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Flashing display on Saitek Pro Flight Yoke


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:help:

Not having a good day ....
  
I've had my Saitek Pro Flight Yoke for about 4or 5 years and never had any issues with it. It and everything else in my 'cockpit' is kept fully covered when not in use, to avoid any issues with dust, and currently has my Rudder Pedals, the original throttle quadrant, and also a second quadrant connected to it (one usb is still empty).

All of a sudden about a month ago, I started to get a very small flicker on the clock/mode display on the front of the yoke. It wasn't too noticeable, but today when turning on the PC, it is flashing very badly, so much so that I have had to cover the display with a sticker so I cant see it flashing in my view.

I had tried unplugging the additional hardware to see if there was any difference back when I first noticed the small flicker, there wasn't. I also tried putting it into another USB on my PC but there was no change.

I don't know whats wrong with it and I'm really worried that the problem is serious !

 

I've just dropped a note to Saitek but they won't pick it up till next week. Anyone got any ideas I can try in the meantime?  Anyone else had a similar problem ?

 

Minx

 

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Mine does exactly the same, and my previous yoke from Saitek eventually had the display just pack in altogether!

 

Interestingly, I have a third yoke that I keep connected to the PC, but have it disabled in the device manager when I'm not using it to avoid hardware conflicts. The display flickers when the device is not active, but when I enable the device in the device manager, it goes back to normal.

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Mine does exactly the same, and my previous yoke from Saitek eventually had the display just pack in altogether!

 

Interestingly, I have a third yoke that I keep connected to the PC, but have it disabled in the device manager when I'm not using it to avoid hardware conflicts. The display flickers when the device is not active, but when I enable the device in the device manager, it goes back to normal.

 

Thanks for the response. Very interesting ... is yours about the same age ?

What happened to the old one .. did the whole thing just die ?

I guess I can go on without the clock and the time as its not the end of the world, but one other thing which has been confusing me of late as well is that the calibration of just about every aircraft throttle seems to have got really 'spiky' as well.  I run my throttles and wheel trim through FSUIPC, but the Yoke and pedals have always been through FSX assignments and I've never had this problem before now.  Any ideas on whether the two problems could be linked ?

Thanks again for your help and feedback

 

Minx

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A friend had that happen to a fairly new one. He called their Customer Support and they had him ship it back. They fixed it and returned it. Don't recall who paid shipping or how much but he was pretty satisfied with their customer service.

John

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Good shout John. The guys at Mad Catz have been great in the past when I've had software problems. Trouble is it will cost an arm and a leg to send it back and it's sooooo far out of warranty now.

Not done as many years as you Andrew but I guess it's done surprisingly well considering that I've let some heavy handed people on there for a go and they've been yanking and banking. All things considered it should have been trashed years back!

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Anyone got any ideas why the throttle calibration should suddenly be so erratic? Is always been really smooth but recently it only takes a few minutes to go all spiky on me,. Right pain in the derrière if you're meters from the ground, coming off the throttles and they suddenly firewall !

Any thoughts greatly received :)

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Sorry to hear that, Steph.    :(

 

I have to say that I moved to the Warthog mainly because of its Hall-effect controls. No more potentiometers, no more dust problems, no more spikes with their related hassle.

 

But that probably isn't what you wanted to hear.... my apologies. :mellow:

 

Cheers,

 

B.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sorry to hear that, Steph. :(

I have to say that I moved to the Warthog mainly because of its Hall-effect controls. No more potentiometers, no more dust problems, no more spikes with their related hassle.

But that probably isn't what you wanted to hear.... my apologies. :mellow:

Cheers,

B.

Yeah kinda resigned now that it might be non fixable. My covers have obviously helped a bit but the amount of use/abuse is bound to mount up. Dont want to have to replace it but think I would probably stick with the yoke againif I had to.. Im definitely a two handed gal
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<grin>  Well I have to admit that I'd prefer a yoke, but I'm too big and/or the boxroom is too small — either way, there's not room for it and me with the desk on one side and the bookshelves on the other.

 

But I look at it this way. If an Airbus Captain can land the thing with a joystick, and left-handed at that, then so can I.   :D

 

The only (maybe) helpful thing I can think of is FSUIPC — isn't there something in there that tries to eliminate spikes if you enable it? Hang on.....

 

Ah yes: User guide p.19 (referring to the "Miscellaneous" section):

 

Control Spike Elimination provides controls to ignore signals specifying maximum possible deflection on rudder, aileron

or elevator. These were mainly useful in conjunction with Wilco’s 767PIC on FS2002, which seemed to cause spurious

rudder ‘spikes’ when flown with the yaw damper switched off, and also occasional spikes on the elevator (especially with

the 1.3 version update). Whether they have any real application with FSX remains to be seen (please tell me).

 

Please note that if you fly with any of these options set you should also consider calibrating your controls in FSUIPC (see

the Joysticks section, later), setting a “dead zone” at either extremes of the travel. If you don’t do this you may find it

impossible to obtain maximum deflection. Calibrate first, with the “spike removal” option off, then test it with the option

back on.

 

Dunno whether it will help, but it might be worth a try?

 

Best of luck,

 

Bruce

 

a.k.a. the other fella

 

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Hi Minx

 

You maybe suffering from the dreaded age thingy.  You say it happens with your throttles as well, so that would lead me to think, that there maybe a dry joint in the lead from the yoke to the connecting USB into the PC.

 

So you are going to have to find a good electronics repair guy and flash those eyelids at him, Hubbies approval of course.  The other choice would be to take it to Novatech near you they are a good bunch for sorting things..

 

A dry joint = A solder connection that through age cracks and does cause a bad/intermittent  connection..

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As the others I do suspect it's due to wear, dust and old age.

 

I've seen the same thing (the spikes that is) happen to most of my controllers after passing about 3-4 years of age, although so far I've only been using Logitech controllers so perhaps the Saitek stuff holds out for longer. It's usually the throttle axis that suffer first, followed by the joystick a few months later.

 

If it is dust a short term fix can be to get some compressed air in a can and try to blow the offending grime out of the potentiometers, although I suspect that they might be located to deep in to the casing on the Saitek Throttle Quadrant for it to be effective.

 

 

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Thanks for all the advice guys. Couple of ideas there for me (my huz) to try..

Got a reply from Saitek suggesting I try it on a different pc but failing that they can't do anything more. As it's over 2yrs old it's well out of warranty.

I remember stumbling on a YouTube video a while back where someone pulled a throttle quadrant apart so I might give that a look but for the mo I'll start with the less intrusive options and try the different pc, fsuipc calibration and then get the tools out..

Will post the update in case they help others months/years from now.

Thanks again guys :D

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  • 1 year later...

I am new here and realize this topic is really old, but for those that may read this, there is a fix for the spiking pots.  To do this you will have to be handy and okay with taking things apart.  To fix this it requires opening up the throttle quad, removing the individual throttles and cleaning the potentiometers.  If anyone is interested, I have an email that I can pass on from a Saitek service person on how to do the repair

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Hi, fewtrils, and a warm welcome to the Hangar!     :)

 

Sure, if you'd like to post the technical content of the email I'm sure there's quite a few people here who would be interested  — I had heard vague rumours of disassembly followed by application of contact cleaner, but it would be very helpful to know the details of the officially-approved method.    ^_^

 

Incidentally, at the top of each page (towards the right) you should see your name with a dropdown arrow: if you click the dropdown and choose "My Profile" and then click on "Edit" you can add a few details about yourself and your system.    :hat:

 

Cheers,

 

bruce

a.k.a. brian747

 

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