IMPORTANT: Saitek Yoke

[David Rogers]

Folks,

A few days ago I reported on this site about how wonderful my first impressions of the Saitek Yoke were.

I need to revise this view and give some more info.

I have been experiencing some serious problems with my set up, such as random engine cuts, views changing automatically, pushback activating on it's own, and loss of pitch control in flight.

I thought that perhaps some of these issues were PM specific ....... until I searched "Problems with Saitek Yoke" under Google this evening.

(Check it out for yourself).

It turns out that a huge proportion of users (some say all, Saitek say 'some' are having serious problems with the yoke, including:-


Phantom activation of buttons. (not just once in a while, for me this was every minute or so !!!).
Loss of pitch axis in flight.
FS.cfg failing to 'save' or 'store' axis settings. (lost settings each time you start FS and fly).
Even blue screens of death!In short, the yoke is unusable in it's current state. Saitek are not recalling and buyers have to simply exchange units but the problem is this was a HUGELY back ordered item and there are tens of thousands of units stocked around the world - hence people are having the units exchanged 4 or 5 times and finding no improvement! What a mess - I owe an apology to CH for asserting that the Saitek as a bettr product when it is in fact fatally flawed.

Back to the CH for me for now :(

Very disappointing Saitek - I would have to urge anyone thinking of buying the Saitek Yoke to steer well clear until hte web is telling a different picture.

[BlackWidow]

HMMMMM i have two of the TQs but i have not been useing them i hope they do not have those issues i guess i will have to hook them up and go for a few flights. One thing I have noticed with my X52 is that the pots are not very good because if im in the sim i constantly get movment in my slider -maped to Mixture control and my elevator trim is the sameway.

[Geremy Britton]

If i wasn't building my own before the saitek yoke came out i would have bought it.

it certainly looks the business.
thanks for informing us - pleased i made my own after all:)

[David Rogers]

Well..... I stayed up until 2am last night, uninstalling the Saitek yoke and throttle and re-installing my CH Yoke and Throttle. (including all the assignments).

It wasn't a happy moment - the frustrating thing is that the Saitek does look and feel great but with the current serious problems, it is frankly unusable. So at least on the positive side, a whole list of problems I have been getting (that I did not realise were related to the Saitek Yoke & throttle), are GONE !

Good old CH Products ;-)

What a waste of money though and I don't think I will be able to return or exchange my Saitek, as I customized the throttle. (fitted authentic Boeing throttle lever knobs).

Anyway.... you live and you learn! ......onwards and upwards and all that ! Saitek have joined my software and hardware developers blacklist following this. I mean, it is reasonable to expect perhaps one or two niggles when buying into a brand new designed unit, but to have random, uncommanded button press actions and axis movements going off around once every minute is unacceptable - especially where one of those uncommanded button presses relates to the FS auto engine cut-off ....... not good while climbing out !

Back to plan B - I am going to buy an authentic B737 replica yoke from Simparts and custom fit it to the CH's control tube.

[AndyT]

Hi David,
Want to get rid of that Saitek? I might be interested in picking it up.

[David Rogers]

Hey Andy,

I don't think the shipping from England to Hawaii would be feasible buddy !

(I think it would cost more than the Yoke by several times :) )

[AndyT]

Oh well.
I was hoping you were on my side of the planet.

[Geremy Britton]

how much were you thinking for it to be taken off your hands. we could maybe agree on a deal for it.

PM me if your interested.

[David Rogers]

To be honest I think I'll hang on to it for now - PaulEMB has pointed me towards Peter Dowson's FSUIPC page where apparantly a fix that improves the problem is available (although I suspect it is for FSX only).

The Saitek is the first hardware control device available that is heavily tied to FSUIPC so the problems may be linked to this and the situation could hopefully improve if Peter is able to address the problems from his end.

[Geremy Britton]

Thats fine by me i was just giving you the canopy release rope if your needed it:)

good luck in getting it running correctly

regards geremy

[David Rogers]

Thanks Geremy :)

I'll get my use out of this flipping thing even if I have to use it as towell rack in the bathroom !! LOL.

[Geremy Britton]

:D:D:D a hat maybe?

[whoispankaj]

Might as well use it as a hangar for clothes...;)
Thanks for informing David..I was contemplating to get one..

Pankaj

[Paul Thomas]

I have experienced the same "phantom" problems and returned to my good old CH. In addition to the above mentioned problems I have experienced that the GoFlight module of landing- gear doesn't work properly. Back to CH everything is OK and back to normal. The purchase of the Saitek Yoke is not to be recommended by me.

[Kennair]

I've read quite a bit about this on the Saitek forum and elsewhere and the consensus (even from Saitek) is that there are a batch of units with a USB controller issue being effected by random interference, either externally or internally. The FSUIPC option doesn't fix it (or at least very few). Adding a powered USB hub can fix some issues such as the fading clock display, but certainly not all. Flying along only to have flaps or gear extend unaided isn't what I'd call a comfortable experience even in a sim environment. From what I can gather, Saitek have traced the problem and releasing a new batch (but don't quote me).

I bought one off an ebay shop just prior to discovering this and I'm getting them to retract my purchase. If you don't want to get rid of it (and who wants to sell a faulty item?) there's always the option of ripping out the USB controller and installing something like the Leo Bodner card. You'll get a fairly cheap and good looking yoke that works faultlessly and with 32 buttons plus Hat switch to boot.

Cheers,

Ken.:cool:

[AndyT]

Pretty much what I had in mind. I was going to replace the controller with one I trusted.

[David Rogers]

Good idea, thanks for that Ken.

:)

[Toly]

I ordered Saitek yoke on 12/11 from Amazon and got it yesterday. So far, knock on wood, there haven't been any problems, but the test flight time was around 1 hour total. I plugged it into a powered USB hub and did not attach any devices to the yoke's own USB ports. After one boot up I saw some gibberish on the yoke's LCD timer, so I just re-plugged it into USB and it cleared up. No problems so far. I did not plug the yoke to the power supply, and it seems happy enough without it.

[veldthui]

I ordered Saitek yoke on 12/11 from Amazon and got it yesterday. So far, knock on wood, there haven't been any problems,

Better than New Zealand then. I ordered mine 3 or more months ago and originally the delivery date was Nov14, and then end of Nov. Those came and went and then it was 14th Dec and that came and went and now is down for the 21st Dec.
With Christmas just then I doubt if I will get it this year.:-x

[ozziesim]

I ordered Saitek yoke on 12/11 from Amazon and got it yesterday. So far, knock on wood, there haven't been any problems, but the test flight time was around 1 hour total. I plugged it into a powered USB hub and did not attach any devices to the yoke's own USB ports. After one boot up I saw some gibberish on the yoke's LCD timer, so I just re-plugged it into USB and it cleared up. No problems so far. I did not plug the yoke to the power supply, and it seems happy enough without it.

Im trying to find out if the batch we have in AUS is amoung the faulty ones as i have alot of questions from my customers about this issue can those of you that have had faults with there units tell me what the serial numbers are on those units.

Also those of you that do have good units can you tell me what serial numbers you have so i can compare with the batch i have at the moment.

[Toly]

my serial # is SZ00506343

[ozziesim]

my serial # is SZ00506343

Was yours a faulty one or a good one ??

[steveeverson]

im running 2 saitek yokes and throttles at the moment - no problems so far i think. I only have one programmed for the elevator and ailerons axis but have both throttles assigned - 1st one has spoiler and eng 1 and 2nd has eng2 and flaps. have also put the cutoff switches and engine starts along with the parking brake on these. All seems to work ok. the only prob is i cant get both clocks to match... will have a dig under the mip for the serial no's later..
steve

[kwaka]

Hi.

I received a bunch of stuff from a local supplier to fit-out my new cockpit which should be ready in about a week or so. I ordered 2 x SAITEK throttles and only one of them works ok (but for how long :( ), whilst the other one slowly but surely takes a snooze and stops working. The LED jst fades and then stops illuminating.......then nothing. I compared the two throttles, and the faulty one makes a small rattling sound when you shake it.

The serial # is S15811291 and located in Australia.

I'm sending it back tomorrow for an exchange.

What really bugs me is that if I hadn't noticed the fault and waited a few days, it would have been glued down into the centre console of my cockpit. From here on I'll be making sure any Saitek product remains easily removable and original, and just before warranty is up it'll get a thorough inspection.

Hey CH are you listening to this? You can step in right about now and release a similar throttle and you'll OWN the market with your reliability.

I was just about to replace my CH yoke with a SAITEK and glad I didn't.

Cheers,
Nick

[BlackWidow]

I have 2 throttle units and have had no problems with them I just purchased the yoke system and will soon be able to test that out too.

[bgoodwin]

Have add Yoke,rudders and 2 throttle units since Christmas (thank you Santa).

Works great and really enjoy the quality construction.

Just AVOID the SST Software!!

[Spatate]

SST Software???

[Bob Reed]

I think that is the software that comes with the yokes and TQs... He is saying do not use it.

[steveeverson]

since my last post i have had the occasional 'phantom' keypress- seems to be the key i programmed for one of the engine starts- bit disconcerting but have manage with it so far! Had a look on the saitek forums and someone mentioned that they had the windows 'blue screen of death' due to these- have had this when one yoke stopped responding to pitch/roll and when i replugged it that happened- a reboot seemed to sort it out. One of the tips they suggested was to switch the mode selector to 2 and apparently this can sometimes help..
gonna uninstall the Saitek SST software at some point and see if this helps..
Generally though, even with a few problems the kit has performed well and is still brilliant value

Cheers
Steve:)

[ozziesim]

Yes unfortunately it seems that the problems that were occuring on the intial batch released overseas have still not been ironed out prior to there release in Australia.

I dont think it is a random issue either, i have sold quite a few and am getting most of them back due to the random problems many others have complained about in the past, as a result until the problem is sorted i wont be stocking them. Its a pitty as they are a nice little unit.

[kwaka]

I agree that they are great value for money and I can't wait to finally get them working in my new sim. However to get any vaue from any product they first and foremost should work ;) . No point talking about modifying this or that to get them working as they should. Imagine buying a new car then having to tow it to your mate's place to fix it up. It's totally unacceptable.
I havn't had a chance to test the new one just yet (fingers crossed).

Hopefully the next time I write will be all positive and full of praise:) Our local (Aussie) suppliers seem positive that it is being sorted out and there are some good things from SAITEK on the horizon, so I won't be writing them off just yet.

[steveeverson]

Hi All, Pete Dowson has released an FSUIPC update which has a fix for the random button press issue (ups the polling time for buttonpresses to avoid phantom ones)

can be found here:

http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=41519

more details here:

http://www.saitekforum.com/showthread.php?t=12871


gonna try it out later- i'll let you know if it works!:rolleyes:

[bgoodwin]

Check out your regional time settings under XP control panel.

[steveeverson]

:(Been getting the random button presses again- not too much of a problem as will be removing the fuel cuttofs from the throttle rocker switches- that seems to be the problem area. Also I run 2x yokes via fsuipc. the 2nd one (either yoke , just whatever is polled 2nd by the computer) seems to give up shortly after rotation.. cant seem to replicate on the ground so a real pain!- anyone else come across a similar problem?
steve

[David Rogers]

Just an update to say that I was the original poster of this thread and, as I bought a very early Saitek Yoke, I had very bad problems with phantom key presses.

However, all is fantastic now and I really love the yoke and throttle.

I must point out that this is no thanks to Saitek, it's all down to Stoke's finest; Pete Dowson, who adapted FSUIPC to include a capability to ignore phantom key presses.

Reminder on how to set this up - if you do it correctly, I promise it really does negate ALL phantom key presses! .....

** ALL OF THE BELOW APPLIES TO THE FULL REGISTERED VERSION OF FSUIPC - THIS WILL NOT WORK WITH UNREGISTERED FSUIPC **

1. Download the latest version of FSUIPC from www.schiratti.com/dowson (http://www.schiratti.com/dowson) (earlier versions to NOT contain the function to ignore phantom presses!!).

2. Install / replace into your Flight Simulator / Modules folder.

3. Go into FS, Settings, and Assignments and delete ALL button assignments from the Saitek Yoke.

I say again......Make sure you delete ALL button assignments for the Saitek yoke, from the FS assignments ! ...... if you leave a 'view' button assigned to the yoke within FS, you are still going to get phantom button presses!

4. Browse to your FS Modules folder and open up the FSUIPC.cfg file.

5. Add the following to the [Buttons] section...(this MUST be in the Buttons section);

EliminateTransients=Yes
pollinterval=50


6. Now save and exit the FSUIPC.cfg.

7. Go into FS and into FSUIPC, and go to the 'Buttons' tab in FSUIPC.

8. Now assign all of the Saitek's buttons to the functions you want. Landing Gear, Spoliers, everything can be assigned here.

Exit FSUIPC and you are off - phantom button presses will be a thing og the past.

NB. There are many people out there that claim this workaround does not work, but the fact is these people have invariably made the same mistake; They have entered the 'Eliminate transients and poll interval' text into FSUIPC.cfg but then have left their saitek buttons assigned in FS !! .......... FSUIPC can only cancel out the transients for buttons assigned in FSUIPC. For example, I forgot and left a button assigned to 'view' within FS ..... guess what, all of my other phantom presses disappeared but I was still getting a phantom change in views! .....another error is that some people accidentally place the 'eliminate' text into the [Keys] section of FSUIPC.cfg as it is very close to the [Buttons] section. Some people mis-spell the required text !

Get it set up right and I guarantee it complete resolves the issue with phantom key presses and the Saitek Yoke.

:-)

[Paul G]

I have the X52 system too. Ok I bought 3 of them, reconditioned from Saitek direct at about 1/3 of the price. I haven't experienced these problems with any of them. However I agree that the pots are probably not the finest quality. I have the linear slider set up for spoilers, and frequently get a warning flicker on and off. Doesn't make much difference to performance and this kind of annoyance is typical in an aircraft, if a little disconcerting.

I would keep the system even if you don't use it. I originally did surgery on an X45 which is the predecessor to the X52. Ugly blue thing, with orange back lighting. I basically used the interface but replaced the crappy 1c / piece switches and 2c / piece potentiometers with half decent ones. Provided a cheap and cheerful interface that was relatively easy to connect up, courtesy of existing components. I used the vertical shafts of the throttle handle and attached throttle levers. To get them co-located, one of the throttles had to point opposite direction, and, of course, be set up to be reverse sensing.

If I was to do it again, I'd probably buy a Phidget board ( 8/8/8 ) and save myself a lot of time.

[johnwayne200]

Okay i bought a saitek yoke 2 weeks ago and the one i got shouldnt had the phantom button since it's from the "after christmas" batch wich is supposed to be fixed...Still i got this problem. Heres what Saitek told me to do and the fix works well :

1. Make sure that you have SST correctly installed
2. Make sure that your OS, FSX, FS2004 etc have latest Microsoft updates
3. Delete any button assignments in FSX/FS2004 corresponding to buttons 9, 10 and 11

Start Flight Simulator.

1. Go to Configuration/Settings, then Controls, Assignments.
2. In the "Categories" drop down list, select any one (not the first selected, this will force FS to reload the assignments list; then go back to the first one "all commands").
3. Go down the list and delete ANY key assignment under the joystick column (click on the row, then click on the "delete joystick assignment" button).
4. Press OK (it is important to press OK without changing the list, or it will not get saved)
5. Repeat from step 2 until you have all the joystick assignments cleared for all joysticks (the yoke, quadrant and pedals are 3 different Joysticks) for both "Normal Flight" and "Slew Mode" (the little options on the top).
6. Once you have all joystick assignments cleared for all joysticks and in both modes, repeat steps 2 to 5 making the assignments you want for your yoke system.

WHATEVER YOU DO, BE SURE THAT THERE IS NO JOYSTICK ASSIGNMENTS FOR BUTTONS "9","10" or "11". IF THEY APPEAR, DELETE THAT ASSIGNMENT.


Once you done this the phantom button will no longer be an issue and you will be able to fly for example LVL-D767 on FS9 since your control will still be assignated by Flight Simulator 2004


Have a good one!

Jon