I visited the FS Show at RAF Cosford, England yesterday and came across Fulcrum Simulator Controls - a new company based in Chorley, Lancashire, England. They were demonstrating their new yoke which should be available in Q1 2019.

I was very impressed with this yoke even though it was a pre-production model. I recorded a short video which you can see below and the yoke has the following features:-

• All metal chassis
• Aviation-quality switches
• Hall-effect sensors on both axes
• Ball bearings used on both axes
• Pitch travel approximately 8" (20cm)
• Full 180 degree travel on roll axis
• Elevator and aileron trim switches
• Hat switch and additional buttons

Demonstration of Fulcrum yoke at RAF Cosford FS Show

The designer will be making some changes before production starts. The case will be considerably smaller. There will be a standard desktop clamp similar to the Saitek. The sloping face on the front of the yoke will be vertical. He also intends to make the yoke handle detachable with other aircraft styles available but that will comes later. Anticipated cost is around 400UKP.

Having been disappointed in the operation of the Honeycomb and still no fixing system demonstrated my attention is now firmly on this new offering from Fulcrum. And as Chorley is an hour's drive from my home it makes it especially handy.

Edited October 7, 20187 yr by Ray Proudfoot
Additional info

Speaking to the owner he had tried the Saitek and a more expensive one but remained unimpressed with its quality. He felt there was a huge gap between the Saitek and the very expensive yokes costing close to 1000UKP which remains largely untapped.

This yoke appears to provide the required quality and although significantly pricier than the Honeycomb there are plenty of people who are happy to pay more than the built to a price Honeycomb.

I’m particularly happy to see Hall effect sensors used.

Hi Ray, thanks for the video. looking at the response between your control movements and screen, it seems to be lagging behind quite a bit especially with deflections at higher speeds (such as in steep descents shown). Physical movement looks very smooth though.  

10 minutes ago, jalbino59 said:

Hi Ray, thanks for the video. looking at the response between your control movements and screen, it seems to be lagging behind quite a bit especially with deflections at higher speeds (such as in steep descents shown). Physical movement looks very smooth though.  

Hi Jose,

I wasn’t aware of any lag and no one mentioned it. My main aim in the video was to show the movement range which was excellent. Difficult to demonstrate resistance but there was enough to make it realistic but it was light enough to allow me to move it just using my fingers.

The website is http://www.fulcrumsim.com/ with an option to join a mailing list and a Facebook link.

I guess the external form factor is not identical to the Saitek one, so it cannot replace a Saitek yoke in a hardware panel with a fixed cutout, can it?

Kind regards, Michael

1 minute ago, pmb said:

I guess the external form factor is not identical to the Saitek one, so it cannot replace a Saitek yoke in a hardware panel with a fixed cutout, can it?

Kind regards, Michael

Until the owner gives final dimensions of the unit that question can't be answered. He does have a presence on AvSim so when he can add any info I'm sure he will. The width didn't seem much different to the Saitek but it was definitely a lot deeper. He did say though there is a lot of air in there so I'm sure the final dimensions will be smaller.

37 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Until the owner gives final dimensions of the unit that question can't be answered. He does have a presence on AvSim so when he can add any info I'm sure he will. The width didn't seem much different to the Saitek but it was definitely a lot deeper. He did say though there is a lot of air in there so I'm sure the final dimensions will be smaller.

Thanks for the quick answer, Ray. I'll follow this, depth wouldn't matter in my case. This looks definitely good. I don't any longer dream about a force-feedback yoke in the <1000k range.

Kind regards, Michael 

4 minutes ago, pmb said:

I don't any longer dream about a force-feedback yoke in the <1000k range.

Take a look here: https://vrflightsim.wixsite.com/mysite/in-progress at the "DIY Force Feedback Yoke v2". It uses components from a MS FFB2 joystick in an elegant, simple design. It looks very promising and he estimates the cost to be about £300 without the control yoke. It's an open source project so construction details should eventually be available free.

I need a new yoke badly. Great job by CH Products that their yoke has lasted over a decade for me (and still going), but I need a new one. I was ready for Honeycomb, but it seems it's not going to be as great of a solution as I thought.

 

Looking forward to this yoke.

That Fulcrum Yoke looked impressive at the show and being that it's also made 'oop north', these were fairly compelling reasons for me to consider it worth buying. It does have a very large desktop presence in prototype form, hopefully they can address that somewhat; will be watching development of it with interest.

1 hour ago, vortex681 said:

Take a look here: https://vrflightsim.wixsite.com/mysite/in-progress at the "DIY Force Feedback Yoke v2". It uses components from a MS FFB2 joystick in an elegant, simple design. It looks very promising and he estimates the cost to be about £300 without the control yoke. It's an open source project so construction details should eventually be available free.

I think, DIY isn't working for me, but the idea is bright ideed.

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

Thank you Ray for posting your findings. I went with the intention of checking out their stand but there was nothing on show when I went past and then got distracted by the presentations for the rest of the day.

I managed to have a quick push and pull on the  go flight yoke that just flight on their demo machine but the guy there said he wasn’t impressed with it. 

‘The only options left from what I can see are the fulcrum or the yoko. I don’t mind the price I just want the realism, the CH and saitek yokes I have at present are spoiling the whole experience for me, especially in the flare.

I have the warthog for stick flying which is really nice but it’s not appropriate for many of my aircraft. I can’t believe lack of quality controls on the market in comparison to the growth of quality add ons that are now available. The controller side of things seems to have been at a standstill in the 10 years I’ve been away from simming.

Jon

Hello Ray

Thanks for reporting on this yoke. One thing is not clear to me. Is the Fulcrum yoke ForceFeedBack FFB?

@jon b, I've tried the GoFlight before and wasn't impressed. The Yoko looks okay although the case is a little on the large size but it's the lack of a hat switch I didn't like. And the Fulcrum is the only yoke I'm aware of with Hall effect sensors. No more pots!

@oemlegoem, no, it's not force-feedback.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

 it's the lack of a hat switch I didn't like. And the Fulcrum is the only yoke I'm aware of with Hall effect sensors.

It's worth noting that Virtual Fly just updated its TQ6 throttle quadrant to the 'TQ6 Plus'. This uses Hall Effect sensors, as does their V3RNIO TPM throttle unit. If I were in the market for a Yoko I would probably wait a couple of months!