Gunfighter Mk.III 'Space Combat Edition' z axis decalibrating often

[BillCroman]

I was on the website and saw the SCG Grip Conversion Kit. As the subject states I have the Space Combat Premium grip paired with the Gunfighter Mk III base. While playing Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen the joystick often (hourly or so) uncalibrates the z axis sending the space ship into an uncontrollable roll. Recalibrating the joystick fixes the problem temporarily. I was wondering if the SCG Grip Conversion Kit would fix this issue?
Thanks for your help.
Bill

[fallout9]

The conversion kit has other function, can't get paired with what you have.
When your roll axis fails are the other buttons on the grip working? If you don't know yet, can you try next time when it happens? Also, which axis are your rolling on, on twist?
Next time when your grip misbehaves close the game, run VKBDevCfg and take a screenshot of Profile/Axes/Logical and Physical Axes. Recalibrate your device and take another screenshot of the same chart. Post both charts here please.

[BillCroman]

Thank you for your quick response.

To answer your questions. Yes it is the twist (RotZ) axis and yes, the other buttons still work as well as the other axises. Generally it starts off as a slow roll hardly noticeable and then builds.
I started Star Citizen at 4:10 pm est. The roll started at 4:35 pm but wasn't bad so I continued on. At 4:58 pm the roll got worse not totally uncontrollable but it took substantial right twist to counter act the roll. Attached are the screen shots you requested. I had a hard time getting the RotZ dot to line up with the others and after several tries I hit the big red default button. Several more tries at recalibration and I was finally able to get all of the dots lined up.
Thanks,
Bill

[fallout9]

Remove the twist please, like here and check if the magnet is still properly attached on the top of the module and if the magnet sensor board is in place (both marked in red below).

[BillCroman]

Hello,

I took the joystick apart and removed the twist the magnet was in place as was the sensor board. As seen in the picture the magnet was kind of dirty looking. I flipped it over to the shiny side up (other picture). I also cleaned it and applied a little lube before reassembly as in the video.

Let me know if you see something wrong. I'll let you know if the cleaning had any performance improvement.

Thanks,
Bill

[fallout9]

Looks good, keep us posted please.

[BillCroman]

Update, after about 4 hours of Star Citizen. Probably closer to 3 hours of actual game play focusing on dog fighting mostly. I can report that the calibration held true for the whole session.
Thank you for your help.
Bill

[rtrski]

This might be totally unrelated, I wonder if the "dirty" magnet had a little magnetizable metal dust on it, that was throwing off the sensor.

My first Gunfighter gimbal (MK II) was bought a long time ago with the first production run of the Modern Combat Grip Pro (no longer available, they're all "Pro" now, or Ultimate...the former "Base" MCG (button at thumbrest position vs. hat) is only sold for the Thrustmaster now I think...and "Pro" is clarified in use for mostly the stick extension versions of anything). I noticed that every now and then one of my axes would go a little weird and start to act up, kind of similar to what you were describing, pretty sure it was X which I used for roll. I'd recalibrate, it would go away for a bit. But I also figured out when it happened if I went to the Joytester and could see it happening, little spikes in the measured value when the stick was moved only slightly off center, I could do big clockwise and counterclockwise circles for a while and eventually 'rub it out' (ahem)....the bad behavior would go away for a while.

I blamed all sorts of things, pin contact getting a little oxidation, weak cable-to-pin connection at the little plug interface, tugging on the cable as it went thru the gimbal... Anyway as long as I sort of 'worked it out' a bit before gaming it was fine. I chalked it up to precision measurements mean high sensitivity, wasn't worth getting bent out of shape about (I'm used to equipment sometimes needing weekly or even daily recalibration even if never powered on/off or measurements drift, in real work.)

A later Gunfighter II purchased with the SCG Premium grip for the left hand never misbehaved.

Enter the GF III release and upgrade kit for the GFII, and the long awaited at the time release of the twist module for the MCG. When swapping out the sensor board in the II to III conversion I noticed some 'dirtyness' on the magnet too, and it kind of looked like metal debris or shavings. Sure enough, after the sensor board replacement and cleaning that off....never happened again. I've since upgraded that gimbal with a MCG-Ultimate grip, and it's still doing fine to this day. I speculate that if the magnet dust was kind of 'standing up' (e.g. it was sort of oblong) and could physically brush the sensor it caused spikes, but if it was all rubbed down to lay flat it wouldn't piss it off as much. When idle the oblong bits would gradually tend to try to field align more perhaps (?)

(Huh, just realized I'm coming up on 5 years with that unit, although many parts have been swapped out, the GF II to III replacement also came with the cam options, the new shell, the new boards, I swapped out the Blackbox cable too for the longer one because of my install. Happy near anniversary VKB!!)

[BillCroman]

Maybe it was magnetic as well as dirty. Thanks for your input and the experience that you relayed.