Thanks for the reminder! I have my old Sidewinder FF Pro in its original box somewhere; can’t remember exactly why it’s there, but it might be due to a power issue. Guess I’ll have to find out!
BTW, does XP Force actually take the physical forces generated on the control surfaces? Or does it just vary spring strength according to airspeed. Or some other clever guesswork?
Yeah i use to have two of the ffb sticks and threw them away about 3 years ago one was brand new lol
No strings – it effectively uses Servo Motors to Move the Joystick, and if you also try to move it, then you feel the resistance.
Apart from being able to introduce “forces” into the Joystick, the other key feature, is that the stable “center” resting position is moveable.
Simulating the action of the Yoke, in a Real Aircraft, you apply force to attain the right pitch, and then when you trim, you effectively more that Center position away from center, to be where you currently are positioning the joystick. When you are trimmed, and can feel no more force on the joystick, you can release it, and it STAYS at that position … it does NOT just spring back to a fixed Spring Loaded center position.
The FF Joystick can also be programmed to
Give you forces due to turbulence.
Give you forces due to moving control surfaces
Give you forces due to almost anything the developer of the FF software wants to program into it.
It really is a game Changer, just like the Force Feedback Steering wheels have been for Car Sims.
If you have any interest GRAB one ASAP, they are in great demand, and their asking prices are starting to go through the moon.
used on Ebay and Amazon from about $60 … Brand new in original Box $999+ !!!
Do you think “any” of the several DB15 to USB adapters will work?
Also, it looks like XP Force doesn’t support the FF, only the FF2.
Not sure I will do some testing over the weekend
I’m asking about the specific implementation of the XP Force plug-in, not about FFB in general.
Then go read all about it on both the XPforce website and the FSforce website …
XPforce – MSFS version released:
https://www.fsmissioneditor.com/product/xpforce/
FSforce - MSFS version seem to have “stalled development” – not available yet ??
https://www.fs-force.com/
I was describing a few of the feature that XPforce has …
Thanks for the links. Their description is too vague, “Physical effects for the aircraft’s control surfaces are recalculated in real-time.” It’s necessary that the effects are calculated in real time, but how are they calculated in real time - does XP Force actually take the physical forces generated on the control surfaces? Or does it just vary spring strength according to airspeed. Or some other clever guesswork?
You are clearly asking the wrong person, if you are asking me …
but what I will repeat is “It has no springs” - at least (to be precise), on the Roll & Pitch axis.
Rudder (twist) is spring loaded, and has no Force Feedback,
It uses Simconnect to get data from the sim, and “does it’s magic” with that data, to do what it can to simulate the forces one would feel on a RL yoke / joystick - for about $10 – so you get what you pay for,.
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FYI, this is the “spring” I was referring to: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/ee416335(v=vs.85)
So the electric motor produces centering forces as if you have a physical spring, but the app can keep re-setting the spring strength. A poor man’s airplane FFB algorithm is setting higher spring strength with higher airspeed, and setting the spring strength to zero when stationary. Which is fine, except that stalled elevators will behave wrongly, and trim will not hold the stick at an offset deflection like in IRL.
This was used in early racing games all the time. Basically, the faster you’re driving the stiffer the spring, and when you jump, the spring strength is set to zero. The problem is that when drifting, the FFB does not automatically counter steer - much like the pitch trim situation. I happen to have programmed these things in my first job out of grad school.
Then you know far more about it than I do 
can be just leave it at that please.
I prefer FFB for racing only. Never cared for it in flight sims. Glad you’re happy but don’t cry for me Argentina.
Well, it turns out that I (almost embarassingly) have an old pci soundcard still WITH a joystick port. yay! But I just looked at my Sidewinder FF Pro, and the power was, indeed, the issue: the center pin is busted off.
So now I just have to figure out how to replace that outlet, find a 12v 1.3a power supply that fits, and somehow get that old sound card working in my Win10 PC.
And then, of course, find room for the Sidewinder on my desk. 
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save yourself the bother – get one off Ebay, and then you can keep your old one for spare parts.
I’ve got an olde thrustmaster top gun fox 2 pro shock, that’s supposedly got force feedback, but I’ve never felt it outside of the driver dialogue box.
Nah; I don’t have money for another joystick…I do have money for a barrel connector, some solder, and a bit of time. 
I have an old Logitech wingman force feedback 3d I used on the previous MS flight sims. It was great - feeling the rumble on the stick as you accelerate along the runway, and the change to smooth as the wheels lifted off the ground, and then the sudden wrench on the joystick when doing certain manoeuvres while in the air. It certainly linked up somehow to what the plane was experiencing, and to me (a non-pilot) it felt realistic, and much more immersive.
I do miss it . In the end, it was a bit worse for wear, but I’ll have to dig it out and see if I can find some decent Windows 10 drivers.
I also bought a second-hand Sidewinder (non-USB) a couple of years ago in the hope of connecting it up to Windows 10, so I’ve been meaning to have a go at that - now (with the help of the videos from @RazOO1963, thanks!) I may get on with it.
I’ve tried XPForce w/ my old Logitech Force3DPro (they say it’s supported)… I don’t know, doesn’t feel the same as the native FF support in FSX (which, among other things allows to trim the plane easily) and I wasn’t really able to control my 172, the stick kept falling forward. Maybe it’s a deadzone/sensitivity issue. It’s beyond me why Asobo simply hasn’t ported the existing FSX DX10-11 support.