Vlerkies

You sir are a legend!!! :thumbup: Will follow this up in the morning, need to go to bed. Bad news is, I believe it is a eastern or chinese holiday for a week at the moment. Good for them, bad for me hehe. :)

Sokol, gotcha buddy, that makes sense. Thank you again for your input :thumbup:

The thing is, its not to painful at all. If I had a replacement pot, now that I know how to take this thing to pieces, maybe 30 minutes of my life will be spent on it. I would just as a matter of course, replace all the pots at the same time, no more than 1 hour. Why I have to look for workarounds, for hardware that is still in production, is, quite frankly, beyond comprehension. Thrustmaster would never do that. I gather you have a pit and can't access easily from what you describe so yeah, some pain your way :) Problem is, Saitek/madcatz, not seeming to offer the spares. That's all fine, flight simmers have a memory better than any elephant and will vote with their feet.

Not a good image, but gives some idea of the stuff on the contact surface. Almost looks like lubricant.

If the connections or signal from those inputs is so erratic, software wont help. Flutter can be fixed with a deadzone, which is in most software packages, but when the controller is transmitting, then not, then transmitting again for whatever reason, you are largely swimming upstream.

A question sokol please. If I cant find an identical match for pots, would it work if I got replacements (both left and right), also 50 ohms, and a similar range (like 50 instead of 40) or would there be a power issue somewhere? Sorry if its a stupid question. It wont be a 300 deg pot but something close like 50 or 60 range, then calibration should take care of it no?

Yes sir. Although I never tested, they were very firmly attached and took some 'motivation' to remove from the pot. I don't think that was/is the problem. Theres quite a bit of very fine dirt. My eyes are not what they used to be, but when I look at some images from my camera with the macro lense I see lots of stuff that needs to be cleaned up. Main concern is scarring/marks on the black/carbon area. May just be the pot has said enough is enough. Will clean tomorrow at work and then put it all back together and test. :thumbup:

This is what mine (right toe) looked like before I got a bottle of brandy and stripped it :) No solution just yet, but watch this space. The 'flutter' on the center line main axis, although it seems to be smooth when moving, also doesn't bode well. Combated with deadzone.

Send Saitek a suitable response, like F U. then take your spring out and take it to a local spring/engineering business, that makes springs. When they look at the spring, explain what you are wanting in tension and they will be able to make a few up for you in no time at all very cheaply. Points to note from my Hog experience, make sure the compressed size of whatever spring they make you is very similar to the stock spring, or else you may loose some movement across the axis, or gain. They can adapt this by the material itself/material thickness/ number of coils.

I used the 1 rotary on the x45 and Cougar for prop pitch with IL2. WOrked a treat. On the hog, pinky and paddle switches, just as good and easy.

Yeah, its a minor issue and quick to resolve. Simple small sheet of ply board as a base with some countersunk screws will sort it if there is a prob. No biggy. Take 10 minutes to do. :thumbup: You wont be dissapointed with the Hog, it will take a little getting used to coming off the lighter (not just by weight) feel sticks, but its pretty good out the box, way better than the cougar ever was in the same state. The stock cougar gimbals were not to clever and overtime also wore down a lot. The Hog is completely different, very direct and precise. Its just the little extra effort required to get it off center point that was a issue for me, and only with the Huey. It's a personal thing. I flew the A-10 and IL2 Cod plenty with it stock no problems. Just got annoyed when flying the Huey, so made a few changes to get a balance. I will argue its better now for all though, with a different spring setup (which cost only a few dollars) :lol:, but yes, people are able to get a similar effect with the extension which essentially increases the leverage, reducing the required pressure off center. Thrustmaster as well, unlike Saitek, seem to be quite willing to help if you have issues, and replacement parts, even for the Cougar would be shipped anywhere in the world if you need them.

I used to have a U2NXT modded Cougar then got a Warthog specifically for the A10C when it was released. I was predominantly flying old IL2 with the Cougar but the plug and play with the Warthog hotas/A10 was to much temptation to resist :) Before that I had mostly Saitek stuff, from single joysticks to the X45 (loved the rudder rocker, was a sniper rifle for IL2 :) ) then the X52 and X52Pro. Rudders the std pedals and now the combat pedals, which recently have a toe brake pot that has gone tits up and I am trying to fix. Love the hog, but when I started flying the Huey it was getting annoying. The constant movement just off the center required for flight was actually not comfortable for long sessions of gaming due to the force required for getting it just off the center. For jets, perfect. The Cougar and the U2NXT was like butter and I regret getting rid of it but at the time it made sense. I subsequently had some custom mainsprings made for my Warthog, not wanting any extensions as such, just wanting to improve the feel and got to a point where I think its pretty darn good. A little demo. No issues with comfort or accurate controls off center. Also put in an order for the Crosswinds. By the time they are ready to ship I should have some extra cash. From what I have seen and read from all the reputable and respected reviewers, they are simply awesome. I really hope and wish Milan and MFG well, its about time someone took it to the big boys that are way to comfortable it seems. The only thing I saw that concerns me a fraction with the Crosswinds is the smallish baseplate, is it not prone to tip over to one side with input? Minor, as I reckon you could mount it to a board and just place it under the desk.

update Pot comes out with little effort, single nut size 10. Cap off with bending the 4 clasps. Very fine dirt in there, also what I thought was a crack running from the one wire connector area to the contacts was actually a very fine red fibre. Maybe its just dirt related. Looks like some fine scratching on the surface of the carbon area as well but will give it a clean in our lab at work tomorrow with ipa and see. Also got in touch with a few shops today that deal with this stuff, maybe they can come up with a match or alternative. Sent ticket to madcatz/saitek. No response :doh: Just a note: I was shocked how dirty the pedals were on the inside in the main area when I opened them up. My cat (RIP) used to love sleeping under the desk on the pedals and I swear there was more cat hair in there than what was on the cat when he was around. The section with the toe brake pot is well sealed though, and the bits of dirt and stuff either get in there from manufacture or just wear and tear from movement. The pedals are probably 4 or 5 years old I guess, but lots of dirt dust and stuff gets in from the slider area.

Thanks Sokol If I get some time tonight I will see if I can get the pot out and strip it to give it a clean. Will also drop Saitek a mail and lets see what they have to say about replacements. Will update as more info becomes available.

Ditched the phone and took a better cam out. If anyone can help identifying this pot that would be much appreciated. Only identifying marks are the number and a Logo

:megalol: I just built a new machine ofter a mobo going south, really can't afford more toys right now. Anyway, PROGRESS! No need to remove the baseplate and its million screws. Just the single screw from the top, then the harder part, the metal crimped over the pedal, see first image. (note it took a brandy and a rubber mallet to get it off) Under there a few more screws, then the cover comes off. Let the hunt begin. Oh, and feel free to offer reasons why I should not cancel my crosswind order now:cry: :music_whistling:

Hi Sokol :salute: My problem is I cant seem to get at the pot or the hal in order to work with it. To dis assemble the pedal itself is my problem. There is a single screw (looking top down) that is easy to remove. The bolts through the pedal itself come loose but wont come out. They may be designed that way. Looking from the bottom up, once the baseplate is removed you can see the wores going up into the pedal for the toe brakes. Looking very carefully it looks like there are 4 screws that may be coming from the top. But you cant get to them unless you get the pedal assembly itself off. Pins loosened but not able to remove. ALso can see the single screw hole from the top. Removed but not budging anything. (Looking from the bottom with baseplate removed) In the below image, just above the '2' label on the wire you can see a black plastic bulge. There is one in each corner and I figure 4 screws are coming in from the top. Just cant get to them. Im with you on not throwing stuff away. In my corner of the world its R18 to 1 Euro, but I am very tempted to bite the bullet and just order some Crosswind pedals. That will take time, only shipping in April from their site, so would like to get these fixed if anyone knows how to get at the sensor. :thumbup:

Hi Anyone managed to get to the pots in the toebrakes? My one is fubar and I can't get the thing apart to get in there and curious if anyone else has had success with this or is it just a throw away now?

Ok all good now. Sorry for posting but after more than half an hour of trying I thought I was doing something wrong. Nevada has activated, maybe a server issue/reboot or whatever, but I am good to go again. Thanks.

Hi Folks I recently built a brand new pc. My sims were all on a separate drive to the OP system. I, like an idiot, never deactivated anything and it has cost me an activation for all my reinstals. Fine I will take my medicine no problem with that. Issue is though I cannot seem to activate Nevada again? I have a key issued from Eagle from first purchase of A-10c way back when men were men and sheep were nervous. Was that a one off key or something? Only ever installed it once, but on the new pc the activation is having none of it? edit: all other modules re- activated no problem.

Yeah man that would be sweet. Anyone remember the Stopworks pits and 'helmet mods' for Falcon, really cool.

Lots of potential with this one, its going to be good! :thumbup:

Hi I had the same problem with my warthog when I first got the l-39. Everything was fine in quick missions but could not get the throttle to move for ramp start.I fixed it by mapping this.

Would be a good option to have for sure, but this is not battlefield thankfully, and I think for the most part the people that fly this sim are nowhere near that potential troll level, but yes, I see your point for sure.

Not sure if I understand correctly, but for me i installed the 1.5.x I purchased the L39. It wont instal on the std 1.2.6 version. Once you have 1.5.x installed start the game with it and you go to the module manager and it should download through that (all your existing modules for that matter are imported to 1.5.x), at least thats what happened on my side. So start the sim with 1.5, then click the module manager at the top just left of center (9 little square icon) You cant currently activate it in in 1.2.6 so if you bought it, you need to instal it through 1.5.x only.