Thrustmaster versus turtle beach an accuracy test

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1

Just a quick story. I’m just playing Microsoft flight Simulator since November last year when I bought all my set up. I was playing with the turtle beach velocity one yoke since then. Although it was not the most accurate I had nothing else to compare to anyway.

Recently I decided it would be great to have a side stick as well so I bought the trustmaster Airbus stick. I played with it and I was immediately impressed how accurate the stick was. So today I did a comparison in the Cessna 172 with the turtle beach yoke and Thrustmaster side stick. I was just flabbergasted How The airbus TCA stick was more fluid, smooth and accurate compared to the turtle beach yoke. I mean by that with a close-up look at the yoke inside the cockpit with the tiniest movement possible on the joystick I could see that the turtle beach was moving The Cessna 172 yoke in increment, Like a few degrees each time . While the Thrustmaster was seamlessly fluid.

Then I decided to check the specs. The Thrustmaster stick is 16 bit of resolution on each Axis While the turtle beach yoke is said to be 10 bit on the Rolling axis, but nothing is said for the pitch axis. But with the pitch axis, you can clearly see that you can make Several very small movements and you see the elevator of the aircraft moving by increments.

All that being said, I don’t think I can do anything to get better accuracy on the turtle beach yoke. If you have any thought on that, feel free to comment. Here is a picture of my set up below.

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Hi Rusty,

That’s a really interesting comparison, I hadn’t considered how much the resolution of controllers might affect fine control in the sim, you just sort of assume that everything is going to work as in RL.

The TB controllers seem to be well thought of, so I was surprised when you demonstrated how the TM Airbus stick was clearly better in this certain aspect. I am absolutely not a fan of Thrustmaster or Logitech products, having owned multiple joysticks and other peripherals from them over the years, and always being let down by build quality and performance.

If you ever decide to move to a gaming PC instead of the XBox, this opens up a lot of options. I use VKB controllers now which have 32-bit contactless sensors, and the improvement over my old T16000M (apart from colour, it’s the same as the Airbus sidestick) was immediate and very noticeable.

There are a lot of TB users out there and a lot of mod discussions, though mostly they seem to be about changing resistance of the levers or making pitch adjustments smoother. If you search (and if you’re confident and capable) I’m sure there will be people who have tried tweaking some aspects of the electrics.

However I don’t think you will find a way to improve the resolution and make the movements smoother. That would mean changing the sensors and the controller, a huge proportion of the electrics, and whatever goes in there will need to handle all the other button and lever inputs, and still be XBox compatible.

There isn’t a better yoke from TB available, so you either adapt or change it. Plenty of people will tell you to just get on and fly, but I do understand how irritating something like this can be - once you notice it, you can’t just ignore it.

The Honeycomb yoke is well regarded, but I couldn’t say if it would be any better than the TB, and they have been having internal company and supply problems - check into this carefully before you send them any payment. The only other option if you want to change it will be Thrustmaster, with something like the Boeing yoke. Personally, I wouldn’t buy it since I much prefer flying with a stick at all times, but it might offer an improvement over the TB of the same or better magnitude as the Airbus stick.

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Just some corrections and points to consider.

The TM TCA is claimed to be up to 14 bit resolution (not 16).

TB are not what should be considered a quality product. The yoke had a number of quality issues upon launch and in terms of a general order they are only just above the Saitek line IMHO.

I’ve not seen VKB mention the resolution of their stuff but I’d very much doubt they are at 32 bit. That would be unprecedented for a game controller. You may be mistaking 32-bit arm controllers as the resolution. It will not be anywhere near that and doesn’t need to be. Somewhere between 10-16 is typical.

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I do remember seeing a sensor resolution figure for the pitch axis on the TB yoke before I switched over to the Boeing. My memory may be rusty but I remember it being a huge difference, something like 256 steps to 65,000 or so steps.

All I know is, on my Boeing Yoke I can pitch the plane to the exact speed I want, and adjust it finely throughout the pitch travel. I could not do even close to the same on the TB. On the TB any change in pitch was either met with no response or a sudden jerk. I ended up using the trim wheel to pitch the plane which is not close to ideal. Having the Boeing and TB side by side was night and day in pitch. In roll I had no complaints with the TB.

5

That’s what is written on the box.

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The throttle is 16 bit. If that box is a combined captains pack that might explain why it says that. Here from the product page for stick only.

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Nope, I just bought the flight stick Alone as Shown on the picture below

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However, I think what you’re referring To is the older PC only version. What I bought is actually the newer version PC and Xbox and this one is 16 bit of resolution.

8

Ever since it became available, I have been using the Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick Joystick.
I tried to configure the sensitivity curve as best as possible but I never found the best feeling, especially during the small corrections during the landing phase.
I recently purchased the new Thrustmaster AVA Base and I must say that it’s a completely different thing.
Even landing manually with AP and Autothrust OFF with the Fenix ​​A320 is no longer a problem. :grinning:

9

Yes, I bought the AVA too. In my case for my warthog stick. It is by far the best I have experienced. So realistic!

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Here the AVA is slightly more expensive than the Virpil CM3 with shipping which I already have. It supports the TM sticks too. TM needed this because the base the Warthog originally came with is not on the same level as the Virpil, Winwing or VKB stuff. Only time will tell if this one lives up to its hefty price.