Russian style Stick : Defender Cobra M5 USB

[leafer]

Njoy32s are sold out. Hope they restock them because I need a few.

[Teknetinium]

Neeeed II

[*Rage*]

What does it do?

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

Njoy32s are sold out. Hope they restock them because I need a few.

+ 1

[PeterP]

KingCobraMk-II

 

МК-20-3 Pro Rudder Pedals

 

I will be traveling to Russia soon and will be making a stop in Moscow, does anyone have any experience with these two items being sold by VKB??

 

They look to be very well made, but I can only see the pictures.

 

Any one have a review on the quality and workmanship on these items??

 

How is the programming software?? Only in Cyrillic?? Or also in Latin??

 

Will stick work with Warthog Throttle??

 

Thinking of picking these up for the home set up.

 

Thanks in advance.

.

[CyBerkut]

.

 

PeterP, what is your point? (see what I did there?) ;)

 

Seriously though... that was a touch cryptic. Following that message you quoted back to it's source, goes to a thread where you posted a message pointing to... this thread.

 

I'm sure you were getting at something, but I haven't managed to figure it out...

[PeterP]

Now that I quoted basset's question in this thread , that has many subscribers and some of them are using the Cobra - the chances are much higher for basset to get a response and/or he is able to ask here some users after doing some research.

Edited May 11, 2013 by PeterP

[CyBerkut]

I see. Well, hopefully he gets a bite or two. The links in his post do not appear to work, which doesn't help.

 

I guess the pedals are a version of these:

http://flightsimcontrols.com/store/pedals/vkb-rudder-pedals-mk-21-3/

 

and the stick:

http://flightsimcontrols.com/store/joysticks/fat-king-cobra-mkii/

 

Which we've seen posted on the forums before. So far, he doesn't seem to be getting any feedback.

[basset]

Links in original post fixed, that's for pointing it out CyBerkut.

 

Hopefully someone can give a short review, if not - no matter, once I am able to pick these up, Ill do a short review. Only question is when.

 

I have letter into a Russian site asking about availability of the two items, they will be back from holiday on Monday and I hope to have an answer then, but its Russia and customer service is not so good.

But I hope for a reply.

[Shinigami]

I'm more interested in King cobra(baseline version not FAT) or a black mamba, you guys know were I could buy it. They have a store in Moscow? cause I have a uncle in russia.

[basset]

Try here:

http://www.vkb-pro.ru/

 

No idea on stock, there is no phone number or email. They say for any questions post to their forums.

 

I have tried to post to forums a question, no reply.

Its Russia, I'm not surprised.

 

if you get in touch with a live person, let us know.

[basset]

An update:

 

yes they have answered my post asking about shipping to USA for the MK21 rudder pedals, about 50.00 USD for shipping.

 

And my mistake, the response is from person in Belarus, not Russia.

 

Not sure where the shop is in Moscow, they do reply to posts to their forums, good place to ask.

[Shinigami]

thanks for update.

[garengarch]

http://flightsimcontrols.com/store/joysticks/vkb-fat-black-mamba-for-non-eu/

 

Coming 'two weeks' for EU

[Weta43]

Did it ever arrive ?

 

I keep dropping into this thread to see if anyone ever posts an actual review.

 

Assuming someone actually got one - what's it like now you've got your hands on it ?

[leafer]

That is one handsome controller.

[intuser]

someone on the https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/ subscriber forum got a few russian sticks and replaced the standard mamba stick with a warthog stick.

 

also yes they arrived. I believe he got them from http://flightsimcontrols.com/ which is vkb's eu site

 

Alrighty, a few people asked for an update so here it is.

 

I was torn between the black mamba (which is statiscally better) and the upgraded king cobra. So i got both...

BLACK MAMBA

The black mamba has all the switches, lights, best hal sensors you can find all pre installed. The stick is made from well machined metal and the under the hood you'll find compact steel gimbal mechanics that have smooth bearings and no rubber or plastic washers. The stick has seemless and equal transition from all the axis points unlike cheaper sticks where the corners of the axis have a higher tension from the springs.

 

Unfortunately the [Warthog stick that I replaced the] Mamba stick [with] is all metal which sounds amazing but the con is that an all metal stick is very heavy and does not move rapidly enough to make it ideal for a newtonian physics simulator. I tried it in Elite Dangerous Alpha and i was sorely disappionted to realize that its a bit top heavy for the kind of movement required, it fared better in diaspora but my verdict stands.

In all fairness the light mamba is simply a joystick for a codl war era fighter jet and it fills that role prefectly, i had a great time shooting down everyone i could catch in warthunder, this stick can actually beat a keyboard/mouse combo!

 

DEFENDER M5/ KING COBRA

The defender m5 is an all plastic stick that is jsut a bit better than anything you can buy at future shop, to give you perspective the stick is better than a Saitek x52 pro but nothing higher. The stick is very light weight apart from super heavy metal base plate (**** shipping charges 40+ USD). The large base houses large all plastic gimbal mechanics that ironically have the same hal sensors as the mamba's, the twist funtion located in the shaft and uses a dirt cheap little toggle that i was not fond of.

The shaft is made of cheap plastic with an amazing array of hats and buttons including two triggers (the foremost can be flicked forward to stay out of the way, and both can be pressed in conjunction which is natively programmed to fire everything you got!). The two hats are excellent addition, one can be used to manually track a target and the other to look around, there are a few other buttton that are very nice. The stick has great accuracy, no deadspots... but there the transition is not as seemless as the perfect metal mechanics in the mamba.

 

now for the cobra....

When in stock VKB sells many after market upgrades for the defenders stick this includes: Fully metal gimbal mechanics, a couple arrays of swtiches and toggles (so that you never neeed a keyboard unless you are typing!), hal sensor for the twist rudder, adjustable height feature for the stick itself and last but not least.. two sets of flash memory onboard chips that deliver unparraled device memory and speed. (the stick will now remember unlimited configurations and store them so you will never have to reconfigure controls when you plug it into another computer or lose all your settings in freak accident.)

So if you have some money to burn, VKB allows you to pretty much a make a deluxe defender that now has mamba quality metal gimbal that is larger and a smoother, plus enough buttons and swtiches to make any SR-1 blackbird pilot feel at home, the chips are hard as hell to configurate to don't do what i did and ask for everything to be shipped unassembled because it takes hours to solder it all together. VKB provides great software i should add.

SUMMARY

The upgraded defender was my choice hands down since it had the metal mechanics of the superior mamba, the great arrays of customizable buttons to boot. The stick works prefectly on space sims since the plastic handle is lightweight but the metal gimbal gives the ultimate quality.

 

If you like flight sims go for the Mamba, if you like space sims for the Defender M5, if you like both go for the King Cobra.

 

Cheers

 

 

edit for more clarity about the stick. I had to ask too.

Edited March 26, 2014 by intuser

[PureEvil]

"Unfortunately the Mamba stick is all metal which sounds amazing but the con is that an all metal stick is very heavy and does not move rapidly enough to make it ideal for a newtonian physics simulator."

 

"Please, note that the joystick is shipped with standard plastic grip from Defender Cobra M5." - said at the web store (for light and fat mamba), so i guess the grip IS plastic and not metal.

[intuser]

look, 1st sentence ^^

... russian sticks and replaced the standard mamba stick with a warthog stick.

[PureEvil]

look, 1st sentence ^^

 

yeah, i see it now :) wrong game (that Elite Dangerous Alpha) for testing joystick of that price range. imho.

[Paraxanthine]

Hi,

 

(apologize for my bad english, this is not my mother tongue)

 

I'm sorry to dig this post, but i can't find the information anywhere : i saw that there are 3 versions/generations of the defender cobra m5 and that the 2nd generation is the good one (NJoy32 controller and digital MaRS™ sensors).

More informations here.

There are no way to know what the generation is before buy.

 

But i did find a "king" version of the joystick : so which generation is it ? Or, does the joystick "king" contains the NJoy32 controller ?

 

If not, i think the T.16000M is a better choice, but i would prefer go with this one which seems pretty cool.

 

Anyway, thanks

[Sokol1_br]

The ones that have VKB NJoy32 controller and digital "MaRS" sensors were manufactured around July-December 2012.

 

After, Defender opt for use a more cheap (to make) USB controller and analog contact less sensor.

 

The only way to know what is what is checking firmware version. On (Russian) VKB page are tool for this.

 

BTW - The first Cobra M5 model use digital MaRS sensor, but a USB controller based on obsolete ATMEGA mc.

 

http://www.vkb-flightsimcontrols.com/zakaz/index_z.php

 

The visual difference between the first and latter models is a small lever on throttle wheel.

 

Maybe you find more info in this topic - use Google Translator:

 

http://forum.vkb-sim.pro/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1648&start=90

 

The actual Cobra M5 version is available in Amazon.de

 

Sokol1

Edited December 4, 2014 by Sokol1_br

[Sokol1_br]

But i did find a "king" version of the joystick : so which generation is it ? Or, does the joystick "king" contains the NJoy32 controller ?

 

If you mean a "King Cobra" this is a customized version sold be VKB, with metal gimbal, ball bearings, MaRS sensors and NJoy32.

 

This version has sub versions (Light, Fat, PRO, MKI, Mk II) with/without switch's on base.

 

If is this that you find, buy. :)

 

Was replaced by actual Black Mamba versions.

 

Sokol1

Edited December 5, 2014 by Sokol1_br

[Paraxanthine]

Thanks for your reply.

This is what i understood, but wasn't sure.

 

The actual Cobra M5 version is available in Amazon.de

And that's why i wanted to be sure : this is where i find it : http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00IJ72TMI/ref=pe_386171_38075861_TE_item

-> it says "König Defender Cobra M5 Joystick grau/schwarz" which means "King Defender Cobra M5 joystick gray / black"

But none of the picture actually show a "King cobra". So i guess the only way to be sure is to buy it. I already ordered it, and ask them if they know what version it is. I wait for their reply now.

[Sokol1_br]

This model sold be Amazon is the actual version of Defender Cobra M5 - the 3rd revision without VKB electronics.

 

Or the worst version of this joystick... But is on par with other "entry level" joystick models from Saitek, Logitech, Thrustmaster.

 

Sokol1