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Re: Any way to "dampen" the spring in the Gunfighter III via VKBDevCfg?

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 16:27
by Drano
Yeah well there's tightened and then there's-- TIGHTENED! If he's got them snugged full up actually tight it's no wonder he's feeling it. That's what I think he's describing. That's not the idea of the clutches. Full up tight is how it comes from the factory but it's right in the startup guide to loosen them I believe.

I don't know what his threshold of smooth is. I'm several years into mine now and it's just butter smooth. Light years away from the CH stick it replaced. That stick was smooth too but with a lightness of weight that suggested it was a toy in comparison. I was just trying to get at whether he's actually feeling a sticktion moving the stick. Or is it perceived as sticktion looking at the graph in the tester. If he's looking at the graph it could be a connection thing as I'd said. I also considered it might just be how he's moving the stick. This thing is highly sensitive. Light years away from sticks of the past and will show the tiniest of movements on that graph. Human movement isn't perfect.

If he's actually feeling sticktion with this stick with the dampers fully loosened then that points to something dragging in the gimbal. Washer in the wrong place or missing. Bearing tightened too much (pre-load). Bad spot on a cam. Something like that. Easily fixed. We'll get him straightened out.

Re: Any way to "dampen" the spring in the Gunfighter III via VKBDevCfg?

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 16:34
by Drano
And I'd echo your experience wth the extension. I didn't have it initially but changed my setup to where I could use it. With the 200mm extension it's another factor of precise over what is the most precise stick I've ever had.

Re: Any way to "dampen" the spring in the Gunfighter III via VKBDevCfg?

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 0:26
by boom
In summary:
- There is minimal friction with the dry clutch disengaged on the roll axis.

- With the dry clutch engaged, the friction provided, both static and kinetic, actually interferes with the non-linear 'feel' of the force I get from the strong spring and avia cam which is the whole point of the Gunfighter 3 (I could have bought the FSSB-R3 Lighting 'upgrade' for my hog for about the same cost as my vkb base+grip)

- The dry clutch even fully tightened also doesn't critically dampen the heavy spring I used. I'd probably have to swapped back the default or the #10 spring.

- Instead of doing that I have opted to get rid of the spring on the x axis entirely and I have not had any issues with instability both in DCS and in JoyTester since.

Seriously with the spring removed the Gunfighter is even more sensitive than before. I'd say it's roughly on par now with my x65 force sensing stick which I didn't think is possible for a mechanical gimbal. :o

Thanks for the feedback guys. At this point I think the only possible fix would have to come via software instead of hardware. After I get the 200mm extension I'll put the springs back in and try my hands at writing my PID loop in Python. I just hope that mapping the Gunfighter via vJoy in Joystick Gremlin won't introduce any noticeable lag in I/O.

Re: Any way to "dampen" the spring in the Gunfighter III via VKBDevCfg?

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 3:53
by Drano
Play around with curves in Devconfig. That might get you closer to what you're looking for.

Re: Any way to "dampen" the spring in the Gunfighter III via VKBDevCfg?

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 17:11
by boom
Belated update: simply adding the extension fixed all the issues I had. I think the whole system was designed with the 200mm extension in mind.