Thanks for all the great input! I have ordered a Warthog and expect delivery next week. I need to find out which rudder pedals to get :-)

Thanks for all the great input! I have ordered a Warthog and expect delivery next week. I need to find out which rudder pedals to get :-)

 

I can personally recommend the Saitek COMBAT rudder pedals. IMHO, they are much higher-quality than the 'basic' Saitek Rudders... the pedals are aircraft aluminium in appearance, and are adjustable via TORX screws, so you can set them at the tilt angle that fits your preference. A center knob and be used to adjust tension on horizontal movement. I tried the cheaper version first, and wound up returning to Amazon in favor of the Combat model. Worth the extra $.

Like Robert, I too have the Saitek combat pedals. I have nothing else to compare them to, but I've had no problems with them.

I have until this week been using a pair of the Saitek Combat rudder pedals...they get a 6 on a scale of 10 from me. The springs on the toe brakes are very weak, making precise inputs a bit difficult, and the plastic construction has always made me a little hinky about stepping in too hard and breaking something.

 

I just added a set of PFC Cirrus Jet pedals to my HOTAS setup--heavy, steel construction, replaceable pots, strong spring action for centering and for brakes--much, much better (but nearly three times as expensive). I consider them the equivalent in sturdiness and quality to the Warthog.

 

Regards

Another thing I have not seen mentioned about the warthog is how nice it is with an extension added to it. You get a lot more control and it becomes less 'wristy' and more like a proper stick. By default the hog has fairly strong springs but an extension of 3-4" gets it, imho, about perfect.

 

You also get even more control out of the stick because it has more movement so smaller adjustments can be made.

 

The extension like mine is no longer being made but I know there is another person making then and some examples of diy floating around.

 

 

Absolutely agreed on the quality of this stick and throttle combo. I've had the warthog for over a year now and it's the best setup I've ever used. Lovely precision and durability.

 

There is however one potential problem lurking in all of them. They are *very* sensitive to static discharge. I bricked the stick in my first my set accidentally by touching it after walking across some carpet. The shock from my finger killed it instantly and it would no longer be recognized on any computer I plugged it into. I now ground myself on my computer case every time before working with the stick and I've had no problems since. That shiny metal ring at the base of the stick in particular is a real lightning rod, hehe.

 

Other than that, they're awesome in every way, and totally worth the cost. Highly recommended!

 

-Mike

Got to agree with you on the static discharge issue. It is now very dry here in Colorado (when isn't it?) and recently trashed a perfectly good Saitek Cyborg FLY 5 controller. 5 of the buttons got zapped. Doing the grounding thing now as you described. Cheers ja

Got to agree with you on the static discharge issue. It is now very dry here in Colorado (when isn't it?) and recently trashed a perfectly good Saitek Cyborg FLY 5 controller. 5 of the buttons got zapped. Doing the grounding thing now as you described. Cheers ja

 

I fight that battle on two fronts--first with a humidifier unit that sits piggybacked on my furnace to keep household humidity up at ~30%, and second a grounded metal touchstrip at my two flying positions for those really cold days when the cold windows and doors condense the moisture faster than I can add to it with the humidifier. So far, so good...no nuked controllers.

 

Cheers

Colonel Scott-

Where did you get the grounded metal touchstrip can you give us a link or website please?

 

Thank you!

I Wish all of Avsim members "A Happy New Year"

:drinks: 2013 :p0504:

Colonel Scott-

Where did you get the grounded metal touchstrip can you give us a link or website please?

 

Thank you!

 

I made it using some 4" wide copper grounding foil that I use in my ham radio station. It's attached to the underside of my desk. I would imagine that aluminum foil would work...you could use a wire with an alligator clip to attach it (I soldered mine).

 

Regards

Thank you Colonel Scott. I see you are a Gulfsteam pilot! Do you have one? Item #1 on my personal bucket list is to fly a small private jet!

A very interesting thread, thanks to the contributors.

 

I wonder whether the TM Warthog would be a better choice than my present old CH HOTAS for driving a chopper (AS Huey) ?

 

The Fighterstick is smooth enough when moving vertically (pitch) or horizontally (roll) but its resistance is much stronger when moving diagonally which makes more difficult to control the ship as you need to input permantently small corrections in all directions. What about the TM W, is it consistent on 360° ?

 

I had the CH HOTAS a few years ago and found as you do that the independent

left/right and forward/back axis's made movement on the diagonal a bit of a pain.

The TM is a ball and socket type design and the feel is very consistent through out the 360 degrees.

My only slight criticism is that it can return to it's centre position with a bit of a jolt if you let it.

 

gb.

Hi Guys

 

What an awesome thread indeed... Reading all this and seeing Howards wicked vid tempted me to get one, and WOW, this thing is HEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAVY!

The throttle unit is mental heavy, but in an awesome way, as you can lift over the detent easily without it picking the unit up off the desk...

 

I do however have a problem with it, that hopefully one of you fellow warty owners might know more about and be able to help with?

 

Upon plugging it in, and downloading all the manuals/drivers from the TM website, both units were in "[bOOT]" state, and so I updated the firmware on the throttle, all went well, few seconds it was done, and is now a recognised game controller in windows, but when trying to do the same for the joystick, it gets to 100% done, green tick, then fails on the "Final check" as shown:

 

 

 

Any idea what keeps causing this, because it seems that until this is successful, I cannot use the joystick at all.

I tried resetting the Joystick as per their instructions (Using both trigger + red button at same time when plugging in) but that doesn't do anything to help..

 

So for now, the joystick is not usable until I can get this going...

 

It is however, totally awesome, its going to change simming for definite..

Hmmm, just tried this exact same thing, to update the firmware on just the joystick, using my laptop, and the exact same thing happened.

The laptop is Win 7 32bit, no FSX on it.. How very very odd...

Hi Guys

 

What an awesome thread indeed... Reading all this and seeing Howards wicked vid tempted me to get one, and WOW, this thing is HEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAVY!

The throttle unit is mental heavy, but in an awesome way, as you can lift over the detent easily without it picking the unit up off the desk...

 

I do however have a problem with it, that hopefully one of you fellow warty owners might know more about and be able to help with?

 

Upon plugging it in, and downloading all the manuals/drivers from the TM website, both units were in "[bOOT]" state, and so I updated the firmware on the throttle, all went well, few seconds it was done, and is now a recognised game controller in windows, but when trying to do the same for the joystick, it gets to 100% done, green tick, then fails on the "Final check" as shown:

 

 

 

Any idea what keeps causing this, because it seems that until this is successful, I cannot use the joystick at all.

I tried resetting the Joystick as per their instructions (Using both trigger + red button at same time when plugging in) but that doesn't do anything to help..

 

So for now, the joystick is not usable until I can get this going...

 

It is however, totally awesome, its going to change simming for definite..

 

Hey Richard, I wish I could help you with this, maybe Robert could be more helpful. However, I would highly recommend you uninstall the Warty software/driver that you have installed and get a copy of FSUIPC and LINDA. I can't remember if FSUIPC registered version is needed, but if that is the case, then it would be a good investment anyway. So you use FSUIPC to calibrate the throttle, stick and sliders and then use LINDA (freeware) to configure the buttons and switches. To be honest, I found the default software and drivers that came with the Warty too complicated and so I found the two alternatives a lot easier to use.