Looking for decent Rudders, recommendations needed :)
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Just a heads up on the Saitek Combat Pedals.
Iāve had mine for a couple of years now and love the design (even though they are plastic), but last night I had to open her up for a second time to fix a broken wire to the rudder potentiometer. The white wire broke at the pot a couple of months ago and the green wire broke last night. Not a terribly hard fix, but they put hot glue over the solder joints on the pot to reduce wire flex at that point (doesnāt work obviously), so a little care needs to be taken while removing the glue.
The gauge of the wire is 20 or less, so when the last (black) wire breaks, I will probably retrofit the harness to a heavier gauge. My opinion is that the wiring is not robust enough to handle any kind of flex at all. I will also anchor the harness so it flexes in the middle, rather than flexing at the pot.
Other than that, I love them when they are working, which is most of the time. If they ever come back down to their previous pricing I would consider buying another set as long as they no longer say MadCatz on the bottom.
I have never had any luck w/ stuff that has MadCatz stamped on it.
BTW, the reason I chose the Saitek peadls over the CH pedals, was that the CH pedals were set too close to each other. I like the spread on the Saitek pedals better.
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Best and most expensive rudders ive ownedā¦SLAW F16
https://m.facebook.com/slaw.device
He makes other versions now, but you could ask if he can still make a F16 set.
Iāve owned this set now for 2 years, Operation is as smooth as glass, great feel, donāt have to constantly play with dead zones or open up to fix something. I owned a set of Saitek Pro Combat pedals and within a year I was looking for another option. Went to the Slaw Device and have been very happy since.
Anything can go wrong thatās just the hard truth but the quality and feel are so much better than the plastic pedals. If flight simming or simming in general is a passion and true hobby that you will pursue for years to come donāt go cheap on the rudder pedals even if you just use them to steer the plane on the taxiway and runways. If thatās all the use they will get then a good set will last you a simming lifetime.
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The VKB T-Rudder pedals are a great set of pedals.
https://flightsimcontrols.com/store/pedals/vkb-t-rudder-pedals-mk-iv/
For the price you canāt go wrong. The build quality is great and they feel amazing. They are full metal and use non contact sensors so no need to clean dirty pots all the time. A pot will always fail eventually
I had a set of Saitek Combat Pedals and the right toe brake stopped working after a few weeks.
The VKB pedals arenāt much more than the Saiteks but the build quality is a 100x better
These pedals should last forever
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For the foreseeable future Iāll be using the Saitek Combat Pro pedals. I so far have been lucky and havenāt needed to fix anything but wonāt be surprised when I do. In general though it should be an easy fix. But I do wish I would have bought a spare set. I do that with any sim hardware that I decide is essential to my setup, hence why I have 3 X65s.
With all my real flight time I canāt stand heels on the pedal designs like MFG Crosswind (and most the other big name brand ones) and the Slaw Viper, while be a heels on the floor design, are still more than I want to spend on just pedals. The VKBs not having real brakes also turns me off.
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I canāt stand heels on the pedal designsā¦not having real brakes also turns me off.
Amen!!!
If money were no object, Iād have the SLAW pedals. Just not there yet.
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why not build you own ones?
you will learn a lot by doing so.
and you will get an overall better set of pedals then everything that has been mentioned in this thread so far.
took me a lot of reverse engineering and 3 prototypes to get to a point this close to the real thing (operating forces included).
personally, i think it was worth it! -
why not build you own ones?
you will learn a lot by doing so.
and you will get an overall better set of pedals then everything that has been mentioned in this thread so far.
took me a lot of reverse engineering and 3 prototypes to get to a point this close to the real thing (operating forces included).
personally, i think it was worth it!I did on the set before the Saitek because at that time pretty much nobody was making heels on the floor pedals. Yours look great but a lot of us donāt have access to CNC machines and design software experience. There is 3D printing but I still donāt think most of their plastics are durable to be stepped on all the time.
Without a CNC/machine shop available I can tell you the hardest thing on mine was interfacing the mechanical movements to the pots. I originally wanted to use gears but had a hell of a time finding the right ones. I had to go with a less precise cable and pulley system that worked ok for the brakes at least. Finally found some gears that would work for the rudder and they worked pretty well. Probably overall the cost of the project was $50ish USD, maybe even less since it was mostly recycled materials. I actually did an article on them when I was writing for Computer Pilot magazine. -
I did on the set before the Saitek because at that time pretty much nobody was making heels on the floor pedals. Yours look great but a lot of us donāt have access to CNC machines and design software experience. There is 3D printing but I still donāt think most of their plastics are durable to be stepped on all the time.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Snake122/finished.jpg
Without a CNC/machine shop available I can tell you the hardest thing on mine was interfacing the mechanical movements to the pots. I originally wanted to use gears but had a hell of a time finding the right ones. I had to go with a less precise cable and pulley system that worked ok for the brakes at least. Finally found some gears that would work for the rudder and they worked pretty well. Probably overall the cost of the project was $50ish USD, maybe even less since it was mostly recycled materials. I actually did an article on them when I was writing for Computer Pilot magazine.these reminds me of my first pedals!
i used an old steering wheel with a strapped on wooden planka little bit of aluminum, ballbearings and standard tools will work like magic.
btw, donāt use potsā¦ use hall sensors instead. -
these reminds me of my first pedals!
i used an old steering wheel with a strapped on wooden planka little bit of aluminum, ballbearings and standard tools will work like magic.
btw, donāt use potsā¦ use hall sensors instead.Mine were built 2004-2005 and the pots were on hand. If I was going to build them today, I know better sources for the halls and would use them! Hereās some quick snap shots of the article, the raw .doc that I sent to the editor is on a old hard drive that I can share if anybody wants it but will take a day or two to find.
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this is awesome!
so why not go down the diy route?if you want to buy pedals, the slaw or crosswind pedals are great for their money and you wonāt regret buying them (as a few guys mentioned before).
if you want something solid donāt buy saitek pedals. they are made of plastic all the way. -
so why not go down the diy route?
Some of us donāt have the time, skills, or tools for DIY.
if you want to buy pedals, the slaw or crosswind pedals are great for their money and you wonāt regret buying them (as a few guys mentioned before).
if you want something solid donāt buy saitek pedals. they are made of plastic all the way.While Slaw and Crosswind are great pedals and no use denying it, Saitek pedals are (or were, before the price jack) still good enough for Falcon use. If you need super-precise rudder control for WWI/WWII or non-FBW aircraft, then sure, spend more on quality rudders. Love flying helos? The Slaw/Crosswind would pay for itself in no time. But just for Falcon? I think Saiteks are āgood enoughā for the pilot on a budget.
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+1 for Saiteksā¦if you can find them reasonably.
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As I mentioned before, I too went with Saitek Combat pedals when I got back into Falcon a few years ago. I still had those homemade ones but they were wired for the Cougar and sold both of mine when the first of my kids were born. The easiest way for me to get a force sensitive stick was the X65 and basically going with the overall decent Saitek Combat rudders was another easy option.
I agree with you Ice and Stevie that if you can find them at a reasonable price they make the most sense, but that seems like a big IF these days. If I was rebuilding my sim hardware today instead of a few years ago I do think I would have DIYed another set of pedals. The scalper prices on them today arenāt worth it. When I bought my spare X65s I looked hard at buying another set of Combat Pros but ultimately decided against it. Rudders in Falcon arenāt super important and I can fix the Saiteks pretty easily or if the pedal bodies themselves are intact I can Frankenstein the two sets of pedals together if needs be.
Maybe the best answer today if you want heels on the floor is find a non-working but physically fine set of Combat Pros for cheap and rebuild using them.
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Probably time to flog my Saitek Pro Flight rudders then!
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Probably time to flog my Saitek Pro Flight rudders then!
LOL, I would because Iām a heels on the floor purist, but if they work for you they are a good option.
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Like I said, I managed to get a Saitek Combat rudder system from a guy that upgraded to Slaws so I have an extra set of Saitek Pro Flight rudders.
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Iām very likely going to end up building my own rudder pedals for my pitā¦and trying to duplicate an actual assembly, seeing as I have some drawings for doing such. As for the actual pedals, Iāll probably try and cast a set from these -
https://www.shapeways.com/product/W4S9X6LME/f16-pedals?li=search-results-1&optionId=58304964
Not sure just how durable these 3D prints could be under oneās feetā¦but they are a start, if you want to try DIY.
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For the price of those bits of plastic, Iād rather save up a bit more and get me a Slaw RX deviceā¦
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Iād kinda like to have a set of Slaw pedals tooā¦but Iād rather build a an accurately modeled F-16 rudder assembly (that works) for my pit project even moreā¦MMV.
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Iād kinda like to have a set of Slaw pedals tooā¦but Iād rather build a an accurately modeled F-16 rudder assembly (that works) for my pit project even moreā¦MMV.
thatās the spirit!
the fact that there are no pedals out there that have the real feeling (exept the ones from realsimulator that arenāt produced anymore afaik) is another point for going diy.f-16 pedals work with āpressureā, not so much with movement (about 4cm for the whole axis).