Throttling Up - wait for TECS or?

[Hans001]

I'm nearing completion of my vr-pit and would really like to keep all the hardware VKB. Last I read, the VKB throttle is not showing up in 2019. Can I get an update or a ballpark on the TECS throttle roll out before I go and defile my matched component setup with VirPil's offering?

Thanks,
Hans

[ddrake1984]

looking very good hans

what material did you use to make this?

[Hans001]

Thank you. The base is 2x2 aluminum square tube and the white is all .750 HDPE. Ordered the VKB pedals yesterday so now I guess I will wait on VKBs throttle :/

[PatMan33]

VKB are pretty terrible at keeping timelines and delivering useful information. If you want to get your setup up and running, you might as well grab something now.

If you're still in the market for a VKB product, keep an eye out and save some money on the side. But don't depend on VKB to deliver information or product when they say they will. That said, whenever TECS does show up it will probably be excellent. When it shows up...

Your setup looks great, by the way. Nice work!

[Hans001]

Thank you PatMan. I have decided to do exactly as you recommended. The virpil unit looks very nice, but I can make due until VKB releases their product. Personally, I am okay with VKBs way of conducting business, as it is their business to conduct as they please. It may not be a good way to conduct a business but it's their's, not mine. Thanks for the reply and kind words.

[AeroGator]

Thanks we appreciate sane attitude
Hurrying up a cook can only result in crappy food.
When this throttle finally comes out however you will see it was totally worth waiting for

[ddrake1984]

please note, virpils throttle has changed form factor and looks slightly different - they announced it yesterday

[PatMan33]

Thanks we appreciate sane attitude
Hurrying up a cook can only result in crappy food.
When this throttle finally comes out however you will see it was totally worth waiting for

And casually pretending that customer concerns aren't a big deal is bad business and insulting. Every time you do this I am less and less inclined to buy your product. If you would just say "Hey you know what, yeah we've dropped the ball when it comes to communicating our release schedule and helping customers understand why the process is constantly plagued with setbacks", man oh man would that go a long way to smoothing things over. But you usually give us nothing and then throw tilted comments at the people that raise issues and imply that they are not sane (what the hell, dude?). This person wanted an honest answer and I gave them one: that they are probably going to have to wait for the high-quality product, that VKB probably won't give them any information, and that when all is said and done it will be worth the wait but that they should not hold their breath in the interim.

I never knock your quality and I always try to give credit where credit is due. And I'm not trying to rush you, I'm trying in as many ways as I can to get the message through to you that you have to improve your communication. In fact I still hope to be able to buy your equipment when it finally does come out. But I am concerned that you communicate poorly and continue to communicate poorly after years of customers raising their concerns. You're not pushing drugs to addicts that can't help themselves, you're selling boutique controllers to a limited market that is beset with comparable competition.

I want you guys to shine.

[fallout9]

Hi PatMan,
I could let this slide, but it wouldn't be fair for either you or VKB staff - you are obviously a dedicated customer and they are a great company. You feel hurt and neglected, but it's not the case. You have to take into consideration that none of the VKB staff is a native English speaker; I know the struggle myself, it's not easy - living under communism for 20+ years with no access to other language other than the native one. Some of them are answering questions here using Google translate; I could never ever not respect someone going through all this trouble just to help another person. Customer service skills not too high? Consider that not everywhere in this world are the same standards like in Western Europe or North America. And honestly, when it comes to joysticks customers support, instead of a pleasant lady making me wait 2 weeks for fixing my issue and telling me sweet stories wit a smooth voice every day until she remembers to feed my issue to the engineer I would rather prefer that engineer to get back to me sooner with a "Hey moron, you forgot to plug that cable, stop wasting my time". I swear I'm honest.
How many times you've been on Thrustmaster forums to find the owner of the company or any of the directors responding to question? Alas, I've sent 3 e-mails to TM customer service about my WH not working years ago and got nothing back, not even an acknowledgement. And this happened to other hundreds of TM users and nobody batted an eye and you know why? Because people are used to sparse communication from TM and if they're getting something back they consider themselves lucky; if they won't get anything back they just consider it normal.
I think VKB is a very customer oriented company and here are a few reasons to back it up: instead of closing the GF MKI and MKII lines and start selling the MKIII they offer an upgrade. They're loosing money with this, but they respect their customers and standing behind their products. Compare it with Virpil, who's set on profit by burying their 1 year old (or even less) products and replacing them with flashy ones; cutting the product's price with 20% and the the same product features with 40%. I'm not even going in detail with the efforts they've made for keeping the Mamba alive; it'd been so easy to say 'so guys, sorry, it's been a while for this stick, time to move on to a newer product'. With the recently released Gladiator adapter the same story - it would've been way more easier and profitable for them to start selling the Gladiator X, but instead they thought about their customers who already bought the Gladiator MKI and II and would like to upgrade without buying a new device. I'd also won't go into details about their high standards of engineering, design and software because they're all known by educated people in this market.
Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted you to have a different angle of the problem here, coming from someone with a relatively same background, because obviously you care about their products and they care about their customers.

[Fri13]

What comes to the VKB throttle, I would recommend to waiting period to simply get something else like a CH throttle or TM.16000 throttle. Meaning you get a more or less F/A-18C kind throttle and both has enough buttons for most things. You don't pay much for those throttles while waiting, and you can sell them easily when VKB throttle comes out.

The main benefit is that you don't invest a lot for those, so you can save money to buy the VKB throttle ones it comes out and that you learn to habit to use a sliding throttle, instead swiveling throttle like Thrustmaster Warthog throttle is (and others like Virpil throttles).
My only wish is that VKB will make the sliding range far more than what was mentioned somewhere, the 15 cm distance. As I would really like to see a 20cm or as much as possible the whole throttle has the width. As I could always buy then those additional button/dial/knob modules to extend the throttle functions as addition, but I couldn't extend the sliding range from what the standard base offers. And now custom to CH Throttle short range, it is still too short. And the TM.16000 throttle range is not so much better, even when it is noticeable longer.

One of the "Official"? mockups of the throttle:



This has turn me more for the idea to build my own throttle, single axis instead two axis, but make a 250-300 mm sliding range for it at 10bit resolution at least. It would make really easy to control the speed.

[Andreyzh]

You're not the only one who's eagerly waiting for this throttle and thinking options. I was very much leaning to some of the recently announced alternatives, but I just can't stand the looks and lack of detents.

Now, on the TECS subject. At some point in the past there was quite a lot of discussion between the pilots and the designers designers over here: https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/668 ... д/page/75/ In fact, much more than you could see on a native VKB forum, which is explainable, to some extent.

The last relevant post from the VKB guys was on September 4th. Uiv said that they have not abandoned TECS. However, they have very little experience in mass production of throttles. So far they've done about a dozen of different models. The work is still ongoing, however not "as fast as we would have wanted it".
With all of this in mind, I would certainly not count for the release of the TECS in 2019 or even the first half of 2020. VKB sure knows how to take their time. All-in-all I think the previous advice to get the CH or TM.16000K if you don't want to spend too much money.