How to Logitech Wingman Force 3d

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Kobo
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 21, 2020 8:14 pm

How to Logitech Wingman Force 3d

Post by Kobo » Thu May 21, 2020 8:52 pm

I recently bought the above mentioned joystick because I was told that force feedback is essential for Condor. The stick, although used, is functional but not great. Mine is very sloppy around the center position. That makes flying very twitchy. I thought I'd disassemble it to see where the slop comes from. I was unable to find any useful notes on how to take the joystick apart, so here's my shot at a short guide.
DISASSEMBLY
Taking the Logitech Wingman Force 3d apart is kind of tricky. You first remove the shell around the stick by undoing four screws and taking the two halves apart. Then the yaw-potentiometer can be removed and the circuit board in the head can be unplugged. Next, you'll need to carefully remove the rubber boot by prying up the plastic ring around the base of the stick (where the throttle is) and slipping it out. Make sure to remove the return-spring for the rudder/twist function so you don't damage the boot on the sharp ends while sliding it up. Don't worry about the hex-screws on the ring: they don't grip anything and can be ignored. The ring itself also has to come off. It's held in with three clips, that need quite a bit of force to push outwards while lifting the ring up. Be careful not to damage the boot or the throttle-slider. Once you have the ring off, you can move to the bottom of the base and undo the five screws there. There's a sticker in the middle, but it doesn't cover anything so don't bother removing it. Now the whole base should come apart and you'll be able to lift the cover off past the stick to reveal the motors and circuit board inside.
ASSESSMENT
The stick seems to be well build and is in remarkable shape considering its age. Unfortunately the engineers at Logitech went for plastic-on-plastic "bushings" to guide the pitch and roll movement. I don't know if the tolerances on the diameters are bad from the factory or if it wore over time but my Wingman has developed considerable amounts of play there. An additional source of play are the gearboxes linking the motors to the gimbal, but I don't think there's much to fix there except for some fresh grease (make sure it's compatible with the plastics!). I will try to fabricate a kind of sleeve for the bushings out of brass and hope to achieve little to no play in the stick with this fix. I'll keep you updated on the progress.
DRIVER SOFTWARE
After some digging I acutally found the driver software for this age-old stick on the Logitech-Website (support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024689754--Downloads-Force-3D-Pro). It even works on Windows 10.
CONCLUSION
This much cheaper alternative to the coveted MS Sidewinder is disappointing at first but seems solid underneath. I hope I can fix the play (and get the whole thing back together) soon. Don't buy it if you're not willing to tinker a bit and don't pay more than 20€ for it unless you can test it first.

I hope this is helpful to somebody. Cheers!

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