The saga of the joystick

[davido53]

I've had my MS Precision pro for so long I can't tell how many years it has provided excellent service. Recently it has started acting up. Specifically in the throttle. It will cause the throttle on my FSX a/c to shudder and quite often will not move forward at all. Sometimes when I would unplug it the joystick would straighten itself out. So i figured it was doing this because it was old (like me). So I bought a Madcatz joystick but one button would not work so it was returned. Then I decided to try and find a new MS Precision Pro, which i was able to do and when it came I found it had the exact same response. So I decided to get a brand new Madcatz Fly5, and lo and behold, THE BLOODY THROTTLE SHAKES AND SHUDDERS JUST LIKE THE MS JOYSTICK!!!

The other thing is...the MS joystick has always worked flawlessly with every other flightsim I have, and those are quite numerous.

Has anyone else ever had this problem? I'm still running the same setup, Win7, i5 processor, nVidia 950 graphics card...the only thing I think I have upgraded is the graphics card.

????????????

[Lane Street]

I have a Logitech 3D and for as long as I can remember the throttle in the VC has always twitched a little.

This has never had any impact on how the sim works, that is, it is a visual thing only. As far as the sim is concerned the throttle never moves, or never moves enough to make a difference.

I went as far as coding a gauge to give me a digital readout of throttle percentage and it never changed even though the VC throttle was almost constantly twitching.

I suspect it has something to do with the throttle having 16,000+ steps between idle and full throttle. A dirty pot could send a false change of 100 or more steps which would be a very small change as far as the engine is concerned yet might be enough for the sim to force a visual change in the VC.

cheers,
Lane

[Navy Chief]

Your comments about the Mad Catz5 having force feedback got me interested, so I went to Amazon and read up on it. But nowhere in the product description does it menton force feedback, and in the "Questions Answered" section, someone specifically asks about force feedback, and the answer is "no".

So I have to wonder if Mad Catz has added this feature recently? NC

[DaveB]

NC..

I don't think it's the joystick itself shaking but as Lane commented.. the VC throttle. I also have a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro (I've 2 in fact) and they're not force feedback;)

ATB
DaveB:)

[Willy]

I've been using the MS Precision Pro 1 since 1999 and the current one since 2001 with the only problem was the power supply connector on the first one and I fixed that by soldering a permanent connection which worked until the p/s died. The stick itself is fine, but without the p/s the sim won't recognize it as a controller. The one I replaced it with is non-ffb. I also buy every MS Precision Pro 1 I run across. Mrs Willy has bought them at yard sales for me and I occasionally run across one at thrift stores. I've probably got about a half dozen or so of these "parts sticks" in a box out in the shop.

There's really not much on the original Precision Pro to go wrong. The only potentiometer (sp?) is the throttle.

But if the problem continued with the Madcatz stick, I'd say your stick is not the problem. About 10 years ago, I was worried about my Precision Pro dying on me so I bought a new Sytaik Cyborg as a replacement. I didn't care for it so after a week, I went back to the MS stick and have used it daily ever since.

[Mach3DS]

Try increasing your deadzone on the throttle axis within the sim. This should eliminate any "false positive" control input movements that are not deliberate on your end. See if that works. Might be trial and error to find the right balance.

[davido53]

When I push the throttle forward on the joystick, the virtual joystick in the a/c just shakes and pretty much stays where it is, which means that I'm only getting about 25% of available power.

The MS joystick works fine in every other sim.

[zswobbie1]

Recalibrate? or maybe use FSuipc?

[griphos]

Sage = wise person, or a woody western US aromatic plant (and herb)

Saga = a story, usually protracted in temporal scope and involving a particular hero

[SpaceWeevil]

I don't suppose you recently installed FS Force or some other controller software? This caused identical symptoms for me until I ditched the default control assignments and used FSUIPC.

[davido53]

Sage = wise person, or a woody western US aromatic plant (and herb)

Saga = a story, usually protracted in temporal scope and involving a particular hero


you are correct....after I submitted it I notice the typo and to my chagrin failed to locate any way to edit the title

now my error is affixed in eternity on the internet

[davido53]

I don't suppose you recently installed FS Force or some other controller software? This caused identical symptoms for me until I ditched the default control assignments and used FSUIPC.


No, I have not but I might have to investigate this fsuipc thingie

[Dangerousdave26]

you are correct....after I submitted it I notice the typo and to my chagrin failed to locate any way to edit the title

now my error is affixed in eternity on the internet

I just beat the Holy Living **** out of the Internet to fix it for you. Sadly some of you may notice a slowness in the internet while it heals from its wounds.

Have you tried adjusting the Null zones in the controller to take out some of the flutter.

[vortex]

To dispell any misunderstandings, the "dead" / "null" zones only affect the neutral, or zero input, point in the control movement. They don't cover the whole range of control input. They're there mainly for joysticks and yokes to prevent any small movements around the neutral point causing unwanted control inputs.

davido53, have you tried plugging the joystick in to different ports on your computer? Surprisingly, it does sometimes make a difference. With your joystick plugged in, in Windows 7 (not sure about 8 or 10), open the control panel, devices and printers, right-click on your joystick icon and select game controller settings. In the subsequent box, select properties and, under the test tab, see if the moving your throttle produces a smooth,full range movement of the slider. If that's OK then it's definitely an FSX problem. If you decide to use FSUIPC to calibrate and assign the controls (great piece of software), you need the registered version. If you do use FSUIPC, remember to clear all of the relevant control assignments in FSX first to prevent interference.

[davido53]

thank you very much, I will try that