Flying Spanner Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 (edited) I have been flying with my new X55 bought from Dabs a few months ago, the stick has been working fine with only having to apply some silicone grease to the lower shaft to get rid of the sticky feeling when using the lightest spring for flying helicopters in Arma 3 and DCS. I was setting up for a gun run on the bad guys when the gun didn't work at the crucial moment and I ended up a smoking hole in the ground. I checked the setup of the stick in the Rhino programming tool and all the buttons bar the trigger worked when pressing on the stick interface. Should I send it back or open it up? Well someone had a link for taking the base of the flight stick apart, but no mention of how to take just the stick apart, and I figured as I would need to know which wires went to which pin in the connector, I may as well start with the stick and trace the fault down into the base if needed. If I sent it back, I would be grounded for weeks, and the replacement could be just the same so here goes: This is at your own risk and will invalidate your warranty, but at least it will work! Undo the five phillips screws on the side (of the removed stick) then gently pry apart. Note of warning, you don't need to undo the small screws on the base of the stick, and deffo don't undo the screws of the pin connector, it will take a while to put them all back in! I found the black wire going to the trigger micro switch had snapped off the solder tab, the soldering is shocking and I unsoldered all the micro switch wires and resoldered correctly. The rudder pot is inside the stick, not the base, and one of the wires came away in my hand again due to poor soldering, so that too got the treatment followed by some hot glue for security. Button D micro switch was covered in excess hot melt glue (from the factory) which was removed to allow for a better action. Inside, the setup looks fine, but the divvy who put this one together is what has caused the problem and I bet lots of them are like it. I now know my stick at least wont fail now due to crap soldering. I nearly went for the Warthog, but I found it's spring, for me, is way too strong for heli use when I tried my friends one out, if TM brought out a similar easy to swap system like the X55, I would have bought that, come on TM keep up! Saitek quality wise, I like the feel of the stick and now the trigger works again I'm happy with it, but you get what you pay for I suppose. Right where are those little blighters..................GET SOMEEEEEEE Edited March 5, 2015 by Flying Spanner Add Photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Spanner Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 Sold the X55, now have a Thrustmaster Warthog and MFG Crosswind pedals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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