mfg crosswind peddles
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I have a set of mfg crosswind arriving monday, searched didnt find much other then they are nice (on the web) if anyone has them any advice or tips for painless addidition to bms. Anyone running these that can provide any advice since 6ps applies… prior planning prevents piss poor preformance… thank you
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@Jim_H I’ve had multiple sets of MFG crosswind pedals (multiple sim cockpits) for many years and found them to generally be good rudder pedals for the money.
I have however run into an issue with BOTH of my sets of crosswind pedals after a couple of years of trouble-free use, and that’s the toe brakes stop working intermittently. That is to say they’d work fine on the taxi out, then you’d fly your mission and then come in to land and go sailing off the end/side of the runway when one or both of your toe brakes had either stopped working completely or disconnected and lost their calibration. Extremely frustrating. Unplug the toe brake cables, plug them back in, re-calibrate. And it would be fine for a while again, and then maybe a few weeks later it would start acting up once more.
Initially I thought this was due to a bad cable, so I changed the cable and hall effect sensor on one of my effected toe brakes, and initially that did indeed fix the problem, for a couple of months, and then it came back with avengeance. Pulling my hair out I stripped the set of pedals worse effected all the way down to the main circuit board to see if I could see a loose solder joint or something. And it suddenly became completely obvious what the problem is. The rudder action, causes the toe brake cables to move, and this in turn causes the toe brake plugs to move on their pins. All of the pins that the toe brake plugs push onto were black with signs of a bad electrical contact and years of movement every time I actuated the rudder.
The pins I’m talking about are on the left of this pic. The plugs that connect to them on the end of the toe-brake cables are clearly NOT designed to be in a moving environment, and they do not positively lock in to the pins on the PCB. They are more suitable for a PC fan connector, and not a moving cable on a peripheral.
I cleaned up the pins with some emery paper, put the pedals all back together, problem completely gone. But obviously its likely to just happen again, so I figured the best thing to do is to make sure the toe-brake plugs cannot move.
To do this I used a small amount of hot glue from my glue gun around the plugs where they fit into body of the pedals. Just enough to hold the plugs themselves stationary, but not too much that I’d never be able to peel it off if I needed to unplug a toe brake. Hot glue is perfect for this as its actual adhesion to surfaces isn’t that strong, but Its great at holding its shape and stopping things from moving.
I did this from below, and I did it while the hot-glue gun was just heating up so the glue was not very runny, and still quite thick. It has not run down inside the holes to where the PCB is, its just mainly on the outside stopping the plugs from moving at all.
I have done this now on 4 crosswind pedals. 2 of my own, which after stripping down, cleaning the pins, and doing the glue-mod have had ZERO toe brake issues for the past 5 years. And 2 of my friends pedals that started having the same issues after a few years of use.
Fundamentally the plugs are not suitable for the application. I would highly recommend you do this as preventative measure as soon as you get them, If you do I would expect many years of use out of them.
My oldest set, have had a change of bearings as they were so old the bearings had developed a “notch” in the center where they had been sitting for years, but this is not unexpected as they were from around 2013 I think. The bearings are a standard size (skateboard wheels I believe) and are very inexpensive to change.
I have the hydraulic damper fitted on both of my sets, and this really adds to experience of using the pedals.
Jeez, that turned into a long post. Any questions let me know!
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@SOBO-87
FYI - in the last year or so they come with a clip to do what you’re doing with the glue. -
@Robf4 said in mfg crosswind peddles:
@SOBO-87
FYI - in the last year or so they come with a clip to do what you’re doing with the glue.Well look at that! Ignore my whole post then! Lol
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@SOBO-87 said in mfg crosswind peddles:
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No that was perfect! Thank you i will inspect them and ensure they are immobilized… good to know thw weak points… so great tip!
proper planing prevents poor performancejim
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If you have the V3’s, which I expect you do since you just ordered them, they don’t have this problem at all.
Source: V3 enjoyer for 2 years
I recommend the damper mod that Milan sells. Adds that last 5%.
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I too recommend the damper, (dont’ know why its not standard now) but you need to get a floor fixing to compensate for the extra pressure, and might need to add a bigger dead zone since centering is not as ‘clean’. But well worth it for the extra control. Image below is my solution, with two lugs screwed into the floor (might not be to everyone liking!), and mounted on a board with holes to receive the lugs, so it can be adjusted back/forth for best setup. Might give you some ideas.!
If you have a smooth floor, might work with just the mdf (since it gives it weight) and some grippy rubber feet.
Owned since 2014, without issue apart from a firmware update just after purchase
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@SOBO-87 said
… that’s the toe brakes stop working intermittently. That is to say they’d work fine on the taxi out, then you’d fly your mission and then come in to land and go sailing off the end/side of the runway …
Not had that issue, as there seems to plenty of spare flex between the pedals and this junction, but do find it challenging sometimes to keep straight with the brakes, but generally pump, rather than keep them full on. Might try your fix anyhow.
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@Jim_H said in mfg crosswind peddles:
I have a set of mfg crosswind arriving monday, searched didnt find much other then they are nice (on the web) if anyone has them any advice or tips for painless addidition to bms. Anyone running these that can provide any advice since 6ps applies… prior planning prevents piss poor preformance… thank you
Have had the V3’s for close to 2 years, perform flawlessly in WWI/WWII/and all modern Jet sims… never so much as a blip. How you set them up is your preference as far as springs, etc, and I have the dampener also.