Saitek Yoke Fix

[Joe Lavery]

A friend of mine had his Saitek Yoke simply fail, but of course, it's way out of Guarantee.
I came across this article on line and thought it might be useful to the forum members if they suffer the same issue.
The author came up with an ingenious idea, because naturally Saitek don't even bother to answer email's regarding repairs.
Not since they became owned by Logitech anyway.

Joe.

[FSAddon_boss]

Wow !

[Joe Lavery]

It looks like I will have to amend my earlier post, because in the process of fixing said yoke, it seems the pinouts must refer to an earlier version, or perhaps not the Pro version they currently sell.
I will change or perhaps add the current pinouts later. It's taken me a couple of hours messing about with this wiring, until I finally realised it was all wrong. So I opened up the whole front face of the Yoke and traced the wiring back. Of course it didn't help that the front Clock has a bunch of wires bundled in with the rest.
If you were wiring such a product, would you possibly wrap the left, right and centre bundles separately? I'm sure I would; it would certainly make it easier for maintenance.
  

[FSAddon_boss]

But who would think of 'maintenance' of a plastic toy yoke...... 

[Joe Lavery]

LOL, you're probably right Francois but knowing the work ethic of the folk on this forum... everybody.... 

[Joe Lavery]

I see that a few of the members have downloaded the Yoke Fix file, so here is the updated version with connections to suit what I believe must be a later version of the Yoke.
I stripped the front off the yoke and traced each wire from the actual switches to the loom. So as far as I'm concerned they are correct. 

Joe.

[ame]

Very interesting!

But, the "fix" involves getting a new USB joystick and grafting the analog sensors from the yoke onto it.

Has anyone considered using QMK firmware configured as a USB joystick? I realise that the fix was published in 2014 and QMK is newer, but I thought I'd suggest it in case anyone wants to try it.

I have used QMK to make a custom keypad for an FMC terminal. It's straightforward to use, and the microcontroller required (Arduino Pro Micro) is very cheap. I haven't used it for a joystick, but that is one of the supported features.

[Vincent T.]

I love the fix, and as funny as it sounds, my rudder pedals toe brakes decided to go dead one fine day. It took off well and then when landing, the brakes never applied. I did a workaround and used a joystick button, but I missed toe brakes. I opened it one day to check only to realize that one of the cable sheered away. Rejoining it back worked and the brakes were back in action. The weird thing was where it snapped, I didn't see it and ended up opening other parts only to finally realize the issue was elsewhere.
Thankfully the pedals didn't land up in trash as I was almost planning to throw it out of the window. The bad thing was the timing. MSFS had just released and everyone was buying controllers like crazy, jacking up the prices of everything 3-5 times and still people buying it.. Anyways, knock on wood, its working well so far... till it breaks again, the controller is my friend .. next it flies out of the window and hopefully I get one at a good price!

[fsaviator]

Very interesting!

But, the "fix" involves getting a new USB joystick and grafting the analog sensors from the yoke onto it.

Has anyone considered using QMK firmware configured as a USB joystick? I realise that the fix was published in 2014 and QMK is newer, but I thought I'd suggest it in case anyone wants to try it.

I have used QMK to make a custom keypad for an FMC terminal. It's straightforward to use, and the microcontroller required (Arduino Pro Micro) is very cheap. I haven't used it for a joystick, but that is one of the supported features.

I think I'll look into QMK...  building a yoke for my small GA.  Thanks