Honeycomb yoke dead zone concern

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

3 minutes ago, SoTotallyToby said:

First of all, hope your family all the best Dave. Did you specifically get a response from Honeycomb regarding the firmware? Not sure If I'm missing it but I can't find anything relating to it on the Honeycomb Support forums unless you were generally suggesting we post there about it. 

Thanks!

Yes sir, please post about it there. I do apologize, but I have this real world stuff going on and it's just been a tad bit overwhelming.

Thank  you for your well wishes, very warmly received!

 

[ioannisvs 0]

On 11/18/2019 at 1:40 AM, ark said:

As a side note, for those motivated to implement a dead zone fix but are unfamiliar with the Arduino, you can use an A/D board like the Leo Bodnar 12 Bit Joystick Controller being used here www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEqkz2JxoFo  to eliminate the dead zone in a Saitek yoke (did this, works great). The advantage of this approach is no firmware programming is required. The disadvantage of this approach is no firmware programming is required -- and thus you can't make changes if so desired at a later time.

Al

The Leo Bodnar BU0836A 12-Bit Joystick Controller has 5V but the Arduino Due has 3.3V.

Does the voltage difference matters? Will the 5V cause any malfunction to potentiometers?

[ark 1,288]

7 hours ago, ioannisvs said:

The Leo Bodnar BU0836A 12-Bit Joystick Controller has 5V but the Arduino Due has 3.3V.

Does the voltage difference matters? Will the 5V cause any malfunction to potentiometers?

The Saitek yoke (and I would expect the Honeycomb yoke -- I don't have one) is designed to work with 5 volts which is the voltage supplied by a standard USB connection; there is no associated danger to the potentiometers from 5 volts.

The Arduino Due uses 3.3 volts 'internally'. The USB connection supplies 5V to the Due and voltage regulation on the Due board reduces that to 3.3 volts. So I would expect the voltage provided by the pitch and roll potentiometers to the A/D (Analog to Digital) converters on the Due will range from 0 to 3.3 volts instead of 0 to 5 volts if you use the Leo Bodnar 12 Bit Joystick Controller.  If you have 12 bit A/D converters (which both boards do), each voltage 'step' represents either 3.3/2¹² = 0.805 millivolts or 5/2¹² = 1.22 millivolts. So you are dividing the input voltage range into 2¹² = 4096 steps which indicates the maximum A/D resolution. In effect, theoretically (ignoring noise, etc.) the system will detect in which of 4096 positions the yoke is in for each axis (roll and pitch). So if the yoke can move through 180 degrees in roll, as the Honeycomb yoke can, then the system should theoretically detect a yoke position change of 180degs/4096 = 0.044 degrees.  Likewise, if the total Honeycomb yoke pitch travel is about 3.25 inches as reported above by MarkDH, then the system should detect a change of 3.25in/4096 = 0.79 thousandths of an inch. Seems sufficient!  😉 ^*

Either the Arduino Due or Leo Bodnar 12 Bit Joystick Controller board should work fine, I just think the Leo Bodnar board is easier to use if you don't have any computer programming experience.

Al 

^* Actually, 10 bit A/Ds providing 1024 'steps' with axis resolutions of  0.175 degs in roll and 3.17 thousandths of an inch in pitch would certainly be sufficient.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by ark

[MarkDH 234]

On 11/20/2019 at 6:05 PM, MarkDH said:

There is now a Honeycomb Aeronautical forum.

Evidently that forum has been abandoned by Honeycomb. There is a new forum at support.flyhoneycomb.com, which looks like it's about a month old. There is also a knowledge base and ticket system. Registration is required. It's yet to be seen how responsive Honeycomb will be.

Edited February 16, 2020 by MarkDH

[MarkDH 234]

 

[NadJ 0]

Any updates on this? Thinking of buying it and doing the Arduino "fix" as I'm pretty hot with Arduino right now having attempted another DIY project a few months ago. I have a bunch of nano boards, any issues?

Edited March 17, 2020 by NadJ

[scubaboy 0]

OK, a person from Honeycomb recently posted on their Facebook page that the reason some yokes have a deadzone, and some do not, is that some of the early production units were calibrated incorrectly at the factory, giving them a deadzone they should not have. My yoke from the original preorder has a 5mm deadzone in elevator, and a 9° deadzone in aileron (5% of total rotation!). I am none to happy about this, as being a direct customer they could have easily contacted me about the mfg mistake, or they could have posted a notice on their website. It's not so bad I knew it was fault, I thought I just had to live with it. So to get it fixed, the customer has to realize on their own, with no communication from the manufacturer, that the deadzone is not intentional like most inexpensive yokes, and decide it is a fault, and "prove" it to the manufacturer that the yoke has a problem to get it fixed. Really is making me think twice, three times, about buying their throttle quadrant now.

Best Regards, Steven

[scubaboy 0]

Also, there is a hidden calibration routine built into the yoke that can be performed to fix the deadzone problem - but those that have been told how to do this have been instructed not to make this public!

[Paladin2005 421]

Why the fu** is this a secret?!

[scubaboy 0]

Apparently they are concerned a user will have trouble doing the calibration, and screw up their yoke, so they prefer to do the calibration themselves.

[monica6211 172]

On 11/2/2019 at 8:17 AM, DaveCT2003 said:

Guys, do me a favor.

In Windows 10, please launch the Game Controllers application, select Alpha Flight Controls, then select Properties, and then the "test" tab.  Then, while watching the "+" in the square, move your yoke and see if there is a dead zone.  There is absolutely no dead zone for me using this The Windows Game Controllers app, and I'm interested to know if you have one.

I'd also appreciate those who are not noticing a dead zone issue testing this.

 

Many thanks.

 

I have the honeycomb yoke as well. I've only had it for a very short time, so I haven't flown it with P3D or FSX yet. I have flown it with X-Plane 11 and the yoke feels great, and I don't notice the dead zones. But going into the "test" tab like you ask I do definitely see the dead zone in both axis'. As I said though, in X-Plane it feels fine. I don't notice it.

[Paladin2005 421]

On 3/31/2020 at 11:45 PM, scubaboy said:

Apparently they are concerned a user will have trouble doing the calibration, and screw up their yoke, so they prefer to do the calibration themselves.

Yeah, calibrating a joystick etc is something completely new in the PC world (if you find sarcasm, you can keep it).

[scubaboy 0]

Exactly, so if I find out how to do the calibration, or I figure out how to invoke it myself, I will post it.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Anyone having deadzone issues with the Honeycomb Yoke... please try calibrating the yoke using Windows USB Game Controller software and see if that makes a difference.

 

[flytrumpet767 68]

So, I am very tempted by this yoke, and even added to my cart at Dix 30. Should I take the plunge? I mostly fly the PMDG NGXu.

Thanks