What do you think? I have a speed link Black widow, very nice piece, but it has a lot of spikes after a year...is it normal? Can you suggest a stick which is good quality, and very durable? I also like Saitek Aviator (never tried it) but the reviews say it's goes wrong rather easily, like spikes & centering problems after a couple of months, etc...
I've had three different joysticks since I started simming. CH Products Combatstick with the old gameport connection never went bad in the five years I used it. in fact, I'm sure if i plugged it in right now, it would still function like brand new. I then went the USB route and decided to give the Cougar a try. Quite the mistake, it had multiple problems and I ended up getting rid of it 6 months later. I then purchased a complete CH HOTAS USB setup and it's been rock solid with ZERO issues in over five years of heavy usage. So my vote goes solidly to CH Products. They're pricey, but you'll never need to buy another joystick ever again.
CH Products get my vote also.
Good tech support goes along with the purchase..
I use sidewinder2 ff stick but it's achilles heel is the gun switches which wear out after a few months. Other than that an awesome stick but only for fighters as it doesn't have many programmable switches (only 8 in total).
CH Products. Been using them for 20 yrs. Only issue with an old 20 yr old flight stick was a button that went soft and that its became obsolete due to USB devices.
CH products, no question.
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Joined: Nov 2007
The two top dogs on the block for sticks are the CH Products Fighterstick and Throttle and the Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar.
The most durable, Bar none, is the Cougar. The most reliable, out of the box is the CH Products. The major difference between the two is price and durability. The CH Products is almost all plastic and feels like you're moving a wet noodle around. The Cougar is ALL metal, weighs in a over 8.5lbs/stick and throttle (almost 19lbs total weight). The Cougar, stock, still uses pots and they will need to be cleaned/replaces from time to time, but for a nominal fee, you can purchase Cubby's Hall Effect Sensor Kit and never use pots again. They never go out of allignment, never spike and never need to be re-calibrated. Unfortunately, this kit makes the Cougar a wee bit pricey.
Bottom line: If you're worried about cost, get the CH Products. If you want the absolute best sticks out there and don't want to ever buy another set, get the Cougar and Mod it.
My Cougar has been modded with the HS mod and the NXT Gimbal set. Total cost of everything was about $600.00. Now some will say that I'm nuts, but I'll never have to buy another stick as long as I live. I also have not had to re-calibrate them since the upgrade, (2yrs ago).
I've owned my Cougar for about 8yrs now. How many sticks do you go thru in 8yrs?
WEll my saitek x-52 just went to H.. so i bought a hotas cougar.
A nice looking joystick.
It worked for 2 houers and when i went to calibrate it it stopped working.
After searching the net i found that this was a common problem and the problem is that windows doesnt reconize the usb device.
Drivers are old(from 2004) and havent been updated since.
So my opinion on this stick is.
A nice and lovely stick and feels real good , but whom the h.. wants to use a week to hopefully get the thing working.
If Thrustmaster cant make joysticks that are compateble with windows and update theire drivers they might think of other stuff to do.
Doesnt help if its all metall and good looking when under the hood all is crap.
