What joystick/controller do you use?

[Just_Zis_Guy]

Warthog throttle and stick + the MFD button boards, Saitek pedals (Pro-Flight I think?), Logitech G13 for even more buttons and macros, and my own controller made with Teensy Arduino for more analog axes. TrackIR and Voice Attack are in there too, and an XBox controller for outside camera controls. I use FreePie to bind the toe pedals into one axis and also join them with the controls from my homespun control box.

I think I may have a problem. Is there a controller addiction support group?

 

[GreyAreaUK]

x52 Pro. It's been a really good HOTAS.

Reading between the lines, I get the feeling that if you get a good one it’s a really good one. If you don’t, you know it soon enough.

 

[PiLhEaD]

...I use the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X and it has proven to be a great joystick..

I used to use the T-Flight and agree it's a great HOTAS and superb value for the money. Mine started playing up (after MANY years of use) and I went for the Thrustmaster T.16000M HOTAS. The horizontal-plane throttle feels odd and takes some adjusting to get acceptably loose (to my tastes), but I love the increased number of buttons, and the joystick feels good, even if the button placement is less than ideal for my large hands.

Overall, decent but not the value-for-money of the T-Flight, and if I had the decision to make again I might well have just got another T-Flight.

 

[Alec Turner]

After killing no less than 7 (or 8?) T.Flight HOTAS X that all failed with nearly identical symptoms within max. 4 months each...

I have this stick (same as OP). I'm kinda wedded to it (muscle memory and all that) but I'll admit I'm on my 4th one now. I payed around £30 for each one so I'm cool with that (still good value) plus ... if the fault you describe is the twist/yaw becoming glitchy, I discovered it's easy to fix. Remove 4 screws on stick handle to open it up and you'l find that one of the wires on the twist sensor has come off. Resolder it and bingo, good to go again. I now have 3 spares!

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I have this stick (same as OP). I'm kinda wedded to it (muscle memory and all that) but I'll admit I'm on my 4th one now. I payed around £30 for each one so I'm cool with that (still good value) plus ... if the fault you describe is the twist/yaw becoming glitchy, I discovered it's easy to fix. Remove 4 screws on stick handle to open it up and you'l find that one of the wires on the twist sensor has come off. Resolder it and bingo, good to go again. I now have 3 spares!

I opened one and found the wires still connected - but internally flakey/partially broken due being way too fragile.
A clear fault design, no Engineer would ever connect such thin wires that get bent over and over - unless the Design was designed to fail, like in this case.

I've viewed a very nice instructional Video on how to remove these inadequate wires of the T.Flight Twist and replace them by more robust ones.
I refuse to be a "Thrustmaster built-in-design-flaw fixer" though and disassembling a factory brand new HOTAS to fix it right after unpacking... kinda defeats the purpose IMHO.

In the end, increasing decalibration issues on roll and pitch would have meant the end of the sticks anyway, was already running 20-30% deadzones all around by the time of the Twist axis failure.

(I originally planned to abandon Thrustmaster over this designed obsolecence - a total NOGO for me - but simply couldn't obtain a suitable different replacement quick enough, thus I ended up with the T.16000M)

 

[Heater]

Warthog and voice attack!

 

[Rob At Work]

Auto Hot Key for my bots... Why would you need anything else?

 

[Rob At Work]

I have this stick (same as OP). I'm kinda wedded to it (muscle memory and all that) but I'll admit I'm on my 4th one now. I payed around £30 for each one so I'm cool with that (still good value) plus ... if the fault you describe is the twist/yaw becoming glitchy, I discovered it's easy to fix. Remove 4 screws on stick handle to open it up and you'l find that one of the wires on the twist sensor has come off. Resolder it and bingo, good to go again. I now have 3 spares!

£30 - LOL

 

[Alec Turner]

£30 - LOL

Curious, what's the LOL. How cheap that stick used to be? I know right? That's why, despite it's shortcomings, it was absolutely unbeatable value and a great way to try HOTAS without a £100+ outlay. Sadly these days it's more like £50 or £60 so the choice for first HOTAS is less clear.

 

[Rob At Work]

Curious, what's the LOL. How cheap that stick used to be? I know right? That's why, despite it's shortcomings, it was absolutely unbeatable value and a great way to try HOTAS without a £100+ outlay. Sadly these days it's more like £50 or £60 so the choice for first HOTAS is less clear.

I paid that for my bacon roll this morning - can't grumble at £30 TBH you do get what you pay for in the end (or you used to)

 

[Guywired]

When I'm SUPER serious I use the Xbox Thrustmaster HOTAS. When I'm somewhat serious I use the Xbox Elite Controller, but most the time I sit back and use Sport White Special Edition. All 3 pictured below.

https://imgur.com/IJVM3Ci

Source: https://imgur.com/IJVM3Ci

 

[Kissamies]

CH Products HOTAS and pedals.

Ugly but durable. I'm so much a heavy user that I need to have stuff that lasts. Some people claim that they have had theirs since 90s and they still work, though they had to convert them to USB. Mine has been in use just 3 years so far. The only problem is that I've managed to lose one of the rubber feet on the stick.

 

[Icybow73]

I use a logitech X52 pro works just fine

 

[Yaga-Shura]

VKB Gunfighter mkII with Kosmosima premium grip, left and right hand.

 

[TheChafing]

CH Products HOTAS and pedals.

Ugly but durable. I'm so much a heavy user that I need to have stuff that lasts. Some people claim that they have had theirs since 90s and they still work, though they had to convert them to USB. Mine has been in use just 3 years so far. The only problem is that I've managed to lose one of the rubber feet on the stick.

Same. They seem very sturdy, which is my number 1 requirement, since I went through joysticks very often when I was a kid, and I have zero patience for that now that I'm an adult. Given that my setup for playing ED (in VR) involves a used car seat (with previously deployed airbags) I got from Craigslist for like $5 and a frame I made out of 2 by 4s, the fact that the sticks are ugly doesn't even rise to the level of something I think about it. The seat is way uglier.

There are are two things about this setup that I don't like, though. The first is that the throttle axis has zero friction to it, meaning it's real easy to move the quadrant accidentally. The other is that there are only six actual buttons across the throttle and stick, and everything else is hat switches. I wish there were more regular buttons.

 

[Xalos]

I think I have the worst HOTAS you could possible get lol
PXN 2119 ii - a terrible knock off...but still works (albeit when it arrived the Joystick was loose and the thruster control only recognises about 80% of motion)...so yea buy a T-Flight

 

[Slowfiddler]

TCS16000 HOTAS. Great in VR as there are loads of buttons and the two orange buttons on the front of the throttle make great modifiers for the various HATs.

The FCS throttle has been a little spikey on the analogue axies pretty much since new, and the sliding throttle became frustratingly sticky after a few weeks, I've taken it apart to remove & re-apply silicone grease to the sliders every month or so for the last couple of years, but recently started to get noticeably worse, seemingly from simple wear on the plastic mouldings (I've probably put 3,000+hrs onto this device). A new FCS throttle arrived just today, hopefully it will last as long but also hopefully won't suffer the spiking. The ergonomics of it are excellent for ED imo, best throttle for my use at any price. I'm on the lookout for an ergonomically better stick but I am at least used to it after a couple of years of use

My throttle was quite sticky so I completely solved it by getting a sheet of 0.5mm Teflon on eBay and cutting two strips to fit between the metal rails and plastic riders on the moving throttle. A small amount of the existing grease, not too tight and it glides perfectly with no sticking at all. It has been working like this for over a year now.
You have to include tabs on the cut strips so the existing screws can hold the Teflon stationary against the plastic - the friction surface is Teflon/metal.

 

[Riverside]

TCS16000 HOTAS. Great in VR as there are loads of buttons and the two orange buttons on the front of the throttle make great modifiers for the various HATs.


My throttle was quite sticky so I completely solved it by getting a sheet of 0.5mm Teflon on eBay and cutting two strips to fit between the metal rails and plastic riders on the moving throttle. A small amount of the existing grease, not too tight and it glides perfectly with no sticking at all. It has been working like this for over a year now.
You have to include tabs on the cut strips so the existing screws can hold the Teflon stationary against the plastic - the friction surface is Teflon/metal.

If you get the chance I'd appreciate it if you could take a couple of pics to show what you did. Most of the stiction seems to come from the adjustable tension bar, but the wear on mine is on the rail guides.

 

[Rørik Þrumsålr]

After killing no less than 7 (or 8?) T.Flight HOTAS X that all failed with nearly identical symptoms within max. 4 months each...

Currently running a T.16000M FCS.

3 months in, had a single day of getting typical T.Flight HOTAX X failure symptom (twist generates ghost inputs), but it faded away again luckily.
In 1 month, I'll know if this HOTAS works better than the ill-designed and short-lived T.Flight HOTAS X.
(so far it looks like it, no permanent decalibration on X/Y/Z axes ; so far any temporary mild decalibration could be solved by moving the stick around all axes full-deflection)

How odd. I had one t-flight X that lasted me close to 8 years of constant use before it finally croaked. I upgraded to the T.16000M FCS afterwards. Admittedly I miss the integrated throttle on the T-flight. It seems that half my games don't like it separate.

 

[Guywired]

How odd. I had one t-flight X that lasted me close to 8 years of constant use before it finally croaked. I upgraded to the T.16000M FCS afterwards. Admittedly I miss the integrated throttle on the T-flight. It seems that half my games don't like it separate.

Mine was doing this right out of the box. Last firmware patch helped out a little, but it still does it and to this day as much as I love flying with it, I can't bring myself to endorse anyone actually purchasing it.