I built a totally free app (no cloud, no telemetry, no accounts.. nothing) to get proper force feedback on the Microsoft Sidewinder FFb 2 joystick. It works on Windows and Linux for both MSFS 2024 as well as X-Plane 12. I think it also will work with 2020, just havent’ tested it.
I’d love for you guys to check it out if you have a Sidewinder FFBv2. I have that stick and this app really works well.
And yes, totally free, no telemetry, no tracking, no account needed, no nothing. Download it, install it, and run it, just like the good old days
I only ask for your email address because this is SUCH a niche app (what, a few hundred people worldwide will be interested?) just so I can get better feedback. The beta is free, the release will be free.
Indeed, AI was used in the making of the product. I am not hiding that. However, it is not slop code - I have validated the code, tested it thoroughly, and am making it available for free. It works, doesnt’ leak memory, isn’t talking to the network.. it just does its job.
I can code, but there’s no way I could design this interface.. I’m not a designer.
i’m just messin with you. i love claude code. i’m also a good programmer and mediocre designer. it’s just funny how claude code makes pretty much all their UIs look the exact same.
i actually have a FFB II so i’ll give it a try. question: does it modify the force center location when trimming?
And yes, when I’ve made smalltools like this in the past.. even my mother wouldn’t like the interface. So I could never release it. I’ve built the jankiest XAML you can imagine.
Yes, I have tried ALL the ffb software over the years.FsForce, XPForce, there were others as well. Bought them all, never really liked them much.
My app should do everything that app does, and more, but I haven’t really built it comparing to anyone else. I just built something I wanted to use myself.
Docs are live (in beta). I have obviously used AI to write all that.. but I have read every word, and it’s correct. There are some rough edges here and there, and images need fixing, but it’s useful to me. I hope you like it → FFB-Bridge: your Sidewinder FFB2, actually feeling the aircraft
Apologies to those who tried to sign up in the past three hours. My fail2ban filter on my mailserver blocked the app because i fat fingered a password.. I have resent all the confirmation emails and you should have them in your inbox now.
ah the joys of self hosting everything… but hey, no subscriptions!
It’s still the best. You can get decent ones on ebay for like $50-80, and there’s no other FFB stick anywhere near that. And now… you can use it with modern sims
I’ve never had so many tuning options for my MSFFB2 before and unlike all those previous hacks that never really worked properly, this is the real deal.
Hey I launched a major update today and would love feedback on the new design. Is it easier to understand how to tune and save profiles? do you like the new info strip across the top with the new disarm button?
Im sure this is a bug:
When trying to save as a new profile after tuning and typing the new profile name, whenever the spacebar is hit, it tries to arm the device, instead of typing a space. This happens when the stick is already connected and the sim runninng and connected.
Workaround was to press CTRL-SPACE instead of just SPACE when there needed to be a space in the profile name input field.
It also does not seem to capture the space key shortcut to arm the device when running in the background of the simulator, so I don’t really see a necessity for a keyboard shortcut.
Yeah, that’s a bug for sure. I kinda agree that this thing doesn’t need shortcuts really.. why would a user be bouncing around the interface quickly? I’m going to push a build without short cuts to just avoid this issue
While tuning, I also kinda missed a reset button for each tuning slider, so I could go back to the currently profile saved value (to the value before changing the slider). Otherwise had to switch profiles and back again to get back to the old saved values.
I really like the granularity to which it can be finetuned.
Another thing I noticed is there is no stick drop, even when spring force is set to 0. Not sure if this is as intended, a bug or a limitation (or me beeing to stupid finding the right combination of values).
When no air flows over the elevator surface (engine off on ground), the stick should try to drop to the forward position (at least in aircraft that don’t have motordriven surfaces), as the elevator surface is pulled down by gravity.
Good stuff! Keep the feedback coming. I just pushed a new build with no shortcuts, it should fix the previous issue.
The stick drop is kinda on purpose, the spring stays at a certain value to tell the user the stick is armed. but i haven’t really put a lot of thought into this, just got it working. Let me think more about the best way to improve the forces; lots of people have sent in great feedback.
Hey, if you don’t mind, can you share your email (just give me the part before the @.. so if you are xyz@gmail.com, tell me xyz), then I can share a special build with you with the stick drop added. I dont’ want to do a full release
