Go hard or go home

https://throttletek.com/a320-flightbox-v3/

My experience with the 1600 is that it does wear out (both the stick and the throttle). The sensors are fine, but the control itself gets loose. So, you take your hand off the stick and it flops a little bit which means the 100% working sensor puts in a control input you didn't intend.

That's actually been my experience with TM controllers since I had one of their earliest ones back in the 90s, the "Top Gun." They look tough and long lasting, but under the hood there's a lot of disposable parts going on in every one I've tried. My old Saitek X45 outlasted every TM controller I've ever owned.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, SierraDelta said:

Please get your facts right before posting on the internet. I have the TM TCA Captains Edition and the Z-axis (yaw) on the stick is an old-fashioned pot.

How do I know? Well I have opened it up twice to repair it ...

Thrustmaster literally say "NO POTENTIOMETERS". Maybe you have an older version. Updates do happen.

On 5/2/2025 at 3:48 PM, Michael Moe said:

I bought the MOD 3D plastic for these TM AIRBUS some years ago which in theory would extend the axis from idle to climb but in reality its still a pain.

Small adjustment still has a very large input in terms of %. So small correction without AT is impossible. Hopefully the wing wings version is better in this regards.

Michael Moe 

I noticed that in the A350 MSFS2024 the calibratIon was way off and not so in MSFS2020.

This contributed to the problem i described.

Michael Moe 

22 hours ago, Maxis said:

Good point. Just annoying that someone chooses to challenge on an issue that he is not fully informed about.

A joystick does not have to be sold with a rudder axis so for the purposes of marketing they can assert that the joystick is 100% hall effect for the joystick X and Y Axis

The rest of the feature set including the rudder axis (Z) can be whatever they want to use and in this case they used a pot. Guy is finding everything under the sun to discount. Short of me of giving him the number to the authorized Thrustmaster support center in here in miami to call for verification i guess he will never acquiesce to the facts before him. 

But i digress there is enough explanation for anyone interested to go through and figure it out and rightfully so the op is pointing out the throttle (Which is unusual).

So i will leave it there.

When looking at manufacturing literature with packaging and advertising that says "No Potentiometers" vs believing a random person on a forum citing hearsay information, I generally go along with what the company says. 

Edited May 10, 20251 yr by alanw2005

12 minutes ago, alanw2005 said:

When faced with packaging that says "No Potentiometers" vs believing a random person on the forum citing hearsay information, I generally go along with what the company says. 

The packaging did not say NO Potentionmeters.. It said the joystick was 100% Hall effect .. Factually correct for the joystick component of the product but the rest of the feature set is fair game.

Mind you .. Providing you with a link to the user manual from the manufacturer is NOT hearsay.  and Graphical evidence in the link provided is also NOT hearsay.

You do you. The owners of the product knows whats up ..

If you want to suggest that they have revised the model then the revised model number would be appreciated.

Next time though please have your facts 100% correct before you "lean in"

Ill be the first to offer my apologies if i didn't know what i was talking about but considering i own a variant of the product and have spoken to people who have the ACTUAL product regarding resolving the issues caused by the pot i am willing to lean in on this issue.

 

 

Cheers

Edited May 10, 20251 yr by Maxis

20 hours ago, eslader said:

My experience with the 1600 is that it does wear out (both the stick and the throttle). The sensors are fine, but the control itself gets loose. So, you take your hand off the stick and it flops a little bit which means the 100% working sensor puts in a control input you didn't intend.

That's actually been my experience with TM controllers since I had one of their earliest ones back in the 90s, the "Top Gun." They look tough and long lasting, but under the hood there's a lot of disposable parts going on in every one I've tried. My old Saitek X45 outlasted every TM controller I've ever owned.

 

 

 

That sounds conceiveable given the liberal use of plastic parts.

I've replaced the twist axis pot with a hall sensor in two TCA Airbus sticks.

The throttle slider is also a pot.

9 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

I've replaced the twist axis pot with a hall sensor in two TCA Airbus sticks.

The throttle slider is also a pot.

Thanks. How old is your TCA AB sidestick?

12 hours ago, Maxis said:

The packaging did not say NO Potentionmeters.. It said the joystick was 100% Hall effect .. Factually correct for the joystick component of the product but the rest of the feature set is fair game.

Mind you .. Providing you with a link to the user manual from the manufacturer is NOT hearsay.  and Graphical evidence in the link provided is also NOT hearsay.

Cheers

The TM AB sidestick manual does not make mention of a potentiometer. If I missed this please provide a screen shot or page number. 
I am not disputing the possibility that you may have a 5 year old side stick that has a POT. But you have provided no evidence of this. Companies do improve their products.

Hearsay information like what you provide is not admissable in a court of law.

All current Thrustmaster website and marketing information says "NO POTENTIOMETERS" and UNLIMITED lifespan.

 

Edited May 11, 20251 yr by alanw2005

5 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

Snipped

Sir believe what you want to .. (Ive placed you on ignore. Yes you have succeeded in being that irritating). I suspect why you are so insistent on this issue is because you probably purchased it thinking it had absolutely no pots in it. Now you are finding out the truth and cant handle it. Not my problem.

We keep explaining to you that there is indeed a pot on the rudder X axis and now you are asking for year of manufacture ... Do you really think the sys admin for this very forum and others are telling untruths for the purposes of being contrary? Sure The ENTIRE INTERNET is lying !!! ROFLMAO .. Thrustmaster marketing is infallible i say !! Your word and everyone else in here (who owns the darned thing)  is HEARSAY !!...

Ok dude ... as i said .. you do you ..

The second image you posted has the darned X axis pot sitting right on top in the middle of the stick within the spring for Christ sake .. 🤣

Have a good one..

 

Besides ... the OP was talking about his throttle as rightly pointed out by the more astute poster a few lines up who beat both of us in reading comprehension and you still want to argue the joystick topic as if its even relevant to the OP issue. That issue could also be Pot related as Bob stated so if there's nothing further to discuss I will move along now.

Oh and feel free to reply.. Thankfully i will not see it.

Cheers

Edited May 11, 20251 yr by Maxis

3 hours ago, Maxis said:

Sir believe what you want to .. (Ive placed you on ignore. Yes you have succeeded in being that irritating). I suspect why you are so insistent on this issue is because you probably purchased it thinking it had absolutely no pots in it. Now you are finding out the truth and cant handle it. Not my problem.

We keep explaining to you that there is indeed a pot on the rudder X axis and now you are asking for year of manufacture ... Do you really think the sys admin for this very forum and others are telling untruths for the purposes of being contrary? Sure The ENTIRE INTERNET is lying !!! ROFLMAO .. Thrustmaster marketing is infallible i say !! Your word and everyone else in here (who owns the darned thing)  is HEARSAY !!...

Ok dude ... as i said .. you do you ..

The second image you posted has the darned X axis pot sitting right on top in the middle of the stick within the spring for Christ sake .. 🤣

Have a good one..

 

Besides ... the OP was talking about his throttle as rightly pointed out by the more astute poster a few lines up who beat both of us in reading comprehension and you still want to argue the joystick topic as if its even relevant to the OP issue. That issue could also be Pot related as Bob stated so if there's nothing further to discuss I will move along now.

Oh and feel free to reply.. Thankfully i will not see it.

Cheers

Thrustmaster claims that the Airbus sidestick has no potentiometers. None. Their website confirms no potentiometers. For ease of reference I refer you to their website:

https://www.thrustmaster.com/products/tca-officer-pack-airbus-edition/

Additionally, i refer you to this part of their website with highlights for your ease of access:

You claim that the sidestick uses potentiometers but provide no evidence of this. This is called hearsay evidence.

You provided a link to a forum where an anonymous poster says the side stick uses potentiometers, This is hearsay.

Anyway. Thanks for your previous replies. I hope you reply once you have evidence that is not hearsay from random internet posters. Happy flying!!!

16 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

Thanks. How old is your TCA AB sidestick?

I have three each of the T.16000M and TCA sticks, ranging from over 5 years to six months old, and I've opened every one of them and the internal design is essentially the same.

So, despite what the advertising says, there are pots in every one of my TM T.16000M/TCA Airbus sticks.  The X and Y axis transducers are HE sensors, the twist axis and throttle slider are pots.

The H.E.A.R.T. trademark has been in use for many years now.

I would argue that the advertising itself is hearsay...I want to see a picture of a TCA stick's internals with HE transducers throughout before I'll believe anything has changed.

12 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

I have three each of the T.16000M and TCA sticks, ranging from over 5 years to six months old, and I've opened every one of them and the internal design is essentially the same.

So, despite what the advertising says, there are pots in every one of my TM T.16000M/TCA Airbus sticks.  The X and Y axis transducers are HE sensors, the twist axis and throttle slider are pots.

The H.E.A.R.T. trademark has been in use for many years now.

I would argue that the advertising itself is hearsay...I want to see a picture of a TCA stick's internals with HE transducers throughout before I'll believe anything has changed.

Thanks Bob!! Noted. 

On 5/10/2025 at 8:32 PM, alanw2005 said:

Hearsay information like what you provide is not admissable in a court of law.

All current Thrustmaster website and marketing information says "NO POTENTIOMETERS" and UNLIMITED lifespan.

Speaking of not holding up in court (and why are you being ridiculous? This is a flight sim website, not a court of law) the marketing information says the stick "incorporates" the HEART system which has no pots. The key word here, which you were kind enough to show us in the picture you posted, is "incorporates." That means to make something a component of an entire assembly. My car incorporates wheels, but that does not mean it is made entirely of wheels.

Thrustmaster's marketing says nothing about using the HEART system exclusively for every axis. Put any non-zero number of hall effect sensors in there and the marketing information is technically true even if the rest of the sensors are pots. Which, incidentally, is what they're doing.

By the way, if you're going to throw legal terms around, you should probably know what they mean because facts without evidence are legally dubbed facts not in evidence, not hearsay which is something else entirely.