floating middle position of my joystick

[vladimirekk]

Hello,
I have old Thrustmaster Top Gun Fox 2 Pro joystick, but I haven't used it a lot. From the very beginning it has been floating a little, when it was in the middle position, without any touch of mine, or when I moved slightly to any position close to the middle and hold. I was not able to even fly straight forward. My question is, whether such a behaviour is normal for joysticks, or it’s an error. I mean, if I buy a new one, for example Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS, will it do the same? Or is this a matter of price? Are more expansive joysticks stable? Or do I do anything wrong?
Thank you for your kind advice.
Vladimir.

[GerthQuake]

Older Joysticks tend to develope "loose" handling like this through natural wear. Buying a new one will fix the problem, but also try setting a "DeadZone". It will allow the joystick to wobble around in the center a bit without making any direct inputs to flight controls.

I've never set a deadzone myself, so you'd have to google it or perhaps some gentleman on here would be kind enought to explain it.

[NerVusTwiTch]

I dont know too much about this stick. I do not know if its Hall sensors or pots,Id guess for the price of the stick its using pots of some form, again i do not know.

If its pots just a simple calibration in windows settings might solve the issue. The old days when all sticks where made using pots it was normal to need to calibrate each week or so, sometimes more with cheaper sticks.

Just go to "Devices and Printers" in windows settings and right click on the joystick then "Properties" and do a calibration. It may fix the issue. You say its done this from the very start and if you havent ever done the calibration that would make since,well since you say it hasnt been used much.

Like Diddler said, if the jitter in the middle isnt bad or a lot setting a small dead zone could also possibly fix it.
In DCS settings just click on Axis Commands and select the 2 axis causing the issue, should be X and/or Y.
Then at the lower part of the settings screen select Axis Tune. Start with a small dead zone like maybe "5" then try it out. Just remember the more the dead zone the more you will need to move the stick before it will affect the aircrafts movement.

The Thrustmaster T16000 does not use pots,uses Hall Effect sensors and should not need any calibration. I do not own this stick but on other forums I frequent its the best for the price range.

I havent checked prices lately but a couple months back the stick itself was about $75 but the entire HOTAS was running $100. Its worth the extra $25 to get the setup. Again this was couple months ago and I have not checked anymore since then. I ended up getting a CH setup instead.

Hope this helps. Good luck.


EDIT:
In the same price range as the Thrustmaster T16000 HOTAS there isnt a lot of choices that are considered really good sticks.
-The CH Products are really good. Does use pots though but custumer service is awesome. My old CH throttle thats from 1997 had a pot go bad. I contacted them 2 weeks ago about it and sent me 2 replacements free of charge no questions asked. 20 years old and the still honored it. No handle twist for rudder.

-VKB Gadiator seems to be good also. Has handle twist on the non Pro version. But the VKB stuff is a bit hard to get in the US.

-And then the T16000. Has handle twist. The HOTAS set will also have the handle twist plus an extra axis on the throttle that could be used for rudder.

[Frederf]

Yes, even my Warthog has a deadzone of 3-4% as it's aged. The only kind of joystick that won't have some deadzone is a force-sensing variety because those don't actually move in the first place.

A brand new and quality joystick will minimize it. What you should do is adjust the deadzone in the game options to match your physical controller. In the deadzone the output value should be 0 and begin to increase at the border of the deadzone. This will increase your control a lot and feel more natural. If the number output is 0 inside the deadzone and begins increasing exactly when you can start feeling the spring, your control will be best.