Any updates from Fulcrum regarding final specs and release?

Chris from Fulcrum has posted this news on the progress of the yoke on Facebook this morning....

There has been quite a bit of work on the ergonomics and switch placement following user feedback at RAF Cosford. In fact once the button placement was changed we went through approximately 30 different designs each tweaking the shape followed by another 3d printed prototype to check the feel. The design has now been finalised and sent to the foundry for mould making and casting.
There has been some great work on streamlining the mechanism too so the whole case size is much smaller. Final sizes are still tbc but aiming for frontal area approximately the same as the saitek case, if not a bit narrower. Case length will be 300mm.
Headline figures are the same though. 90 degrees rotation each side. 8 inches of pitch travel. Hall sensors. Zero center detect, hydraulically damped, all ball bearings, metal cast yoke as per the website front page.
Release date is tbc but we are still hopeful for Easter time. At this point we are a bit reliant on suppliers delivery dates though. Final cost is still around £400-£450 dependant on confirmation of final manufacturing costs. Thanks again for everyone's support and interest.
Chris

It's all looking very encouraging.

On 10/7/2018 at 12:28 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

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!

I e-mailed Virtual Fly, and it seems like the 8-way hat switch and the sensors are going to be addressed in the "Yoko+" yoke (late March / April?).

The updates on the Fulcrum yoke are promising, too.

1 hour ago, AustinLonghorn said:

I e-mailed Virtual Fly, and it seems like the 8-way hat switch and the sensors are going to be addressed in the "Yoko+" yoke (late March / April?).

The updates on the Fulcrum yoke are promising, too.

900 Euros is far too much for me. The Fulcrum is half the price and with a case very similar in size to the Saitek but with infinitely greater quality components it looks the one for me.

Plus the guy lives 50 miles away so a trip up there to assess before I buy is ideal.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

900 Euros is far too much for me. The Fulcrum is half the price and with a case very similar in size to the Saitek but with infinitely greater quality components it looks the one for me.

Plus the guy lives 50 miles away so a trip up there to assess before I buy is ideal.

Looking forward to your assessment of the thing!

I'm using a Saitek Cessna Pro Flight yoke, and I'll say that the buttons / hat switches are perfect - it's just the terrible elevator control that has me looking for a new yoke.  It limits the entire sim to procedural training only.

The Fulcrum looks to have the PTT switch in the 'wrong' location, argh.  The Yoko+ (if the picture earlier in this thread is correct) looks like they got that part right.

Dunno if that's worth an extra ~ 400 GBP/USD/EUR, though.

3 hours ago, AustinLonghorn said:

The Fulcrum looks to have the PTT switch in the 'wrong' location, argh.  The Yoko+ (if the picture earlier in this thread is correct) looks like they got that part right.

Dunno if that's worth an extra ~ 400 GBP/USD/EUR, though.

What’s the PPT switch? Looks to be too late to change it as the production is imminent. If you have a FB account you can contact Chris there.

Edited February 5, 20197 yr by Ray Proudfoot

Thanks for the continued interest everyone.

Regarding the push to talk, I did consider mounting it on the front but this initial yoke is supposed to be more of a GA type. My experience in GA is pa28s, a c172 and a c152 which all just have a single PTT on the left hand side. As a design compromise and because people want to fly more complex aircraft we also have pitch and roll trim and ap disconnect plus 2 other buttons on the right hand side.

The next release will be a 737 type yoke that will be sold either with the base unit or yoke only to allow you to change the yoke over. This will have the PTT at the front although let's get this one out there first!

Button placement is a personal thing and we have put a lot of time into this design decision but I realise there are a lot of opinions out there.

Chris

Chris,

Given I’m more an IFR pilot than VFR the 737 yoke will be my choice. Without wishing to tie you down too much do you anticipate that variant will soon follow the VFR one?

Hi Ray

I'm sorry but it is far too early to say. I already have the design ready but I need to see how this sells first. The cost of the tooling for casting is rather a lot and I don't want to commit double that amount up front.

Hopefully it won't be too long if the initial offering sells well.

I thought you'd rather have a Concorde yoke anyway?

😁

Chris

Hi Chris.

Fair enough. I’m not a purist so if the same trim controls and buttons are on the GA yoke that may be okay for me. Elevator trim on the left is important. A similar trim control on the right is suitable for P3D commands.

Will the number of buttons be the same on both yokes?

A Concorde one would be nice but I suspect you wouldn’t make a profit on that.

 

3 hours ago, tutmeister said:

Regarding the push to talk, I did consider mounting it on the front but this initial yoke is supposed to be more of a GA type. My experience in GA is pa28s, a c172 and a c152 which all just have a single PTT on the left hand side. As a design compromise and because people want to fly more complex aircraft we also have pitch and roll trim and ap disconnect plus 2 other buttons on the right hand side.

I suppose it'd be more of the PTT placement on the yoke;  C172R and C172S models put the MIC/PTT switch on the 'back' side of the yoke instead of on the top?

C172S yoke in LN-FTD https://imgur.com/a/QIAnVJp

C172R yoke (finger resting on PTT) in N652MA https://imgur.com/a/Fmri0SZ

The older C172N/M models at KAUS have a PTT velcroed wherever, so I guess it's whatever you're used to :)

The problem is there are so many variations, here are 4 aircraft I have access to and all of them have the ptt on the top. The bottom pa28 ptt is actually the large round button on the top, the smaller one on the back doesn't do anything. The C152 and C172 use a curly lead and a button mounted on the centre boss. I think what this discussion shows is that there are many variations and there really is no right and wrong placement unless you are trying to copy an exact model. Hopefully people will feel that the design we have is ergonomic and a reasonable compromise.

Chris

 

Edited February 6, 20197 yr by tutmeister

21 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Chris.

Fair enough. I’m not a purist so if the same trim controls and buttons are on the GA yoke that may be okay for me. Elevator trim on the left is important. A similar trim control on the right is suitable for P3D commands.

Will the number of buttons be the same on both yokes?

A Concorde one would be nice but I suspect you wouldn’t make a profit on that.

 

Hi Ray

While I have been describing this yoke as a more GA style, that isn't strictly true. It is a custom design that has most of what you need for ifr or vfr without feeling out of place in anything. I didn't want it too airliner as it would feel odd in your Cessna. I also wanted to allow people who need electric elevator and aileron trim plus autopilot disconnect and whatever else they needed for more complex aircraft to not feel left out. There is far more on this yoke than pretty much any airliner.

In fact that leads to a problem I have been pondering. Although I have the design for an airliner yoke sorted I haven't decided what to do about button placement. A 737 yoke doesn't give you many options as one side of the yoke is taken up by the dual(working)trim switches. Ap disc is in the same place and two PTT switches on the back. Ideally the hat would be on the left with other buttons on the right. It then is no longer a Boeing-a-like yoke and becomes a more generic airliner type. This is a problem most replica airliner yokes have - they are geared for use in a full cockpit, I suppose it depends on market demand and opinions when I start research for producing that.

I suppose there are two thoughts in regard to replica yoke types. Some people want it to look like exactly like a 737 yoke no matter what and will either have a cockpit setup of sorts or are willing to live without the extra buttons. Then there are people who want something that feels and looks like an airliner yoke but are willing to allow extra buttons as compromises to it being a desktop sim rather than a full cockpit build and I'm leaning towards the latter philosophy.

Apart from look and feel they will have pretty much the same functions. The look and feel will be different but our first model won't be out of place flying anything that has a yoke.

Chris

I'm now wondering where I can fit all those buttons on a Concorde yoke....😄

 

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your post. I appreciate trying to please everyone with a design is an impossible job. My own feelings are that something very similar to the Saitek Yoke layout would be fine but with the obvious benefit of a vastly improved construction and quality components.

Looking at the photo on your Facebook page that appears to be the left handle of the yoke on which we have:-

8-way hat switch, Elevator trim, red button (A/P disconnect?) and black button (PTT?).

What buttons / switches are on the right handle?

Given the Saitek has one trim, hat switch and one button on the left handle and 2 trims, one button on the right that makes a total of 8 commands plus the hat switch.

So if the riight handle of yours has another 4 commands (one trim? plus 2 buttons?) then the number of commands is identical.

Can you provide (here preferably) a close-up shot of the right handle please?

5 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I appreciate trying to please everyone with a design is an impossible job.

Yeah, totally agree...  I'm glad I'm not the mechanical engineer getting random feedback from "Teh Internets!1!" on how one should design and produce a simulator yoke to satisfy all :)