So I am finally about to pull the trigger on buying the Honeycomb Alpha&Bravo and just have a few questions. 1: For any of those here that already have it, how do you like it? Feel free to give the bad with the good! 2: I have been watching several videos on them and 1 recurring theme I am coming across is the need to download some drivers for the LED lights and other things, what exactly do these drivers do besides activate the LED lights? 3: This is my first flight sim, thus my first flight hardware, thus my first time ever trying to manually landâŠany brave souls willing to join me in discord and watch/shot the sh*t/teach me the ways in the art of landing? I know in the end it is ultimately up to practice makes perfect but still having someone there to talk to would make this way more fun! 4: Upon doing some research on what I am about to get into, I came across a Honeycomb Charlie rudder pedal set, I donât remember where and the latest google searches for this pretty much turned up nada. Anyone else know of these, when they will become available ETC? Or if it is even a real thing? LOL
When I replaced my Thrustmaster T16000m and TWCS throttle with Alpha and Bravo I couldnât believe how big change that was. The feel and quality seems so much better with Honeycomb. I donât regret at all buying these.
Nothing more, just light up the leds when you engage AP for example, or when you have master warning.
They are real thing, but I havenât seen any estimate when those might come. Looks pretty nice though.
I am very impressed with both the Alpha and Bravo. The Charlie rudder pedals have no target date. The Alpha and Bravo are being updated to work with MSFS Xbox so hopefully the rudder pedals will complete the set at that time.
Make sure both are calibrated in Windows BEFORE using them in MSFS.
Switches for lights and trim are duplicated in both. The switches should be changed to whatever you like. I highly recommend the YouTube videos by Rmag especially the one on how to configure the five different types of throttles on the Bravo. https://youtu.be/iAVicVzF0Po
You may need to adjust the sensitivities for the Alpha yoke. I am still tweaking mine.
Todayâs update is supposed to have updates (like not having to install the patch for the LEDs) for the Alpha and Bravo but I didnât see any mention of them in the release notes.
Enjoy!
Yes I did also see something about the both of them having the same button setup up on some buttons. I also saw a bug where the #2 engine throttle does not work by default? The video you linked is actually one of the first ones I saw lol. I also saw that in one video, maybe the one you linked, dude said there was a slight dead zone when it comes to making very fine lateral course corrections. But in the comments some people had said their yoke had no such dead zone that he was showing on screenâŠhit or miss problem I assume?
Thatâs interesting, have to try it.
I would like to have possibility to change intensitivity of the led, so they would all light up dimmed and when active they would be bright. Hard to see buttons when led is off
I have the Alpha yoke. Amazing yoke. I would not hesitate to buy the Bravo. Only problem is that the Bravo is currently not available. It is sold out everywhere. Next pre-order batch should be for late spring, beginning of summer.
Anyway, Honeycombâs hardware is simply amazing. Also they are not that expensive. You get a mid-level yoke and throttle that surpass everything that Saitek has released for approx. $500.
However, I did have a quite noticeable deadzone in the pitch of my yoke (about half an inch). The guy from Almost Aviation (sorry, I donât know his name) has a video on his YT channel where he shows a âsecretâ calibration mode for the yoke. I calibrated my yoke and now the deadzone is completely gone. So depending on your yoke, you might have to do that too.
I have been waiting for 6 months for them to be available.
they are both available on amazon. The Alpha is reasonably priced at $299 but the Bravo⊠when I first looked was like $450 and now is up to $580. but still in the 400s on ebay
Not in Europe at least. But yeah, I wouldnât even consider ebay with all those scalpers.
Iâve got both the Alpha and Bravo now (couldnât get them at the same time because theyâre so in demand, you have to wait for new production runs to open up for new orders) and I love them. A few notes:
- I did a lot of customization on the Alpha yoke bindings for the POV hat and the buttons, but the defaults are decent enough. The various switches on the base are labeled so are relatively fixed, and seem useful.
- the push-to-talk button on the yoke only has a single position. Iâm told that many fancier push-to-talk buttons have two positions, where one can be bound to internal microphone (or group chat, in simulation) but this one doesnât. No biggie for me, as I use it as a shift key in my binding configuration.
- the build quality feels pretty good, with the sole exception of the autopilot subpanel on the Bravo quadrant. The buttons sometimes âstickâ when pushing and donât feel properly clicky. They also seem to have a long round-trip time to activate the lights when switching modes.
- More generally, the autopilot input is hard to handle in complex situations, and Iâm not sure if this is just a problem with how MSFS handles this kind of input â instead of having a separate dial for each input (altitude, vertical speed, heading, IAS) they have two knobs, one to select which input to change and another to change the value. I hate this, as Iâm often having to manipulate multiple settings while doing instrument landing approaches, and it likes to do things like disable VS mode when you switch the mode input dial from VS to IAS, so you have to change the dial and then push the VS mode button again to turn it back on after it turned off, and then go back to the dial to change the target speed for your autothrottle. I actually wouldâve bought the Bravo without this whole section of it; a friend is building a prototype AP-specific panel which would be more to my liking so eventually I wonât have to worry about it anymore.
- The switches on the Bravo panel are a bit arbitrarily chosen in the default bindings, and I ended up changing most of them â several of them duplicated dedicated switches on the Alpha yoke (exterior lights and avionics master) so I changed them to interior lights, anti-ice, and parking break.
- I also used a label maker to add my own labels to the switches; these fit comfortably in the space above the switches, and can be easily removed and replaced if I change the bindings.
- The Bravo throttle came with a default bindings set for the GA configuration which supports one or two propellers on a piston or turbojet. If you want to fly jets youâll probably want to switch to the 2-engine or 4-engine layout with the commercial levers, and youâll unfortunately have to manually create a second (or third) bindings profile which changes the lever assignments. This is not super hard, but itâs annoying and means if you change the other switches later you have to change them on multiple profiles.
- For 2-engine commercial jets, the number 3 throttle lever can rotate its little bit with the number on it to show a 2. This allows you to use the number 1 and 3/2 levers together in the middle two slots. For one-engine fighters I just pop the second throttle off.
- Note that the jet configuration includes a speed brake lever, which should be bound to the âspoilersâ axis. This is used to slow you down during landing roll.
- Out of the box, the 2nd throttle lever on the GA configuration was bad â the FAQ on Honeycombâs site links to a video explaining how to fix it by unbinding and rebinding the lever.
- The Alpha yoke sensitivity seemed way off out of the box; when I compared my virtual yoke on a C172 to the physical yoke with the same turning range in front of me, I found it was not turning enough at first, then turning way too fast toward the edge, as if a large negative sensitivity curve was applied, however the sensitivity dialog showed a linear curve being used. If I apply a large positive sensitivity curve of 66%, it about evens out and the virtual yoke matches my physical yoke; it also feels about like what I expected, and behaves as I expect when I turn it a certain amount. (Not a real pilot though!)
Overall Iâm very happy with these so far. Theyâre big and heavy and take up dedicated space at my desk but I have made peace with the fact that Iâm a Flight Simulator Guy now.
To the OP the hardware is great. The Honeycomb hardware significantly outperforms CH and Logitech hardware. The next step up in hardware is going to be x2 to x4 the price.
The Bravo really shines with its adaptability for just about any aircraft.
Problem is itâs default configuration with MSFS. Due to the âalways down key / heading bugâ you either have to use a tool like Joystick Gremlin & vJoy (freeware) or FSUIPC (payware) to get past that issue.
Even if you do get past that bug. The default configurations are incomplete, bugged, and have redundant configurations if you have both pieces of hardware.
At a minimum your going to need basically configure it by hand in MSFS.
I do recommend learning Joystick Gremlin/vJoy. Even after the âalways down key / heading bugâ is fixed this software will allow you to make more advanced configurations than you would have normally.
This only solves half the issues here but Through Joystick Gremlin/vJoy and a custom profile in MSFS. I have set the knobs so the sim sees ten different buttons. That way instead of using the âselect X function then +/- to its valueâ logic. I can simply assign +/- to each of the AP functions. I hope that made sense.
I waited 4 months to receive my Alpha and Bravo, but it was well worth the wait. Superb quality and configurability. Best thing since MSFS 
Right on, I did not want to tag your entire post but IDK how to tag just a certain section. But I have yet to understand why they made one of the jet throttle levers with a 2 and a 3, what was the point of it? why not justy 1 2 3 4 instead of 1 2 2/3 4?
Ok, I have definitely not come across this " always down" bug you speak of in any videos I have watched so far. What is this exactly??
Because 1 and 2 handle grips are facing the same side (left). If you want to fly a 2-engine aircraft, you have to use 1 and 3, where you can rotate the grip on 3 to say 2.
Why not levers 2 and 3 for 2-engine, you say? Because only lever 1 has the red TOGA button.
The Alphaâs alright, does what it says on the tin and works well enough with MSFS although the shaft spring on mine is noisy as hell and sounds like the springs on an old knackered mattress.
Donât regret buying it , but mineâs just sat on a shelf gathering dust nowadays and canât remember the last time I used it.
i figured you could just use throttle slots 1&2 for say the 787-10. never occurred to me that i would have to use throttle slots 1&3, which is what you are saying is the case correct?
also, do we have ANY clue yet when Honeycomb will open up the next batch of pre orders? I would rather pay 500 then 800 but im starting to get impatient lol
Iâll second to all of that. HUGE difference over my X52 Pro which Iâve had for years. Alpha is a fantastic yoke and Iâm very happy I picked it up over alternatives.
The only downside for me is that the clamps wonât fit on my thick desk so I have to use the suction method. Which works great but I donât think itâs ideal if you have to install and remove the yoke 4-6 times a week. So great if you can leave it there for longer periods of time but not for daily on and off use (in which case I revert to my good old X52 Pro which requires a 10 second installation process). But of course this is only me and doesnât apply to other simmers.
The Bravo throttles are arguably even more impressive because thereâs really nothing that comes close to them at this price range and with similar functionality. But the product has very limited or rather VERY problematic availability. My original Amazon.co.uk order was cancelled by Amazon themselves after 2 months of waiting, others have been waiting since September and they still havenât received any news of an ETA. I ended up ordering from Aerosoft, the first day they made Bravo available again (sometime in early January) and theyâve given a possible shipping date of early March. Iâll have to see it to believe it.
Yes, that is correct! You put the levers 1 and 3 (rotate the grip) in the middle two slots 