I just bought a Saitek Cyborg 3D Force joystick to use with MSFS 2004, which has force feedback capability.
Has anyone gotten this set-up to work? I’m a Mac guy and find all this Windows XP stuff a little confusing.
Microsoft just refers to the Sidwinder - will I be forced to buy that one to get force feedback?
Feel free to contact me if you think this is too esoteric for the list at large (fasteddieb@aol.com)
Can you spell “non-intuitive”?
I went to the Saitek website and left an email yesterday. I thought I had jumped through all the hoops (multiple times), but their response shows there are a LOT of “hidden corners” in Windows I never would have thought of.
Long story short - their advice worked and the feedback is cool - fairly realistic resistance in the flight controls, rumbling on the runway increasing with the speed but going away on rotation, etc.
Their reply (including my email) below:
<<Hi,
It’s likely that the driver hasn’t correctly updated/installed for the controller and it is still using the basic Windows driver. To solve this open up Control Panel and then open up the System icon at the bottom. Click Hardware at the top of the window that comes up and then click Device Manager.
Click the plus sign next to Human Interface Devices and you should see a couple of listings called HID Compliant Game Controller and USB Human Interface Device. Starting with the USB Human Interface Device, right click on it and choose Update Driver from the drop-down list of options.
On the window that comes up select Install from a list or specific location and then click Next.
On the next window select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install and then click Next.
On the next screen you should have two options, one of which is the name of your controller. Select it and then click Next, then click Continue Anyway on the Windows driver signing warning and then finally finish when it has finished installing. If the name of your controller wasnÂ’t there then click Have Disk and point it to the C:\Program Files\Saitek\Drivers\Inf directory and OK that - you should then have the option of your controller there for you.
Once you have updated both the HID Compliant Game Controller and the USB Human Interface Device then you should now have force feedback and it should centre properly.
Best Regards
Richard Neville
Tech Support
Saitek UK
-----Original Message-----
From: FastEddieB@aol.com [mailto:FastEddieB@aol.com]
Sent: 18 February 2004 17:08
To: support@saitekusa.com
Subject: Cyborg 3D Force Joystick and Flight Simulator 2004
I bought the above joystick to take advantage of the force feedback built into MSFS 2004.
I can’t get it to work with feedback. Is it possible?
I can’t even get it to “center” properly. As soon as I launch Flight Simulator the joystick goes slack. It works, but with no spring-loaded center it’s awkward to use.
Thank in advance,
Fast Eddie B. (Ed Benson - Cooper City, FL/Mineral Bluff, GA) 954-435-8277
Boy do I wish I had the free time you have.
Hey FE:
What do you use the lap top for during game play? I have the same problem using a MS Force Feedback joystick maybe this will solve my problem as well.
The laptop IS my Windows computer. It’s a Compaq Presario 2140US. I just hook it up to an external monitor, and make the external monitor the #1 display.
Once you open windows on the #1 display, you can right-click them and select “Undock Window” and drag them to the laptop display. Makes the main display a lot less cluttered.
Knowing Ed rather well I can verify that He has NO free time.
When not posting/reading this site, He is:
Riding a bicycle or Motorcycle
Working out in the gym
Flying or tinkering with his or someone else’s plane
downloading (legally) music
debating the nature of the universe
refiguring the Universal Gravitational Constant
Memorizing pi to another 10 digits
Contemplating Art P.'s maintenance logs
Putting Velcro on something
Editing…re-editing… and re-editing the ACOPA newsletter. If he ever produces one he’s satified with, he pledges to distribute it.
You get the idea… I’m tired just thinking about it.
very funny