Man, that setup looks brilliant. Also, that is what I'm afraid of when getting new pedals - having to learn them all over again. Good thing with DFGT flappyplastics is that I'm used to them. Plus I can't drive with socks or shoes on to save my life, and they are comfy barefoot.
I need to find out if the CH Pro Rudder Pedals are comfy with socks on.
So after a week or so of using this setup, I have a few observations:
The throttle friggin rocks. I can more or less program it to do everything except calculus at the push of a button. It's made for giant gorilla hands, but I've gotten used to it. The minstick is great, but it needs a small deadzone since it doesn't center absolutely perfect all the time.
The Thrustmaster is very accurate but it has a few quirks. It, too, is made for gorilla hands and I have to hold my index finger well forward of my other fingers when gripping the stick. Not the most comfortable. The gamepad is not really in the way, and in fact I can remove it if I like if I'm playing, say, Descent, which doesn't have enough functions to fully load both the throttle and the stick, let alone need the extra buttons on the gamepad. The bottom zip tie can be dislodged from the stick with a little pressure, and then after that I can just tilt it forward and slide it out of the one across its center.
The sensor also has an odd quirk. If I push the stick down directly into the base with more than just idle hand resting pressure it goes way off center. Like way off. This has somewhat been a minor nuisance. I'll just have to learn to not put pressure on it.
And the LED lit base is kind of annoying, but I dont notice it anymore unless I look for it. I'd probably notice it more if my monitor screen wasn't matte.
Also I need to stop deathgripping the thing. I'm giving myself hand cramps. That was what was nice about the Saitek Evo I was using before this stick arrived...grip it as hard as I want and it didn't cramp my hand. This stick is so damn big though that it's hard not to. I actually improved it a little by swapping out the right handed thumb rest for the left handed palm rest on the left side of the stick..my fingers were pressing too hard against it when wrapped around it.
Said Evo btw is still useful btw...as a lefthanded stick. I'm going to rampage through the mechwarrior series with that stick in my left hand and my mouse in my right. I've got it set up so that the stick does stuff that does not at all require precision: The forward half of the Y axis is a throttle, the twist controls the mechs heading, and the X axis has some digital commands bound it it. Cold I make a better setup with the throttle? Probably. But this setup just feels really fun!
I have got so much controller programming software on my computer right now it's silly. I've got tons of sim games to rampage through. Gonna be fun as hell!
