As always, I respect my fellow Mudspikers even when I might disagree with them.
My engineering degree was from the last century, however some things have not changed; fatigue, galvanic reactions and corrosion.
Typically, one would expect the molded (I assume you meant plastic) parts to fail before parts made from metal. Typically. It depends on how those metal parts were designed. I can break a steel paperclip by bending it back and forth (fatigue) long before I can break a thicker piece of plastic.
Galvanic reaction when you add electricity into the mix certainly does not help. Then there is corrosion; mainly sweat from our hands.
@dachsdkās controller lasted 9 years. IMPO that is pretty good considering that this is not RL aviation-grade equipment. Plus I would wager than few of us conducts regular periodic maintenance on our equipment beyond cleaning the dust out of our PC air filters (note to self: need to clean the dust out of the PC air filters).
If your controller is within the 2 Year Warranty then most definitely they owe young repair or replace. If it is beyond thatā¦
EDIT: and dust. Dust will find its way in and cause friction. And in my case, kitty litter. Iāve got a cat box in my Man Cave for my intrepid copilots. That raises more dust and while I do not know the exact composition of that dust, it reacts with moisture, so that cannot be good.
My take is this. After 9 years I dont expect warranty work from nobody. This is Thrustmaster not GM. I would go further to say that 9 yearsā¦ that stick gave you all. Get another and save this one for parts.
9 hears was @dachsdkās stick. Donāt know how old @sobekās stick is.
My TM WH is pretty old but Iām fairly sure I donāt put that many ācyclesā on it since I swap out controllers pretty regularity depending on what I am flying. X-52 for helos, X-56 for Viggen, Saitek Yoke in XP, etc.
I certainly do not expect any form of warranty on an item thatās 9 years old, that would be unheard of. What I do expect, is to be able to buy spare parts for a premium priced stick, that is still in production.
@Hangar200 Iām still going with zinc pest for this, there is definitely some intergranulary thing going on inside it, and none of the powdery stuff normally associated with corrosion to be seen. Itās hard to see on the pics, but what used to be smooth surfaces is now either bulging or kind of dented inwards.
Iām pretty familiar with various forms of corrosion in aluminium and magnesium, but I havenāt seen anything like this before.
Iāll make sure to keep the grip, Iām kinda curious how bad it will get.
I just got the T-50 CM2 base, not more than a couple of days ago, so my Visacard is still in cooldown mode
And the old Cougar is working like a charm, so theres no rush, but I have looked a bit at the CM2 grip.
Copy the Zink pest. Supposedly the Zamak alloy that it is made of was specifically developed to avoid zinc pest (according to the Wikipedia you linked in your original post. It does look suspicious. Lowest bidder?
I can understand thatā¦however, we might also realize that to the āSuitsā running the company, this is a ātoyā ā¦yeah, I hate it too but it is what it isā¦ Iāve had similar experiences (do NOT get me started about JFās C-46 Comando āupgradesā)
Yeah, they probably view it as any other consumer electronics, where repairs are seldom viable.
Just throw it out an buy something new. Good for business, and the landfillā¦
I dont know about the ZAMAK, apparently it has to be 99.99% pure zinc in order to avoid problems like this. I suppose a bad batch could have been used at some point, and itās only starting to show up now, many years later.
Looks like itās a somewhat common problem in the toy collector communities, a good deal of toy and model train related posts, pops up when googling it.
Dug out my Thrustmaster Harthog grip - which had been suffering from some degradation of itās surface due to hand-sweat/paint interactions - and it is showing the same patterns as described above. This is quite an old part - being from one of the earliest batches of the Warthog that I could get in Canada after release. It has not been in use for a few years (since I received my VKB MCG Pro grip in Sept 2017) and I did not notice the pattern prior to it being placed on itās self. It is most noticeable, for me, on the top plate and the bottom, under the āhand restā (below, neat the connector to the base). The left half of the stick looks untouched but the right half (and top plate) are showing lots of the pattern above.
I donāt have a problem with electronics failing or switches/gimbals etc. wearing out. But when you buy a stick for 350ā¬, i donāt expect the metal parts to fall apart. I expected that thing to be serviceable for years to come and not be a throwaway item. I donāt spend that kind of money on cr** that has built in obsolescence.
For you guys with the issue - if you have the set - what is the serial number on the plate with your throttle? I got my HOTAS maybe 4-5 years ago - my serial tag is 22522 & so far so good. Maybe we can narrow this down to a serial number range?
Mainly the right stick half, although i can see it on the top part and the big lognut like part that screws to the base as well. The gun trigger also shows blistering of the finish, probably the same issue.
I received mine either late 2010 or early 2011. Grip still looks great, but notice slight spacing in the seam where the hand rests. Not sure if it cam like that or if it started coming apart from all my moves.
Thanks to @LobinjaevelI I now have a fully functioning, and good as new WT grip again
He went waay above and beyond, and donated the needed parts to get the grip up and running again.
Thanks again man, that was simply outstanding!
That raises more dust and while I do not know the exact composition of that dust, it reacts with moisture, so that cannot be good.
