New Saitek Joystick called the X-55 Rhino.
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http://www.simhq.com/hardware/saitek-x-55-rhino-hotas-review.html
i’ve been wanting a replacement joystick for quite some time, now. i have been looking at both the X-65 and the Warthog. i was leaning towards the Warthog but that is quite a hefty chunk of change. i just came across the X-55. its a similar body style to the X-65 without the force sensing in addition to a much cheaper $200 price tag. now i’m really torn between this and the warthog. any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated. there is a lot of money at stake.
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This was my initial reaction:
I have mixed feelings.
I’ll start by saying I use a non-standard control scheme that I doubt most of you would approve of…so bear that in mind as you keep reading. Also, this is my first pro stick.
I don’t know if I just have small hands, or what, but so many of these buttons just feel inaccessible without moving my hand wholly off the control surfaces. For example, the Red button on the top of the stick, which I would be inclined to mark as my Pickle button, is not a natural resting place for my thumb. It’s just a little bit to high. Initially I had this marked as my pickle button and after a short dogfight test against an AI I had to rebind it. I think it’s set to Comms 2 now, because it was so hard to access normally. I moved the pickle button to the pinkie switch (red, not grey) so that I could rest a finger on it. There are also two buttons and a two-way toggle on the front of the throttle. Initially I was setting these to dogfight and cancel, with the two way toggle as my radar range (this is how my 4 way hat switch on my old X52 throttle was set so I could toggle radar ranges easily). These buttons are just out of reach unless I stretch my hand (slightly uncomfortably) to reach them. Probably because this is a dual throttle, the throttle is also slightly wider, which means reaching the top button on the throttle is also a little more difficult.
Going back tot he button positioning again, out of necessity some of the controls are very close together (this is more true of the stick then the throttle) and that makes it hard to use one of the HAT switches without bumping another one. This again may just be some muscle memory I need to learn. Also, a more personal complaint, there is no real comfortable way to rest my arm when it’s on the throttle (because there are switches at the base of the throttle).
I also really miss the detente in my old throttle that let me physical feel when I was going to hit afterburner. Fuel management is going to be slightly more difficult with these controls.
(Side note: I haven’t figured out what to map any of those switches to. Anyone have any suggestions? The only things I can think of at the moment are my Nosewheel Steering, my gear, and my air refueling door.)
Some of these things, like stretching my hand to reach those extra buttons, I may just need to get used to, not sure yet. But overall, the in accessibility of most of the buttons when my hand is resting comfortably on the stick is a slight negative. I think maybe I was using the adjustable rest on my old X-52 to make this work a little better for me.
Now, there are some things that I absolutely loved. The rotaries on the throttle I bound to trimming the aircraft, based on the video review someone posted here. I am someone who has NEVER been able to properly trim his aircraft using the in-game controls (I didn’t have them bound to any buttons, and had no idea what the keys were, so I kept having to look in the cockpit to click them and then look back outside) now I can trim the aircraft in pretty quickly. This would have made a huge difference in the flight we flew a few weeks ago, where I botched my landing because I couldn’t trim the aircraft and was spending all my energy and SA just trying to maintain level flight.
I also love the resistance of the stick, I have the standard spring on mine as well and haven’t bothered to change it. My old X52 was so loose, every maneuver I made was an over correction. When practicing tanking it would take me 10 minutes or more to get on the boom. Last night I did a refuel and got on the boom in under a minute, and then reset the mission and did it again. The tight control the stick and the throttle give me are fantastic, as I discovered when attempting tanker training (which is why I tried it). I’m still a horrible shot with the gun. I don’t blame the stick for that.
The sheer number of buttons here is a definite positive. I have my ECM bound to my stick now, which I was never able to do before, I’ve mapped everything I had mapped before and I don’t even think I hit half my buttons on the hotas yet.
I’m going to prioritize flying this week, and see how I feel after I have had some time to adjust.
I had some other minor issues getting things setup, the driver installation software seemed to hang, no idea why, the Next button was just greyed out, so I closed the software and it seemed to work just fine. Identifying all the axis for the sticks was also a little tricky inside of Falcon, mostly because there are dual-throttle axis now. And for some reason some of my Cougar MFD buttons got reset arbitraily when I plugged my stick in, no idea what that is about.
This was my reaction later:
Much of this has been alleviate by changing my mappings (which is still an on-going process). I stopped using the buttons on the front of the throttle because they are simply to hard to reach. I could see mapping those to maybe some NAV functions - next steerpoint, previous steerpoint, maybe - when I am not actively manipulating the controls and can take a few extra seconds to reach for them.
I am discovering just how much I like having 5 HAT switches within easy reach of my fingers. For example, on my X-52 (non-pro) I had three hat switches (one on the throttle, two on the stick) and only two of those were mappable (one was locked to manipulating the radar tracking gate, automatically, without me having done anything). I used one as overflow buttons (up was AA wep down was AG wep, left was switch SOI right was something else I don’t remember).
That really only left me one hat switch to map, which I put to dogfight/cancel (left right) and radar range (up down).
Now I have five, and they are ALL mappable. So one is all TMS functions one is all DMS functions (previously unmapped!) one is the same dogfight/cancel/radar ranges, and one is set to ag/aa weapons toggle (with two unassigned buttons still). I picked this mapping mostly because of where my fingers fell on the stick, which was mistake previously, I was mapping as close to the old setup as possible.
I still find some of the buttons hard to reach (even outside combat quick hits) but it’s growing on me, for sure.
And now I would say…
I’m very happy with it. Tighter control, more and more accessible buttons. It used to be I used the Cougar MFDs for everything, but now it’s all about the HOTAS and I hardly ever use those anymore.
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I don’t have experience with the warthog but I love the x55. Imo the right combination of functionality and features with Hall sensors where it counts, looks great, right price.
Only nags
- speedbreak is off/on slider instead of 3 position switch
- have really nothing worthwhile to map to the rotaries on the throttle base
B4d
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- have really nothing worthwhile to map to the rotaries on the throttle base
B4d
i have one mapped to comm1 volume (to turn down the annoying ai comms) and the other for zoom on my tgp.
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I don’t have experience with the warthog but I love the x55. Imo the right combination of functionality and features with Hall sensors where it counts, looks great, right price.
Only nags
- speedbreak is off/on slider instead of 3 position switch
- have really nothing worthwhile to map to the rotaries on the throttle base
B4d
I programmed both my rotaries on the throttle for trimming.
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Looks freaking awesome.
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Blah…same centering mechanism as ALL other saitek’s. Save for the Hog or x-65
BTW don’t be scared of FSS
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I’ve been using the X52, (with magnet & tension mod’s), for quite a while. I was planning on upgrading with the X55, but decided to go with the Warthog. I can’t speak for the X55, but I’m glad I went with the Warthog. This thing is solid.
Hope whatever you choose works out for you, I’d vote for the Warthog, just based on the rugged design and reviews, vs. Saitek. But heh, to each his own. If the X55 works for most folks, good for them.
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i was gunning for the 55 as well, but also went with the warthog. glad i did, as im sure i would have done it in the long run anyway. SO solid. sometimes i will be walking by the room my rig is in, and just go in and move the stick and throttle a bit, just because. it is that gratifying.
that said, both have annoying setup quirks, but that’s par for the course. thrustmaster’s TARGET software seems more stable though, in my experience compared to the SST of the X52 (haven’t tried the new X55 one, though it looks mainly just a reskin)
my ONLY small gripe, which i am more than fine living with, is that the centering on on the warthog is quite stiff. so as you;re moving around the center with small corrections, each time it goes through center it goes “chunk!” as that massive spring sets into place. hasn’t bothered my performance one bit though.
and those switches are awesome!
all this said, im sure i would have been thrilled with the X55, they just kept pushing it back to much. had to ask for me money back
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I have the X55. I’m pretty happy with it. If the speedbreak in BMS had an axis to map to, I’d be SUPER happy. The one place FSX beats BMS - the freakin breaks! Ultimately, I created separate keystrokes for extend and retract speedbreaks (no modifiers) Q and W respectively. Then in the H.U.D. software, I mapped the extended position of the switch to press Q (after .100 seconds) and release (after 1 second). This times out to extend the speed break fully. The on retraction it sends W for .900 and releases for .1 seconds. The point of the press and release is to allow other signals to be sent. It seemed when I used a long press like 8 seconds, all sorts of other stuff wouldn’t work, no keyboard no other HOTAS buttons or switching. I deduced after a lot of trial and error the LONG press was creating problems. PM me and I’ll send the .pr0 file in case my description was as unclear as the reason Saitek made that the one and only physical state switch!
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I have the X55. I’m pretty happy with it. If the speedbreak in BMS had an axis to map to, I’d be SUPER happy. ……
It seemed when I used a long press like 8 seconds, all sorts of other stuff wouldn’t work, no keyboard no other HOTAS buttons or switching. …
Seems like an old original post….but I’ll jump in with my two cents to comment on the experiences of BtLoper84, and to say I’m very happy with my X55 also. I have fixed all my ghost key presses, long key press and “other stuff” issues by not using the Saitek profile software and mapping everything with DX commands in the BMS .key file. My throttle base rotaries are mapped to BMS axis for HUD brightness and brakes. And I used the pinky up/down switch on the throttle for my speed brakes which allows for partially open/close speed brakes. (even though 99% they are full one way or the other). Still unable to find a way to map the small mouse controller on the throttle since I’m not using the profile tool, and don’t want to go back to it. It won’t show as an Axis in BMS that I could find. Using the DX shifting method, I’m completely HOTAS except for ICP and a few MFD presses.
Spdbrk Up B AFBrakesOut
Spdbrk Dwn Ctrl B AFBrakesIn