice to have a keyboard for the galaxy map.

 

[xox ZAPPA xox]

Good Design Poor Build
Wow wish I had read this before purchasing this Thrustmaster "Cold as" stick. only 2 weeks old and yaw pitch and roll problems. was going to send it back but decided to just try and fix the damn thing. Yaw problem is gone and roll I can set a small deadzone. however, I have a problem when pitching up at the limit of the stick it just stops working? any advice?
Loving ED so sorry it got under my radar as I played and loved the original games back in the 80's

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

Good Design Poor Build
Wow wish I had read this before purchasing this Thrustmaster "Cold as" stick. only 2 weeks old and yaw pitch and roll problems. was going to send it back but decided to just try and fix the damn thing. Yaw problem is gone and roll I can set a small deadzone. however, I have a problem when pitching up at the limit of the stick it just stops working? any advice?
Loving ED so sorry it got under my radar as I played and loved the original games back in the 80's

I personally recommend getting a refund and buying an elite controller Version 2. Driving an srv is a nightmare with a hotas and I cant imagine odyssey will be a pleasant experience either. Plus you can actually get more out of that controller than the hotas. Just my opinion though. Alot of people have suggested various fixes so you might could try one of those.

 

[graflex22]

not to be contrarian, but i love driving the SRV with the HOTAS. feels natural to me.

it's too bad the Thrustmaster is so poorly built. because when it works, it is so much fun.

 

[Alec Turner]

not to be contrarian, but i love driving the SRV with the HOTAS. feels natural to me.

it's too bad the Thrustmaster is so poorly built. because when it works, it is so much fun.

ditto

 

[Dirri]

Had issues after ONE week of use. Not the yaw issue but X-Axis Roll Axis jitters to the right. Adjusted deadzone up to 60% , few days later its getting worse. Now the yaw also come into play... Waiting for my replacement...TM support wanted me to picture the destroyed HOTAS (cut off USB cable) to get a replacement.