Saitek X45 Stick Setup and Stability

[Shane45]

Hi Guys.

 

At present I have a Saitek x45, yes I know it's an antique as far as control systems go, but it works for me with the A-10 & F15,

anyway can anyone help me with setting the stick up, ? just trying to hover has me slipping sideways to the left and backwards.

My throttle ( inverted ) seems to take way too long before any lift actually happens,

I understand there is always going to have to be small adjustments to pedals and cyclic. but I just seem to be fighting my controls to maintain any sort of stability.

 

I've read posts about curve & saturation and all sorts of numbers being mentioned but it doesn't seem to make much of an improvement.

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

many thanks

[Nage]

Well i have CH fighterstick (before i flew with X52) with X52 thrust.

Check your settings to see if your HOTAS is responsive or is there any lagg, jumping of the axis ball, etc.

I have set curve on my axis as to me it feels a tad better but from all i read on how you explained your chopper is behaving i think this is common for all helicopters. They seem to be wobbling so you need to trim and make small corrections in order to keep it steady.

[Shane45]

saitek X45

 

Thanks mate,

One thing I cannot sort is the collective, my throttle is what I'm using for the collective, but no matter what settings I input , my throttle is over halfway thru it's range before I start to see and movement from the huey.

I've looked at other youtub vids and can see that the collective is responsive with just a few mm's of movement,

 

 

cheers

[Strekaya]

All I can really recommend is to use the more modern drivers that allow you to adjust deadzones. (The original ones didn't have this option.) I've had my X45 since it came out, and now there is a good 3/8 - 1/2 inch (9-12mm) movement in the stick (using the 'safety bar at the top of the stick as a reference) even before the spring/plastic disk come into play. And then, there's the potentiometer spiking, which was bad enough right around the center 'play' of the joystick that I was constantly 'fighting' the joystick until I used deadzones to cut out the random drifts.

 

So, pretty much the X, Y, rudder (z) have adjusted deadzones on them (between 5 and 9 percent) via the drivers, and asymmetrical ones at that to compensate for random input spiking right at the center. As for the throttle, there is a mechanical 'slack' of sorts where I can move it maybe 3/8 inch (9-10mm) in the opposite direction of the last input and note no change in movement in the calibration screen. So, the throttle is especially bad for precise collective use. Now, I'm sure my drivers are not the most recent ones (6.0.4.1 / 7.0.2.7) but nothing new is added for the X45 after this, at least.

 

Unfortunately, all I can really recommend is use of deadzones over time to at least make the joystick response firm. Unfortunately, for the throttle at least, I have to put up with the response slack, which really is a pain for the Huey and the Mi-8. At least in the Mi-8, there's a blade pitch gauge so I can confirm there is movement. But as it is, precision collective adjustment using the throttle is pretty hard without overcompensating.

[Nage]

If you go to quick start from ramp and go to view huey from out side slowly move throtle from idle too full and you will see blades moving from the moment you start pushing the throttle and that is probably best way to see if the collective is responsive the way it should be. For me it takes from 25-50 % throttle that i only get light on my skids. At about 50% and above i start to gain lift.

[Shane45]

saitek X45

 

Thanks guys, Pretty sure I have the latest drivers but it is an old piece of eqp't now,

Will experiment with the deadzone settings and see if there is any improvement.

 

Thanks again

[Don_Vito]

Nothing like reviving a dead topic, I have the same stick and found that with some carful adjustment of deadzones and the way it increases from 0% I've got it working pretty well. It's not perfect by any means but its pretty reasonable