AeroGator

Strictly speaking, HERE is where any tech question should begin. There is a lot of information a doctor needs to know to see the picture. Please follow the link, open a support topic there, and we will look into it. By the way, what is "virtual joystick"??

Please open a ticket at your dealer. I understand this is not the answer you expect (and not the one I should give, ideally) - but it is going to help better and faster than asking for support here. Besides, tickets will be counted for statistics (forum posts will not), so we will know which area of support demands more resource. Sorry for this, I am not being snappish :) just trying to optimize the workflow of the support.

These things are totally separate and flowing through different pipes (although there are the same brains behind all these products). The situation with the delays is not forever. Now, the throttle. We have never promised certain date of its release, right? The throttle is high on our list. Not the very first on the top but nearly that. We are working on it with firm intention to make it The Best Throttle in the world. We will, please rest assured. But we will not announce any certain date for it. We know you are waiting and we know how tiring it is. Chinese say, 好饭不怕晚 - a good meal is worth waiting for. Sorry for that!

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. MAMBA being a great piece of flight gear was created some time ago... So its chance to support modern gear is slim. Mechanically and electrically, you can put an MCG on a Mamba. However the base will not be able to see the grip because of the firmware limitations (which are in turn caused by the chip limitations). Our software elves and fairies are right now working on firmware updates to all our devices, and will try to shove a pint into half a liter bottle, I mean, to squeeze a new firmware into a smaller Mamba's chip. Maybe it will work, but honestly I would not put too much cash on it. So on one hand, there is still some probability to see an MCG working with Mamba, but on another hand this probability is not too high, and realistically speaking, new grips have to be used with the newer bases. I'm not too happy to deliver this message to you but at least I am being straight.

Yes we have finished producing a new batch. Checking, testing, packing. Sales to begin shortly - beginning of July is a pretty safe estimation.

AFAIK there is nothing or next to nothing in stock in Russia; as we regularly get requests from there, too. Looks like - again if anyone could only know how much I hate saying this! - waiting is the only way.

Damned things are all either cracked or stained. Let me ask a duty shift Black Raven instead. From what I understood (his voice was particularly hoarse last night) it is weeks not months, or at very very worst 1-1.5 something months not 6. Look, we're all in manufacturing now. Which means, sure there may be hidden traps and catches but the goods are already at the stage of being made. Not designed - i.e., we might be screwed up by sub-contractors (like it happened with the above mentioned springs)* but we will not suddenly stop not knowing what to do with some design flaw we didn't notice before. So sub-contractors' screwups can of course be a nuisance and slow us down by three days here and five days there, but not by a month here and six weeks there. Take it from the Raven, not from me. _____ * You may ask, OK, if our sub-contractors are such :censored: then why won't we buy a damned shipload of springs that would last for years so that we won't depend on them making every batch? Good question. Good answer: we do so with parts for our long-established models, like T-rudders. However, MCGs are relatively new, we might fine tune something here and there, and once it is done we will of course buy a load that'd last for long enough. However, this is about springs (things mechanical). Talking about PCBs, it's different for many reasons. And guess what, we don't even consider getting our own PCB-making facility as it is a dirty chemical process, etc., etc., etc. So there will always remain some things for which we will depend on 3rd parties :(

Simple reason. We are the makers. Yes we do sell through our own shop, pus the outlet at Aliexpress, but we try by all means to separate (design+manufacturing) and (retail). Hence, we prefer to have dealers. Why dealers don't do that? - also, simple reason. Once the pre-order is made, and the payment is taken, the seller has to supply the goods within 2 weeks. No supply - ass on fire. With our (sigh) frequent screwups and delays guess what will quite soon be left of our precious asses. Otherwise, sure we would do that. Please realize we don't refuse any sales channel for no reason. Simply, some reasons are less obvious to the public. You see!.. I believe you are not thinking I mislead you intentionally... :noexpression: What I want to say (besides "sorry", of course) is that quite often we absolutely believe something we promise, and this is what happens. You hate this, I hate this. Show me who doesn't. So for the time being we stopped any announcements, as you probably have noticed. Now we will tell people that something is coming only when it is physically coming at the moment of releasing this information. This is not forever. Thank you guys for patience, all I can say.

Why didn't you offer me a kickback?.. I would if you did! Thing is that it is a huge engineering challenge. I didn't believe it till I walked inside the kitchen. I mean, creating something really new (which by far not all manufacturers do) and fostering this kid through all stages of design and technology till it is ready to take place on your desk. Being what you call boutique device makers means depending quite heavily on all suppliers, and there are many more of them that people are used to presuming. Want one example? Take the tiny springs that are used in numbers in every joystick. Even though we have our own factories, we can't make everything we need, and these tiny things are a pain. The joystick will give you that smooth buttery feel when all springs used are within pretty narrow tolerance. Recently one of the suppliers screwed up something about honing of their springs, who knows what, maybe the temperature was one degree too high or five too low. The springs delivered to us looked perfect - not anything you can see with your eye, and not anything you can detect by just instrumental measuring. However, moving a fully assembled joystick felt crappy. Probably 80+ per cent users would never realize that but for us it was a total no go, so... so what did you say about that 25th of May bet? :) Yes the damned springs pushed us back about 5 days. This sort of problem is not an issue for companies that produce supermarket grade devices in millions, and neither it is for those who keep making small batches grouping the orders by dozens. But to us at our present stage of development it is a plague. Everything of course can be dealt with, and at the end of the day we sure will manage this, as we have managed all the rest. We don't have alike problems with our older and better established models like T-Rudders - but for newer designs such as MCG it will take some time to get done with all these little фucк-ups. So thanks for understanding and for your angelic patience!

You are right about "whatever good x zero = zero". Very true. Yes by the way, end of May is indeed not a valid deadline, so who was going to bet 10 bucks on the 30th, please don't. The next batch is being made and we are spending practically every day, 7 days a week, at the factories. Unexpectedly, the recent shipment to Europe that was supposed to fully cover all orders and stock up the storage for a few months, was sold out in less than a week. So the currently being made batch is going to be much larger. The size of the batch does not really affect the production time this much. What does is that those who create new models and those who spend days and weeks at the factories making sure the devices are produced to our standards of quality mostly are the same people. (yes we do it on intention, because it helps our designers master factory technology, too). All delays and slow downs of present day are not because of weak production capacity (that's in the past) but due to constant improvement and strict quality control. So... it is coming. Although not on time but soon enough.

Twist is a function of a grip, not of the base. Hence, if you want to keep the twist after upgrade, you will need to get a twist adapter. (will be available within a couple of months, so more or less they will arrive at the same time).

1 - Yes, as said in the subject line of the original post 2 - Yes but you shouldn't. This base was not originally designed for such load. Besides, the twist will become counter ergonomical if you use it with an extension. It is nice on a side grip but may feel odd on a centrally located extension. 3 - Not sure I understand the q.

We had announced (and reiterated) that the new Modern Combat Grips are only compatible with the PRO version of the Gladiator joystick. Moreover, Gladiator itself, a robust and versatile budget device, is going to be discontinued. We leaked some of our plans to launch a new line of budget joysticks... HOWEVER, we keep receiving letters from Gladiator owners who are asking for ways to fit the MCG on the Gladiator base. Here is a tiny device that would help Gladiator non-PRO owners to use their base with the newest grips. The shaft itself, a connecting cable, two pre-installed bearings, and a lock bar. It will take minutes to replace a plastic shaft with this metal one, reconnect the cable, and voila, you can continue using your Gladiator with a new grip. WARNING: Please see the picture. MCG is taller than KG12, and if you opt to use it with a twist adapter, it will be yet even taller. This might change the ergonomics of the joystick considerably, so please bear it in mind. This is a one time offer; we will once produce a limited number of adapters, and that will be it. How many will be made depends on how many people contact our dealers. There will be no pre-orders, rather sort of 'wish list'. These upgrade kits will be available around mid-April, and will retail for US$ 21 (unshipped).

GF. Gladiator is discontinued and is only selling while the stocks last.

Some madness is good for bizzznis :) We're having big plans for the year of the Dog, so there are many things we're trying to handle. Of course giving people stable and reliable firmware is near the top of the list. But there are other things, too - also on the top... The craze of the first weeks after MCG hit the market is over, thanks Dog! More coming...

Kind of unsure whether I'm getting you right, so replying to what I understood in your question. He sees the whole thing from the point of a professional pilot. No matter how much we all care about copying the "real" feelings of the virtual controls, there is and will always be some difference. Besides, different planes have different tactile feeling. Moreover, joysticks with 'regular' mechanics cannot fully simulate the real flight feeling. To make it happen, there is to this day the only solution, which is called forced feedback. There are some in the market, for exorbitant price. We're working on forced feedback, too. However, it is still long way, and too early to announce anything.

We're on it. Please bear, we need a bit of time and we are hurrying up.

There are few things more valuable feedback-wise than an opinion of a professional flier. Here, the Gunfighter+MCG user [who flies nearly everything that flies for a living] shares his impressions. I can only say... thank you Max for sharing, and thank you our customers for supporting us and helping us make this happen! :pilotfly:

It is not exactly "they moved". They were pretty much on right track, and more or less on schedule. But things are not always under their control :( The grips are ready except for the original Japanese buttons/slews that take unbelievably long to deliver. This is a crappy explanation/consolation, I know. We do have MCGs non-PRO in stock as they take fewer slews but for the PROs we have to wait till the parts arrive.

Would be funny if no. The container was due to sail out before CNY but got stuck in the port. Now we expect it'll leave within a week. Add ~40 days at sea. So somewhere early April probably it will be there.

Thanks David. I am shocked by the fact we didn't come to the same idea ourselves. :doh: Will do tomorrow! :thumbsup:

Holders We're working on it. This task is not on the very top of the list but anyway we already have a few pre-serial samples and are currently testing them looking for possible flaws to show out. (so far none has). The holders are going to be a hit. How soon? - hard to say. Not weeks, not years. Would be safe to say, months. Sorry I can't be more specific on timeline.

Dimensions A month or more ago some guys asked to publish the MCG dimensions, which I promised but never did. Sorry! Now we finally prepared the sketches; you can find the dimensions here and here. First is for the desk top version; another one is for the GF Pro (extension tube).

All I can do is contact him and ask him to check his inbox. Will do tonight.

Very hard to say now. Let me try to explain. MCG is a new kid, and its FW is now being actively worked on. I mean, we are currently receiving tons of feedback, reports, wishes, etc., really tons. Writing, testing, correcting, debugging, finding solutions to unique computer-brand specific situations, you name it. It is normal, but it takes time before the FWs become more or less stable - not stable like "bug-free" but stable like "with no need to update every second day". Some features will die out, some will be in high demand, who knows. It needs time to settle down. We're now simply not messing with our code writers letting them do their job without breathing down their necks. When something comes smooth enough to be released to the public - we will sure do it. So I hope you understand why I can't give you a certain answer.