Recently i have decided to buy throttle hardware, but no more plastic stuff from Logitech or Thrustmaster.

So i have started to dig and search.

Found a few companies which products look decent, but...

From where those prices are coming from?

It is impossible to find any unit which will cost u less than 300 Euro ( including taxes and shipment ).

And we still talk about metal box consist of simple board with few electronic components plus simple levers, few push buttons and rotary knobs ( each of these components cost few bucks )

One company have jumped hyperspace selling very simple throttle for almost 800Euro.( including taxes and shipment cost )

Throttle for Flight Simulator - TQ3 | Virtual Fly (virtual-fly.com)

 

Is it just me who thinks that those prizes are from the sky?

 

The price is high because the quality is there. You can find them on Ebay for Half price sometimes.  There primary customers are Flight Training schools. If you want the best it will cost you. I have no regrets buying there stuff just had to save. I got a closet full of the plastic stuff which is good but not the Quality and finesse of the VF stuff.

As someone who used to build and sell throttle quadrants to the community, I feel your pain. I think I can provide some perspective.  I stopped making them last year despite the fact that I did it more as a hobby than a business for several reasons. Designing and building good, reliable quadrants is difficult and very time consuming.  Each aircraft has its own unique quadrant, so designing a quadrant that adapts to most aircrafts is a challenge. Prototyping in metal requires precision and expensive machinery. In a period of several years, I saw the cost of shipping double or triple. This is fine for high volume purchases, but if a bag of screws cost $2.00 and shipping $8.00, one can see how this complicates costing a product. Lastly, and this may get some of you upset, the customer base was becoming more fickle and inexperienced. With free shipping, my top six lever quadrant (not metal)  would sell for about $300. Since these quadrants were custom made individually(cnc cut MDF, some metal,plastic) there was always the risk that something could go wrong either in the manufacturing, or at the customer's end. Some eBay customers, after receiving the unit, decided that it was not for them. The whole ebay complaints, refunds, and transaction policy was time consuming, filled with high fees, and always favored the customer. I  had to worry about a customer giving me a poor rating. The best decision I made was to stop selling through Ebay and operate only through word of mouth. Despite this, shipping and packaging was getting complicated and costly. A large, 10 lbs package, easily costs between $20-$40 plus packaging in the US, and over $80 international. This makes the cost of refunds and returns very expensive. Some customers were clueless about programming complex quadrants, and would require hours on the telephone for support. Imagine those customers who didn't know how to set up flap notches with FSUIPC.

Prior to MSFS entering the scene, the user base was relatively small. Now it's larger and more mass producers are entering the market. But the cost of supply chain as well as shipping appear to be increasing at a rate that makes small volume sales very challenging.

What's my point? Today, If one were to make a product for the sim community, it's tempting to make "button boxes" and sell them for $100, than throttle quadrants for $300( not metal). A button box requires only one manufactured item and mostly off the shelf buttons and switches. A quadrant has many custom designed parts and few off the shelf components, except for screws and wires. The electronics need to be custom built, or the cost of off the shelf controllers is quite high. In quantities of 300 units, I could keep the cost of the board to appx. $11 per unit. If I had decided to purchase it, it would be in the $30-40 per unit. Still, a custom board required the initial design and upfront costs.

I'd be curious to know what happened to the folks who build the honeycomb bravo, since they were among the first with "mass" appeal and high volume production.

In sum, good hardware is expensive. Most folks in the sim hardware business work hard and are not making an easy buck.

 

thanks for that insight, i am still hugely suspicious about 800Euro for throttle unit but was interesting to read ur post.

Despite my extensive knowledge in throttle quadrant building, I still resort to a non metal one. They don't have to be cheap--if some design parameters are not compromised and allow easy to repair or replace components. The best example was the difficulty in repairing the saitek throttles due to custom pots.

Anyway, if it helps you, when you shop for a quadrant, make a distinction between high fidelity quadrants and more consumer oriented ones. The consumer oriented ones should not be prices higher than 300--in my opinion.

I've been using the same Microsoft Sidewinder Forced feedback II for year and years and years and I can grease any landing with it.😁

It's incrediibly hard to design and build a quality yoke. Look at Fulcrum for example. Everything down to the screws has to be designed, researched and then a contract with a company to make the steel case inside which the chap building it has to get everything right.

Chris at Fulcrum explained it all to me and it's far from easy. Then add on the pandemic and supply issues. Imagine you have everything except a switch. You can't sell it until those arrive.

My eyes were opened by how dificult it all is. Having said that a quality yoke will last you a long time. Far longer than a CPU or GPU. It's a long term investment.

Saitek / Logitech throttle quadrants are cheap enough but once the pots go you chuck the whole thing away because they were never designed for them to be replaced. That's a shocking state of affairs.

I'm still using my GoFlight kit bought in 2003. Real quality but such a shame the pandemic finished it off.

On 1/12/2024 at 9:02 PM, FBW737 said:

I've been using the same Microsoft Sidewinder Forced feedback II for year and years and years and I can grease any landing with it.😁

Mine blew up yonks ago. Wasn't that good.

If you find

On 1/12/2024 at 6:54 AM, Beardyman said:

Is it just me who thinks that those prizes are from the sky?

If you find this expensive, then you don't want to look at the VirtualFly website. Their latest Throttle Quadrant can be yours for just €1295.
And after my experiences with lesser quality stuff I am somewhat tempted even at these prices.
These are manufactured in batches of 120. Larger batches might be cheaper but I guess they are trying to limit the risk of not being able to sell them, as well of having a long list of preorders while waiting for one or more unobtainable parts.

These kind of devices will never be "cheap" though, since metalwork is much more expensive. The high price also almost guarantees that those who buy them already know how to configure them or at least some experience with that.