2 x Saitek USB Throttle Quadrants

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Hello all,

I think this may be an easy one to solve but I can not find a solution.

I have the full Saitek setup ie, yoke with din quadrant, another USB throttle quadrant, trim wheel, and rudder pedals. I have just fixed my rudder pedals (Spring connector) and cleaned the pots in my quadrants. when the din/yoke connected quadrant started playing up.  

The USB connected quadrant worked just fine after the maintenance but the din connected one just gave up the ghost and I strongly suspect the PC board, which, of course, is irreplaceable (to my knowledge) As a stop gap I re-assigned the USB quad to throttle 1 and 2 with the third lever being assigned to flaps. This works brilliantly with Xplane but NOT with  FS2004 (the second throttle is either on or off despite the calibration seeming to work well and smoothly) I feel that it may well be a config problem and I am contemplating a full reinstall. I did delete the config after a back up and let FS2004 rebuild but it made no difference to the quadrant. That has got me beat but since I do not want to replace both the yoke and the din quadrant, I thought of purchasing another USB quadrant and plugging in two  USB quads in lieu of 1 x din and one by USB.

The only thing I can find on the internet is a lot of discussion of trying to convert a spare din/yoke quadrant plug to USB and I believe general consensus is that this is not a wise thing to do. It is also not relevant to me.

Having said that though, I have seen on the internet here, a male din to female USB connector/adapter and I was thinking that it may be possible to connect the USB quad to the yoke via this adaptor thereby fooling the system into thinking it is an integral part of the yoke for calibration and assignment purposes. This, in reality, is but a reversal of the "NO NO" in the previous paragraph 

Is there anybody out there who can give me some advice on whether this is actually feasible. Is it possible to connect two USB quadrants into a powered USB Hub and have them both working as a normal twin quad setup does.

Regards with thanks in advance

Tony. 

[MarkDH 234]

Forget 'converting' the USB to a DIN plug or vice-versa, it will never work. Just get two USB quads and it will work fine (assuming it is actually the quad that's faulty).

Edited March 31, 2019 by MarkDH

[Ray Proudfoot 8,956]

I can confirm what Mark says. I bought two new USB quadrants after my original pair had so many spikes making them difficult to use.

If you have the full version of FSUIPC you can assign two throttles to a single lever. Another reason why you should use FSUIPC and not the default FS assignments.

Just one word of warning. You need to keep them plugged into the same ports on the yoke. If you swap them they have different IDs and any button assignments won’t work.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Mark and Ray.

Many thanks guys for that info. I am off to Australia in a couple of weeks and I can pick up 2 of those quadrants for about AU180.00 so that is great news.

Ray, just one further query originating from your word of warning.

I currently have all my Saitek connected into a powered USB hub, including the yoke. This is mainly because I read somewhere, a long time ago, that the yoke did not provide enough power for the USB ports provided on the back of the yoke, unless it has the optional power adaptor. Can I assume that my two new quadrants plugged into that powered hub is not the way to go. Do I HAVE to plug one of the USB quads into the back of the yoke and the other as I normally do, or can they both go into the powered hub?

Regards and thanks again guys,

Tony

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,956]

Tony,

 Both my two USB quadrants are plugged into the Saitek Yoke. That provides plenty of power as there are no displays to draw power.

But if you remove either then make sure you plug it back into the same port. Otherwise FSUIPC sees it as a different device number and the axes and button assignments for quadrant x will end up on quadrant y and vice versa.

I have had my yoke for 12 years and never bought a power supply for it. It just plugs into the PC USB2 port. Plugging it into a powered USB hub is also fine.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Ray,

Thank  you so very much for all that information mate.

I will rest easy now.

Regards and the best to you

Tony

[fppilot 4,371]

2 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

I currently have all my Saitek connected into a powered USB hub, including the yoke. This is mainly because I read somewhere, a long time ago, that the yoke did not provide enough power for the USB ports provided on the back of the yoke, unless it has the optional power adaptor.

I agree with Ray.  I had severe issues back some time when connecting to the USB ports on the Yoke.  And the problems actually got worse when I attempted to use the Saitek power adapter.  The issue turned out to be Windows Advanced Power Management.  Found out about the issue on the Spad.Next web site where I found a registry patch and instructions on settings to find and correct in Control Panel, Device Management.  Since then I can very successfully use the ports on the yoke and do so without the power supply. I run a Saitek Multipanel and second quadrant.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Frank,

I have to say that my probable preferred set up will be to connect one quadrant to a yoke USB input and the other into the powered hub. This, I imagine, will be a set up similar to the din plug quadrant and USB quadrant set up which I am currently using, although it will not calibrate or assign under the yoke setup. I do not currently have any problems using the powered USB hub ie nothing goes to sleep (Windows Power Management) 

I am hoping this will work "out of the box" but I will have the paid version of FSUIPC for FS2004 P3Dv4 and XPUIC for XPlane11 as a backup to the normal assignment and calibration settings. I am guessing if it does not work "out of the box" it will be largely a case of "suck it and see" 

After the purchase of the two new quadrants, I will have a spare quadrant which works, and I am thinking of using that for "Gear up"  application  as well.

Thanks for your advice and please feel free (LOL) to putting me on the right track if the above does not make any logical sense.

Regards

Tony