Honeycomb alpha yoke few questions

[rwy12 16]

Hi Everyone

I decided to buy this after few months deliberation and on line research.

I hope someone can help me with few issues.

I use it for p3dv4.5

The 3 positions on the rotary switch, number 32, 33, 35 aren't working. I checked on the window 10 controller property and these do not show.

I have emailed Honeycomb and I am waiting for a solution.

Does anybody else have this issue with windows 10 and p3cv4.5?

2nd issue is the stiffness of the pull push action. I find this requires a lot of force.  Every user seems to be saying this and there does not seem to 

a solution.

Can you please advise if this gets better with usage-hopefully the rubbers bungees will become more flexible over time.

At the moment I feel little disappointed- I hope the advise from the forum will help resolve these issues.

Many thanks in advance.

Qas 

[MarkDH 234]

The Honeycomb yoke has 35 buttons, which falls foul of the legacy DirectInput API. To make sure the buttons are mappable in P3Dv4 you need to go to Options/Controls/Other and make sure you have 'Raw Input' checked. You also need 'Enable Controllers' checked, of course. You won't be able to use these three buttons natively with FSUIPC, although I think maybe there was a workaround to map them to virtual buttons.

Opinions differ on the pitch force. I think it's great and it's less than the Yoko. By contrast the roll forces are too low, which makes it feel a bit odd. There is no workaround for the pitch and you don't really want one because according to Honeycomb's FAQ the tension is chosen so the pitch bearing returns to centre within an accuracy of 3mm. Any less and you would need a bigger dead zone.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

In addition to what Mark said (which is a terrific answer), you can also see the switch movment in the Honeycomb Yoke application, so you'll see that it's working.

 

Best wishes.

 

[fppilot 4,339]

35 minutes ago, MarkDH said:

Opinions differ on the pitch force. I think it's great and it's less than the Yoko. By contrast the roll forces are too low, which makes it feel a bit odd. There is no workaround for the pitch and you don't really want one because according to Honeycomb's FAQ the tension is chosen so the pitch bearing returns to centre within an accuracy of 3mm. Any less and you would need a bigger dead zone.

+1  Well said. 

I like the Honeycomb yoke's force and return. It offers enough resistance and return to be realistic. Nothing in a simulator yoke will duplicate the forces felt from the control surfaces of an actual aircraft, much less from all of the simulator aircraft in your hangar.  All aircraft have different control surfaces, the links from the yoke to the control surfaces have a number of different designs, and so the feel varies from aircraft model to aircraft model, and can even vary from one aircraft to another of a specific model..And the forces felt in any one actual aircraft change slightly, and sometimes significantly with changes in both forward speed and vertical speed. i.e. pressure on the control surfaces.  Almost impossible to duplicate with an even slightly affordable USB simulator yoke.  And to duplicate individually for all simulator aircraft models.  That's why my A2A Cessna 182 and my RealAir Dukes feel the same.

Here is a good article from AOPA magazine to read on the subject of yoke forces.

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/students/presolo/topics/flight-control-forces

Edited June 25, 2020 by fppilot

[Ranjee 0]

I am waiting for a reply from honeycomb. Hopefully they may have

A solution for fsuipc to see the buttons.

I am new to yoke flying. I use the thrustmaster hogworth joystick.although not realistic it is very

Accurate and easy. 

I will persevere with the honeycomb. Hopefully things will improve with usage. 

Many thanks everyone. 

Qas

[AlanB77L 0]

Have you thought about using LINDA?

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/427-linda-downloads/

It is loaded by FSUIPC at sim start-up. Once you've installed an aircraft profile, you can assign every single button and switch on the Honeycomb. I've used this to overcome the FSUIPC limitation and I'm happy with the performance. I'll add that it was a bit of a steep learning curve in the beginning with concerns about having another module running in the background, but I've had no issues whatsoever except with a 747 profile which needed the GSX integration deativated as its library is no longer updated.

Edited June 25, 2020 by AlanB77L
Typo

[rwy12 16]

I have used Linda-I built a working over head panel and programmed everything with Linda.

But now it has stopped working.

For some unknown reasons Linda loads up but does not recognize the controllers,and other commitments have prevented me from finding a solution.

I am very disappointed with Honeycomb-I think they know the buttons issues with P3D .

I want to map these to brakes postilion...2...3..

Many thanks to everyone for the help-if I manage to sort the issue I will post here.

 

Qas

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

4 hours ago, rwy12 said:

I have used Linda-I built a working over head panel and programmed everything with Linda.

But now it has stopped working.

For some unknown reasons Linda loads up but does not recognize the controllers,and other commitments have prevented me from finding a solution.

I am very disappointed with Honeycomb-I think they know the buttons issues with P3D .

I want to map these to brakes postilion...2...3..

Many thanks to everyone for the help-if I manage to sort the issue I will post here.

 

Qas

 

Really? I believe Mark's answer explained thinks beautifully.

Linda was working and now it's not? How in the world does that fall back on Honeycomb?

If you think there is a problem with the rotary switch then fire up the Yoke software and see if each position is working. If each position is read by the software then the issue and solution is precisely what Mark explained, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the yoke.

Best wishes.

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by DaveCT2003

[MarkDH 234]

2 hours ago, rwy12 said:

I am very disappointed with Honeycomb-I think they know the buttons issues with P3D .

I don't understand what you are still stuck on. I'm sure Honeycomb knows of the 'problem', but I guess they decided that flexibility (and most likely making it work with X-Plane) was more important than supporting legacy applications natively. But they did provide a way to do it in the form of the Aerosoft YokeInput add-in. BTW, here's a thread showing how to make FSUIPC see buttons above 32.

Edited June 28, 2020 by MarkDH

[rwy12 16]

22 hours ago, DaveCT2003 said:

Really? I believe Mark's answer explained thinks beautifully.

Linda was working and now it's not? How in the world does that fall back on Honeycomb?

If you think there is a problem with the rotary switch then fire up the Yoke software and see if each position is working. If each position is read by the software then the issue and solution is precisely what Mark explained, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the yoke.

Best wishes.

 

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry I do not understand what you are implying by using the word 'Really' in this context.

Yes 'really ' the 3 positions on the rotary switch do not work in my P3D on my honeycomb yoke.

Its only when I followed Mark's advise and changed raw input to direct input I get response from positions 33 and 34.

Still nothing for position 35.

And I am very grateful to him .

I never said Linda stopped working because of the honey comb. I don't know how in the world you assumed that.

Regarding your comment, this issue has nothing got to do with the honey comb yoke-can you please tell me who is it to do with.

I emailed honey comb and after nearly a week they haven't provided a solution.

Its the wonderful people on these forums who are providing  the honeycomb support.

I am sure honey comb know of this issue and all they need to do is put it on their knowledge base-that would definitely have saved me a lot of time .

I am very grateful to everybody who has tried to help me..some more than others.

Qas

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by rwy12

[rwy12 16]

19 hours ago, MarkDH said:

I don't understand what you are still stuck on. I'm sure Honeycomb knows of the 'problem', but I guess they decided that flexibility (and most likely making it work with X-Plane) was more important than supporting legacy applications natively. But they did provide a way to do it in the form of the Aerosoft YokeInput add-in. BTW, here's a thread showing how to make FSUIPC see buttons above 32.

Many thanks again Mark. 

I was not familiar with this -I will try it.

Even if the buttons have a issue the yoke is still a good product in its class.

You have a good way of helping people.

  All the best.

Qas

[MarkDH 234]

1 hour ago, rwy12 said:

Still nothing for position 35.

It's worth noting the buttons may be numbered 0-34 in some applications and 1-35 in others. Just a thought!

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

2 hours ago, rwy12 said:

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry I do not understand what you are implying by using the word 'Really' in this context.

Yes 'really ' the 3 positions on the rotary switch do not work in my P3D on my honeycomb yoke.

Its only when I followed Mark's advise and changed raw input to direct input I get response from positions 33 and 34.

Still nothing for position 35.

And I am very grateful to him .

I never said Linda stopped working because of the honey comb. I don't know how in the world you assumed that.

Regarding your comment, this issue has nothing got to do with the honey comb yoke-can you please tell me who is it to do with.

I emailed honey comb and after nearly a week they haven't provided a solution.

Its the wonderful people on these forums who are providing  the honeycomb support.

I am sure honey comb know of this issue and all they need to do is put it on their knowledge base-that would definitely have saved me a lot of time .

I am very grateful to everybody who has tried to help me..some more than others.

Qas

 

 

 

 

 

My comment "really" was based on your completely and utterly ignoring the information that Mark and I shared with you. You ignoring good information and advice doesn't bother me one bit, it's your call.  But you then blamed PUBLICLY state that the developer of the product knows there is a problem and won't do anything about it.  So when you ignore the advice which would determine if there is actually an issue, and then state what you did, that deserves far more than a "really" my friend, I was being kind and generous.  What you did was seriously wrong.

So, once again, I provided you with a simple and fast means of testing the rotary switch.  Until you do that, there is no way that you or I can know if there is a problem with the switch - however, I'm extremely familiar with the product and I understand exactly what you shared and I believe this is simply a knowledge issue on your part, and Mark explained that to you.  Still, you need to test the switch.

If this turns out to be a simple matter of you not understanding how the switch and P3D works then what you would have succeeded is giving a black mark and potentially damaging the sales of an honest developer who invested and risked very large sums of money to provide excellent hardware at an affordable cost to the flight sim community.  You get that these things don't appear out of thin air, right? 

At some point this has to be about our community, rather than someone who is frustrated spouting off and damaging a good developer.  It doesn't come close to making sense and we all suffer for it.

So, follow the advice or don't, but please don't blame a honest developer who produces an excellent product just because you don't understand how things work.  I mean, you could have just asked for help in testing and understanding the product instead of including damaging comments towards the developer. That's what my "really" meant.

I hope this explains the other side of the equation my friend, and I leave you with my best wishes.

 

[rwy12 16]

Hello

Thank you for another aggressive and unwarranted response-

Your advise was -'In addition to what Mark said (which is a terrific answer), you can also see the switch movment in the Honeycomb Yoke application, so you'll see that it's working'

And my question was,

I use it for p3dv4.5

The 3 positions on the rotary switch, number 32, 33, 35 aren't working. I checked on the window 10 controller property and these do not show.

I have emailed Honeycomb and I am waiting for a solution.

Does anybody else have this issue with windows 10 and p3dv4.5?

It is clear you did not understand my question-I was referring to the switch not working in p3d. NOT in the honeycomb application.

You did not give me any advice, let alone ‘good advice’- stop taking credit for what Mark did.

Who are you to judge me whether I used that information or not?

This is a public forum; I have every right to express my opinion publicly about Honeycomb or anything-Honeycomb yoke has its issues, if you have not come across any, I have included a link below. -in my opinion it’s a good product.

https://www.google.com/search?q=problems+with+honeycomb+alpha+yoke&rlz=1C1CHBF_enPK885PK885&oq=problems+with+honeycomb+alpha+yoke&aqs=chrome..69i57j33l7.14932j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

What do you mean by ‘that deserves far more than a ‘really’ response-are you threatening me with violence?

What you provided with had already been suggested by honey comb and I had tried it.

The switches not working is not a matter of my understandings -it’s out of box issue. Other P3D users have reported it too.

Its nice to hear you are extremely familiar with the product-can you please tell me why do the positions 33,34,35 do not work in p3d-I have googled the problem and its something about windows and buttons over 32. I will welcome your explanation.

I know these things do not appear out of air-but these things aren’t provided to us for free either. I had to pay a decent amount for it-I am only wanting help to make sure the item is 100% functional-right!

Off course this is all about community-the providers have obligations to provide support when problems arise. I am an example of a person who has suffered. I totally agree with you on this.

I do not remember calling honey comb dishonest-not sure what honesty has got to do with a fault in a item.

If my LG tv develops a problem that does not mean LG are dishonest!

This request was for a solution to a physical problem-it was not for just causal advice. True, a person does not need the knowledge of how a product works -provided the product works. I never requested how the yoke works-I asked can somebody help with the rotary button not registering positions 33,34, and 35.

It is clear you have made a linear equation into a quadratic equation.

Maths was never my strong point.

Best wishes my friend.

 

 

[SergeyPe 92]

This discussion became so interesting that I've taken my Honeycomb out of the box (I'm using a different yoke now) to check the declared problem again (while I knew the answer already). It's absolutely true that all the switches located on the switch panel are behaving differently to the ones located on the yoke itself, i. e. they are not working correctly when you try to map the P3D functions to them directly using the sim's key assignment menu. For instance, any switch on the left side of the panel behaves identically no matter it's moved up or down, and the rotary switch registers as #31 in positions "1" and "2" and as #34 in positions "4" and "5". These switches are not supposed to be directly mapped in the sim, which is what's written in Honeycomb manual (starting from page 6). And this is EXACTLY what the Honeycomb's YokeInput configuration program is made for. This is the logic built in the yoke's controller in order to make it as flexible as possible using the yoke WITH the application software. In other words- it's not a bug or a problem, it's just another example which shows the importance of reading the manual.