VPC ACE-Torq Rudder Pedals

[Drac]

Anybody planning on getting this rudder?  

[speed-of-heat]

i guess helo pilots ? , no toe brakes which makes it a hard pass for me... nice bit of kit, just not aimed at me

[imacken]

42 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

i guess helo pilots ? , no toe brakes which makes it a hard pass for me... nice bit of kit, just not aimed at me

+1

[Storm_ctrl]

I ordered some because I think the layout will be great when using a rolling office chair. If I had a stationary cockpit I would probably get pedals with toe brakes. Almost got the vkb pedals but I like that you can widen these. I mostly fly the f18 and I have one of the sliders on my orion throttle mapped to toe brakes. With these I may fly the f14 more.

[speed-of-heat]

1 hour ago, Storm_ctrl said:

I ordered some because I think the layout will be great when using a rolling office chair. If I had a stationary cockpit I would probably get pedals with toe brakes. Almost got the vkb pedals but I like that you can widen these. I mostly fly the f18 and I have one of the sliders on my orion throttle mapped to toe brakes. With these I may fly the f14 more.

or X-PROTECTOR Premium Furniture Cups 4 PCS. Rubber Caster Cups Furniture Coasters – Floor Protectors for All Floors & Wheels. Protect Your Floors & Stop Furniture with Ideal Bed Stoppers! : AmazonSmile: DIY & Tools

i just put one in front of two legs and one behind two legs ... the chair doesnt move... 

Edited February 27, 2022 by speed-of-heat

[Bephott]

So I've been using these rudders in the past one week every day for a few hours, here are my short term experiences:

First of all I'm a helo pilot mostly, and as such, I totally don't miss the brakes, but actually several planes also don't have them, so since I have these there was no need to switch back to the old set.

The quality is above excellent. Thick metal everywhere, excelent machining, simply fantastic. I used plastic rudders before, and well... now I have higher standards...

After unboxing the unit, it looked surprisingly small, I was not sure if I'll be able to extend it enough for my needs, but I was wrong. Setting every dimension to the max it was even way too big for me (I'm 183 cm tall), so I could easily find the best settings for myself.

As I was playing with the dimensions I started experimenting with the different springs, the extra centering mechanism and the damper mechanism. And well, this is where the real strength of this is. You can tune it to a very wide variety of settings, my favorite is the no-center machanism with the soft spring. With a tuning of the damper I could easily find a configuration where you almost don't have resistance when pushing the pedals, but it returns to it's normal position very fast when you release them. It just feels so natural, feels so easy to operate!

The result: aiming unguided rockets or MG with the Mi-24P just got so much easier, it is way more fun with these pedals...

[ak22]

On 3/18/2022 at 2:52 PM, Bephott said:

So I've been using these rudders in the past one week every day for a few hours, here are my short term experiences:

First of all I'm a helo pilot mostly, and as such, I totally don't miss the brakes, but actually several planes also don't have them, so since I have these there was no need to switch back to the old set.

The quality is above excellent. Thick metal everywhere, excelent machining, simply fantastic. I used plastic rudders before, and well... now I have higher standards...

After unboxing the unit, it looked surprisingly small, I was not sure if I'll be able to extend it enough for my needs, but I was wrong. Setting every dimension to the max it was even way too big for me (I'm 183 cm tall), so I could easily find the best settings for myself.

As I was playing with the dimensions I started experimenting with the different springs, the extra centering mechanism and the damper mechanism. And well, this is where the real strength of this is. You can tune it to a very wide variety of settings, my favorite is the no-center machanism with the soft spring. With a tuning of the damper I could easily find a configuration where you almost don't have resistance when pushing the pedals, but it returns to it's normal position very fast when you release them. It just feels so natural, feels so easy to operate!

The result: aiming unguided rockets or MG with the Mi-24P just got so much easier, it is way more fun with these pedals...

Can you change the damping effect? so it springs back up like plane rudder? how does it feel when flying fixed wing aircraft? 

[Bephott]

29 minutes ago, ak22 said:

Can you change the damping effect? so it springs back up like plane rudder? how does it feel when flying fixed wing aircraft? 

Yes you can! In the official video at 1:37 you can see a nut with a volume-like marking above it, that is used to set the damping effect. With that turned to the lowest position you get no damping, the pedals are simply pushed back to center position, so you clearly feel the spring (which can also be replaced with a harder one if you want more spring load).

I tried with older jets, like the Mig-15, as the accuracy of your pedal movements have more significant effect there. I would say it feels like I have much better control over the plane. In a dogfight for example it is very significant.

[ak22]

20 minutes ago, Bephott said:

Yes you can! In the official video at 1:37 you can see a nut with a volume-like marking above it, that is used to set the damping effect. With that turned to the lowest position you get no damping, the pedals are simply pushed back to center position, so you clearly feel the spring (which can also be replaced with a harder one if you want more spring load).

I tried with older jets, like the Mig-15, as the accuracy of your pedal movements have more significant effect there. I would say it feels like I have much better control over the plane. In a dogfight for example it is very significant.

thanks for the reply might have to get myself one !

[SmukY]

I am latelly more and more seriously considering grabbing a pair of those and then selling my Simped Rudder pedals (the classic ones, without F-16 toe brake styles). They're good pedals but not quite perfect for helicopters. Thanks for review @Bephott. They've been out for at least 2 months and there's no in-depth reviews yet except the one from TheNOOBIFIER1337 (link).

 

[01G8R]

I have a set of these.  Have been using the VKBs for some time and really like them.  I tried a damper on the VKBs and didn't like it.  I had Slaw Viper pedals, but didn't like the sliding forward and back operation.  I much prefer the up and down of the VKB and Virpil.  I mostly fly helos and have removed the spring and cam completely from the Virpil.  Still use them with planes, but no spring center so you have to pay attention to that.  The braking mechanism works well, but does not have a lot of friction.  I was used to resting my foot against the spring tension of the VKBs so I have had to train myself out of that habit.

One gripe I had is that there was less total travel than the VKBs.  I machined new stops for the pedals and have gained about 1" total travel.  Now they are perfect for my use with the exception of the brake needing more tension.  The only other thing that bothered me is they are hard to get calibrated without the spring and cam.  The Virpil software wants them to auto center for calibration.  My feeling is they are on par with the VKB from a build standpoint.  Both are well built.  VKB has more travel out of the box, but no damper and no brake.  Virpil has less travel, but the brake action is nice and if you have a 3d printer you can make new end stops to allow more travel.     

[-Relax-]

I am also interest in this but have a question. From one who own the pedals i have heard this after i asked him how the dampers feel. Becaus i was asking me if thesy feel grinding or some when tighten up the screw.
He said:
 "The main issue with the damper is that it's not even. Pressing the left pedal is "harder" than the right pedal."
After that, i asked him if this also a thing when not using dampers.
"There's still a slight difference but really noticable."

Any can conforim this?

[AstroNomad]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:16 PM, 01G8R said:

One gripe I had is that there was less total travel than the VKBs.  I machined new stops for the pedals and have gained about 1" total travel. 

Agreed, this is what I noticed as well as the main negative in comparison to the T-Rudders. Which stops did you replace? Do you happen to have the file available for sharing? 

11 hours ago, -Relax- said:

 "The main issue with the damper is that it's not even. Pressing the left pedal is "harder" than the right pedal."
After that, i asked him if this also a thing when not using dampers.
"There's still a slight difference but really noticable."

Any can conforim this?

Yes, I am disappointed to have to confirm this. Although it needs to be said that this is a shared issue with all single-cam designs, including the competitor VKB T-Rudders. And yet quite a lot of people--surprising to me--never noticed that the left side is harder to press than the right side. 

I wish someone makes a symmetrical double cam design with this kind of push-down (helo) pedals. Not sure if the new Slaw will have that, looks to be single cam as well. 

[Sokol1_br]

20 hours ago, -Relax- said:

After that, i asked him if this also a thing when not using dampers.
"There's still a slight difference but really noticable."

Any can conforim this?

In VKB T-Rudder this difference is noticeable - if you pay attention.

Seems this is due the one lever CAM design, the force for one side is bigger.

If VirPil TORK use similar CAM could have the same effect.

BTW - MFG Crosswind use one lever CAM, but never see users complaining about this force difference. Notice that in this pedal the CAM have way more length that in T-Rudder.

I think that in joystick gimbal with one lever CAM this is less or not noticeable due the smaller leverage and forces.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Sokol1_br

[-Relax-]

Thx for the answers guys. 
I guess this is not realy a big deal if it´s on vkb as well. I hear only goods from this and as the virpil give me more options to individual i will go for the virpil!

 

[haaaake]

This isn't an issue at all. Don't even think it's accurate.

[01G8R]

On 4/13/2022 at 10:50 AM, AstroNomad said:

Agreed, this is what I noticed as well as the main negative in comparison to the T-Rudders. Which stops did you replace? Do you happen to have the file available for sharing?

See the attached picture.  I replaced the stop that is held in with the two bolts identified in the picture.  One stop on each side.  I don't have any finished files to share.  I 3d printed a prototype without the bearing pocket and then CNC machined an aluminum replacement with the bearing pocket and never updated the 3d model.  It is a simple part to model.  Please note that if you have these pedals mounted to the floor you won't gain much, if anything, without removing the plastic bumper floor stop at the bottom of the pedal.  My pedals are attached to a rig so the pedal stop can go below the base.  You will also have to replace one of the acorn nuts with a regular nut for the pedals to go through their full range of motion.  I designed my stops so it stopped the pedals just before the arms hit the base in the middle.

I was able to figure out my other calibration issue by using the advanced feature in the config program to remove the center detent.

I trimmed about 1/8" off of the plastic brake spacer inside and applied damping grease to the brake.  Much smoother and removing the 1/8" off the spacer allows the brake to be tightened more. 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by 01G8R

[AlpineGTA]

I've just received my ACE-Torq rudder pedals but I can't get them to work.

I've installed the configuration software, updated the firmware, saved a profile and calibrated the axis but they're not showing in DCS controls settings. They're not even showing in Windows games controllers, which lists my Winwing controls fine.

The software can clearly see that they're plugged in, so why aren't they working, what am I doing wrong? Thanks.

 

Edit:

I sussed it. The device mode was on "OUT" instead of "USB". They're working great now.

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by AlpineGTA