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I am looking for spare parts for my Saitek Pro Flight Combat Rudder Pedals. Over the years, I sort of developed a love-hate relationship with said pedals. The hate part coming from the knowledge that things could break down. But the love part wants me to keep my feet softly caressing on the pedals. So I am looking for another rudder pedal that I could use for spare parts. In order to make it economical, the pedals should be defective, or near defective, so that the owner would like to get red of it, for a reasonable fee. Any takers?

During a small flightsim event in Switzerland, Aerosoft had the yoke on display. Could well be that it is the same yoke that Ray saw in Cosford. The yoke could be ordered with delivery from April 2019. As in Cosford, the yoke did not have the special attachment membrane. Trying out the yoke movement, I have two concerns: The yoke has a lot of friction in the pitch axis. I tried moving the yoke in one direction, and releasing it slowly until it stops, Then the same in the other direction. The difference in the stop position was about 10mm. So, a lot of friction. Doing the same for the roll movement, I could see the same effect, but less noticeable than for the pitch movement. In order to get a defined neutral pitch position, the Saitek yoke uses a scissor mechanism. This causes a detent, which is disliked by many. However, you get a defined neutral position. The Flyhoneycomb yoke does not have a detent. I have the impression that in order to reduce the dead zone range, the spring force was increased, which makes for a stiff yoke, as Ray had noted. Without the stiff springs, the dead zone would be even larger. The total pitch travel was about 100mm, 4". This is far different from the 6" that is advertised on the Flyhoneycomb website. I had noted already in an earlier post that I expected that the pitch range would be 100mm, because Flyhoneycomb shows pictures where the pitch movement is measured by a linear potentiometer. And commercial available linear potentiometers are 100mm max. This is a prototype. So we have to see how the final product turns out. But if it is the same as the prototype, then I fail to see the benefits compared to other entry level yokes.

From the technical drawings on the Virtual Fly website, I estimated that the Ruddo total back-forward movement is about 65mm. The Thrustmaster TPR and Brunner CLS-E both have 150mm. That is quite a big difference. That makes me wonder which ones are closest to real world planes.

hallo Jesse I am looking around now for rudder pedals and am also interested in the Ruddo. Unfortunately, I cannot find any info on the total travel range backward-forward of this rudder pedal. Would you be able to measure that. Thanks for your help. Much appreciated. Edit comment: I saw a video of Michael Brown, and the travel range looks very small. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNBHiTlhQ3s

I wanted to check how big the travel range of different pedals is. Found the following information: Travel range total from front to back: Thrustmaster TPR 150mm Crosswind MFG 123mm Virtual-Fly Ruddo ? Brunner CLS-E 150mm Question to the real world pilots: how big is the total travel range front-back in real planes?

hello gb I had the same thoughts as you. The ideal would be where there would be minimal interaction between yaw and brake action. Idealy the position of the foot with heel on the floor determines yaw position. And foot angle brake action. But: is there any other rudder pedal that can do this? I have not seen any. And, how is the real world? Anyone with comments on that?

Hallo Ray It seems we have a different understanding about what a detent is. For me, a detent, such as caused by the Saitek yoke and -depending on setting- the Thrustmaster, is caused by the scissors mechanism. The force-travel relationship becomes then as follows (am trying to show this without inserting graphs): force / / / | ----------- o -------------> travel | / / / The scissors mechanism causes a sudden reversal in force required when passing the neutral position. It is caused by the hardware. Software cannot correct it. This makes it more difficult to achieve fine control around the neutral position. A mechanism without scissors, just using springs (such as the yoko yoke) would have a force-travel line passing through the neutral point (not shown in the diagram), without detent feeling. In the Thrustmaster, the sudden jump can be reduced by reducing the spring force in the neutral position. I wanted to find out if that would eliminate the detent feeling in the Thrustmaster.

@Jon @Ray Hello Jon, Ray Thanks for reporting back on the testing. I wanted to come back to one aspect: could you feel any detent? In your setup: was there any spring force in the neutral position (because that would create a detent feeling). Did you try different spring tensions in the neutral position?

Hello Chris, In the Saitek yoke, the scissor mechanism is one evil that is necessary to compensate for another evil, which is the high friction of the bearings. Without the scissor, with hands off, the pitch could be in one position, or another position, depending on the bearing friction. With the scissor mechanism, and with high spring tension in neutral position, the pitch always returns to the same neutral position. (No need to explain to a yoke specialist though). With the Thrustmaster TPR, in theory, the centre detent can be avoided by adjusting the springs so that there is almost no spring tension in the neutral position. Question is then if the friction in the yaw mechanism is low enough to give a consistent neutral position. That would be another request if our kind reviewer Jon could test this. (Of course, securing the springs without tension has to be considered. But for a test, the springs could be shifted to their bottom position in the scissor slots).

@Jon Hello Jon, Thanks for the thorough analysis. I have a question on the smoothness of moving the toe brakes. Pls read the review on arstechnica, see the section: "smooth versus not-so-smooth", The reviewer there describes a rough feel when engaging the toe brakes. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/thrustmaster-tpr-is-the-king-of-mass-market-flight-sim-pedals/ Can you please check on that aspect and describe how it feels to you. Thanks.

hello Ray You mentioned reviews. I found these: https://nerdtechy.com/thrustmaster-tpr-pedals-review https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/thrustmaster-tpr-is-the-king-of-mass-market-flight-sim-pedals/ Have you seen other reviews?

Hello Chris First of all, congratulations for the new exciting development. Could you divulge if you are using bungee cords or metal springs for the roll/pitch resistance?

Hello Ray Thanks for reporting on this yoke. One thing is not clear to me. Is the Fulcrum yoke ForceFeedBack FFB?

hello Ray Thanks for the info. Could you make an impression about the friction of the pitch axis around the central position? Does it return to the same neutral position, irrespective whether it returns from pitch up or pitch down?

In earlier pictures on flyhoneycomb facebook, it could be seen that the pitch travel is measured by a linear slide potentiometer. This is certainly an easier design than a rotary potentiometer with gear racks. However, linear slide potentiometers are normally available with a max travel of 100mm 4". The flyhoneycomb yoke is advertised as having a travel of 6" 150mm. It is strange that this important parameter is "forgotten" in the video. Question is then if the yoke still has a travel of 6" 150mm. If yes, and if they still use a slide potentiometer, then they have a special design or at least a unit which is difficult to source in case a replacement is needed, which I expect will happen. Another question is the friction force, which will be higher than with a rotary potentiometer. Maybe the force is low enough so that the movement will still be reasonably smooth. But I wonder about the accuracy in the centre position: the difference in position when releasing from yoke handle pushed in or pulled out. Ray: when you are going to Cosford, could you test this and ask for some details? Thanks.