Force Sensing Stick

Discussions about Cockpits, Joysticks & Setups
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Prosaft
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:36 pm

Force Sensing Stick

Post by Prosaft » Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:44 pm

Hello guys,

I'm a combat pilot currently working with a chopper. I'm looking for a force sensing stick. Up to this point I was flying with a X52 from Saitek. Since I don't have much experience on FSS, I would love to hear your opinions.
I have read about the X-65F, but the opinions are pretty controversial. Hotas Cougar + FSSB mod seems to be cool, but it is hard to get any Cougars these days - if you find any you never know what you get.

Will there be force sensing mods for the Warthog?

Jan
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Burner
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Post by Burner » Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:18 am

Doubt there will be force mods for the Warthog. FSSB is still your best bet for a force sensor, just have to keep hunting around for a Cougar.

Good Luck!
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Prosaft
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Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:36 pm

Post by Prosaft » Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:17 pm

Burner wrote:Doubt there will be force mods for the Warthog. FSSB is still your best bet for a force sensor, just have to keep hunting around for a Cougar.

Good Luck!
What did lead you to this conclusion?
Is the Warthog harder to mod or is it just that the time of joystick modding is over, nothing new coming?
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Lawndart
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Post by Lawndart » Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:00 pm

The FSSB is arguably the best force sensor mod for the Cougar, and that's just the point - for the Cougar.

The Warthog uses hall sensor technology out of the box (comparable to Ian J's NXT mod with Cubby's +HS mod for the Cougar), but with a much higher quality stick and throttle than the Cougar uses. There's virtually no reason or need to mod the Warthog, as it would cost a lot of money for a very marginal improvement at best. The only mods you'll find are people taking the spring out for an even lighter tension on the stick, or minor mods to reduce stickiness which some users have complained about (excessively IMHO as it's never prevented me from flying as precise if not more precise than with my FSSB Cougar).

I think the bigger reason why a force sensor mod for the Warthog is very unlikely is that there's not enough mainstream demand for one. There might be a smaller group of hardcore enthusiasts ready to put down that kind of money to modify a stick that's nearly flawless out of the box (compared to thousands of users of the Cougar which desperately were willing to spend on enhancements), but certainly nowhere near as many - a testimonial to the quality of the HOTAS Warthog. Companies like Realsimulator need to make a profit margin on their sales, and if you ask me, my guess is that the demand simply isn't enough to justify making a force sensor mod for the Warthog, not when the customer satisfaction rate is extremely high with the Warthog just the way it is.
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