Twitchy TCA Thrustmaster Sidestick Rudder? Here’s the fix!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 бер 2023
- Interested in supporting the channel?
www.buymeacoffee.com/NocSim
Recommended Electronics Spray: amzn.to/3ZrpnfS
Join the Discord!
/ discord
Look at the beautiful scenery on Instagram!
/ nocturnalsimulations
Computer Specifications:
Intel i9-13900k amzn.to/3VXvbMk
Nvidia GTX 3080TI amzn.to/3GwOPZM
Corsair DDR5 Ram (128GB Total) amzn.to/3CBoZmj
MSI MPG Z690 Edge Wifi Mobo amzn.to/3VWfeWU
WD Black 2TB NVMe M.2 amzn.to/3k1mKSY
Corsair iCUE H150i AOI Cooler amzn.to/3ir5ztI
Corsair HX1000i PSU amzn.to/3vQxztN
Corsair 4000D Airflow Case amzn.to/3ZlH01U
Arctic MX-5 Thermal Paste amzn.to/3WZNOjZ
Steelseries Mousepad amzn.to/3XsFNEG
Logitech G512 Carbon Keyboard amzn.to/3D3CsUi
Logitech Pro Mouse amzn.to/3GTYPN7
Audio
Bose QC45 amzn.to/3GXy1LT
Blue Yeti Mic amzn.to/3D5qpWC
Sim Gear
TCA Joystick amzn.to/3XJD2yy
TCA Throttle amzn.to/3XQ3dnf
TCA Throttle Add-on amzn.to/3GPzNOY
The above are Amazon Affiliate Links which, at no extra cost to you, provide a small commission to me that helps support the channel!
Music: Voss by JAK
/ arkadenmusicof. .
Support by RFM - NCM: bit.ly/3DkFlA7
#msfs2020
#flightsimulator
#aviation
#flightsimulator2020
#aviationgeek
What's going on you wonderful AvGeeks!? Michael with nocturnal simulations and today we are going to take a look at a common problem you may be having with the Thrustmaster TCA Joystick that may be driving you nutty!
Have you recently been taxiing and take a quick look down to prepare your plane for take off and when you look up you're halfway off the taxi way for no darn reason other than your plane called for a union break? Do you also happen to have the Thrustmaster TCA Airbus joystick? Well it turns out that your plane isn't allowed to take its 15 minute union break just yet but your rudder axis may be trying to do so!
The great thing about the TCA joystick is that it's X and Y axis' are on a hall effect sensor which essentially is a magnet over a computer chip that can sense it's movement. The bad thing is that the rudder axis is still a classic potentiometer. Why is that a bad thing? Well, eventually dust and crud will work it's way in there over time and make it dirty OR the internal wire's will get in the way after hours upon hours of use and start causing the issues you just saw.
What we are going to do is open up the joystick body and readjust those wires like your chiropractor fixes your back. While we are in there we are going to clean out the potentiometer just as an extra precaution.
1) A small philips head screw driver
2) Electronic spray or 99% rubbing alcohol
3) Cotton cue tips
Now take that trusty stead of a screw driver and remove the 5 screws holding [insert picture of screws and do the pointer graphic to call them out] the handle together. The bottom two may give you a bit of resistance so put your big boy pants on and get them out. I wouldn't recommend bragging about this online…Next you need to locate potentiometer and maybe take some pictures to remember how everything went together. Don't worry it all goes back together pretty easy. What you may see is that the wires may be pushing against the potentiometer. But we'll get back to that in a minute.
Go ahead and rip off the rest of the plastic because first we are going to pull the potentiometer out of its housing and either use the electronics spray or use cotton swab with rubbing alcohol to clean it off. While This step probably isn't necessary it could help and better to do it now than wait until you have to rip it all apart again like a piece of IKEA furniture you put together backwards.
Now after the parts have dried, this should only take a few seconds, you can start reassembling everything. Put the potentiometer back in, then the circuit board that was at the top of the joystick, and finally if it fell out put the axis lock back in place. After you take a breather from that exhausting exercise go ahead and start tucking the wires for the poteniometer back into the handle in a manner that prevents it from pushing against the potentiometer or causing any sort of interference. Once you've done that carefully put the handle back on making sure not to pinch any wires and reinsert the 5 screws you took out initially. Check that everything clicks and moves as expected, plug her back in and make sure everything works again.
You should now see a smoother response on the axis! You may now pat yourself on the back and brag to your fellow nerds about how you've become an electronics genius by simply watching this 5 minute video! If that doesn't work you may try once again the steps I just covered and hopefully you get it the second time. If you have any questions please let me know! Happy Flying - Ігри
![[FR] TUTO réparer le joystick TCA sidestick AIRBUS de Thrustmaster. Réparer l'axe Z des palonniers](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/e0lc5TOjZmQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FR] TUTO réparer le joystick TCA sidestick AIRBUS de Thrustmaster. Réparer l'axe Z des palonniers](/img/tr.png)
took me less than 10 minutes and fixed a problem that was destroying my taxi and landings... you're an actual lifesaver... its working perfectly now
Awesome! Glad I could help
Thank you so much, my landings were so bad because of the rudder doing whatever he wanted to do. But now my landings are way better.
I was facing rudder and throttle twitching issue on my thrustmaster a320 stick since many months. I followed your video and the issue is resolved. Thanks a ton 😊😊
Great!! Glad you were able to fix it
Mate your channel is a HIDDEN GEM! Kudos to you sir!
Thank you! I appreciate the compliment
Thanks for the video, I had just been puting up with it thinking I had broken it myself. Was pretty anxious to take the joystick apart, but found it really quite easy. Thank you!
You’re welcome! Things usually aren’t as hard as they appear when you work on stuff like this
Thank you! I didn't have anything to clean the potentiometer with, but in my case just rerouting the cables somewhat did the trick. 👍
I am so glad I found your video, I was so annoyed by my weird rudder behaviour.
And damn, the quality of your video is awesome, definetely a sub from me!
Glad I could help, appreciate the kind comment!
Thank you so much! Finally fixed this problem after 2 years...
Awesome!!
Thanks a lot! A little addition. 5 screws from the left side, dismount side buttons from the sides of the stick and unscrew two screws from under the right side button. Used 96% alcohol for the procedure - tried to push it from the insulin syringe to have a thinner needle and faster liquid stream. My grandma always said that a reasonable amount of alcohol will never do any harm.
I like to use electronics spray since it will often times blow the crud out, so that's a great option. Good suggestion!
Thanks for this tutorial. When I opened the joystick up I was a little skeptical that it didn't seem to dirty, but I gave it a spray and put it back together again. The only fiddly bit was putting the changeable buttons back on. Seems to be running smoothly now according to the thrustmaster software. I'll give it a proper run on flightsim later.
THANKS! You just took my junk flightstick and made it function better than new. Wires were wrapped around pot! I truly Appreciate!
You’re welcome!
I love that joystick but never had such bad rudder issues as on this one.
Thanks for the video!
I think it's worth a try :)
It’s one of those problems that some will have but others not. Thanks for the comment!
Hi, since I bought it I thought it was broken and due to the shortage I didn't return it I thought I would need the pedals but I don't have space for them, you have saved us from the suffering we have been subjected to thank you very much
I love it when people are able to fix things instead of having to deal with returning!
Worked like a charm. I just found 2 more screws I needed to take out that were hiding under those 2 button thingies on the top.
Awesome, glad it helped!
You rock!!! Did what you recommended, steady as a rock now!!! Thank you!
Awesome! You’re welcome
Great video Nocturnal! Thanks. Saved me from buying a new sidestick. As noted by others, be aware that once you remove the side buttons there are two more screws under the right button location for a total of seven screws you need to remove. I thought I just needed to pry a little to separate the two halves, then realized my mistake. Also be aware of the rotation lock at the bottom. I did not see this and it fell out. Took me a minute to figure out how it is oriented on the bottom of the cover pieces.
Thank you! A small hair stuck on potentiometer was causing the troubles in my case.
You're welcome!
Thanks a lot mate, I was literally about to give up and buy another. Couldn't get screw 3 out but pried the bottom open, gave it a good blow and to my surprise it's fixed
Hey, when you say you pried the bottom open, how did ya do it? I am struggling with screw 3 as well, did you just rip it out and it didn't break?
@@callumjohnson4645 I basically pulled the 2 sides slightly apart and then blew into the gap
@@-_-O Managed to get in in the end but took a good 45mins to get that bloody screw our haha, thanks for the reply.
Thanks for this video, it worked! Now i can finaly fly stable again :)
This is the most useful video on UA-cam! I was fixing it until I realised I am going to go get a new yoke next week. 😂 But, still thank you so much for the vid!
Thank you! I am glad it helped you out. Which yoke are you getting?
@@nocturnalsimulations The flight velocity one! Also, again you are the most underrated channel on UA-cam don’t stop posting.
So many others seemed to have suffered this same issue (as I did too!) that Thrustmaster should have done a fix! I did get it replaced under warranty, but it took a lot of time/effort to do. I ended up buying a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro as I didn't trust the replacement one (still in its box!) and have been extremely pleased with it! You should not have to pull the stick apart to fix this sort of thing... Good video though!
Mine started doing this exact thing and is only a year and a half old! Seems to be super common with this side stick...I'm going to try this out tonight! Thank you!
Did you have any luck!?
@@nocturnalsimulations yes! Cleaned everything up and re-routed some wiring as well since some of it was pinched during the manufacturing. I also trimmed down the front tabs a little as I saw elsewhere and it’s running perfect now with no twitching!
@@OmegaSimPilot that’s great to hear!
THANKS A LOOOT it worked like a charm on the first try!
Glad you got it working!
I don't know how, but I just took the joystick apart and put it back together, and it started working. I didn't clean anything. There might have been something, but I didn't see anything. Anyway thanks a lot for the video! God bless you! :)
Really thank you mate! You have save me a lot of money!
Awesome! Glad I could help, happy flying!
Worked for me as well! Tricky thing.. cable "management" ;-) But with a Hall element it makes sense. THX for the tip ;-)
AWESOME! Glad you got her working
YEEEEESSS!!! Thank you my hero! Awesome! Wish I could give this video 1000 likes! Finally a solution to my nose gear steering going crazy!
Glad it helped!
Thanks very much, you saved my tiller
Thank you 👍
Thank you so much! :D
You’re welcome!
Thanks!!
I have cleaned the component you were talking about and moved the wires, and the Z axis is still doing, whatever that is. Any ideas of what the problem coud be and/or any soulutions? Thanks!
Thx 4 the help🎉
You’re welcome!
I OWE YOU. Thank you!!!!!!!
u are a genius, thank you 🙏
Thanks, just rearranging the potentiometer worked great! But, this would've been a good video if you'd mentioned screw 6 and 7 at the top on the other side! Took me a second video to find those. Why did you ignore them? 😅
Hmm, it's been a while since I made the video and didn't purposefully leave those out of course. Dunno why I missed it in the video if I did haha
excellent tutorial. Even made me laugh a couple times lol
Great! Glad you enjoyed it
In some cases is not even necessary to clean the potentiometer. Just repositioning the wires will be enough! 🙂
Thank you so much! This worked for me. I was using a 70% deadzone because of the twitching but I can finally reduce it. What deadzone would you recommend for rudder axis to prevent any potential false imputs?
Since that’s a classic potentiometer it’s going to have some noise compared to a Hall effect sensor that’s on the joystick, 2-5% depending on how significant the jitter is
@@nocturnalsimulations Got it, thanks again.
@@CactusBravo42 you’re welcome!
Yep that did the Trick i took my TCA Airbus Stick Apart Sprayed Potentiometer and into the Hole a little, i did Struggle to Put back the Axis Lock but figured it out lmfao.
Awesome, glad it fixed your problems…even with a little extra work lol
i dont really know how to put the axis lock back in there
Hi and thanks for the video! I followed what you said, I just cleaned the potentiometer, pulled the wires to loose them a little bit and now it seems to work! I just wanted to ask you how I can clean that part we see at 1:06
Thanks!
That’s the Hall effect sensor for the joystick itself. You have to remove the 4 screws that hold the black base in for the joystick (this is inside of the base of the unit) and it’s right there
@@nocturnalsimulations Oh thanks, so I must remove the bottom plastic?
@@blackfalco33 that’s correct. You’ll have to remove the bottom and you’ll see a couple circuit boards/wires and in the middle will be the base I mentioned
@@nocturnalsimulations Ok thanks for the infos and help, very kind! For now it worked just by removing and cleaning the potentiometer so I'm happy with it but in case I'll need to do it again in future ( hope not lol ) I'll try to open the base as well and see what I can clean ( without doin' damages...lol ).
@@blackfalco33 no problem, any time! If you’d like feel free to join the discord and we can trouble shoot just about anything!
hey, i tried to rip the TCA sidestick apart, and it splits at the bottom, but it wont budge at the top, and now everything came out, and the sidestick is detached from the bottom moving part
Sounds like you may have missed a screw up top. Either they changed the design or I neglected to mention it in the video I know there’s one you may be missing. I don’t have the side stick anymore unfortunately to look at as I gave it away but you can feel free to join the discord and post some pictures in the help forum!
I literally just blew on the potentiometer, no alcohol nor anything and that did the trick. We're back to the 90s lmao
My nostalgia is screaming!
Hello mate, Than ks very much for the quick and easy tutorial! I would like to ask you if you could appload a similar video repairing the thrustmaster TFRP rudder pedals, i'm facing immense issues with the product in result of it jiterring and not functioning as required. I contacted thrustmaster support and i had no luck.
I unfortunately have never owned those pedals but I bet it’s a similar deal. You are very welcome for this video though
@@nocturnalsimulations Thank you! I am a real life Boeing 737 operator and I've got some gear for flight simming, unfortunately the rudder pedals are not working correctly and that is by bouncing and jittering. Thanks again for the tutorial and I'll definitely look into tearing them apart and possibly finding a solution using the same way. Best regards from Greece
@@mr.vaggelis146 feel free to join the discord if you get stuck! You can send me some pictures on there. I am an engineer so I enjoy working on things 🙂
@@nocturnalsimulationsQuick update, I tore apart the TFRP rudder pedals, cleaned the potentiometer and it's working perfectly now! It was a pain in the ass to do but worth it.
@@mr.vaggelis146 much better to go through some short term pain for long term gain on this type of stuff, which I am sure you already know lol
Thanks dad
You’re welcome, son!
I have done it and it solved the problem but it has started again what should I do?
Other than trying it again you can reach out to thrustmaster and try for a replacement part or warranty.
hey mate which screwdriver do you recommend i know it’s a small screwdriver just any recommendations?
It’s been a while but I believe I just used a small Philips screwdriver…I no longer have this joystick (upgraded to virpil) or I’d look
@@nocturnalsimulations thanks
Hey man, I know its been a while since you posted the video but is there a way to fix this if its not responding at all? everything works just not the x and y axis on it, maybe you know what replacement parts I could order?
Have you checked the wiring for loose connections or pinched wires? Could be a simple plug it back in solution or soldering a wire back together
@@nocturnalsimulations I dissassemble and found nothing unless its in the potentioteter itself
@@CeceNomad could be the potentiometer itself then, I do not have a part number for that and you’ll likely have to fight with thrustmaster to get that unfortunately. Google would be my first stop
@@nocturnalsimulations Thanks for the help, I will try that.
@@CeceNomad Good luck! Please post the part number if you manage to get one and I will sticky it.
Is this a permanent fix? I know this sounds like a stupid question, but I followed a video similar to this a year ago and the problem slowly came back. That one didn't do the spray cleaning; it focused more on wire placement. The fix didn't stay.
That’s a tough one to answer as there’s a ton of variables involved. I would say it would be a maintenance item for as long as you own it. However it would be easy to redo the next time(s) since you’ve already done it once and know what to expect.
@@nocturnalsimulations
I should say I'm on my second one, as the first one started acting up again after that attempt to repair it. When I bought the second one, I was steeped in wishful thinking that maybe some were faulty and some were not. But it seems like all of them are faulty. I can't, for the life of me, understand why Thrustmaster has not yet tried to fix this. It's a popular item; and this issue is equally popular. Smh.
@@rickfloyd451 I totally agree. C'mon TCA, your gear is usually 100% and this is a very factory-fixable design fault.
My sidestick for some reason doesn't want to open.
I don’t have this joystick anymore but make sure there’s not a screw hidden under a sticker. Assuming you’re talking about the bottom?
i don't gave the spray... should i still do it?
Rubbing alcohol will work too
@@nocturnalsimulations ye, but i don't have any 😕
@@JayJay360x well, you can try this and blow out the sensor with compressed air or your lungs in an attempt to get it working at the very least!
@@nocturnalsimulations Thanks! ill try that 🙃
C'mon TCA, your gear is usually 100% and this is a very factory-fixable design fault.
Right?! Drives me nuts
I couldnt fix it, disassembled two times, but mine is broke i think....:(
Aww man, sounds like the potentiometer is toast. Try reaching out to thrustmaster and see if they’ll fix it or send you another potentiometer to replace the broken one with
Im honestly so shocked, my unit is 10 days old and has this issue.
What!? That’s insane….hopefully this fixed you up
@@nocturnalsimulations yeah I don’t think I will because I have dedicated rudder pedals so I don’t use it anyway, and I don’t want to void my warranty to be honest
@@AviationFun737 No worries, I normally use the twist "rudder" for a tiller in tubeliners and then it doesn't get touched afterwards. Luckily you can just use rudder pedals for that anyways.
@@nocturnalsimulations yeah I used it for tiller for a bit but I find rudder a bit easier as I’m used to it
Sorry, but negativ! Your recommended fix looks great. But, after removing the 5 screws, it's not possible to remove the loosen left side of the stick !!
Up on the top, it stays together and if you start to draw, so much tension is building up that for sure the plastic will break :((
Could you please show us, how to remove the upper top left half of the stick!? Would be great!!
Are you talking about the parts at the top of the stick where you can swap the autopilot from left to right? You’ll need to remove that screw(s) also
@@nocturnalsimulations I think they have redesigned it recently. Mine is not that old and has the same problem. However the thumbstick is held in by two hex screws that seem to be a weird size. None of mine from 1.5mm up fit. These appear to need to be released before the stick will come apart.
Ok discovered the secret. there are an additional 2 screws on the other side. Making a total of 7 screws to remove.
@@dotChuckles ah, that may be it. I’ve had mine since about when it came out originally
@@nocturnalsimulations either way, taking it apart and cleaning the pot fixed my issue! 😊
Do you mean to tell me i can easily fix my rudder issue that i am now 3 joystick replaced in 15 mins with a screwdriver? no way?
Pretty much…just takes a little effort most of the time and things can be fixed fairly easily! It’s never as scary as it seems…