Rubber bands tend to deteriorate rather quickly, but I found an even simpler solution. The biggest problem is that the shaft doesn't slide in the bearings as smoothly as it should. I tried to fix this by trying various lubricants such as silicone, oil, grease, etc. None seemed to fully accomplish what I was looking for until I tried STP automotive oil treatment. That stuff is slimy and super slippery, like nothing else and it made it much easier to give the yoke very small and precise inputs.
I just found one of these at the goodwill for 6.99!! can you believe that? with box! I few days ago i also found Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals for 5.99.. Ive been checking the goodwill regularly for Flight sim stuff. great Deals!
Great video! I went one step further and used 2 short lengths of HD surgical tubing, and attached them to the center plate with 2 small screws. The action feels so much better, and the yoke doesn't make the screen door sound anymore!
First, thank you for this video. It was incredibly useful when trying to fix my yoke. I was having trouble getting it to return to its center points. It also felt like it was losing its springs. I took this video, and did him one better, and I tell you it's perfect now! First, add rubber bands to each side, in addition to the factory springs, instead of replacing the springs with rubber bands, as stated in the video. I replaced the springs with bands at first and I felt it was a little better, but it still wasn't bouncing back to center like it should. (A little petroleum jelly on the contact points is strongly recommended as well.) I used (20) size 16 rubber bands on each side, (40) all together. I drilled a hole on each side to fasten the rubber bands so they each had the same point of contact. I also used zip ties to hold all 20 rubber bands together, as one, prior to mounting them into the yoke. I now have complete control over my yoke and I no longer need to shop around for one better. Please feel free to ask questions if I was unclear at all. (I didn't feel like making a video.)
After watching this vid. I decided to dig my yoke out of the cupboard, where it's been for several years, because it had become unusable due to sticking and open it up and fix it. The problem was caused by jamming of the back bearing and roll slider ring on the shaft. The shaft was slightly oval at the seams running down the sides. No amount of lube would fix it. I took a round file to the rings and a flat file to the sides, until the rings moved without effort. Now I have a lube free, precise yoke. Thanks..
Daughters hairbands worked great. Used two and twisted them 9 times to get the tension desired. Used a pipe cleaner in the small holes the springs were in to hold the bands and hope the fur on them will reduce friction and keep the bands from failing early. Petroleum jelly seems to work so far on the yoke shaft.
I just performed this mod on my yoke and all I can say is AMAZING! Works really well. I also added some silicone lube to some of the frictions points while I was in there. Bit of difficulty trying to open the yoke. One of my clamp bolts was stripped and had to do a little bit of repair to the post that holds the clamp nut. J-B weld quick dry did the trick. As a private pilot, I was trying to improve the feel and this worked. Thanks so much,
A guy at church let me use his Yoke until I get my own. His only has the throttle control lever in the housing, unlike the other models which have all 3 levers, but it’s still basically the same. I told him about this mod and he gave me his total blessing to do this. Maybe this yoke would be a temporary thing for me, but this mod would be a good thing for him as well when he gets it back.
Rubber bands dry out and generally deteriorate, sometimes as quickly as a few months. My solution to improve smoothness of small pitch inputs was to lubricate all sliding surfaces with STP automotive oil treatment. I've experimented with a wide variety of lubricants, but only STP has yielded the results I was looking for. The characteristics of the yoke have changed dramatically for the better as a result of this lubrication and since then, using the yoke has been an entirely satisfying experience.
SUGGESTION: There was alot of friction in the areas where the shaft contacts the plastic. I greased any moving contact areas along the shaft with oil. The improvement was quite substantial. It's silky smooth for the moment. In time dust may cake on the oily shaft & reduce the smoothness. At that I'll clean out the oil & replace it /w Teflon spray which is dust repellant due to its magnetization. As it is magnetized, I'll have to take apart the yoke and do the spraying far from its electronics.
Thanks for video. For good dexterity in pitch control Ive always used dry graphite lube for the yoke shafts on real piper Cherokee and Cessna aircraft. For this plastic flight sim yoke shaft I found it would work for awhile but eventually the shaft would stick again. I'm now using Dow Corning High Vac grease and it has been working great and very fine pitch control can be achieved and the springs are still strong enough to return it to neutral.
Hi Roger, I made the modification to my CH Eclipse Yoke, and the smoothness of operation over the spring set-up was well worth the time and effort. Also, I suggest to make your zip-tie a closed loop first and then bring the rubber-band through. This allows the user to change it easily to the desired tension, or to replace a broken rubber-band. Question: Why didn't you use the existing holes the springs went through for the rubber band setup? Thank you for a great tutorial!
jbarsoian Good suggestion about closing the zip-tie then looping the rubber-band. This allowed me to center my yoke better. Overall, this mod is pretty good!
Great idea. One small thought...if you added another looped zip tie in between the rubber band and current zip tie, it would take out the twist in the rubber band, and prevent any possible abrasion that shortens the band's life.
The ultimate solution to the friction problem would be to retro fit the front and back of the yoke with a bearing ring around the shaft. At that point it would perform almost as good as a PFC yoke.
Did a mod on my brand new CH Yoke. It was my second and of course nothing had changed. Guess CH figures they work well--WRONG. I put in new springs that I bought at HD that have much less tension than the CH version. Then I lubed the heck out of it with white lithium grease. Works really well.
I did the modifications. The Yoke's actually usable now!! If I was to give it a performance grade before, it would be 50%. Now I would give it 85%. Not perfect but very pleasant to use.
I think I'll need to be opening mine up as its developed a problem where the raw data is taking a long time to centre from a right input, despite the physical position of the yoke. May do this while I'm at it. Hopefully some maintenance can getting working properly again, though I think an upgrade the the Cessna branded Saitek will be the ultimate resolution.
Amazing results thank you very much. It does feel very light but it definitely it is more accurate. Is there a way to modify this Joystick with something a little more stiff but just as precise. Any suggestions would be very appreciated
I found that it wasn't the springs that were my problem, but the rear "rings" on the yoke shaft, especially the one that connects to the roll Potentiometer. I used a fine grit sand paper and a file on the inside of the rings, just enough to allow free movement, without being too loose.
Roger Dodger Aviation - It sounds like it, yes. Here's the stuff I used. www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Pine-Cars/Hob-E-Lube-Dry-Graphite-Lubricant/p/21086
I would recommend you all to use Theraband Gold rubber. I just got some home and i modded my Flightstick, like this but with theraband instead. Just burn two holes in the band , one hole for each attachment, just repeat until you have desired strength :P
How do you get the throttle to work? I just got this product as a gift and everything works but Once I advance the throttle, it cuts back to idle after about 5 seconds.. Any suggestions?
Hi there I have a CH products flight yoke.I have had two but now I have no got a working on because the hat switch has broke, this happened on both of my yokes and I will not spend more money on another can you help?
CH Customer Support and the User Forum BOTH say do not use Silicone lubricant. Over time, they say, the plastic degrades. The only product to use is Rubbing Alcohol on the shaft.
I have mine a since a while ago, and when I rebooted my pc, maintaining the XP, it stoped working. It's the LE yoke flightsim, and it's not USB. When I try to select the yoke from the control panel, I have a message saying that the driver controlers or game drivers are not well configured. Can you helpe me? I'm one step from throw the yoke and the pc out the window.
Nice mod. In xplane you can change the response curves of all the flight axis's. Would that have the same effect? ie deaden the response curve so that a larger default movement results in a smaller control input.
I bought my CHyoke and rudder pedals back in 2002, and I'm thinking about buying a new PC for FSX on black friday, the pc runs windows 8. Roger, will the CH controls run with win8, I went to the CH website and it doesn't say anything about win8 so I figured maybe you would know.
Any idea if I can get a replacement for one of those servos in there? I have a dead one and it's very frustrating as I can't seem to find something else similar online.
Potentiometers, I suspect. #PseudoResonance: take the dead one to your local electronics supply store and ask for a replacement one. Hope this helps...
so simple' why has nobody thought of this before? I am going to try this out over this weekend' & have a look at the website to see how to improve my sim even more, I use Saitek panels and hear SPAD drivers are better but I have no idea how to install the program that you need to make the work, can anyone help, i'd have no idea what settings to input into it & don't want to mess up my FSX. thanks in advance
I did this mod and I can really feel the difference. However I somehow lost all aileron control. The control arm inside the yoke looks fine but no response both in sim or my attempt to calibrate it. It doesn't even register in the calibration menu. Hellllppppp? I know this is an old video but maybe someone can help me!? Thanks!
Red, I had the same problem, probably because I read your post. My problem, pod that turns and has three small wires coming off, one of the tabs touched the other tab I pulled it away and it works fine.. Good luck
Can you please explain why they aren't realistic? And what can be done to make them realistic? I'm building my own yoke, and I want it to be as realistic as possible. :)
the saitek isn't realistic because the real light aircraf like Cessna and other don't centerline itself saitek yoke does also saitek is too big and heavy far from realistic ones!i would stick with CH yoke
NightPanda When you adjust the elevator trim on a real airplane, you achieve an aerodynamic balance on the elevator. It's a feel that can't be duplicated with springs in a retail yoke.
Rubber bands tend to deteriorate rather quickly, but I found an even simpler solution. The biggest problem is that the shaft doesn't slide in the bearings as smoothly as it should. I tried to fix this by trying various lubricants such as silicone, oil, grease, etc. None seemed to fully accomplish what I was looking for until I tried STP automotive oil treatment. That stuff is slimy and super slippery, like nothing else and it made it much easier to give the yoke very small and precise inputs.
I just found one of these at the goodwill for 6.99!! can you believe that? with box!
I few days ago i also found Saitek Pro Rudder Pedals for 5.99..
Ive been checking the goodwill regularly for Flight sim stuff. great Deals!
Great video! I went one step further and used 2 short lengths of HD surgical tubing, and attached them to the center plate with 2 small screws. The action feels so much better, and the yoke doesn't make the screen door sound anymore!
First, thank you for this video. It was incredibly useful when trying to fix my yoke. I was having trouble getting it to return to its center points. It also felt like it was losing its springs. I took this video, and did him one better, and I tell you it's perfect now!
First, add rubber bands to each side, in addition to the factory springs, instead of replacing the springs with rubber bands, as stated in the video. I replaced the springs with bands at first and I felt it was a little better, but it still wasn't bouncing back to center like it should. (A little petroleum jelly on the contact points is strongly recommended as well.) I used (20) size 16 rubber bands on each side, (40) all together. I drilled a hole on each side to fasten the rubber bands so they each had the same point of contact. I also used zip ties to hold all 20 rubber bands together, as one, prior to mounting them into the yoke.
I now have complete control over my yoke and I no longer need to shop around for one better. Please feel free to ask questions if I was unclear at all. (I didn't feel like making a video.)
Do you have photos of what you did? Sounds like a really great mod.
I can take photos for you if you want. email me briancream@gmail.com
Send it to me as well. I have trouble getting it return to the middle as well
@@frizsld6793 - Email me and I'll send you the pics. I just found them after all this time. briancream@gmail.com
Will it be too tight to pull and push the yoke when you put so many rubber bands?
After watching this vid. I decided to dig my yoke out of the cupboard, where it's been for several years, because it had become unusable due to sticking and open it up and fix it. The problem was caused by jamming of the back bearing and roll slider ring on the shaft. The shaft was slightly oval at the seams running down the sides. No amount of lube would fix it. I took a round file to the rings and a flat file to the sides, until the rings moved without effort. Now I have a lube free, precise yoke.
Thanks..
Daughters hairbands worked great. Used two and twisted them 9 times to get the tension desired. Used a pipe cleaner in the small holes the springs were in to hold the bands and hope the fur on them will reduce friction and keep the bands from failing early. Petroleum jelly seems to work so far on the yoke shaft.
I just performed this mod on my yoke and all I can say is AMAZING! Works really well. I also added some silicone lube to some of the frictions points while I was in there. Bit of difficulty trying to open the yoke. One of my clamp bolts was stripped and had to do a little bit of repair to the post that holds the clamp nut. J-B weld quick dry did the trick. As a private pilot, I was trying to improve the feel and this worked. Thanks so much,
A guy at church let me use his Yoke until I get my own. His only has the throttle control lever in the housing, unlike the other models which have all 3 levers, but it’s still basically the same. I told him about this mod and he gave me his total blessing to do this. Maybe this yoke would be a temporary thing for me, but this mod would be a good thing for him as well when he gets it back.
Rubber bands dry out and generally deteriorate, sometimes as quickly as a few months. My solution to improve smoothness of small pitch inputs was to lubricate all sliding surfaces with STP automotive oil treatment. I've experimented with a wide variety of lubricants, but only STP has yielded the results I was looking for. The characteristics of the yoke have changed dramatically for the better as a result of this lubrication and since then, using the yoke has been an entirely satisfying experience.
ok
Thanks Roger. Now my simulator yoke feels exactly like the real control wheel. MUCH smoother.
SUGGESTION: There was alot of friction in the areas where the shaft contacts the plastic. I greased any moving contact areas along the shaft with oil. The improvement was quite substantial. It's silky smooth for the moment. In time dust may cake on the oily shaft & reduce the smoothness. At that I'll clean out the oil & replace it /w Teflon spray which is dust repellant due to its magnetization. As it is magnetized, I'll have to take apart the yoke and do the spraying far from its electronics.
Thanks for video. For good dexterity in pitch control Ive always used dry graphite lube for the yoke shafts on real piper Cherokee and Cessna aircraft. For this plastic flight sim yoke shaft I found it would work for awhile but eventually the shaft would stick again. I'm now using Dow Corning High Vac grease and it has been working great and very fine pitch control can be achieved and the springs are still strong enough to return it to neutral.
Excellent video, I prove it myself in my yoke and works incredibly well. Thanks for the video buddy :)
Thank you. I modified my CH yoke and smooth flying since. Nice mod.
Now I can enjoy some Bluegrass while flying. Thanks!
Hi Roger,
I made the modification to my CH Eclipse Yoke, and the smoothness of operation over the spring set-up was well worth the time and effort.
Also, I suggest to make your zip-tie a closed loop first and then bring the rubber-band through.
This allows the user to change it easily to the desired tension, or to replace a broken rubber-band.
Question:
Why didn't you use the existing holes the springs went through for the rubber band setup?
Thank you for a great tutorial!
jbarsoian Good suggestion about closing the zip-tie then looping the rubber-band. This allowed me to center my yoke better.
Overall, this mod is pretty good!
Great idea. One small thought...if you added another looped zip tie in between the rubber band and current zip tie, it would take out the twist in the rubber band, and prevent any possible abrasion that shortens the band's life.
The ultimate solution to the friction problem would be to retro fit the front and back of the yoke with a bearing ring around the shaft. At that point it would perform almost as good as a PFC yoke.
Did a mod on my brand new CH Yoke. It was my second and of course nothing had changed. Guess CH figures they work well--WRONG. I put in new springs that I bought at HD that have much less tension than the CH version. Then I lubed the heck out of it with white lithium grease. Works really well.
I did the modifications. The Yoke's actually usable now!! If I was to give it a performance grade before, it would be 50%. Now I would give it 85%. Not perfect but very pleasant to use.
I think I'll need to be opening mine up as its developed a problem where the raw data is taking a long time to centre from a right input, despite the physical position of the yoke.
May do this while I'm at it.
Hopefully some maintenance can getting working properly again, though I think an upgrade the the Cessna branded Saitek will be the ultimate resolution.
Amazing results thank you very much. It does feel very light but it definitely it is more accurate. Is there a way to modify this Joystick with something a little more stiff but just as precise. Any suggestions would be very appreciated
I found that it wasn't the springs that were my problem, but the rear "rings" on the yoke shaft, especially the one that connects to the roll Potentiometer. I used a fine grit sand paper and a file on the inside of the rings, just enough to allow free movement, without being too loose.
Looks like this is the 100th video! Congratulations.
What a great instructional video! Thank you!
Thanks to this video, and some graphite hobby lube, my CH Yoke feels like a million bucks. Thanks!
Great! Glad to hear it helped. Just curious: is that graphite lube similar to the powdery graphite lube for door locks?
Roger Dodger Aviation - It sounds like it, yes. Here's the stuff I used.
www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Pine-Cars/Hob-E-Lube-Dry-Graphite-Lubricant/p/21086
Very interesting! Thank you.
THANK U SOOOO MUCH MAN KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK!!!
How long do the rubber bands last like this?
not much lol
Would you recommend a flight yoke for battle games like IL2? I only have room for one or the other. thanks
Ah OK, I've got a Thrustmaster HOTAS cougar for years but was always curious about Yokes.
what size of rubber bands did you use?
@handcuff308 What kind of question is that, if you don't have the spring or rubber band, it won't self senter your movement will be on one side
I would recommend you all to use Theraband Gold rubber. I just got some home and i modded my Flightstick, like this but with theraband instead. Just burn two holes in the band , one hole for each attachment, just repeat until you have desired strength :P
@thetechzonelive Thank you very much. Stay tuned for the next 100 videos!
How do you get the throttle to work? I just got this product as a gift and everything works but Once I advance the throttle, it cuts back to idle after about 5 seconds.. Any suggestions?
where did the top levers go and why???
Hi there I have a CH products flight yoke.I have had two but now I have no got a working on because the hat switch has broke, this happened on both of my yokes and I will not spend more money on another can you help?
CH Customer Support and the User Forum BOTH say do not use Silicone lubricant. Over time, they say, the plastic degrades. The only product to use is Rubbing Alcohol on the shaft.
How long do rubber bands last???
PD: good video ;D
I have mine a since a while ago, and when I rebooted my pc, maintaining the XP, it stoped working. It's the LE yoke flightsim, and it's not USB. When I try to select the yoke from the control panel, I have a message saying that the driver controlers or game drivers are not well configured. Can you helpe me? I'm one step from throw the yoke and the pc out the window.
Nice mod. In xplane you can change the response curves of all the flight axis's. Would that have the same effect? ie deaden the response curve so that a larger default movement results in a smaller control input.
I bought my CHyoke and rudder pedals back in 2002, and I'm thinking about buying a new PC for FSX on black friday, the pc runs windows 8. Roger, will the CH controls run with win8, I went to the CH website and it doesn't say anything about win8 so I figured maybe you would know.
Any idea if I can get a replacement for one of those servos in there? I have a dead one and it's very frustrating as I can't seem to find something else similar online.
Servos?
Potentiometers, I suspect.
#PseudoResonance: take the dead one to your local electronics supply store and ask for a replacement one.
Hope this helps...
Good
Very nice, but won't this make the centering worse?
No. It works great.
Roger Dodger Aviation I actually wanted to fix the centering issue I've been having. Any hopes that this will work?
turbotortiose Yes. It works fine.
what is the board called that the switches are plugged into that has the usb connected to?
You mean the green board? Something like that is usually called a PCB or printed circuit board. I don't know what else I would call it.
Roger Dodger Aviation -
LOL Because board turns analoge toggle switch signals and push button signals, so the pc can read them as a controller.
Ok
@BFKate I don't know. Try it.
"His porn music not mine" LOL but thanks for the vid! I have the same controller
how do i add a stick shaker to my ch flight yoke
My yoke makes a click sound when I push it forward and then pull it back. Can you see if yours does this to?
+Corrie Clark Sorry, I don't know where this yoke is right now. I use a different one.
+Roger Dodger Aviation You can hear it from 0:14-0:16
same !! try something called wd40 and put it in the cracks where you take it apart and where the screws go in and after a few goes it will stop!
lol wd 40 is not a lubricant... you will have to reapply every few months if that
Great video! So... Can I add any other button to my yoke (Without Arduino, soldier, protoboard... Only a button) Please!! Thax!
I've never tried to do that.
anyone know where I can get a replacement usb cable for my yoke? looked everywhere and can't find one. thanks
USB is just generic 4 pins, so you can use anything.
so simple' why has nobody thought of this before? I am going to try this out over this weekend' & have a look at the website to see how to improve my sim even more, I use Saitek panels and hear SPAD drivers are better but I have no idea how to install the program that you need to make the work, can anyone help, i'd have no idea what settings to input into it & don't want to mess up my FSX. thanks in advance
No I only recommend joysticks for air combat.
I did this mod and I can really feel the difference. However I somehow lost all aileron control. The control arm inside the yoke looks fine but no response both in sim or my attempt to calibrate it. It doesn't even register in the calibration menu. Hellllppppp? I know this is an old video but maybe someone can help me!? Thanks!
Red, I had the same problem, probably because I read your post. My problem, pod that turns and has three small wires coming off, one of the tabs touched the other tab I pulled it away and it works fine.. Good luck
@handcuff308 Give it a try. It won't hurt anything.
si this better than saitek? i mean more realistic then saitek?
Neither yoke is realistic, but the Saitek yoke is better because of the separate throttle/prop/mixture levers.
Can you please explain why they aren't realistic? And what can be done to make them realistic?
I'm building my own yoke, and I want it to be as realistic as possible. :)
the saitek isn't realistic because the real light aircraf like Cessna and other don't centerline itself saitek yoke does also saitek is too big and heavy far from realistic ones!i would stick with CH yoke
NightPanda When you adjust the elevator trim on a real airplane, you achieve an aerodynamic balance on the elevator. It's a feel that can't be duplicated with springs in a retail yoke.
Roger Dodger Aviation - thanks.
i just took the springs out and greased the parts that rub, i dont know why you would want it to return to center, it's not like that in an airplane
Do you do this for a living? You should.
Coll mod. I wish i had the time and money to invest on a yoke and play more FS
this is so idiot proof.... i like it :D
bjarni1995
M
. B. Case mmm.
CH modification : replace with saitek