Berniyh

Regarding the price, they are relatively cheap. iirc, I paid like 150-160€ for the Saitek Combat Rudder pedals (the same as the Madcatz ones). Now, I paid 190€ for the VKB MK IV. I didn't test them yet, but I'm pretty sure that the actual pedal function is much much better. And definitely worth an additional 30-40€ in comparison to the mediocre Saitek pedals. And yes, the VKB pedals don't have toe brakes, but at least they are very compact. And tbh, unless you fly one of the very twitchy WWII planes, aren't toe brakes overrated anyway? :P

I did now receive my pedals, but unfortunately now I don't have time to test them for a few weeks … :( ok, at least they're here now. Still not happy with the communication though and wouldn't recommend anyone else to order in that shop for that reason.

It is there now, but that's not the point. For one, it wasn't there when I ordered that, there was no indication whatsoever, that I will have to wait over 2 weeks until my order will get shipped (which btw still has not happened, even though it's the 7th of May now). And apart from that I usually don't go back to the ordering page to check whether or not I could still order it. Once I've placed my order, the shop is "done" for me and every future communication should happen by mail or similar. Ever since the confirmation that they received my payment, I have not heard from then and if I hadn't checked the shop page, I would be pretty pissed by now. Actually, I am sort of pissed, still. Unfortunately, I don't have other options, since these are the only pedals with a total width of less than 435mm. :(

Yeah, for a couple of days, the controls were in stock and then one after one were marked as sold out. I also thought about getting the collective, but ultimately decided not to (at least not for the moment).

yeah … right …

Just an additional note: I still did not receive any notification from VKB regarding the pedal shipment, despite the website telling that the pedals were (are?) in stock at the time I ordered them. I only know about the delayed shipping, because I wandered around the website a few days later. Had I not done that, I would be pretty pissed right now. As it is, I'm still disappointed by the lack of communication, though.

The way I understood this is that the shipment arrived at the harbour, but they don't have the stuff yet in their own storage. I mean, I'm fine with that, but in that case it shouldn't say "in stock", because it clearly isn't like that. Having it "soon™" doesn't count as "in stock".

Nah, I'll wait until May, just think they should really work on their communication and setup.

Looks very nice, but that price tag … my word … I thought about getting a proper heli cyclic, but at that price tag, I'm going to wait to see what Iris Dynamics can do with their FFB products. Still thinking about the collective, but might rather go for the microheli one, not sure yet.

I ordered the pedals as well. However, I'm a bit concerned regarding one thing. In the shop it says "In stock", as you can clearly read at the top of the page: https://flightsimcontrols.com/product/vkb-sim-t-rudder-pedals-mk-iv/ However, today they've posted a news item that they aren't ready to be shipped yet and that it's only the container that arrived. Estimated shipping date is now the 7th of May. I mean come on … how hard is it to properly set up your shop. If an item is not in stock than the page should very clearly state so and not pretend that it is in stock. Should say something like "Shipping within 2 weeks".

Never got those guys that want a zillion buttons on each control. But ok, each their own. Was actually about to preorder this throttle, but with the store going bananas and the recent announcement of Kommodo Sims to finally open their online shop, I decided to wait. Sorry, but I'd rather buy a collective. :P Edit: if I'd make suggestions: use metal for the surfaces. It just feels so much nicer than plastic. I know that it's also more expensive, but I think there would be people willing to pay the extra bit (like me) for the improved feel and durability. In Simracing, pretty much all custom/semi-custom controls we get are either metal or carbon fiber, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible here as well. ;)

https://postimg.cc/image/72qzst0jp/ https://postimg.cc/image/7x80ydg05/ https://postimg.cc/image/9gdixdwl1/

At least it's not as bad as Komodo Simulations (yet). That was originally announced to start last summer, but nothing happened. Then they changed it to March 2018, which is what it still says. I'm actually curious if we will ever see those controls. :megalol:

Best would possibly be to just sell connector cables in different lengths. Then users can decide themselves how long the tube should be. Only if you want to be able to disconnect top/bottom easily, then you would need extra attachments on each side, but that's optional.

Yes, but now that grips with a brake leaver start to spawn everywhere I don't think it's a big deal anymore. That is unless of course you are an immersion junky and have to have exactly what is in your aircraft. But then you'll have a lot of equipment anyway. :p Ok and it would be a bit problematic for aircraft that really need two separated brake axis. Luckily there are only few of those around. In most of them you can get away with a single (analogue) brake axis. So IMO, it's fine. ;)

Yeah I know, unfortunately not in the euro-shop, which I'd prefer. And yes, x-plane.org ships from the US, already checked that. But with shipping and tax it'll be quite a bit more than on flightsimcontrols (which I think was 239€).

Yeah, communication seems to be a problem with VKB. I desperately want to purchase the VKB pedals, because they are the only ones that fit my rig (max width of 435mm for the pedals), but it seems to be impossible. I thought about getting the MCG+Gunfighter as well, but reading here, I think going VPC might be the better idea. :/

Thanks, that looks awesome, but I will have to dig through it, because from the video, I didn't understand all of it. xD Definitely interesting, though. :) That's a very interesting approach, very curious how that would feel. I do fear though that there might be some "noise" in the joystick movement, since it's lacking dampening. But that Hall-sensor equivalent of omitting moving parts is a cool idea. Can't really tell though if they concept would work better or worse than a "traditional" motor-based gimbal.

Servo is just short for servomotor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servomotor Nope, but I do get where you're coming from. You might be surprised regarding what is possible. The most common servo (Mige 130ST-M10010) for the OSW costs about 250-350€, so cost-wise, it might be feasible. But obviously this particular model is inappropriate, because it's a huge massive thing and wouldn't fit into your average rig if you were going to use it for a FFB joystick. However, that doesn't mean that there couldn't be other models that do fullfill the requirements, but I didn't (yet) check for it. IMO the problem would be rather the control unit. At least with the hardware I know of, we're talking about 500€ minimum. tbh, I didn't yet investigate too deeply, because I don't see a solution for the control unit yet, which I see as the bigger task. There are thousands of servos/motors in this world, should be possible to find something that suits our needs. The only catalogue I know quite deeply is that of Lenze and the smallest motors they list there have a size of 6×6 cm², but are quite long, so I don't think they would be an option. Also, Lenze servos are quite expensive, even though I didn't ask for a quote on the small ones so far, so maybe these are cheaper. With these it might be possible to achieve a torque in the range of 3-5 Nm at a system voltage of 48V and a power supply of around 700-800W. (Just a rough estimation.)

Exactly. I've had and tried several FFB wheels with belts and gears over the last 10-15 years and trust me, especially gears/cogwheels result in a loss in precision. If cogging is a problem or not depends on the servo, on some it is, on others you don't feel it. So it's hard to tell upfront.

PM me whatever you want to have in the first post, I can update it then. ;)

True, but it might still be worth tracking the SimuCUBE development. Mika said that they will try to open source at least some the effect code, so that users could try to implement missing effects, because it might be that they won't support all of them (the list is quite huge, was actually surprised myself). Although especially in case of flight sims, they possibly should only use constant force or the periodicsineoffset as racing sims do. Except that it's then for two axis. Really, I wouldn't bother with that. Focus on what is important and force feedback for the pedals clearly is not. But yes, when talking about pedals, then you really need torque. It really depends on what you want from such a setup. For me, I only want something that properly simulates the force trim in a helicopter setup. I don't need and actually don't want to have a flight stick that goes wild. Not even sure how realistic that would be. Ok, maybe for WW2 aircrafts, but other than that? But if that is your goal, then yes, torque is everything. However, from my experience with the OSW, in this case I would definitely go DD. Trust me, it is really worth it, because it's so much better regarding response, speed and precision. Actually, I have two Lenze 29 Nm BLDC servos right here, both worth a grand. I have to admit though that trying to sell the second one doesn't go that well, so yes maybe not the best idea to use those. And yes, the footprint is enormous. For the racing simulator that doesn't matter too much, since there is usually a lot of space where you mount it, but for a flight sim, it really depends on your rig. Two of them wouldn't fit in my (racing sim) rig. But again, my goal really wouldn't be any torque at all. I just want to have a very precise joystick with proper force trim simulation. So something like a 1-5 Nm servo would be ok for me, even when going DD. Precision here is the more important factor. With belts or gears, you lose precision, which is a no-go.

Is there a necessity for the gearing? Wouldn't it make the whole construction more compact if you could mount the motors directly?

I do have an OSW and I'm not sure if it's the best option here. It's based on the Granite Devices servo drives and those already cost around 400-700€, depening on your exact configuration. And then you need to add the servo. Regarding the software, MMos is unfortunately strictly for racing simulators and we don't have the source code for it available. GD are implementing their own software currently, but in contrast to the original plans, they don't do it in open source anymore, because of some chinese hardware copies (they don't want to make it too easy for the chinese, which is understandable). Regarding the RPM … it completely depends on your servo spec. The servos we use for simracing usually have a rated speed of 1500-3000 rpm, but these were selected for torque (usually 20-30 Nm peak torque) rather than speed. IMO, for a flight simulator, torque is secondary, so I would definitely select different servos or drives.

Yeah, interesting reading here. :) Currently, I'm not flying that much, because I enjoy my OSW so much (thus more driving). Pretty good proof that DIY stuff can be very awesome. (But obviously doesn't leave a lot of time for other gaming stuff.) I plan to get more into DCS & Co next year and then hopefully dig into a DIY FFB project.:thumbup: