I'm having some issues with a BU0836X...I bought a BU0836X a few months ago to replace the controller in a Saitek yoke. Everything was working great, but recently I noticed some issues.I observed some noise in the elevator control (Y axis) around the center position. As I move the yoke, there's considerable "jumping" around, which smoothes out at the extremes of the axis.This is visible under the Control Panel Game Controllers BU Test tab (the + cursor exhibits this behavior) but it is not apparent during calibration (displaying the raw data). That is, the raw data seems to increase smoothly regardless of axes positions, but after calibration it's "jumpy".It seems odd that the values during calibration do not exhibit any noise (no "jumping" as I smoothly pull or push the yoke through the center) but do in the actual use/test area.What can I do to debug this further? Is there some logging I can enable to see raw values read by Windows and the translated output? I'd like to determine whether's some Windows issue or a hardware problem I'm having.Any one run into anything like this before?

• 0

• Quote
• MultiQuote

I would be willing to bet the problem is with the potentiometer, not the BU0836X card.I'd try connecting that pot. to another axis terminal and see if the noise persists, if it does then I'd switch it out with a new one. If it doesn't problems solved unless you are already using all of the other axis inputs?I use a registered copy of FSUIPC to do my calibration in so I never really mess with the windows game controller calibration routines much so I cant help you there.Good Luck,

I would be willing to bet the problem is with the potentiometer, not the BU0836X card.I'd try connecting that pot. to another axis terminal and see if the noise persists, if it does then I'd switch it out with a new one. If it doesn't problems solved unless you are already using all of the other axis inputs?I use a registered copy of FSUIPC to do my calibration in so I never really mess with the windows game controller calibration routines much so I cant help you there.Good Luck,

There are two things:1. The raw values read from the controller2. The calibrated values returned/used by WindowsThe raw values are seen only by Windows (or I'm sure some other apps), not FSUIPC. FSUIPC sees the -16k to 16k calibrated values returned by Windows.The raw values for me range from around 600-3600 and these DO NOT exhibit any noise.So, I'm trying to find a way to log both the raw and calibrated values so that I can graph them and visualize the noise.

You can see both the raw and the post-calibration (DirectInput) scaled value using the DIView utility available on Leo Bodnar's website. Highlight the axis of interest, and select "View Raw Data" in the axis pulldown menu, and the raw value is reported in red above the calibrated value in the axis window. You can get a good feel for the axis stability by watching those values. You can also manually tweak some of the DirectInput calibration parameters (end/centerpoints, saturation, and dead zone) using that utility. I don't think the utility will log those values, though.

You can see both the raw and the post-calibration (DirectInput) scaled value using the DIView utility available on Leo Bodnar's website. Highlight the axis of interest, and select "View Raw Data" in the axis pulldown menu, and the raw value is reported in red above the calibrated value in the axis window. You can get a good feel for the axis stability by watching those values. You can also manually tweak some of the DirectInput calibration parameters (end/centerpoints, saturation, and dead zone) using that utility. I don't think the utility will log those values, though.

Perfect... Apparently the noise is there on both raw and calibrated values. Does anyone know a good replacement source for the Saitek Yoke pots?

Perfect... Apparently the noise is there on both raw and calibrated values. Does anyone know a good replacement source for the Saitek Yoke pots?

I think you're probably SOL on that one...Saitek apparently doesn't sell replacements for those nasty cheap pots they use in their controllers. I had a look inside one of their throttle quads, and it appears they're using trim pots, which are intended to be set once, not cycled repeatedly. I've seen the question asked before in a few other forums, but no good answer. A Hall Effect sensor retrofit would be ideal if you have the mechanical and electrical skills--a 0-5v HE sensor like the Allegro A13xx series can be directly connected to the Bodnar board.You could try using some tuner cleaner (i.e. DeOxit) on the pot internals to breathe some more life into the existing pots. It's worked for me in the past.