Thrustmaster Warthog center spot. A little loose. Is it correct?

[Siinji]

When moving the Warthog sideways, there no loose spot where the left forces let go and before the right forces kick in. But when moving back and forwards, there's a slight spot, where no force from the springs are applied. Not much, if you compare to other joysticks. In this hardware deadzone you can still pitch the plane sligly forward and backwards, but no spring tension. It's a very small spot. But is this correct, as my sideway movements do not have this dead spot.

 

Thanx!

[Ragtop]

I have this too, I've just deadzoned it out. In the axis tune page its noticeable, but as soon as you're in the air you'll never even realise it's there.

[Siinji]

Ok. I´m just "OMG-spent-all-this-money-paranoid". :)

[Ragtop]

Haha, I know what you mean, when we drop that much coin we search for problems!

 

But like you say, compare it to the other sticks on the market, if 1-2mm of front to back play is the only thing that stands out, it just shows how well it's made.

[Shaman]

When I analyze X and Y axis of Warthog stick with Target Device Analyzer, each time I go back to center compared to previous value I am off by +-~300 max. Do you have the same? Paranoia? Maybe... but it is below 1% of 65536 and that is after a year of beating this machine up and with stick extension.

[Supersheep]

Personally, I am wondering more about your Y-axis not having this, because the spring is in its max elongation in center position and needs to "change diretion". So I think it is normal. I am annoyed by this behaviour of mine too, by the way...

 

 

Super-

[Morphine]

When moving the Warthog sideways, there no loose spot where the left forces let go and before the right forces kick in. But when moving back and forwards, there's a slight spot, where no force from the springs are applied. Not much, if you compare to other joysticks. In this hardware deadzone you can still pitch the plane sligly forward and backwards, but no spring tension. It's a very small spot. But is this correct, as my sideway movements do not have this dead spot.

 

Thanx!

 

Add me to the list of paranoid users. I also have the spot on mine but it's on the X-axis. If I deflect my stick to the right or left and release it goes to a spot just to the right of center. A little nudge and it goes back to center though.

 

The problem is that the spot on the right is about 1500+ units from center so I'd have to have a pretty big deadzone to eliminate it.

 

Oh well.... Thrustmaster :joystick:

[LawnDart]

Oh well...

 

Here's the HOTAS Warthog stick calibration tool. If the stick is off keel a little it may help center things up (in lieu of increasing deadzone).

HW_Stick Calibration_V1_12.rar

[cichlidfan]

Oh well...

 

Here's the HOTAS Warthog stick calibration tool. If the stick is off keel a little it may help center things up (in lieu of increasing deadzone).

 

Isn't that an old one? I have a version 1.13.

[Morphine]

Here's the HOTAS Warthog stick calibration tool. If the stick is off keel a little it may help center things up (in lieu of increasing deadzone).

 

Thanks for the centering software. My problem is more mechanical in nature as there seems to be almost two X-axis center spots... one where the stick returns to if I just release it from deflection and one where it wants to settle if I just nudge it left or right a little. So selecting one place to "center" it with software is just as valid as the other. I'm wondering if there is a spring or something I can replace to remove the second dead spot. I'm off to the interwebs to do some more research on the internals of the device.

[LawnDart]

Isn't that an old one? I have a version 1.13.

 

You're right. Grabbed the wrong one. 1.12 still works for me though.

 

 

Thanks for the centering software. My problem is more mechanical in nature as there seems to be almost two X-axis center spots... one where the stick returns to if I just release it from deflection and one where it wants to settle if I just nudge it left or right a little. So selecting one place to "center" it with software is just as valid as the other. I'm wondering if there is a spring or something I can replace to remove the second dead spot. I'm off to the interwebs to do some more research on the internals of the device.

 

Could it be that your anti-friction buffer ring has come loose (or is about to) inside the housing? That could case some "pockets" along the travel in an axis.

 

See this thread for more info: http://www.warthogworld.com/hangar/showthread.php?65

 

[Morphine]

Could it be that your anti-friction buffer ring has come loose (or is about to) inside the housing? That could case some "pockets" along the travel in an axis.

See this thread for more info: http://www.warthogworld.com/hangar/showthread.php?65

 

Thanks again for all your help Lawndart! I'll take a look at that thread.

 

Best regards,

Morphine

[ENO]

Sorry for reviving such an old thread but I noticed one of the guys a few posts ago had exactly the same problem as I'm having... a new "center" just to the right of actual center.

 

The domain for that link has expired...

 

Anyone else fix theirs or is "dead zoning it out" the best solution? Frankly- I just can't stand the sensation of a sloppy stick I paid almost 500 bucks for after relatively light use.

[ENO]

BRAVO TO THRUSTMASTER!

 

I've asked a few of you if you were the one I was talking to about the stick getting loose and tilting to the right ever so slightly. Looking over on the ED forums I'd seen some others who had this issue as well and for the most part relented to dead zoning out that area.

 

I wasn't really ready to accept that so I wrote an email to TM support. I explained the problem to them and to my chagrin their initial response wasn't really my favourite- to the tune of do a diagnostic in Windows Control Panel... I said this was 100% mechanical in nature and that template response wasn't really what I expect from a company I bought a 500+ dollar stick from. I said that somewhat politely (read: I was bordering on a teensie bit ignorant)

 

The next response was much better- and they provided me a step by step instruction to disassembling the stick and what to look for. There is a rubber gasket that should have been underneath the pressure ring but it had worked itself to the top somehow. I moved it back where it belonged, moved some of the lubricant around a bit and put it back together. The stick is like brand new.

 

Some folks take out the spring and do some additional modification to it but I liked it the way it felt right out of the box. Other people take it one step further and take the entire pivot ball assembly off and polish it down to reapply a different type of lube... I had it in the back of my mind but taking out the pins that hold the assembly in place were a bit farther than I wanted to go.

 

Anyway- If anyone is having issues with their TM and find that it has worked its way loose then let me know and I'll pass on the same document they forwarded to me.

 

EDIT: I had to try to attach it for someone over at SimHQ so I might as well just share it here.

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MeQLQ7pOpjbFFPYWhGSkJFU1E/edit?usp=sharing

Edited May 29, 2014 by ENO

[qqQ]

So, got my Warthog for some time now, and well, it worked fine....for a few weeks. Then it developed stiction + a second center spot. Knowing that this might happen, I prepared myself with some high quality grease (Molykote 44 medium) and regreased it (after sanding a few edges) => stiction fixed. But the centering fault was quite a mysterium first.

 

The rubber ring was virtually not glued in, but it was perfectly flat, even without the rubber ring (you can actually run it like that, if you grease its no problem, some people reporting no significant wear after years, but I dont like the more distinct center detent that comes with it) the problem was still there (the ball joints contact surface also was perfectly flat).

 

Got me some hours of trying, then I got a solution: The slider and guide rails may not exactly fit together => the entire slider can wobble. You can try to rotate it or in a more extreme case like mine just disassemble the white part, rotate it and put it back on. Now its perfectly fine. Just keep in mind that you need to recalibrate the stick afterwards with the thrustmaster utility, as the center will likely shift a few hundred values (You need to confirm that the stick is non-wobbly manually, dont look if the raw data output changes, the Warthog has a non-removable little deadzone (bigger steps betweeen the values 32767-32768-32769) in the calibrated middle).

 

PS: Even if you dont disassemble the whole ball joint, regreasing the guide rails is heavily recommended as they can cause a lot of stiction if they are not properly greased.

 

The Warthogs gimbal is the biggest weakpoint of the stick.

[rrohde]

The Warthogs gimbal is the biggest weakpoint of the stick.

 

I don't think I've ever seen the TM Warthog's gimbal outright... how does it look? What's the material used?

[Sporg]

I don't think I've ever seen the TM Warthog's gimbal outright... how does it look? What's the material used?

Look at this thread, it gives you an idea:

http://www.battle-fields.com/commscentre/showthread.php?25381-Re-greasing-the-Hog

 

The gimbal material is hard black plastic.

 

The inner gimbal is ball-shaped and is hinged on two plastic plugs pushed in from the sides.

On the top of the inner gimbal is a groove where the connecting rod for the outer gimbal passes through.

This rod also holds the magnet that indicates to the Hall sensor how the stick is positioned.

On the top of the outer gimbal is the thread and plug for the stick.

 

The whole system is held in place and balanced via a strong spring system supporting the outer edge of the outer gimbal.

[rrohde]

Thanks for the explanation and link, Sporg!