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Introducing the new Logitech X56 HOTAS


LOGIRich

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Regarding the File Explorer windows popping up, there's got to be a command that is being activated on the HOTAS, although looking at the profile I can't find any button that has the Windows key assigned (File Explorer can be brought up by pressing Win + E) so that is unusual. Can you shed any light on where the Windows keypress might be coming from? (It could be any other device)
Related to the problem reported by @tothesky I have something similar, but very weird.

 

After months of ok operation my X-55 throttle started playing up yesterday by repeatedly sending 1's (shown in the profile test screen) while the mode switch was set to 1. Sometimes I could get it to repeatedly send 2's or 3's if I moved the mode switch - but not always. Then the jumplist on the first taskbar application started opening (shortcut: Win + alt + 1). I cleared the profile which didn't fix it. A reboot would stop it, for a while but then it returned. The odd thing is, when it was occurring, even unplugging all USB and PS2 devices did not stop the 1's appearing. It seemed to be the case that the Rhino software had gone loopy and was generating the keypresses. So last night I uninstalled it, and set up the HOTAS key mappings in DCS only which worked fine. It doesn't make much sense to me why the Rhino software might have been the cause but since the keypresses kept coming after unplugging all input devices of any sort, I can't explain it any other way. Have you heard of this sort of issue being caused by the software?

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Good Luck,

I recently purchased 2 Saitek products, two X52 HOTAS one of which quit working, so I ordered a one X56 HOTAS while waiting for RMA on my X52. Logitech's support for Saitek is via e-mail only. It takes two to three days to get a response back from Saitek. It’s been 14 days now since I started my RMA on my X52 and I still don’t have an RMA. And don’t bother telling them your troubleshooting process, they will respond in two days telling you to go thru all the steps you already did, and then wait another two days to escalate to the next level; then another two days and another and so on.

 

Update: Saitek said X52s are out of stock and they offered me an X56 in lieu of.


Edited by STRYC
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@STRYC Sorry to hear that - it's one of the reasons why I keep an eye on various forums and I usually ask people to PM me their ticket number so I can chase it up. It looks like you're getting somewhere though so hopefully you're good.

 

@bell_rj It's certainly unusual for it to do so, even if you've cleared the profile. Usually in situations like this the issue is caused by another piece of software being introduced which doesn't get on with our programming software. Other programming software interfaces from other game controller manufacturers can be one such example.

 

Just to check - had you made any changes to the default profile? (literally the default.pr0 file)

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Hi LOGIRich, thanks for replying. The only other software for game controllers I have is for Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals. I also have OpenTrack installed for head tracking, but that has been installed for months without issue. I hadn't made any changes to the default profile that I recall. The only thing I can think of is that I experimented on my AV8B profile with trying to set different keypresses for the 3 modes but couldn't get it to work properly. I might well re-install the Rhino software and try again. Tonight my throttle worked fine for an hour of play still mapped directly in DCS.

 

I'll also mention that I have the throttle plugged into a powered docking station USB 3.0 port, and the stick into a rear motherboard USB 3.0 port.

 

Please could you confirm what button presses I should expect to see in the profile test screen when the mode button is set to any of positions 1, 2, or 3? I.e. if set to '1' I assume I shouldn't be seeing 1's repeated infinitely - is that correct? And the same goes for mode position 2 and 3? Should I be seeing nothing (if no other buttons are being pressed at the same time), or should I see one occurrence per mode position switch?


Edited by bell_rj

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You shouldn't see any keypresses in the test screen when you move the mode switch... unless you have programmed the mode switch positions with keypresses of course! If you send me your profiles then I can have a look at them and see if you like - just upload them via something like WeTransfer and I can take a look.

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Introducing the new Logitech X56 HOTAS

 

After my 5th Saitek throttle Quadrant had the usual spike issues (not to mention the output from the 3 levers never being aligned) I swore never to buy a controller that didn’t use hall sensors, and more importantly never to buy Saitek again.

 

I have always been a big fan of Logitech (my g25 wheel is still going strong) but it seems that having taken on Saitek, they are no longer an option.

 

I’m now very happy with my Warthog Hotas, my Crosswind Pedals and my Komodo UH-1 heli controls. They were all very expensive, but so worth it.

 

I just need to get rid of my rubbish Proflight yoke, a yoko would be nice, but I’ll hold out to see how the new Alpha yoke is

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I purchased and received one of the new model X-56 this week. Had a few days to putz around with it, figured I would offer my thoughts. I have had plenty of sticks over the decades, but this is my first HOTAS - I've never had a dedicated throttle before. Bear this in mind, as I lack something to compare that to.

 

 

 

Starting with the unboxing. No manual or warranty information was included in the package. The only instructions given come in the form of a 4x4 sheet of paper with pictures showing you in detail how to plug in a USB cable and the web address for the x56 support site.

 

The box of springs likewise has 3 pictures for instructions on replacing the spring. Or not, I should say. It leaves out the critical instructions of how to tear down the stick to get to the springs in favor of "unplug USB", "picture of spring", "plug in USB". Safety first, I suppose.

 

 

 

Hands on stick. First impression was that it feels loose around the center. The springs do not provide enough force to hold the stick at center. There are several degrees of play before the back pressure from the spring comes in. Felt in both axes, but is more pronounced on the roll. This play is too large to buff out with a dead zone, meaning your control inputs will stage a bit as you provide a light force to move the stick around in the center then increase the force as you bump into the spring.

 

This is the first thing you feel after attaching the stick (boxed disconnected), and it makes for a poor first impression hand shake. You haven't yet plugged it in but are already concerned about fine control. Second thought is, if its loose now what will it be in a year or two as it wears? Rich, if you're still around, pass along the importance of that first moment as it sets the tone you approach every other aspect with. "Oh thats nice/fine/adequate" versus "Uh-oh, what else is there?"

 

So far it has not produced major effects. Once plugged in you see the stick does not produce scurrilous, floaty input on its own and it is properly centering both axes when i release pressure contrary to expectation. I intend to try the lightest spring next week if I still notice that hitch in my movement. As a plus, the twist axis is firm, and I do not introduce rotation unintentionally like I did with the old TM16000m.

 

Moving on to the buttons and hats, the "A" button is oddly placed. To affirmatively press the button one reaches across two hats. You must arch the thumb over the hats or potentially deflect one, the other, or both. The included raised platform helps when reaching for that or the upper hat, but I still must lift my hand - just not as far. Reducing contact points means reducing control and tactile feedback, especially in a right roll.

 

The trigger is a bit of an odd duck. It provides good, positive feedback on a strong pull, but nearly no feedback on a light/slow pull. This is caused by the gap between the button and the trigger stop. It is especially noticeable to me, as I grew up with firearms and trigger discipline. Pulling a trigger will cause shots to miss down, you are instead trained to squeeze. The only feedback in this case is the return spring on the button which is light, mostly audible, and can be difficult to hear in a headset.

 

The pinky stand button is best described as 'creepy'. The feedback is loud enough to be heard in the headset, which is an improvement over the trigger, but the base it is mounted to flexes on a pull. Plastic and flexing rarely work out well, which is compounded by the first impression problem "what about the future?"

 

I have had some difficulty programming the thumb slew. I have tried setting bands with keyboard button presses, but for some reason these are not being recognized. Not certain at this point if I did something wrong in the software, or it is an issue with DCS not recognizing the stick input. I did follow direction given in various threads for creating bands for the older X-55, and I did notice some subtle differences in the software. It appears to recognize button release as well as press, which was an issue according to those older threads. I can only say appears, as I can't test that to confirm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The throttle, as I said, is a new thing to me. I have little to compare it to but can make a few observations. The first thing to jump out was the back pressure/resistance varied. The harder you pull/push the more friction and resistance there seemingly is. At first, this makes some sense. When you need small corrections heavy resistance will cause over compensation, and here very little force is needed to make small changes and corrections. However, the retention is so light that I find myself lighting the afterburners on accident quite frequently. Simply pushing the thumb hats forward/back is sufficient to change throttle positions, even at maximum resistance. Requires some mindfulness that I wish I could spend elsewhere, but perhaps its normal and I just need to grow into it?

 

Regardless, this has proven a bit problematic as I try to complete air refueling. It has proven quite difficult to match speed with the tanker because of the limited feedback to small changes in throttle position. I can't tell if my input has been passed through to the engines by hand, only by eye. This can lead to late and over compensation, and pilot induced oscillation.

 

 

The thumb rotaries are seeing more use than I honestly expected, but there is an issue with them. They are dreadfully imprecise around the center detente. I have one set to zoom, and any zoom setting near the center causes the screen to shake as it can not settle on a fixed level. This is seen in the key bindings menu, as any time the rotary is set to its mid point they produce wobbly input. Depending on the aircraft module and what I have it bound to, this may not be an issue - but it does hamper their utility.

 

More disappointing was the thumb-not-a-slider. I was confused when I tried setting the bindings on this and discovered that it was a button rather than an axis. Was even more confused when I discovered that it was only a single button in the forward position, rather than one forward and one back. As a for instance, in the F-15 I set this to toggle music. Thumb forward turns it on. Thumb forward turns it off. It requires a cycle to be useful in this function. A simple, single button would do the same thing, which makes me think I must be missing something here, and I see no way to change this behavior in the logitech software.

 

 

Surprisingly, I've had no issues with either unit sliding on my desk. Given how light the bases were I had assumed I would need to add some tack cloth or a weight to them. This, at least, was a pleasant surprise.

 

 

 

 

Can I recommend this? Well, yes. With some caveats. First that we can't spend a thousand bucks on a high end VKB/Virpl/Crosswind controller setup. If you can, why even bother with this thread you damned bourgeoisie snobs?! Leave the proletariat masses alone! More seriously, I wanted it for some specific functions; two throttles to act as control for prop and throttle settings for the P-51, wanted the rotaries for the Mustang's gunsight, the thumb sticks give slew control for modern radar TDC, etc. So far, it serves these purposes 'adequately'.

 

Sadly, it is not 'perfectly adequate', largely owing to issues with the rotaries and that not-a-slider, but is fit for purpose. All this assumes the sudden death issues have been properly handled.

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You might like to know that the "thumb-not-a-slider" can be programmed as a two way switch in the Rhino software (advanced command). I use for "speedbrake on" and speedbrake off" commands for my F-5E and AV-8B. There are Youtube videos hat describe how to do it.

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More disappointing was the thumb-not-a-slider. I was confused when I tried setting the bindings on this and discovered that it was a button rather than an axis. Was even more confused when I discovered that it was only a single button in the forward position, rather than one forward and one back.

Mine thumb-not-a-slider, without using the software, works like 2 buttons ie. forward>Drag chute deploy, backward>Drag chute release.

i7 8700k@4.7, 1080ti, DDR4 32GB, 2x SSD , HD 2TB, W10, ASUS 27", TrackIr5, TMWH, X-56, GProR.

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Is the key for both functions the same? It sounds like you're talking about the F-5E drag chute because that uses the same command for those actions. If so, that is programmed in DCS and doesn't mean the slider a 2 way switch, unfortunately.

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Is the key for both functions the same? It sounds like you're talking about the F-5E drag chute because that uses the same command for those actions. If so, that is programmed in DCS and doesn't mean the slider a 2 way switch, unfortunately.

 

You are correct, my bad, it's just 1 button.

i7 8700k@4.7, 1080ti, DDR4 32GB, 2x SSD , HD 2TB, W10, ASUS 27", TrackIr5, TMWH, X-56, GProR.

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What about the people who purchased defected products. You should fix those too.

 

I would agree, 2 months ago I opened up my brand new Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino for DCS.

 

Last night I noticed my M2000c which is probably one of the most stable aircraft in level flight in DCS was tilting to the left, when I put my had on the Joystick I noticed there was "slight play" in the banking from the Longitudinal axis which was causing the aircraft to slighty bank. So because of that play the aircraft will now bank slightly left or right

 

Bottom line is the joystick will not sit center, this is only after 2months of 4-5 times a week of regular usage. I'm assuming it will only get worse over time.

 

Now Saitek wants us to look at purchasing the X-56 lol, it's fairly obvious that Saitek knew of quality control issues with the X-55 you only need to look online and here to see plenty of customers had issues.

 

What's Saitek got to say about this ?

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Last night I noticed my M2000c which is probably one of the most stable aircraft in level flight in DCS was tilting to the left, when I put my had on the Joystick I noticed there was "slight play" in the banking from the Longitudinal axis which was causing the aircraft to slighty bank. So because of that play the aircraft will now bank slightly left or right

 

Bottom line is the joystick will not sit center, this is only after 2months of 4-5 times a week of regular usage. I'm assuming it will only get worse over time.

 

There's always a balance to be struck between responsiveness and not having everything happen as soon as you so much as touch the stick. The flipside of your position if we didn't allow reading of this movement would be from those who say "Well the stick's moving, so why can't I see any response from it?"

 

There's a few ways that you can approach this:

 

  1. Change the spring to a stiffer one
  2. Set a small deadzone. Yes, a small one - I'm aware that many people think that deadzones of any kind are the work of the devil, but a small deadzone can be a very wonderful thing
  3. Adjust the response curve of the X axis in the software. You could introduce a curve around the centre where you're flattening out the response to make it less responsive and that should help alleviate it too. In fact, many people love to set the curves this way as it means you can be far more precise around the centre of the stick movement but still get the full range of axis response as you move the stick to its extremities.

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There's always a balance to be struck between responsiveness and not having everything happen as soon as you so much as touch the stick. The flipside of your position if we didn't allow reading of this movement would be from those who say "Well the stick's moving, so why can't I see any response from it?"

 

There's a few ways that you can approach this:

 

  1. Change the spring to a stiffer one
  2. Set a small deadzone. Yes, a small one - I'm aware that many people think that deadzones of any kind are the work of the devil, but a small deadzone can be a very wonderful thing
  3. Adjust the response curve of the X axis in the software. You could introduce a curve around the centre where you're flattening out the response to make it less responsive and that should help alleviate it too. In fact, many people love to set the curves this way as it means you can be far more precise around the centre of the stick movement but still get the full range of axis response as you move the stick to its extremities.

 

 

LOGIRich,

 

I appreciate your answer and I will give your last 2 points a try but I am already using the stiffest spring (blue), but let's be honest it's not really not fixing the issue is it?, or are you saying the "play" that's in my joystick is intentionally done by logitech? I find that hard to believe since most other joysticks I have owned did't have this and when I first started using this Joystick it never had this issue either.

 

I'm not here trying to give you a hard time, but its fustrating to have this issue since i am always correcting when a certain direction.

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It's not intentional. The X56 has a very long handle and as a result a tiny amount of play around the centre appears to be a fair amount more when you translate that up to the head of the stick (where most people measure it). There's other factors at play here that I can't answer for though - everyone is different and holds their stick in their own unique way, some of which may result in unexpected behaviour such as this.

 

In those cases the above are the recommendations that I'd make to see if it helps. If I had to guess I would say that altering the response curve of the axis is most likely to help you, but do please keep me updated on any progress.

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I would agree, 2 months ago I opened up my brand new Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino for DCS.

 

It's not intentional. The X56 has a very long handle and

 

You guy's are talking about different sticks. The new "Gray" Logitech X56 is supposed to be improved in a lot of areas vs.Saitek X55.

i7 8700k@4.7, 1080ti, DDR4 32GB, 2x SSD , HD 2TB, W10, ASUS 27", TrackIr5, TMWH, X-56, GProR.

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  • 2 weeks later...
As many of you know, we have been working on integrating and making quality-of-life improvements to the entire Saitek range since the acquisition in September 2016.

 

First of all it's great to see a manufacturer active on forums, kudos to Logitech :)

 

Second you just sold me a X56, been on the fence for quite some time due to reported issues with the older one.

 

Thanks again!

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I have thoroughly enjoyed my Saitek sticks over the years: X-36USB, X-45, and X-52 Pro (all pre-MadCatz). But when someone tells me a small deadzone can work wonders after I have spent years flying with a Warthog and now a VKB MCG Pro with no deadzones, I get the hint that there is a huge qualitative difference between a Saitek stick and the Warthog/VKB products, which justifies their much higher prices in my opinion.

Whether I am flying a helo or fixed wing, I want any movement I make, however slight, to be reflected in the controls. Of course, I am using stick extensions which allow me to make very small corrections and the high resolution inputs for these sticks with great noise filters allows me to do so with minimal issues. You get what you pay for. If I get another Saitek stick, it will be for my son. His joystick application is battle mechs and Saitek products with features like the twist stick which eliminates the need for rudder pedals is perfect for his needs. Unfortunately, the pot for the twist stick axis on my X-52 Pro has gotten dirty/noisy. If my son showed any real interest in playing battle mech games any more, I would probably get a Logitech/Saitek X-56 to replace his well used X-52 Pro.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

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They've started sorting out the reviews on Amazon so that they are now reflecting this updated stick at 2.5 stars but with only 4 reviews as I type this post. I'd like to see more reviews than that but with 3 out of 4 reviewers having hardware faults I'm most def putting this one out of purchase consideration for the time being.

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  • 1 month later...

LOGIRich,

 

I'm a bit late to this thread but, if you are still reading this, could you perhaps tell us what kind of microswitches the X56 has. Or at least how many cycles they are rated for?

 

Thank you.

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Hiya, so I got an X56 for my dad, and wanted to provide some feedback, as an owner of X52, X55, Gladiator Pro, and Gunfighter II, and probably some other scattered stuff, too, and about as hardcore as they come.

 

I liked the X55, so unsurprisingly, I like the X56 as well. The new aesthetic is slightly preferable to the old one, and definitely better than that ugly blue crap it had before. Virtually everything else is the same, as would expect of a relaunch of a pre-existing product. That said, I do have two points of criticism.

 

#1 The throttle has far too much resistance, even if you back the tension off all the way. It has almost as much resistance as my X55 did with the tension tightened down pretty hard. It also seems prone to "setting up", considering it was moving last night and when I got up this morning it "stuck" until I worked it back and forth a couple times. It's significant enough that I'll be taking it apart to try to figure out what is going on and rectify it. Little WD40 goes a long way, I've found :P

 

#2 That thumb mini-stick on the flight stick is a terrible idea. The mini-stick itself is fine in principle, although imo unnecessary on the stick, but that's just a very poor location for it. It also feels a bit too tall, and utilizing the push without deflecting to one side or the other is awkward at best. Imo, a better location would have been either replacing the top left button with a small nub with the thumb being a two to four way hat, or perhaps on the throttle. I dunno, it just seems superfluous to me and somewhat in the way. Not a deal breaker though.

 

A final observation, the stick seems slightly less prone to "catching" on the lip with that washer/spring centering arrangement, which is good, that's one of the leading reasons I replaced my X55 in the first place (aside from kicking the stick off accidentally). With the softest spring, it seems to skip right over the lip fairly smoothly with little/no hesitation. I give it 4 out of 5 and consider it overall a slight improvement over the X55/56 of yesteryear, and a considerable step up from the X52, Thrustmaster T16000m, and other comparable arrangements, at least for flight sims.


Edited by zhukov032186
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Де вороги, знайдуться козаки їх перемогти.

5800x3d * 3090 * 64gb * Reverb G2

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Agree with pretty much all of that. The throttle uses (what appears to be) an uncatalyzed adhesive to provide friction. To fix it you need to open it up and scrape out the excess. The isn't anything to it, remove every screw you see on the bottom and once open stay removing goo; what you need to do will be obvious once you see the mechanism. I did it a couple times to get a reasonable friction level. It's sticky and won't come off of your scraping tool, hands, or anything else, easily. I found carb cleaner made short work of it. Once done the throttle movement will be a little lumpy out the gate but it smoothes 6itself out after a short time once it's motion had redistributed the goo evenly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update after two weeks, and then I'll shut up about it :)

 

@Crab

 

Yeah, my dad is currently using my old X52. He removed the detent from it and it was covered in what is probably the same stuff. The throttle appears to have slackened up quite a bit now, after about two weeks of use, but it was REALLY stiff when new. Now, it's a bit stiff when it's been sitting unused a while, but cycle it back and forth a couple times and it's only a bit more resistance than I would normally have. Of course, if you're flying level for a few minutes, it starts getting goopy again, so I'll probably still scrape some off as you suggested.

 

 

--

 

The mini sticks are confirmed to be terrible. I tried using them, but no matter how I dialed configured them, at one time having a 50 curvature and chopping the top half off the saturation, I still couldn't use it with any degree of accuracy. I ended up clearing them and now only use the push function, which is pretty awkward considering how long the sticks are and how easily they shift side to side.

 

I can confirm the centering is much improved, though. That 55, like I said before, was awful. The washer plate would "settle" down into the hole and you'd have to skip over the lip in order to move in the center. This is definitely not like that anymore. It glides freely over the lip and allowing excellent precision control near the center.

 

The sensors are still pretty jittery across the board. The rotaries on the throttle and axis all need a bit of deadzone to avoid errant signals near the center. Usually 3 is enough, but I've noticed it frequently can "not fully center" and ends up triggering anyway.

 

 

NEW POINTS

 

One odd remark, I've noticed the LEDs won't stay the color I set. The front row on the throttle consistently turn orange after every reboot and will not change back unless I select a new color, assign, then reselect my original color and set it back. Just clicking it again doesn't do the trick for some reason. I'm using the default white coloring, which is what the front row was when I plugged it in the first time (so effectively I've never changed it, but for some reason the front row keeps changing colors anyway).

 

The last thing I've experienced was it seems the software has been dumbed down from previous iterations, and you do not appear to be able to delete the "mode" functions, nor assign keys to those anymore in any shape form or fashion. I found a number of people discussing it online, but what they were describing (I found two "solutions" for I guess older software) does not appear to be possible anymore.

 

I still give it my earlier assessment though, 4/5 and probably the best "affordable HOTAS" when compared to the ergonomically inferior T16000M, the dated CH, or earlier Saitek offerings that most people are using. In order to go above this, you gotta go with the Warthog or even more exotic kit like VKB/Virpil, etc.

Де вороги, знайдуться козаки їх перемогти.

5800x3d * 3090 * 64gb * Reverb G2

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You can assign commands to mode but you have to be in the grid view, never occured to me to delete one, I'll have to check that out later. I'm using the throttle thumb as my throttle designator via axis, works well for that with a 25% command and 50% dead zone. I use the stick thumb as a POV hat with a similar setup but banded; 15% on each end command and the middle all dead. Seems strange but it ends up working as well as a hat although you cant go 8 way. I also found you could use a similar setup and make it like a 4 way hat with good results; I did this to get the AA weapon select commands on there in F18 before I changed it to a POV. Same deal, huge dead area and it ends up working pretty reliably. I agree with you though, the thumbsticks are weak for flight sims and I think even the space guys seem to think they could use some improvement based on the tone of posts over there.

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