Thanks for the welcome!
We are currently using Logitech G Flight Yokes and throttle quadrants, but they are absolutely not up to middle school usage- we’re getting about 18 months before we need to replace the yokes. I’m looking for alternative that are durable enough for our uses (yoko looks good, but I’d also need to purchase throttle quadrants as the logitech ones use a 5 pin connector instead of a USB). I also have two sims set up with HOTAS Warthog sticks and throttles.
Before we updated the lab in 2020, we had the Thrustmaster HOTAS- the old style mechanical/potentiometer bases eventually got sloppy but the new magnetic bases are better, though the plastic components will snap if the stick is twisted too hard.
I generally keep the key bindings simple- but I do need to make some basic changes (add landing gear toggle, p-brake toggle, throttle cut, engine/magneto start, plus some camera control changes- these are not default mapped on the logitech) so kids can get up in the air and practice basic stuff without hunting for keystrokes or using the mouse while flying.
With so many systems active, I have gotten a lot of experience troubleshooting and learning the idiosyncrasies of this software in a very short amount of time, but I see the control mapping/options setup as a issue that I’d like to be able to solve by having a backup file that can be swapped in if something goes wrong. You can imagine giving a lesson on how to use trim and then having half the class think they’re doing something wrong because AI trim somehow was reactivated : /
Let me know if there is a place I can post this topic, or if there is an active thread about it. I found a couple of inactive threads from about a year ago, but no concrete solutions were found (or at least they were not described in the post).
I can imagine the beating those take…
A simple, entry level all in one yoke from [CH Products] (Flight Sim Yoke CH Products)?
About the same quality as the Logitech, maybe slightly better.
Might be a little more cost effective even if lifespan is similar?
One thing to note. It uses an adjustable shaft center. The wheel on the units left side is not for trim as many assume. It is to adjust the center point as spring tension changes over time.
The Logitech quads are available as separate usb units also.
Thanks for the replies,
We’ve had good luck with the Thrustmaster cougar/warthog sticks- I can reuse the several sticks we have that have bad bases and get the replacement magnetic bases at $150 each, which is pretty reasonable. I just want to also have some good yokes as well.
Any thoughts on Yoko vs Honeycomb Alpha? I know the price points are vastly different, my main wondering is if the Honeycomb is durable enough.
inputprofile_[10-digit number] seems to be where input profiles are. They can be opened with notepad and fairly easy to decode in that the header has the “friendly name” of the input profile.
I was able to create an input profile in MSFS which generated a file in this directory. Then, I closed MSFS down and edited that file. Upon launching MSFS, steam must have scanned the files and found a conflict between online and local files, and asked which “save” I wanted to use. I picked my “local” save. This resulted in the changes I had made to that input profile showing up in the control options in MSFS UI.
I’m going to see if I can test this with a couple of our simulators, I’ll report back if it is successful. If it is, I’ll record a video of how to do it- it seems others may find this useful.
I did get it to work on 8 simulators running steam.
I used the MSFS UI to make a default control profile for our Saitek/Logitech Yokes, distributed it to the other 8 sims and copied it into the correct file.
All 8 sims that I did this with worked correctly- I did a short test flight on each to be sure.
I can see this working well for not only backing up profiles, but also distributing or sharing input profiles. As far as I understand, as long as the peripheral is the same, it should work.
I still wish MSFS had a UI for this, as well as a method to assign a profile to a particular aircraft.
