While looking at the differences between my Yoko+, and the Brunned CLS-E MK II, I found that Virtual Fly not only have a new Yoke for pre-order, the Yoko Neo, they also have a new TQ, and a trims modules.
I’m not super sold on the yoke itself. It’s got a stitched leather cover, and I’m left wondering how well that will stand up over time, but it does offer a full 90 degrees on roll. Not sure its worth it over the Yoko+.
The TQ does look more interesting though. It seems to have a number of gates you have to lift the levers over, from Idle to Beta, and from Beta into reverse. It also has a TOGA switch.
The trim unit looks good too. There are trims for elevator, rudder, and aileron, gear lever as well as indicators, flap lever, and a parking break button. The trim wheel is motorised, which I think might be a first, outside of some homebrew Arduino kit.
The Neo styling seems to be to allow it to lock together with the Switcho units.
I’m looking forward to some reviews of this new stuff, but if it’s anything like the Switcho stuff, there is precious little coverage for it.
They do look good - but those prices are mental.
Unless they have the decimal point in the wrong place as a typo, that is far out.
I would really like a simpler and compact TQ that has both levers AND the Vernier type controls combined. I just want something not so crazy price that does both types of GA, basically what the Velocity One TQ does but as a stand-alone unit would be ideal for me.
I really can’t see how these can be worth that premium price no matter how well built and good they feel. It’s bonkers…
If I didn’t already have the TQ6+, I would get the Neo. The other trim unit is a tougher sell. That’s a lot for what it does, and worse, if the Switcho units are anything to go by, it may not present itself as a HID device, so you have to use their VFHub app, which allows for no customisation. So no SPAD, no A & O etc.
I was told it would be H2 2023 before the switcho’s get a firmware update that would allow them to be used with SPAD, so these may have the same constraint. Too early to tell though.
I wanted to give some feedback, as I am using the TQ3 from Virtual Fly since 3 years now. Prises are shocking at first glance - but I would always buy my thottles again. They are very solid metal made and heavy. I can use them without attaching them on my table. They just sit there and I can move the handles just fine. They also have very nice detents for the lower range, for reversem feather and cutoff for instance. They have a friction controler too. So I would say, you really get quality here. If it is worth the price for me? Still hard to say^^.
That TQ3 is a bit more acceptable price I guess. 560 Euro. I could probably stretch to that. But they want nearly a grand for the Vernier —- that’s more than for a real aircraft replacement part I’d think!
As for yoke if I was going to spend that much, I’d have to spend a bit more and get FF. Even if the FF isn’t amazing (which I know, it isn’t yet) still would be more interesting.
This hobby can be so expensive to fly some pretend planes lol
Some good news, and bad news from Virtual Fly, after I recently inquired about the new TQ Neo, and Trims Neo.
They are hoping to ship pre-orders in May, and the TOGA switch on the TQ is mappable as you would expect.
But for the Trims Neo, and by extension all the other Trims product line, they state that you need to use the VFHub to configure them, and even then they are only guaranteed to work on default aircraft.
Hugely disappointed to read that. They have some fantastic hardware coming, but they have restricted their sales by having a corresponding high price tag on them, and restricted it even further by not being able to use them effectively on third party planes that might not use the sim bindings as the Asobo 172, for example.
If I can’t configure them in SPAD that makes them next to useless to me.
I was thinking about this situation the other day, and I wonder if this workaround is viable.
So let’s say VF never release a firmware to expose these new Switcho devices as standard HID devices, and you must use VFHub to drive them, and these only work well on default planes.
So I’m assuming even in that case it must be manipulating simvars of some description.
So let’s say VFHub manipulates “SimConnect:FLAPS_UP”, and that’s fine, and dandy if your plane uses that, but you are out of luck if you actually need “B:CUSTOM_FLAP_UP_EVENT” or similar.
So why couldn’t you simply have SPAD/FSUIPC/AaO’s watch the changes that VFHub does, and use that as the conditional to manipulate the actual event your plane needs?
I haven’t replied to their email yet, but I think I will include this as a possible workaround, and see what they think.
It really is a bummer that the Neo Trims cannot be assigned through AAO or SpadNext.
Your workaround might work, although I expect the VFHub either sets the ELEVATOR TRIM POSITION variable directly or uses the AXIS_ELEV_TRIM_SET event.
The indicators on the Neo Trims wouldn’t be usable though and the motorised trim wheel won’t be moving. For this, you would probably also need to update other default variables.
If Virtual-Fly would make it possible to create profiles with custom variables in the VFHub that would alleviate the issue. Thay way the trim wheel and indicators also might be updated when the variables change in MSFS
But even then I would like to have the Neo Trims also show up as a HID, since the device itself might outlast the company, and the hardware might become useless when new sims come out.
While browsing the internet for the price of real-aircraft parts I found these are around $500 for a single lever. The Virtual-fly one needs additional electronics but the original parts probably just need Bowden cables to connect to the engine.
Virtual-Fly components are very expensive but perhaps reasonable considering what one is getting.
Good morning, @Allardix. I’m Raúl, an engineer at Virtual Fly.
The TrimsNeo is not HID because it includes a motor to move the elevator trim wheel and landing gear lights. However, if anyone is interested in converting the TrimsNeo to HID, you can simply send us an email at support@virtual-fly.com.
We will update the firmware to make the device HID-compatible. Please note that after this change, the elevator trim wheel will no longer move automatically, and the landing gear LEDs will not light up because they require game information, which is only available when connected to VFHub.
If you have any other questions or requests, feel free to let me know!
Very glad you replied. If it’s a HID device at that point, can you not control those aspects of it with something like SPAD? Just like I can control the lights on my Logitech panels with it.
The concern I have had from the beginning with all these Switcho products is their dependence on VFHub, which doesn’t offer anywhere near the granularity of SPAD, FSUIPC, and others.
We’re sorry to inform you that this is not possible with Virtual Fly devices. Logitech devices have a collaboration with SPAD that allows them to control LEDs through their application, but normally, an HID device cannot retrieve information from the simulation platform. For this reason, it is currently not feasible.
Right now, almost all devices in the Switcho family (Engines Ignition, Engines Electrical, Trims, and Lights) can be converted to HID devices using our VFHub application. However, the only device in the Switcho family that cannot be converted is the Switcho Radios, as it requires game data to function.
While VFHub may work with a 172, there are some third party lanes that use more complex setups than simple SIMCONNECT controls, and may use a mixture of LVARs, and B-events.
I’ve been watching these for what seems like years now, but haven’t dared buy them because there is a likelihood they would be useless with a lot of third party planes.
Most of our products are HID, as I mentioned earlier. Therefore, if the device is HID, the VFHub application is not needed for it to work. All buttons or axes can be assigned directly in the game settings, or external software like SPAD can be used. However, these functions are not available with the LEDs or the elevator trim wheel movement on the TrimsNeo, nor with the SwitchoRadios device. Apart from this, all other products are fully compatible with any aircraft!
