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