Simviation Forum - To yoke or not to yoke, that is the question.

Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 4:30pm

BAW0343 Offline
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Well actually the question is which yoke setup.

Ok, so my Saitek X45 is getting a little old. The wires are starting to disconnect from inside the throttle, Ive taken a look and there's nothing I can personally do do save it. So what I've decided to do is purchase a yoke and rudder pedal set. I've wanted to for awhile anyway

I'm looking at a couple possibilities, one is the CH Eclipse yoke.

http://www.chproducts.com/retail/y_eclipse.html

Its a little expensive but seems to have many features I want such as the fuel, prop and mixture controls, and plenty of buttons. One thing I don't like is the rudder on the controller. I'm used to it from the x45 but am tired of adjusting rudder with my hand, its not that realistic. Wink

And since I want to buy rudder pedals with this I would end up spending over $350 for the yoke and rudder pedal set... Shocked

The next yoke I'm looking at is the Saitek Pro flight Yoke system.

http://www.saitekusa.com/prod/yoke.htm

First off, this set just looks real nice. It has 14 buttons, and with Saiteks system you can triple the usage of those. It also comes with a separate throttle quadrant that will do the exact same thing as the CH product but seems to have a larger control surface which I find a nice touch. Right now I'm leaning towards this set as its $100 cheaper.

Finally I'm looking at both CH and Saiteks rudder pedal system and really have no preference other then Saitek is cheaper. Perhaps someone knows more about them then I do and can warn if one system compared to another has issues or advantages.

CH- http://www.chproducts.com/retail/pedals.html
Saitek- http://www.saitekusa.com/prod/rudder.htm

Ive always used a joystick type controller and am excited to move on to something a little more realistic (Tired of flying a Cessna with an F-16 controller Grin

) and am not sure if one brand has a benefit over the other. Also if someone knows a good cheap pair of rudder pedals please inform me. I only looked at the two above with a quick search of google.

Thanks!

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Reply #1 - Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 5:08pm

JBaymore Offline
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The Saitek yoke apparently has had a raft of problems. A lot of folks in the cockpit building community have commented on this on various online forums. SO caveat emptor there. Do your research. Looks nice..... function might be a ??????

The new Eclipse yoke from CH took the major problem of the old CH yoke....the plastic shaft.... and replaced it with a metal one. Fine. BUT... then they added a bunch of useless buttons for a flying yoke, and jacked the price to about double the cost of the original CH yoke. TOTALLY overpriced. Wait for it to come down. Or for them to realize their mistake and make one that is more flight oriented again.

The original CH yoke is the best choice..... for the price.

For about a Grand.... you can get a REALLY nice commercial yoke with column. Wink

Of the two sets of pedals, the CH ones are more robust and less "gamey".

Maybe look down in the Homebuild Cockpits forum section for appropriate threads too?

That's my $0.02 worth.

best,

................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #2 - Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 8:13pm

Mobius Offline
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I bought a Saitek yoke and have never had any problems with it at all. The problems are with phantom button presses that occur with certain lots of controllers that were bought at similar times from the the same dealer. I bought mine from from Newegg and it has been great so far. Having the yoke separate from the throttle quadrant is really helpful, so I would have to recommend going the Saitek route.

As far as pedals go, I have the CH ones right now, but I bought them before the Saitek ones came out, so I didn't really have a choice. In my opinion, the CH ones work fine, but they are a bit close together, but it's not really a big issue.

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Reply #3 - Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 8:53pm

BAW0343 Offline
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Well I forgot to look for user reviews my first time around.

Seems that the opinion of the CH being overpriced is common as well as the setup being messy. I totally agree. Seems most who compared these two models chose Saitek, also it seems that Saitek is willing to replace any yoke model that experiences the phantom button issue. Now all I have to do is come up with $300!

As for the pedals, I don't have much room under my desk and will most likely go for the CH as they look better and are smaller then the Saitek model.

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Reply #4 - Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 11:44pm

757200ba Offline
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Well i have the saitek, andits wonderfull.I tried the Ch, its good but i would not trade by the Saitek.I had not problems what so ever, yoke and throttle are very good, good materials.
So you choose. Wink

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Reply #5 - Sep 24^th, 2008 at 8:01am

expat Offline
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I have just changed from CH to Saitek. Mind you my CH yoke was game port and rather old. I bought the Saitek yoke and throttle combo. Unfortunately I could not just buy the yoke by it's self where I am. I am now looking at how I can use the spare throttle in some manner as I use the throttle from CH. Whilst I was at it, I ripped out the guts of my CH rudder pedals, also game port and replaced everything to USB by transplanting a three pot USB joystick/throttle combo into it. Very successful and very easy to do, costing me €19 for the joystick and about and hour and a half in time. To look at you can't tell the difference. Just some soldering and a couple of wire extensions. However, I went to the Saitek for two reasons. Firstly, I have never liked the way the throttle/pitch/mixture is mounted on the CH, looks like an after thought and clumsy having to reach over the yoke to use them. Also, for what you get from CH, I don't think they are worth the money. They are injection molded bits of plastic with electronics from China............just like the the rest. The Saitek pleased my eye better with the stand alone throttle (even though at this time I don't use it Grin

) and was cheaper. The final deciding factors were ease of programming. The Ch Throttle program packet that it comes with, I pulled my hair out trying to get it to work. Saitek is a lot simpler. Also in combination with FSUIPC4 (John I can't thank you enough for that tip) it really glides along, however, I would be interested in reading what the reported problems are from simpiters (link or two maybe?). Lastly, the saitek is also has a USB hub and is ready for expansion with mounting holes for the Flight Switch Panel (for those of us who have a spare room, but a wife that is not sympathetic to a simpit in the corner of it Grin

)

Matt

PETA People Eating Tasty Animals.

B1 Boeing 737-800 and Dash8 Q-400

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Reply #6 - Sep 24^th, 2008 at 8:47am

JBaymore Offline
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expat wrote on Sep 24^th, 2008 at 8:01am:

The final deciding factors were ease of programming. The Ch Throttle program packet that it comes with, I pulled my hair out trying to get it to work. Saitek is a lot simpler. Also in combination with FSUIPC4 (John I can't thank you enough for that tip) it really glides along,

The "tip of the day" that I gave Matt (you are more than welcome

) was to go get the payware version of FSUIPC and then use IT to interpret all of your flight control axis stuff, not the standard Windows joystick interface. You cannot BELIEVE what an improvement in the sim that alone will make. Worth the price you pay right there.

Plus FSUIPC has a RAFT of other functions that it allows you to do in the sim that cannot be believed until you wade through the BOOK that is the basic instruction manual. THEN there is the "Advanced Guide" that opens up even MORE possibilities.

Wanna' fix the weather in fs2004? It's in there.

And so on. FSUIPC is a large metal toolbox for fs2004 and FSX. Open it and you'll find a lot of great things that will help you out.

Get it!

As to links on the Saitek Matt, I read around on the web a lot and found a lot of stuff about the Saitek. Cannot remember where and all they were. When it was first released I was actually considering it at one point .... except for that darn display and buttons located in the middle where I have to mount my clipboard.

I agree about the CH control manager being a bit of a pain. Never use it. And the CH throttles on the older yoke ARE in a totally bad location. I never used them either ...... I (temporarily) have a CH throttle quad until my homebuild quad is finished. (Thinking of unmounting the ones on the CH yoke and reusing the axis assignments elsewhere.)

best,

.......................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #7 - Sep 24^th, 2008 at 9:18am

expat Offline
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JBaymore wrote on Sep 24^th, 2008 at 8:47am:

expat wrote on Sep 24^th, 2008 at 8:01am:

The final deciding factors were ease of programming. The Ch Throttle program packet that it comes with, I pulled my hair out trying to get it to work. Saitek is a lot simpler. Also in combination with FSUIPC4 (John I can't thank you enough for that tip) it really glides along,

The "tip of the day" that I gave Matt (you are more than welcome

) was to go get the payware version of FSUIPC and then use IT to interpret all of your flight control axis stuff, not the standard Windows joystick interface. You cannot BELIEVE what an improvement in the sim that alone will make. Worth the price you pay right there.

Not just "tip of the day", but tip of the entire software extensions, addons and updates available to the FS series. You are really missing out if you don't have it. At €24 for a license, $ for $, £ for £, € for € the amount of options and setting that you get, the cost of this software should be much much higher, just be thankful that is is not. If you are thinking about any payware, this should be at the top of your list.

Matt

PETA People Eating Tasty Animals.

B1 Boeing 737-800 and Dash8 Q-400

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Reply #8 - Sep 24^th, 2008 at 12:16pm

JBaymore Offline
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expat wrote on Sep 24^th, 2008 at 9:18am:

.......the cost of this software should be much much higher, just be thankful that is is not. If you are thinking about any payware, this should be at the top of your list.

Agreed 110 percent. Everyone bitched and moaned when Pete Dowson changed FSUIPC from freeware to payware with 2004. But what you were getting for FREE was too much to GET for free, IMO.

Now that he has gone to payware for it, the price he has asked is incredibly cheap for what that package and the support he gives on his forum are. It is the Swiss Army Knife of flightsim.

http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

best,

...................john

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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