Originally posted by Optiker
[Posted by Ren]
I have a backup set of $19 CH pedals I use when my TM peds break and I gotta wait for parts. The CH pedals are like 2 gas pedals. In fact, theres' a switch between the peds that makes em work for cars or planes. THe difference is you press one for left or right rudder. With the TM you push the whole left pedal forward and the right one comes back. When I gotta use the CH peds I end up trying to push the pedals fwd into the wall. It makes me really appreciate my old TM pedals.
Ren,
gotta pair of CH pedals abt a month ago - they behave the way you describe your thrustmasters - the left pedal slides forward and the righ one back for left rudder input (obviously the opposite for right rudder). The brakes work by independent rotation (the tops of the pedals rotate about the horizontal axis) of the left/right pedals for differential braking.
Regards,
Optiker
Yep those are the $80-100 ones. The ones I have are the $19 "sell off the analog oldies" at the CH Products on-line sale. Yours have the toe brakes but the old TM's have more spring tension. BTW, the TM springs are the weak link in the pedals. More on that in a second. The CH peds have toe brakes. For some reason the TM RCS never evolved to toe brakes before they discountinued them. TM took a shot at the high end buyer market with the Cougar HOTAS a while back but they came up short in the both performance and reliability, IMHO. Pity that TM has been around so long yet have done so little to evolve with gaming equipment. I owned at least three of their earlier sticks, throttles and pedals and under previous ownership they provided what I considered the best product support there was out there. It would appear they have given up a huge market share in sales. I have no idea why the new owners have changed nor will I comment anymore it.
As far as CH goes, their product support is fine if you don't mind paying alot for it. You pay $80-90 for the stick and spend approx half that again for a rehab in a few years. IMHO, they also shorted their customers when they did away with your ability to flash save your programming to the stick. The analog sticks had their settings saved to the stick. My F-16 Fighter Stick is still using the same settings/macros I programmed into them 10 years or more ago. The new stuff requires you use the CH manager all the time.
As far as TM springs...I break one every 6-9 months or so. TM droppped the parts so nothing there. It would have been nice if they shared the spring manufacturer with thier customers. My latest spring supplier has dried up but I was able to get one from an old friend and squad mate. I'm good for the next 6 months so I have some time to find a new supplier. The pots wear out but I was able to find a comparable potentiometer with a little bit longer shaft. It doesn't effect operation and I bought ten of them. If I can keep myself in springs the peds should go another 13 years.
The X52 is a nice little setup and is the closest thing to the CH setup that you can buy for a fair price. If you're looking for any type of HOTAS setup the other sticks are a distant 3rd.
Over the years I've preached new folks buy a stick with certain minimum features yet not the most expensive around (and no real name brands as I don't work for any stick manufacturers nor do I pretend to). $20-30 works. This gives them the ability to get started in an game with a pretty good sized learning curve. It also affords them the opportunity to make sure they actually like the game and will continue. If they happen to decide the game is not for them (although for the life of me I can't understand why) the inexpensively purchased stick will still do anything they need to do in any boxed flight sim game.
Ren
The Damned
