Anyone here using the MS Sidewinder force feedback 2 joystick?

[mitchk]

I need a new joystick ASAP and I was just wondering what everyone thinks of the MS joystick. They cost less than the X45 and they have a 3 year warranty. Thanks.

[Shane]

i do.  i love it.  however.............

after a time the hatswitch is likely to start fritzing out (before it woul dbe trigger... then hat, but they strengthened teh trigger, so now it's the hat switch that is the weakest part.  i play a loooooottttt, so if you're an avg AHer the stick should last you quite a while.

notam:  MS is supposedly getting out of the j/s business so you might have a hard time finding any ms ffb2 in stock... best buy carries them and perhaps one or two other retailers.

not sure if MS will sell (or someone buy) the j/s operations, i truly hope so because the sticks use optical pots and are very reliable, unlike the numerous complaints seen about mechanical pots on saitex, logitech, et al.

[715]

I have this stick and I also like it, but I have also had switches go out.  However, they are easy to replace (if you know how to use a desoldering tool).  You can get drop in replacements from DigiKey.com. Main fire button: 5 mm lead spacing (SPST, two leads,)Body 6 mm x 6 mm, DigiKey P10844S-ND (or P10843S-ND for a hair trigger).  Other buttons (except hat): 4 pins, 6.5 mm x 4.5 mm, DigiKey P8007S-ND.  The hat buttons are vertical mount, but I suspect DigiKey has replacements that would fit there as well.  Reassembly of the stick handle is a bit tricky: press the retainer latches for buttons 3 and 4 and slide those buttons up a bit.  After you screw the two halves of the handle together, then push buttons 3 and 4 back in.  The switches are only about $0.50 each.

The switches have 100,000 cycle lifetimes.  Amazingly, when I estimated how many times I had fired my guns in the time it took the switch to fail, it came out very close to that.  Makes my finger tired just thinking about it.