Evocati443

It's the same experience here. Random disconnects with my brand spanking new Orion 2, a month long of run-arounds in what seemed like their effort to tire you out that you eventually just give up. Went through all the trouble of opening up the entire product per their request, even though it's not the customer's responsibility to DIY repair their product. Eventually they asked me to pay to ship it back and asked me to lie on the customs declaration form by under declaring as under $10. Never have I dealt with a manufacture where i am asked to lie on the customs declaration form. At that point was when I ceased all communications with them and filed for a CC dispute. Oh not to mention that even before i had a working product, they were all so eager to try and sell me another one of their poorly made product by offering me a discount if i would "cooperate with them". It's as if it's an episode of Sopranos. luckily my CC company and Bank agreed with my dispute and reimbursed me the purchase. I can now finally move on from this horror. I've learned my lesson that next time some youtuber rave about some awesome product that they received FOR FREE, I should know better to treat it as a product promotion, not a review. I hope you get your money back as well Mike. good luck!

Just want to update everyone to close up the thread. My Bank/CC company finally got back to me and agreed with me on the dispute and reimbursed me on the purchase. I can now finally move on from this crap. The entire exchange with Winwing got so ridiculous that they asked me lie on the customs declaration form when shipping it back and declaring it under $10. I have never had a manufacture trying to tell me to mis-declare the value so they can dodge customs. After that I just ceased to even communicating with them. I never agreed to pay to ship it back, not to mention lying on a customs declaration form. For anyone even remotely thinking about buying their product, let my story be yet another warning. I've learned my lesson, next time i see some youtuber raving about some new toy that were sent to them FOR FREE, I should know better to treat it as a product promotion, not a review. My only hope is that since Winwing obviously is bent on selling poor quality products, and have no genuine intention of backing up their warranty, we the customers have no recourse other than voting with our wallets. We can only report and file claims with our CC/Banks in hope that maybe eventually the major Credits Card companies and bank would cease to do business with them and they will have no way of selling their broken products. @Apone, thanks for the heads up. i hear you on the stiffness of the TM Warhog, but at this point, I am willing to deal with it consider the entire ordeal that i had to go through here. I am just looking forward to finally resume flight. it's been almost two months since I was forced to ground all flights because everytime it disconnected, It would take me out of the game or pancake me straight to the ground. The last flight i took was a critical low altitude mission where i had to drop a J-Dam at 20k ft and quickly dive down to the deck before the SAM locks on. Needless to say, I pancaked straight to the ground because it chose the best time to disconnect. Experiences like that is enough to make a middle-aged man cough up blood.

A quick update to the forum. Winwing denied my request to send a replacement. they wanted me to cooperate with them by jumping on a call, which makes no sense. The disconnect problem is random, and when it happens, only lasts 20 seconds. So i am supposed to sit there and wait for it to happen and get on a call with them across a 13 hour time zone difference, so that they can tell me that everything looks fine? Not to mention that while all this is happening, they even tried to sell me more of their product by offering me a discount on their TOP GUN MIP/DDI setup. They said if i cooperate with them, they'll offer me a discount on the Top Gun DDI. I still have yet received a working product and they were already trying to sell me another. They said that i can send the product back for a refund but i have to pay for the shipping, at the current rate of shipping back to China, they must be crazy. This is just not the way to do business. i am frankly baffled by their logic. for a low volume expensive toy like this, it really all hinges on post sales service and warranty. How are they going to grow their business if they have no practical intention of honoring their warranty. The warranty claim may as well just be a sticker on their website. I made it clear to them that i am done trying to fix their product for them. it's not my job. They can send me a shipping label and they can have this faulty product back. Otherwise, i am moving on by filing a claim with my CC company. hopefully i can get some money back and move onto something else. The amount of time and attention i've spent on trying to fix their product for them is already costing me money. I think i might just buy a Thrustmaster Warhog F18 setup. sure it isn't a mechanical spring underneath, but i am pretty damn sure that Thrustmaster will have a better quality control and they're located here in Oregon, US.

Update: Winwing had me run around opening up the entire grip and base to unplug all the wires. at first they sent me a document which included the F16, not the F18 that i have, so the internal direction were completely unapplicable. Luckily, being mechanically inclined, so still managed to unplug every wires inside the grip and the base. The file picture they sent me is the one with green oval circle (F16), but the F18 grip i have is much more complex. the wires inside the grip were all glued to the sockets, but i noticed the wires inside the base were not. I was hoping that this would do the trick. but after hours of testing today, the problem still persist. I managed to capture a recording while this was happening. the recording started about 5 seconds into the disconnect. i paused my game and started recording SimAppPro. you can see that strangely, during the disconnect, the grip and the base were not being recognized at all. the axis would stuck where it was last and would not respond to any input. about 20 or so seconds after the disconnect, the stick came back to life. At this point i am asking them to just send me a replacement. This is obviously a faulty product and requires a functional replacement unit.

i am not sure how helpful this is going to be. But i searched the forum and reddit, apparently there are quite a few users with Orion 1/2 with this exact same issue where the stick disconnects randomly during mid play. And it doesn't seem like Winwing's support offers any replacement even for products within warranty. i created an account here asking everyone for help as a last resort, as well as opening up a ticket with Winwing. I started really getting into DCS, and finally decided to spend a bit more on a HOTAS setup that's better than the X52 that i was using. I was attracted by the Winwing F18 setup and saw a couple Youtuber reviews from some of the same folks that put out DCS F18 tutorial videos. I wish i had done more research, especially after reading many of Winwing's post sales complaints here on the forum and on Reddit. but that's on me. i purchased the setup only a few weeks ago and arrived about two weeks prio. So far Winwin has responded asking me to disconnect the grip from the base and see if the connection cuts out without the grip. I tried it, even tho that's not really helpful. Because the problem is so random and only occurs once a day after hours of play. Without literately sitting there for hours, i tried to sit there for as long as i could without the grip and just the base plugged in and nothing happened. so i started playing DCS again normally and it happened again. pancaked to the ground as usual when the joystick cut out. the interesting thing to note is, when it happens, i don't get any windows disconnect chime in the background, nor any disconnect message in game like if you unplugg a hotas. i literally just lose all flight control on the joystick and all button on the joystick. throttle works fine tho. so it doesn't seem like a USB connection issue from my best educated guess of process of elimination. i tried many of the suggestions that i found on Reddit and here on the forum, including plugging directly to the back of my Asrock X57 Taichi motherboard without any splitters, the ports are all USB 3.1 and should support 2~3 Amp at 5V. But i highly doubt it's the power, since the throttle which has more LED lighting works just fine. tried opening up the base like others suggested and reseating the two black wires from USB PCB but still doesn't seem to solve the problem. Another user on Reddit with Orion 1 found that his base sensor was lose and was then able to resolve his disconnect issue by tightening the sensor that's attached to the bottom of the base. But i believe the Orion 2 sensor is inside the base, not easily accessible at the bottom like the Orion 1. can someone confirm what the sensor looks like on the Orion 2 and where it's located? is it the small green PCB that's in the center of the base sandwiched between the two Cam/springs with a small black wire leading to the main USB/processor PCB? at this point i am not optimistic that Winwing will replace the product consider all the similar horror stories i heard. Which makes no sense for an expensive low volume toy like this. For something that's low volume and expensive, unlike an android cell phone or cell phone accessary, the success of the business really hinges on post-sales support and guarantee. I was overjoyed when i first received this HOTAS two weeks ago when i started using it, i was even planning on purchasing a MIP/DDI setup, but they might have just lost all my future business. sorry for the long 1st post. But i am hoping that someone can confirm the sensor location and what it looks like, and any other ideas on how to get this thing working normal. I am really not looking forward to taking a hammer to this thing and trying to take everything apart like the other users had to go through. Even though i can well take a car apart myself and very technically and mechanically inclined. But my job is extremely stressful and busy, and this just shouldn't have to be something that a customer have to go through on their own. my very best