Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: pervert on June 25, 2011, 01:31:09 PM
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These guys have got a real cheek selling these things for the price they go for, stopped working today opened up and found a collection of the world's most fragile wires and a black one broken. So the thing is heavy duty plastic weighs a ton and has the thinnest most fragile wires known to mankind connecting to moving parts complete joke, feel like going throwing them over the fence to be honest.
And yeah I can solder it if I want to, the same thing will happen again so I'm ditching them and going back to the twisty, so ends my dream of having any sort of aim in this game. This will hopefully give a potential buyer of this hardware some idea of the 'quality' and 'durability' CH is supposedly well know for POS.
(http://dc386.4shared.com/download/8-yItEkB/tsid20110625-182323-ba075337/chpedalrubbish.jpg)
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Don't look inside anything else on any other brand they are all about the same. Still under warranty?
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So you are not going to bother soldering a wire back on - Ah well, beats me why you even bothered looking. You obviously felt your time would be better spent taking a photo that you didn't link correctly, and some more time typing a whine. At least you have the guts to admit that if you solder it back on, it will fail again!
Throw them over the fence please, but let some other local AHer know where.
If I was you, I would write to your twisty manufacturer and let them know you want one without fragile wires in it.
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I haven't seen the picture but my pedals are over 10 years old. I don't think there is a lot of mechanical stress to those wires even if they appear thin. Let's try fixing them... :headscratch:
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Ive had mine for almost six years with no problems.. just saying
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(http://dc408.4shared.com/img/8-yItEkB/chpedalrubbish.jpg) (http://www.4shared.com/photo/8-yItEkB/chpedalrubbish.html)
Here is picture its a fair bet that simply pinching the cables in those plastic holders has caused the break along with me moving them its obviously snagged on something for the wire and plastic coating to break.
So you are not going to bother soldering a wire back on - Ah well, beats me why you even bothered looking. You obviously felt your time would be better spent taking a photo that you didn't link correctly, and some more time typing a whine. At least you have the guts to admit that if you solder it back on, it will fail again!
Yeah I'll spend my life soldering this junk every 2 weeks good thinking there champ, the point is if I pay through the nose for something like this I expect it to work and last I got what about a month and a half??, looking at how heavy duty the constrution is on the outside its comical not having more secure fixings for the impossiably thin wires, if I knew how fragile it was inside I wouldn't have bought it, considering its a controller you work with your legs. They just shove them thin wires in a small groove and hope it somehow will not break.
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Would have thought they would have sheathed the wire's, look a bit poo :old:
Looks like first day on the job for guy who did your pedals :old:
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I've had the same thing happen to my CH Pro Pedals; the extremely thin wires can get caught by the moving parts and get broken.
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I got what about a month and a half?
So you decide to void the warranty by opening it up - You get no sympathy from me.
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So you decide to void the warranty by opening it up - You get no sympathy from me.
I live in UK the shipping would probably cost as much as the pedals, and btw did this thread title start 'Please look in here Blagard I want your sympathy'? This is to show people what you are buying before you part with a huge amount of cash.
I hear people barking on about these pedals, I see words like sturdy, dependable, rugged etc etc so heres for anyone else to see you are buying some really heavy duty plastic with a poor wiring layout that can catch and break because the wires are poorly placed and extremely thin.
They probably put the warranty label there to stop fanbois like you finding out that they have skimped on something as essential as wire a wire guard, and or a wiring design that doesn't get caught in the pedals, unforgivable given the price of them.
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I haven't seen the picture but my pedals are over 10 years old. I don't think there is a lot of mechanical stress to those wires even if they appear thin. Let's try fixing them... :headscratch:
There is a lot of stress on the wires due to a design defect that has been inherent in the Pro Pedals ever since the pedals were released for game ports in the middle '90s.
ack-ack
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Wow, must have a crap load of stuff piled up in your backyard if you trash everything the first time you have a problem with it.
My game port versions are over 10 years old and still work fine, and my USB versions are only 5 years old, but they work fine as well. Did have a button go in my stick once, but....OMFG I fixed it :rolleyes:
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Well I guess people like you are the reason ch or any company for that matter can get away with selling a product that is poorly designed, without the need to improve or fix it for 15 years. :rolleyes:
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EEK! I purchased those... :uhoh
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EEK! I purchased those... :uhoh
I have them too...bought them 3 years ago. They work fine for me. I guess it's partly which part of the production run you get, and partly how you use something that determines how long it will last.
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If they were mine I'd just rebuild the wires myself.. just make a new harness. Wires are cheap. What I don't quite understand is why they would anchor the wires to a moving part unnecessarily. That just doesn't make sense. No wonder it broke!
For the record, these thin wires are pretty typical for all of this computer equipment. Automotive wiring isn't really any better these days either.
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I live in UK the shipping would probably cost as much as the pedals,
I live in the UK as well. Your first stop is your supplier (Sale of Goods act protection etc.).
It's not nice to have anything break, but you are out of touch with reality. One wire connection broke and want to chuck the kit away, because you can't solder small wires, and don't give a toss about warranty or consumer rights. If I was that bothered about the wires I would do what Tigger29 suggests.
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I live in the UK as well. Your first stop is your supplier (Sale of Goods act protection etc.).
It's not nice to have anything break, but you are out of touch with reality. One wire connection broke and want to chuck the kit away, because you can't solder small wires, and don't give a toss about warranty or consumer rights. If I was that bothered about the wires I would do what Tigger29 suggests.
Its not that I cannot solder wires, the problem is the wires are all over the place I mean look at the photo is it really any wonder one of them caught and broke?? So what your now asking me to do is get the wires bound together, then figure out a way to suspend them so they cannot interfer with the travel of the pedals? But at the same time ensuring that the wire is placed in such a way that it will not suffer a dry connection or complete breakage at the point it enters each pedal from constant bending?
I can tell you now after looking at this that it is impossible to do without leaving screws that hold the casing together out and sawing the mouldings for the screws away from the casing, like AKAK said this has been designed wrong for 15 years. These pedals roll in a straight line, a simpler design would be to base them on real rudder pedals and run the wire through the link, removing any chance of wires catching on moving parts but I suspect they are designed like this for a dual purpose ie driving sims.
You think anyone in their right mind would pay top dollar for these and then do a complete redesign job because the design is basically flawed? Whos out of touch with reality now? If this thread or the picture gives some unknown searcher or player the opportunity to see what they are paying for before they buy then this thread has done its job.
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Well I guess people like you are the reason ch or any company for that matter can get away with selling a product that is poorly designed, without the need to improve or fix it for 15 years. :rolleyes:
Even with the design defect, the Pro Pedals and other CH Products are very well made. The people that have stated they've had CH gear in working order for years without any problems aren't in the minority.
I know when I worked at CH when the Pro Pedals were first introduced, even with the design flaw we saw very little Pro Pedals sent back in due to the problem, most RMA's were to replace pots or to put the pedals back together again because the customer thought they could replace the pots themselves.
ack-ack
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I've had CH stuff for years and years. It's totally bulletproof. I've replaced this and that over the years because of general wear and tear just like anything else. I don't have the pedals not because of the wire problem but because they're just too narrow. If anything I wish they'd make wider pedals. Now THERE'S a design error.
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I have CH pedals and they work fine, if i had seen that photo of wiring i would not have bought them :old:
No matter what is said about quality of CH products the wiring is complete rubbish when one of those wires breaks i will replace all the wiring.
To be honest as has been stated previously a lot of gadgets underneath are of such quality.
I think one of my squad mates bought a Thrustmaster Warthog joystick and it was rubbish, its luck of the draw nowadays in regards to quality.
I have just had a drama with a graphics card ;)
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My CH pedals have to be like 10 years old..........
They look like He!!........ but they work just like they came out of the box.
Cav
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I had the same problem about a year and a half after I bought mine. Spliced a bit heavier longer wire in at the break and it's been good for 7-8 years so far.
shamus
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Hey Pervert, illustrate and explain your design improvement and apply for the patent :aok
Maybe you could make some big bucks.
And Yes you can get a patent for an improvement of an item that's
already out there.
You and Blagard live in the UK, maybe you guys should get together and have a pint,
then slap each other around over the pedals discussion :rofl
If you decide you want to sling them, I'll pay shipping to "sling"
them across the pond :)
:cheers: Oz
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Pervert, You have to understand if you state a personal opinion in here of any negativity towards CH products you are going to get hammered by the CH fan boys, just do a search.
It is quite possible that within the last few years some of their product quality has been lessened, perhaps to cut costs to stay profitable. Most of the old geezers in here still have gameport CH stuff that is rock solid.
Good luck finding something built better look at some pictures of cracked open thrustmaster and saitek stuff you will see the same quality.
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:salute Pervert!
I, too, own all CH gear. My pedals are now eight (8) years old and operate just as they did on the first day and I have "flown" nearly every day with them. I'm sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with your set of pedals and I certainly understand your wrath at having a wire break just after you purchased them. However, I side with others who suggest trying to repair them rather than discard them. Who knows...perhaps after repair they may last a considerable period of time and give you great joy.
Best of Luck to you, Sir.
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This is from shidas post in our squad forum,
(http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/5333/dsc08072f.jpg)
For any of the CH owners if one of your wires pops out of one of these little retainers its a fair bet it will get chopped, yeah yours have worked for years and no I wouldn't wish it on anyone considering the price. But its not beyond the realm of imagination that one of these wires could work its way free from the retaining 'slit'
Hey Pervert, illustrate and explain your design improvement and apply for the patent :aok
Maybe you could make some big bucks.
And Yes you can get a patent for an improvement of an item that's
already out there.
You and Blagard live in the UK, maybe you guys should get together and have a pint,
then slap each other around over the pedals discussion :rofl
If you decide you want to sling them, I'll pay shipping to "sling"
them across the pond :)
:cheers: Oz
Cheers ballbag :aok
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Simple fix AFTER you solder them back to the connection....put hot glue over the top of the retainer and they should not come out again.
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While its not unknown for this to happen its not a common fault either. I could tell you my pedals have lasted years without issue but it doesn't help you much in your predicament. What would have been better is if you had contacted CH Products before openign them up and voiding your warranty and tell them what the problem was and they could have likely diagnised it without opening up the pedals and arranged an RMA with one of their worldwide distributors. They have one in the UK that would probably have been able to send out a replacement set and it would have cost far less to send your old pedals back to them.
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I think the main point in thread is for the coin spent the quality of wiring is poo :old:
The construction of it seems good though.
CH products are very good and practical in design but rather dull looking, if they were a person they would be Yarbles who flies with The Few :old:
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My virus protection went nuts when I went to the hosted photo posted on the first page of this thread.
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had the same problem I used an old saitek cord with the housing intack and rewired no problems since,also hot glued the wires down :salute
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My virus protection went nuts when I went to the hosted photo posted on the first page of this thread.
Use firefox instead of internet explorer.
had the same problem I used an old saitek cord with the housing intack and rewired no problems since,also hot glued the wires down :salute
Yeah if I have the time I will probably do the same when fixing or a blob of silicon over the wire retaining slit :salute
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Use firefox instead of internet explorer.
Yeah if I have the time I will probably do the same when fixing or a blob of silicon over the wire retaining slit :salute
Perv,
The blob of silicon would be the better solution,hot melt tends to dry out and lose adhesion over time. It's good to hold things temporary but is likely to separate and you'll have the same problem all over again.A thin piece of duct tape would work better than hotmelt IMHO.
I used to use plenty of hotmelt glues but never relied on it as a permanent solution,it was used mostly to hold things in place until the "real" adhesives took set. I've mounted hundreds of decorative doors in upscale kitchens and used hotmelt to "hold" the doors until either the adhesives set or I could go around the panels and put screws in from the backside.
:salute
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Perv,
The blob of silicon would be the better solution,hot melt tends to dry out and lose adhesion over time. It's good to hold things temporary but is likely to separate and you'll have the same problem all over again.A thin piece of duct tape would work better than hotmelt IMHO.
I used to use plenty of hotmelt glues but never relied on it as a permanent solution,it was used mostly to hold things in place until the "real" adhesives took set. I've mounted hundreds of decorative doors in upscale kitchens and used hotmelt to "hold" the doors until either the adhesives set or I could go around the panels and put screws in from the backside.
:salute
Cheers Morf :salute
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Just a thought:
Thin wires are a benefit in designs where bending and flexing are prevelant. A thick wire would develop hight stresses than a thin wire.
Yours might have a wire that was routed improperly causing a problem. Don't chuck them, see if you can figure out where teh break occured. It's probably worth fixing. :salute
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Just a thought:
Thin wires are a benefit in designs where bending and flexing are prevelant. A thick wire would develop hight stresses than a thin wire.
Yours might have a wire that was routed improperly causing a problem. Don't chuck them, see if you can figure out where teh break occured. It's probably worth fixing. :salute
the wire fix is easy it's the spring that pop when you open them up and didn't see where they came from. It's not that hard to figure out though but when it happens you say** what was that. Also placing them over a garbage can helps to work on them,you have to turn then upside down to get them open. Finding the right size can was the hard part for me because I went to homeboys site and read the write-up on how to fix them.
I look at it this way I owned analog set for 6 years maybe longer and know usb for as long and that's the only thing I had to fix. I'll stick with CH made in USA and don't have to replace them every couple years like others.
The best thing about them is if you take advantage of the CH Control Manager and learn how to use this program. There are endless things that you can make them do if you take the time to learn how.