[jhb] Re: Quadrants

  • From: Gerry Winskill <gwinsk@xxxxxxx>
  • To: jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:54:50 +0100

Mine are both fine. I thought they were going downhill, a couple of months ago, coincident with the change to W7. Eventually I sorted them out, by a mixture of uninstall followed by reinstall, plus changing the USB Hub into which they were plugged. I think it was the last move that cured them, so it would be worth trying this first. Best bet might be to try plugging one of them directly into a USB socket on the PC, then see how it behaves.


The downside of a large number of USB connected addons seems to be unwanted interaction. Occasionally I find that changing something like an ADF frequency can also result in a change in my GF Autopilot's Altitude setting.

Gerry Winskill

Frank Fisher wrote:
I have just fired off an email to Saitek regarding my ProFlight Throttle quadrants.

The secondary quadrant, a few months back, developed a fault, namely the throttle and mixture levers were giving out an unstable output, and basically unusable. It is now in use solely for the buttons which is controlling my AC electrics, Gens/Batt/Starter etc.

Now the main throttle is going the same way, unstable and bouncing outputs.

These units are just over 2 years old, with reasonable use, mainly for GA and some jets, for Helios, I use a Saitek twiststick.

A careful examination inside, reveals the lever controllers, are constructed using open to the atmosphere carbon sliders, instead of the more usual, and more robust, rotary pots. Ok, so the units are smaller for that.

I imagine that dust has filtered inside and on to the carbon face, and then wiped by the slider, which has gradually worn off the face, reducing electrical contact. A very poor design.

I am now faced with the prospect of replacing said controllers, sooner rather than later than expected. The Yoke and Pedals are A1.

Depending on Saiteks response.

Replacement controllers. Saitek? Costing?
Replacement controllers CH? Costing?
Or dig out my soldering iron, and replace the pots with sealed rotary ones. A new housing for the larger pots will be needed of course.

Anyone else with Saitek throttle controllers, beware. I got mine from Pixmania, so I am not expecting a good response from Saitek.

I am not a happy bunny.

Frank



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