Honeycomb Yoke and Throttle news

[oemlegoem 29]

hello Ray

Thanks for the info. Could you make an impression about the friction of the pitch axis around the central position? Does it return to the same neutral position, irrespective whether it returns from pitch up or pitch down?  

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

32 minutes ago, oemlegoem said:

hello Ray

Thanks for the info. Could you make an impression about the friction of the pitch axis around the central position? Does it return to the same neutral position, irrespective whether it returns from pitch up or pitch down?  

To be honest it was so difficult to move the pitch axis forward and backwards making any meaningful analysis is very difficult. It would probably be unfair to Honeycomb to give a definitive opinion until they had made adjustments and it was properly fixed to a desk.

But I saw another yoke at the show and will be posting a video and report on that very shortly.

[vortex681 806]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It would probably be unfair to Honeycomb to give a definitive opinion until they had made adjustments and it was properly fixed to a desk.

But it's not as though they're rushing this into production. They've had a LOT of time to make this work and it still looks some way off. Fixing it to the desktop should have been a priority if they were going to show it in public. The original concept looked very promising but each subsequent iteration just appears to be a case of building down to a budget.

Based on your comments on the other new yoke you tried, Honeycomb may have missed the bus with this.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

@vortex681, couldn’t agree more. Cosford is THE main FS show in the U.K. so if you can’t attend to demonstrate your product it is disappointing. Aerosoft staff hardly did a great job either. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a further delay to its release.

[vortex681 806]

18 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Cosford is THE main FS show in the U.K. so if you can’t attend to demonstrate your product it is disappointing.

It's probably even worse that they allow their product to appear when it's still so clearly nowhere near ready for production. As I said much earlier in this thread, I was primarily interested in the throttle quadrant but that seems to be a lost cause based on their progress with the yoke.

[jalbino59 114]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

But I saw another yoke at the show and will be posting a video and report on that very shortly.

is this a production model, pre-production beta, or more in development eye candy? I've already developed orbital diabetes waiting for HC.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Just now, jalbino59 said:

is this a production model, pre-production beta, or more in development eye candy? I've already developed orbital diabetes waiting for HC.

It is pre-production. 3D printed but in the few hours from my first viewing to using it the owner had built it and had it working in a sim. Impressive!

[shivers9 1,174]

Thanks for the update. I can now mentally move Honeycomb into the bin that holds all the flight sim trash. LOL they seem to have picked up the marketing "director" from DTG. They remind me of the Hot Dogs we get at the American shopping Malls. A lot of bread and not much meat.

[oemlegoem 29]

During a small flightsim event in Switzerland, Aerosoft had the yoke on display. Could well be that it is the same yoke that Ray saw in Cosford. The yoke could be ordered with delivery from April 2019.
As in Cosford, the yoke did not have the special attachment membrane.

Trying out the yoke movement, I have two concerns:

The yoke has a lot of friction in the pitch axis. I tried moving the yoke in one direction, and releasing it slowly until it stops, Then the same in the other direction. The difference in the stop position was about 10mm. So, a lot of friction.
Doing the same for the roll movement, I could see the same effect, but less noticeable than for the pitch movement.
In order to get a defined neutral pitch position, the Saitek yoke uses a scissor mechanism. This causes a detent, which is disliked by many. However, you get a defined neutral position. The Flyhoneycomb yoke does not have a detent. I have the impression that in order to reduce the dead zone range, the spring force was increased, which makes for a stiff yoke, as Ray had noted. Without the stiff springs, the dead zone would be even larger.

The total pitch travel was about 100mm, 4". This is far different from the 6" that is advertised on the Flyhoneycomb website. I had noted already in an earlier post that I expected that the pitch range would be 100mm, because Flyhoneycomb shows pictures where the pitch movement is measured by a linear potentiometer. And commercial available linear potentiometers are 100mm max.

This is a prototype. So we have to see how the final product turns out. But if it is the same as the prototype, then I fail to see the benefits compared to other entry level yokes.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

@oemlegoem, probably the same as the one on the Aerosoft stand at the European show in Lelystad last weekend. It was just sitting on a desk not attached to any simulator and wasn't held down so needed the help of a second person to hold it down whilst I pulled and pushed it.

No-one from Honeycomb was there and Aerosoft didn't really do anything to promote it. I've become quite disillusioned and am now watching Fulcrum here in the UK who have an alternative which looks a lot more promising.

I think Honeycomb's determination to keep the cost to $200 is going to create a throttle not significantly better than the Saitek.

[oemlegoem 29]

The yoke can be tested next Saturday at SimWare Simulations in Belgium.

Anyone has a chance to go there?

[Freo 83]

Am in the market for a new yoke, but have never seriously considered the Honeycomb product. I personally dont think it will ever become a serious contender in the yoke market. Am thinking about a Yoko yoke, but am delaying the purchase, until the Fulcrum yoke becomes a reality, however long that takes.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

This thing is going to fail hard, if it ever even sees commercial release. I would much rather they chose to keep the metal design and raise the price rather than change to plastic in order to maintain the low price point. Even if they had to double the price it would still be a steal compared to all the other high-end yokes.

Let this be a lesson to anyone else who wants to try the same thing. Over-promise under-deliver is a bad sales model.

Edited December 9, 2018 by TechguyMaxC

[Wise87 1,281]

Here is the latest news from HoneyComb. 

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

If they’re going to use two clamps why the need to still stick something to the desk? Was it my imagination or did I see the base move after he pushed it down.

And no demonstration of actually using the yoke to prove it won’t move.

Still no pictures or video of the mysterious throttle quadrant.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Ray Proudfoot