Hall Effect Sensors

[Bodhi]

Has anyone ever successfully replaced the pots with hall effect sensors in their CH Products Fighterstick USB, or CH Pro Rudder Pedals?

[CptA]

Why bother? I mean, what is there really to gain?

It's not like we're talking about the troublesome and unreliable Thrustmaster HOTAS system.

I retired my gameport versions of the F-16 FS, Pro Throttle, and Pro Pedals, after 8+ years of flawless service, then switched to the USB versions of the same sticks and have had another 4 years of trouble-free use since.

Replacement Pots are cheaply and easily available direct from CH, or contact them for quick and reliable factory repairs or exchange under warranty.

Opening the case to attempt to swap out pots for hall sensors will void the warranty at best, and may end up not providing any measurable or noticable improvement in performance...and certainly won't improve anyones flying abilities.

Good Luck!

CptA

 

[lengro]

Why bother? I mean, what is there really to gain?

I just replaced pots in my CH Fighterstick which is 16 months old - over the last months it had developed a small dead area on both x and y axis.

Would be nice with Hall effect sensors as they are supposed to stay completely precise forever.

[HomeBoy]

Total waste of time and money.   Hall sensors do not give you any advantage over pots.  In fact, you actually lose a little resolution around the end points as they have trouble getting exactly to the 0v and 5v levels.

[Reschke]

Don't know about CH gear but they work great on all my TM Cougar gear. I had a pot die on my throttle first and then my rudder pedals got a HS upgrade and last but not least my stick. That is all since I still haven't put in the gimbal mod though. Anyway for me hall sensors were a tremendous change over everything I have had in both TM and CH gear over the years. Best money I have spent in a long time.

[OOZ662]

Total waste of time and money.   Hall sensors do not give you any advantage over pots.

Not true. I wish like hell the rudder in the X-52 were a hall sensor. Before moneyguy sent me his stick portion, my rudder was dead from 0-30% to the left and spiked all the way to the right.

[HomeBoy]

Fine.  Whatever makes you happy

[SD67]

Homeboy knows his stuff.
BUT there are POTS and there are _posPOTS. A bad cheap nasty pot will go down on you quicker than a.... nevermind, but the same goes for Hall Sensors. I may have been lucky, the Halls in my X52 setup have been rock solid and never let me down, others have not been so lucky.
Now Someone may pipe up with an aviation reference, remember that although aviation grade FBW setups use either peizeo-electrics or hall sensors, these are of the quality you'll probably never see in a desktop application.

[Reschke]

Bohdi,

I don't know what the type/manufacturer of Hall Sensors are in the kits that have been for sale to mod TM Cougars but you might want to just take a gander at what a guy going by Cubpilot over on Cougar World forums sells. I know he spent a ton of time researching and locating the right types of HS gear.

[Chalenge]

I have both of the controls bodhi asked about. I replaced my CH pedals after about ten years. Its been so long I dont know exactly the year but I know the ch pedals had just come out in usb and I just did replace them. I dont expect to ever change the fighter stick out since AH doesnt cause me to wear on the stick like previous sims have. Cant imagine a reason to need hall sensors except bragging rights.

[Bodhi]

I use my controllers for a variety of different games.

I do not like replacing the pots every 8 mos to a year.  It is rediculous.  Right now, the rudder is spiking badly, and I just replaced those pots about 8 mos ago.

I have tried the hall sensors in the TM stuff and was very impressed with the precise actions.  I am going to figure out how to do it on the CH stuff...  just a matter of time.

[HomeBoy]

You have USB CH devices with spiking pots that require replacement every eight-twelve months?  That's remarkable.  I have owned/repaired/modified many USB based CH controllers over the last five or six years and have seen maybe one pot that needed replacement due to wear.  Now the old Gameport stuff used to see lots of pot spiking and oddities because of a far inferior circuit design but USB is an entirely different design and does not rely so heavily on the steadiness of pot quality.  This is the first I've ever heard of this problem in the USB world.

[Reschke]

Sometimes people just get bad gear no matter who made it. All flight sim gear makers can do wonderful jobs in making their equipment and all of them can do just as bad when making their equipment.