Hardware & Technical X52 Pro not centered on X/Y axis (wobbly stick)

shadoom

S
My stick is pretty old by now and its wobbly.
It's always slightly bent forwards (down?) which makes my ship in elite slowly drift down by a bit.
When pushing(slightly!) the metal plate under the spring the joystick also moves and wobbles around for a couple of millimeters.
I've been reading about the tension mod and the magnet mod.
I believe I should use the tension mod but I'm not quite certain about that yet.

Is it possible to just replace the spring to make it centered again? Or is this not a spring issue at all?
 

shadoom

S
Do you mean the deadzone setting in the X52 driver?
I could get it to work with that but then there would be quite a lot of travel back but almost no travel up to get out of the deadzone.
To avoid that unnecessary travel I was hoping for any fix/mod I could do to have it center "better" or make it tighter to stop the wobble.
 

wrmiller

W
I also have an older X52 Pro and it is getting more wobbly of late. Probably from playing ED as this game seems to put more stress on it than my regular flight sims do.

I am no expert, but I don't believe the sloppiness is because of the spring, but rather the increasing wear of the internal plastic components. I have not taken mine apart yet, but this is what I suspect. I have toyed with the idea of making/replacing the plastic internals with aluminum/stainless/brass components that I can make on my metal-working machines, but that could be more effort than I wish to put into these sticks.

But it is either that or I buy a replacement HOTAS. Given what I have been reading about the current Saitek offerings, reliability-wise, I am leaning towards a Wart Hog setup and just be done with it. :)
 
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Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
The parts that would wear out on those sticks are the spring and the plastic ridge on which the centring cone is riding. There are few load-bearing surfaces on the inside. The spring is not helped by the useless massive plastic part stuck to the front which only serves to make the stick tilt forwards all the time.
 

shadoom

S
@heisenberg: no i can make it work with the deadzone setting in ED but i just hoped someone knows how to make the stick stop wobbling.
@wrmiller: yeah thats what ive guessed that something internal has been rubbed off enough to give that wobble :(
you don't happen to know anyone that has ever attempted to fix that? Google just comes up with the usual fixes.

The zipties did make it a bit stiffer but the wobble is exactly the same so wrmiller must be right with something inside being rubbed off:
https://youtu.be/BCQ9j_6jO5c
it seems like it always leans forward and can be pushed back without any resistance at all
 

wrmiller

W
@shadoom: You reply got me thinking, thanks. I just observed that I can restrain the shaft that goes into the base by hand, and the stick wobbles back and forth (pitch) quite a bit, and even exhibits some slop in rotation (left/right). I am going to see if I can get the handle off the shaft and measure things with a caliper. If the handle to stick interface is indeed sloppy, as evidence suggests, I should be able to make a bushing to tighten things up a bit. :)

EDIT: I will still look into the components in the base. It appears to be a combination of the two that is resulting in all this slop. Thanks folks, I may be able to fix this.
 
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wrmiller

W
After looking into this a bit, I am unsure how I will proceed. I was unable to get the handle off of the shaft it is mounted to, but it is definitely a sloppy fit on that shaft. And, the stick itself is nose heavy (tilts forward) exacerbating the sloppy handle to shaft fitment. Sloppy handle/shaft interface and front heavy handle has mine tilting forward at rest (centered).

But the real problem is...the whole gimbal mechanism is showing signs of wear. In moving the stick around and loading/unloading the gimbal mechanism I can literally see the looseness/wear in it's pivots. I've had this stick so long I can no longer remember if it was this loose when I bought it, but I think not.

Everything is plastic of course, and I figure that to tighten up the gimbal I would have to encase all bearing surfaces/pivot pins in metal, or replace the entire piece, i.e. X-axis pivot or Y-axis saddle with something made of a sturdier material like aluminum. With maybe the pivot pins riding in a solid bearing made of bearing bronze. Greased of course. :)

But...I question the sanity of putting that much effort into this stick, because there is no way of knowing how long the rest of the stick (switches/electronics) is going to last. I've had this thing for many years (pre-MadCatz), and I am sorely tempted to go ahead and just replace it with the Wart Hog HOTAS at this point. If after doing that, I am still inclined, I may just go ahead and design and build a metal gimbal mechanism for that stick as it already has a metal base that would provide a much more stable platform for a precision gimbal assembly. Probably make longevity improvements to the throttle as well.

It could be an interesting project. :D
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
If you decide to put metal parts in there, remember that the stick uses magnetic sensors, so you may want to avoid ferromagnetic materials ;)
 

wrmiller

W
Shadowdancer said:
If you decide to put metal parts in there, remember that the stick uses magnetic sensors, so you may want to avoid ferromagnetic materials ;)
Click to expand...

Good point. Thanks!

There are machinable composites now that could work just fine. I will talk to my machinist friends to see what might work. :)
 

S-O-L-O

S
I know this is an old thread but thought I'd comment anyway. I've got this problem (a floppy shaft!!) and it has been winding me up no end. I looked at it time and time again, even took the bottom of the unit off, but couldn't work out what was going on. Then, in true 'bodge it and scarper' style, I leaned over to a box of tools 'n stuff that was by my chair, took out a round plastic thing, cut a slice out of it, pulled down the spring and slotted the plastic in. I haven't tried it 'live' yet, but my shaft is now nice and stiff! If it passes testing, it's probably worth trying to remove the handle and slide a big washer in to replace the plastic.
 

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