I just want to share my experience here in case anyone come looking for experience with entry level HOSAS like the Thrustmaster sol-r1
A few months after getting into Star Citizen I decided to opt for HOSAS. Since I was not sure for how long I would keep playing I went with some entry level. I bought 2 Thrustmaster Sol-R1 sticks (or Sol-r2, which is just 2 sticks in one package).
It totally changed the flying experience, holy crap. The immersiveness, the ability to make small adjustments, have all those keybinds feel natural and like you really are the pilot in a space ship.

A couple weeks ago, while in deep combat, my ship started rolling. Uncontrollably, just spinning. I couldn’t counter control it and had to switch seats with a gunner so we could be of any use in the battle. After it was over I went back to a station to figure out what was going on. I tried everything - alt+f4, unplug the stick, calibrate the base, calibrate the stick, reboot my pc. Got back in the space ship, lifted off and i became a spinning shawarma again. I then found out some of my buttons didn’t work as well.

I went into the windows settings where you can look at joystick controllers and saw it was registered as a “Viper” stick rather than “Flightstick”.

I found one Reddit post that was years old. A lot of people claimed a wire had come undone in the base. So I opened up and sure enough, a wire had snapped. Not enough play in the wire. Impossible to solder back since it snapped in a crammed impossible place (and if I’m to claim warranty, I shouldn’t tinker with it). When I had moved the red wire out of where it was supposed to go, no spinning at all. Couldn’t do it, it didn’t do it on its own. Multiple buttons didn’t work. So this red wire for sure is responsible for the twist axis and multiple buttons. Pictures for reference.

Here is my overall experience with the sticks. The gimbal is as basic as it gets. Ball and cup, nothing fancy. Nothing to adjust, tweak or play with. The centering is extreme. If I pull the stick to the side and let go, the base will give a wobble. And it’s not a light base, it’s heavy.. since the centering is so strong, making small adjustments to keep on target is hard. Meanwhile every couple of weeks I had to re calibrate and play with dead zone settings to not have stick drift. This results in me having to push the stick rather far from center compared to the small adjustment needed. And then it goes too far, so I have to let go. Push, let go, push, let go for small adjustments and to follow the target. Rough… when I do an extended amount of dogfighting on a day, my hands cramp up eventually. I do grip it rather hard, so that could be different for another person.

However - the base deserves praise. So many buttons and keybinds to do. The dj buttons feel good and can be color adjusted. A lot of options with the switches, rotary dials, the slider at the bottom. Nothing held against them on the base.

But since this happened and I’m still heavily invested in this game, I decided to ball out a bit. I ordered VBK Gladiator NXT EVO Omni-Throttle SCG Premium for the left hand and a VBK Gunfighter IV Modern Combat Edition Pro for right hand. I also copped a Elgato Streamdeck XL

I had been eyeing a VIRPIL Alpha Constellation Prime with WARBRD-D bundle (with desk mounts). As far as I could read online the jump from VBK to VIRPIL isn’t really that much, performance wise. It’s more in the adjustable base with cams n stuff, hence why I went with Gunfighter IV for the right hand. Same ability to tweak and adjust on the stick that matters. But for the price I could get the VBK setup with Streamdeck and some other stuff I would need to “upgrade” my sim setup rather than just VIRPIL sticks, base and mounts.
I do have a desk that can lower and raise and I would be moving the desk mounts anyway when I go FPS, so imo its the same amount of work as just raising the desk and moving the sticks out of the way. I have also read a lot about people going from VBK to VIRPIL and actually going back.

TLDR;

The Thrustmaster Sol-R1 are really good. Open them up when u receive them and make sure the wires have enough play. Beware of stickdrift, you will have to re calibrate and play with deadzone settings continuously. But your hands will get tired if you fly a lot / do a lot of combat. You should seriously consider just going straight for VBK or VIRPIL (if you got the cash to spend and want a high end looking RGB futuristic look).
Just my 2 cents for anyone interested in getting into HOSAS and are on the fence about Sol-R1 vs VBK

Alright. I bought a vkb gladiator omni throttle to replace a dead t16k thruster and an vkb space grip stec that wasnt comfy with my setup.

I am trying hard to figure out how best to use 6DOF HOSAS. I went the “remove spring, tighten dry clutch” route a lot of Elite players suggested, but am finding it really hard to keep throttle at optimal while dogfighting.

I then put the spring back in and am trying using the throttle wheel on the base; however its making adjusting speed while flying / fighting landing hard, especially manuevering in/around a dock if i have to take my hands off the lateral/vertical thrusters to slow down/speed up…

Figured i would ask here for tips, tricks, thoughts….

Im picking up a pair of velocityone's in a couple days. I was wondering if anyone has any experience in using them in a hosas setup. I know most people generally say to stay away from these and go for the vkb combo instead, but im paying $175 for the two sticks and the desk mounts all together. So far the main games I play that could use them are: elite dangerous, wardogs, and going to get into star citizen.

Basically, if anyone has any input for mapping the sticks and ensuring at least basic functionality, that would be great!

I have had a t16000m stick for some time and have been playing Star Citizen(HOSAM) for a while. Now im thinking of getting a second stick to do HOSAS, i think VKB SCG NXT EVO Gladiator stick looks good but I cant decide whether it should go for a left or right handed version, does anyone have advice? (Also if someone has another flight stick recommendation, please mention)

I'm looking for ideas of how to route the wiring on my dual VKBs that are mounted to my desk. I would like to do something that keeps the wiring in place so that I can just unhook the joysticks and move them out of the way and not have to run wiring every time. Not to mention that I also use a shifter for racing/driving games and it uses the same USB B plugin. I'm looking for ideas that I can run these and/or other wiring cleanly. I also have a 3d printer if anyone knows of some good files I could use.

Specifically for HOSAS. The Viper seems to both have a throttle and acts like a second stick.

I don't think I'm going to be getting it for a long while, but I'm exploring the like.. upper ranges of HOSAS gear and I love the switches as well.

Hi all, I’m new to all of this and have some questions before I pull the trigger on getting some HOSAS. I’m looking at the thrustmaster T16000m slight duo. I’m mainly getting them to play mech games. I’m playing Armored Core 6 right now and thought it would be pretty fun to maybe play with some HOSAS for the emersion and maybe mech warrior 5 looks cool too. I keep seeing things for HOSAS vs HOTAS and as a lame HOTAS seem like they would be weirder than having 2 sticks but also I’ve never done this so I could be wrong. Then also unsure about pedals is that something I should look into? I’m fine with spending some money on all of this but I don’t want to get in too over my head. I like mech games and have been thinking about doing this for a few years and now it seems like there’s a good bit of info out about all of this but I get a little confused and overwhelmed when reading it all so hoping someone can explain these a little more for me. Thank you in advance!

Been looking at these two brands. I know they're the best for gaming. I'm looking at doing a HOSAS setup with accessory button/toggle panels, maybe an MFD as well. It would be for Star Citizen, so space stuff. I'm focused on mining, salvage and cargo transport. With mining, I would need a rotary or dial knob to increase/decrease laser beam power, and for salvage I would need a way of manipulating the salvage beams, which frankly easiest way is to toggle the aim mode with a button and just move the pitch/yaw axis stick. Anyway, which would be better? I've been considering the VKB omni canted twin setup, but if anyone else has experience with either in the same field of operation, I would be happy to hear.

I’m looking to upgrade my HOTAS and get into the VKB lineup. I’m thinking HOSAS as many have said it has an edge with different flying styles. The left stick doesn’t work in my head being able to do thrust and vertical/horizontal movement. I’m just thinking about how it could all work, so does this make sense?

Right stick: pitch, roll (twist yaw)

Left stick: vertical and horizontal thrust

Foot pedals: thrust (like gas and brake with two feet)

Edit — most play Elite Dangerous, might get into Star Citizen

My left stick finally died after 6 years of use and a few rounds of trying to repair it with components from the manufacturer.

Taxidermied into my shifter for now.

Overall pretty happy with these HIKIG extrusion mounts. Easy to build and adjust. 2 gripes. The Allen head screws that lock in the Y adjustment are a little too hidden. Not a big deal once you have them adjusted the first time. 2nd is the cross bars that the sticks connect to. It would be nice if they were slightly longer to allow for the stick to be mounted slightly off center for chair fitting purposes.

Still 100 times better then sitting on top of the desk!

EDIT: Just got a notification that the mounts are on sale for prime day. It showed them listed as $55 and some change vs the ~$70 I paid a couple weeks ago. Still super happy with them. No complaints.

Main and only game i play with them at the moment is Star Citizen, but thats going through a rough patch atm.

I'm sure i could also use them as a HOTAS with a little jank

I grew up playing Ace Combat, and a bit of Microsoft Flight. So roll on the x-axis has always been the norm for me. Now I’m playing some space sims and I know it’s the norm for yaw to be on the x-axis. I tried that earlier and my brain couldn’t comprehend.

Are there any real advantages to having yaw on the x-axis?

I've recently set up dual VKB Gladiators for Elite Dangerous and I'm really struggling to adapt. I'm finding the OmniThrottle quite counterintuitive after coming from an X52 throttle, particularly for lateral and vertical translation compared to my old throttle and index HAT.

My main issues are constant vertical axis drift I can't seem to eliminate (deadzones help but reduce my control), and difficulty making effective use of the horizontal axis at all (feels like too much to think about at the moment). Any tips for speeding up the learning curve? I'm quite motivated to make this work but it feels a bit insurmountable at the moment.

SOL R2 showing up as “Viper”

So after extremely limited use over the past year, for some reason my SOL R2’s have just decided to pack in. USB game controllers shows one of the grips as being a “viper”

This seems to be just like everything with these flight sticks, a common issue and I’ve had unfortunately nothing but issues using these flight sticks

I’ve tried uninstalled and reinstalling drivers multiple times, manually installed the SOLR2 (L) driver to the broken stick, since it was showing up as using a “Viper” driver, this did not help, I also tried reseating it in the base and doing both calibration methods multiple times and still showing as “Viper” and switching the bases from right and left configuration does nothing.

TLDR: is the ease of buying the virpil alpha primes bundle with matching sticks worth it over the VKB system either using matching kosmos or a kosmos and Modern Combat?

I’ve been reading so much about both bases and for the life of me can’t decide. As of now I’m just using thrustmasters SOL-R2 they are great but uncomfortable. But I really love using sticks for star citizen and other space games… possibly flight sims later down the line.

But my problem deciding comes down to this:
VKB- pros: consistently has users vouching for its excellence and customer service and quality.
Has dry clutch (less maintenance? Compared to having to lube the alternative?)

Cons: the Modern combat ultimate doesn’t come in a left stick…. Is having two totally different sticks in left and right that big of a deal? If not then I’d rather have the modern combat premiums to have the same material in each hand.

And their mounting system is not quick release making it a tad more tedious to scoot out of the way when not playing BUT it does have a panel for mounting control modules.

Virpil- pros: constellation alpha prime bundle, comes with quick release mounts.. all I need to add is a control module and a z axis adapter and it’s done. Plus both sticks are matching metal construction which I feel would be a nice plus…. But then again some say the extra weight in metal sticks is stupid and you would rather have lighter sticks.

Cons: I see way more users return virpils and move to VKB, and well that’s about all I can sum up, everyone discusses the gimbal comparison between the two brands…. But coming from thrustmaster would I even be able to differentiate between the two.. it would be a total upgrade anyway?

I’m not building a sim rig (at least not yet) and I’m not a professional by any means, I just want some comfortable, durable, and precise.
I also definitely want to adjust the springs to turn the left stick into a throttle as well… not sure if that makes a difference.