Best joystick for PSX ?

[ndumbane]

Good evening /morning to all,

I gave away my joystick to a kid and I am planning to buy a new one for PSX. Which one would you recommend ? I wish  we could have some Force Feedback added :>

Thanks in advance for your recommendations !

[brian747]

Lacking the space for a yoke in my 'pit, I was forced to look around for a suitable joystick. The one I chose — a decision I have never regretted, incidentally — was the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog, or 'hog for short. It isn't cheap, but it has many virtues, not least the fact that it's built of metal and feels convincingly substantial in use.

Or as I said in another post on the forum: "The weight and solidity of the stick make for a very satisfying flying experience, and the number of hats and switches on the stick and the throttle base are extremely useful for assignment to various functions in PSX. Furthermore, the total absence of spikes owing to its use of 16-bit resolution Hall Effect sensors means that I set my Delta to zero for all axes." (After having used several cheaper joysticks with carbon potentiometers that all started to produce spikes sooner or later, Hall Effect sensors were a must-have, as far as I was concerned).

If you have downloaded "Getting started with PSX Part 1" you will find a photo of my setup on p.19 (with a few comments in the following text): there is also an example of control mappings for the stick and throttle base in Appendix 4 of the same document.

Good luck with your search!

Cheers,

Brian

[Will]

Let me second the HOTAS Warthog. It has a heft, and a certain gravitas about, it that complement PSX perfectly. It's really a good pairing.

And the buttons map in a really convenient way to PSX features, too.

Brian, I wonder if we set our buttons up the same way? Hmmmm...

[Phil Bunch]

Are there any credible negatives with the HOTAS Warthog?  The only thing  I've seen mentioned here and there seems to be that some people had reliability issues.  As usual with such internet comments, it's mostly people with problems who will comment in forums, then it's hard to learn if they are 0.01% or 1% or 10%...

As I progress beyond my quest for a basic, first-order understanding of PSX flying via automatic flight, I hope to add manual flight "soon".

[Simicro]

If you want a Force Feedback, admitedly the "best" is Microsoft Force Feedback 2 but you would have to look for a second hand one (on Ebay for example), as they are no more manufactured.

[ndumbane]

Thanks to all-

Simicro or hardy or anyone- would you know if a force feedback would work with PSX ?

Thanks for all your responses !

[Will]

Phil, the only negative I have with the Warthog is the name. I feel a little silly telling people I fly an airliner with a "Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog."

Also, another disadvantage perhaps for PSX users is that the throttle component is too dedicated to the A-10 to make much sense. So I didn't buy that part and I use Saitek throttles instead.

But no negatives about the performance of the Warthog. It works perfectly.

[Hardy Heinlin]

PSX does not send force feedback signals to USB devices.

[ndumbane]

Hardy- Thanks for the clarification on the force feedback and PSX.

BTW Hardy- I happen to know a 777 Emirates captain. I sent him a video of PSX, he was really impressed by it and asked me to send you his kudos.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Thank you :-)

[Will]

Brian, I'm curious what you use for your Warthog buttons. Here's my mapping:

Grey button under right index finger: Cycle gear

Red trigger 1st press: Warning reset switch

Red Trigger 2nd press: TOGA

Grey hat switch: Elevator trim and rudder trim

Red button under right thumb: Autopilot disconnect

Small black hat switch (on the left): Flaps up and flaps down (right and left not assigned)

Large black hat switch (on the right): Cycle view, as according to the sample layout I published here

Gray thumb switch: Cycle reversers (down); up, down, right and left not assigned

Gray pinky switch: Autothrottle disconnect

Black pinky lever: Return to home view, as according to the sample layout I published here

Did you use any similar assignments?

[John H Watson]

I'm perfectly happy with my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. It was important to me to have two buttons on the top (one above the other) for horizontal stabiliser trim and one on the side for A/P disconnect (although only the F/O has a disc button on the right side of the real stick). I use the trigger for brakes.

Other buttons you can programme for TOGA, A/T disconnect, flaps, etc. The hat switch can be programmed for layout changing.

Drawback: Only suitable for right handed people (as far as I can see).

Rgds
JHW

[nobody]

Does the warthog have a yaw axis for the rudder?!? I guess not cuz in an a-10 you have rudder pedals for that...

[jskiffington]

Does the warthog have a yaw axis for the rudder?!? I guess not cuz in an a-10 you have rudder pedals for that...

Nope, no yaw axis.

[Ivo de Colfmaker]

And how about left handed people, like me?
Almost all of this sticks are ergonomically build for right handed people.
It would be nice that developers would realize the group of left handed people is not all that small.
I had once a cyborg stick that could be used both ways, but it was so light I lifted it from the table when pulling back on it.
Ivo

[brian747]

@Will

Unsurprisingly, given the statistical chances of us choosing the same options from such a large number of controls, our selections are mostly different. One factor is that unlike you I use the throttle unit as well, so I tend to keep controls for things like TOGA, gear, reverse, flaps, and so on all on the throttle base.

But on the stick (although this is from memory, so I may be mistaken     ):-

Grey button under right index finger: toe brakes (both)

Red trigger 1st press: unused

Red Trigger 2nd press: toe brakes (both)

Grey hat switch: Elevator trim (up and down only in use — I use hats in just two directions to avoid accidental wrong selections)

Red button under right thumb: Autopilot disconnect  (HEY — we actually agree on one!     )

Small black hat switch (on the left): rudder trim left and right

Large black hat switch (on the right): stab trim up and down

Grey angled thumb switch: unused (down); right and left cycle views; up and down not assigned.

Grey pinky switch: Master warning reset

Black pinky lever: PTT (Capt)

Cheers,

Brian

[frumpy]

Are there any credible negatives with the HOTAS Warthog?

It's quite a sticky stick, when you want to do very little corrections.
One thing to do is to use grease for plastics, like EM-30L. I'll
try this soon with my Warthog. Another possibility is to extend
the stick by 5-15cm.
I'm very happy with the stick, I have no problems flying an
airliner with a joystick rather than a yoke. Feeling some metal
in my hand just makes a difference and of course the hall
sensors are a piece of gold

[Guy13]

Does the Warthog works on Mac? I just wanted to equip but on the features  it is precised: PC only.
Tanks. Guy

[tango4]

+1 for the warthog build quality.
Personally, for PSX, I use :
-On my main flight sim PC: saitek cessna yoke+ saitek standard rudder pedals + warthog throttle.
-on my notebook, my old MS sidewinder forcefeedback 2

Very happy with both combinations.

Charles

[Will]

Hello Guy,

I use the Warthog on my Mac. It works perfectly out of the box, just plug and play. All features are enabled.