Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: Biggles9 on January 01, 2007, 08:13:15 AM
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Hi guys, I'am a noob at AH and i'am planning on buying a joystick and pedals to enjoy the game to the fullist. Can anybody recommend any, and the featurers I should look out for when considering buying some.
Thanks Biggles9
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Hi Biggles9!
What you NEED in a Joystick:
8-way hatswitch for views
throttle lever
rudder control (twisty or rocker, or separate pedals)
as many buttons as you can get your hands on.
Recommendations depend pretty much on how much money you are willing to spend.
Saitek Evo, Speedlink Black Widow, Thrustmaster Afterburner II are all good sticks in the 20-50 USD price range.
Saitek X45 (rocker rudder) and Saitek X52 (twisty) are good HOTAS for a reasonable 100-130 USD, Saitek Pedals would cost you another 100 or so. I myself fly with a X45 and CH Pedals and am very happy with that.
The best you can get is a CH setup (stick, throttle and pedals). But that will cost you between 350 and 450 USD. Will last practically a lifetime though.
Just for the sheer price of it, id wait on the CH setup, until youre sure you like the flight sim business and are going to stick with it for a while. Besides, with the USB plugs, you can combine the sticks anyway.... i plan on replacing my Saitek stuff one by one with CH in the long run (as it goes out and/or as i can afford it).
Do yourself one favor and stay away from Logitech sticks... they have severe durability problems.
If you do a search for "joystick" in this and the hardware/software forum, im sure youll find a lot more recommendations.
Hope this helps you. Welcome to your new addiction :).
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Hi Schatzi,
Thank you for the info,it's much appreciated
Biggles9
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You might also consider getting old Thrustmaster stuff, such as an FLCS or F-22 Pro, along with a TQS Throttle or WCS Mk II Throttle.
Then get whatever pedals you like: CH Pedals, CH Pro Pedals, or Thrutstmaster Elite or RCS pedals.
You'll need a real gameport and Windows XP, along with a DOS/Win98 environment (which you can run off a Boot Floppy, VMWare, or otherwise) to program it the first time.
Sounds like some work? Well, it is a little, but you can get the hardware for really cheap on ebay, it works wonderfully when set up, and at least it doesn't look and feel like a plastic toy. ;-)
Details at "The Book Of Thrustmaster: Windows Vista and XP Edition" at http://www.warrenernst.com/thrustmaster/
-Llama
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Hey there schatzi i have just recently bought the blackwidow stick you mentioned but im having problems setting it up it seems really jerky and in the advanced setup were you select scaling and things like that the sliders that show you your input the raw and scaling bars they flicker like mad when i pull back on my stick the slower i do it the worse it gets. I have 8 different usb ports and it does it on all of them i have tried allsorts of different settings and cant sort it its the same no matter what i do. I also have a logitech attack 3 (my first stick) and that does the exact same thing now although in windows its smooth. I am really stuck and i have had to revert back to using my mouse :cry
Any help would be appreciated thnx a lot :aok
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Fury, I don't know if this will help you or not but I had a similar problem when I had everything that was USB turned on.
I now turn off my printers and unplug anything else that's USB when I fly and have no problems.
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Thnx for the help NHawk unfortunatly it didnt help :cry . I am now starting to think its a problem within aces high because in windows both joysticks are really smooth but as soon as i get aces high on it goes haywire i play il-2 and lock-on aswell sry for mentioning other games but its smooth in both of them games too with the same stick setup cnt seem to figure it out, it was perfect a few days ago.
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If you choose to go the Saitek route for the HOTAS setups you may also want to consider looking @ what refurbs they have available. Years ago I bought a refurb X36 HOTAS setup and while I had problems with the first set Saitek replaced it for me and I enjoyed the stick and throttle combo for 3+ years before the hat switches started going out and I made the jump to CHProducts. Not bad for a $40 investment with a few extra bucks chipped in for shipping.
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I have a CH Products setup, and while I love it and don't plan on changing it, I must warn you that they are greatly lacking in durability. While externally they are quite tough (I've manhandled both joystick and pedals badly for about seven years, and nothing's cracked or snapped), the wiring has an annoying tendency to become separated. This means that my joystick or pedals have stopped functioning correctly about once a year, necessitating costly and time-consuming shipping to California for repairs. Of course, you can open them up and fix them yourself if you're handy at such things, but this voids the warranty.
Do I recommend CH Products? That depends on what you want and where you live. If you live in the United States and desire precision, then by all means get them, with the realization that you'll be missing them for perhaps a month out of every year. If you are outside of the United States or cannot afford constant shipping, however, I recommend passing them by. I've never seen other controllers with such excellent precision and accuracy, but then I've never seen other controllers that break once a year either.
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Originally posted by Benny Moore
....While externally they are quite tough (I've manhandled both joystick and pedals badly for about seven years, and nothing's cracked or snapped), the wiring has an annoying tendency to become separated....
And here I thought I was the only one that had this problem. I called CH to purchase a new wiring harness for my pedals but they told me they don't sell parts and I would have to send them in for repair.
I decided to replace their harness with high flex mini-cable myself.
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do the CH pedals slide back and forth or are they one a gimballed system where if you move one the other moves?
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They do both. They work exactly like a real (American) airplane's rudder pedals, only they're closer together. The rudder action is such that when you push one pedal forward, the other slides back. The brake action is caused by tilting the top of the pedal with your toe.
They're actually slightly uncomfortable due to the closeness. Real aircraft's pedals are usually about a foot apart. The CH Pro Pedals are about four inches apart.
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Saitek X52 ( i use the trottle only), CH pedals, CH fighterstick, and CH throttle quadrant. i love them all. the only problem i have with the CH fighterstick is that its designed for someone with HUGE hands, i fixed this with some strips of cardboard, duct tape and a zip-tie. works great now.
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Originally posted by The Fury
Thnx for the help NHawk unfortunatly it didnt help :cry . I am now starting to think its a problem within aces high because in windows both joysticks are really smooth but as soon as i get aces high on it goes haywire i play il-2 and lock-on aswell sry for mentioning other games but its smooth in both of them games too with the same stick setup cnt seem to figure it out, it was perfect a few days ago.
Fury, try killing (ie deleting) the jsm files in your Settings folder. Sometimes they get corrupted.
Then make sure stick is well in Windows and relaunch AH. Remap your JS and recalibrate (!!) it.
Stick working in windows and other games makes me think its a calibration issue in AH.
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Did i ever tell you your a diamond Schatzi ? My stick is perfect again thnx a lot il keep an eye on them jsm files in the future.
Thanx a lot! i appreciate it very much.
:aok
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Ive had CH Products nearly 3 years.... no problems or send backs. I think the super majority of CH users would agree the durability factor is excellent.
Sending them back once a year for a month would seem to me to be the exception to the rule.
Balsy
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Originally posted by The Fury
Did i ever tell you your a diamond Schatzi ? My stick is perfect again thnx a lot il keep an eye on them jsm files in the future.
Thanx a lot! i appreciate it very much.
:aok
*blush*
Thank you, and youre welcome!
Make a backup copy of the *working* jsm files/Settings Folder. You can usually just copy them back in if you have any troubles. Saves a lot of headaches on resetting stick and other settings.