Wiimote plus: genuine vs chinese

If a brand is unbeatable for selling the same thing over and over again,  it's well Nintendo (Zelda for GameCube, Zelda for Wii, Zelda for DS, 3DS, ...). The Wii controllers are not forgotten in this game.
Just once you bought enough extra Wiimotes for the whole family, the Motion Plus dongle came out. Now that you eventually equipped all your Wiimotes with this add-on, the integrated version is there...


So do you feel like spending once more a third of the console price in another round of controllers ?

The first Wii MotionPlus Remote can be acquired bundled with the game Wii Motion Play, kind of justifying the price of ~ €45. Then it's about €35.- for each additional unit.
So the low cost alternative is tempting ... but it is a lottery as well!
Anyway let's find out...

I made a random pick on eBay for a red Chinese-mote at €15.- delivered (The red choice is to match the only color that was available for the genuine unit bundled with Wii Motion Play).

The fake remote is visually identical to the Nintendo, too identical...with the same "Wii MotionPlus INSIDE", Nintendo and RVL-003 imprints. This is my biggest problem with this unit: producing a Wii compatible controller is not illegal (see Datel, Bigben, Hubb, Venom...) but copying the brand name and model is, and  stupid: who's seriously thinking it comes from Nintendo when buying at such a low price?

The quality difference is immediately obvious with the plastic. The battery cover in particular is expected to be short lived! The only thing looked so cheapm that I started to wonder if it would actually contain a Motion plus, IR camera, rumble and speaker.

Well, the first test seemed to confirm my expectations...with the pointer going all over the places and no way to target anything accurately!... until I did some adjustments:

- I went to the Wii settings to changed the Sensor bar sensitivity to a lower value. Obviously the camera in those Chinese remotes has a different sensitivity than the originals. This simple step mostly did the trick for me and the remote became stable and accurate (tested with Wii Sport Resort and Wii Motion Play).

- My "sensor bar" was sitting on top of the TV, so I tried moving it below (adjusting the corresponding setting in the Wii setup of course). Some forum suggest that changing the position of the LED bar can help. While it didn't change much for me, it didn't make things any worse. As a third option, most non-Nintendo replacement "sensor bar" on the market are said to increase the accuracy to the remotes, mostly due to brighter LEDs.

Once the remote accuracy was resolved, I tested the compatibility with the official Nunchuck and it also worked properly.



So it seem that some non-official remotes for Wii can be a good alternative once you don't expect the same build quality for the price difference. Beside the obscure Chinese non-brand remotes, there are alternatives from more renowned manufacturers like Datel Wildfire FX, Bigben LX, Hubb, Venom V-mote, with prices in-between if you don't feel too adventurous.

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More:
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/settingsSensorBar.jsp

http://www.davidhawley.co.uk/WiiSensorBar.aspx

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Saitek F.L.Y. 5: Really wanted to like it !

I was looking for a compact flight stick to replace my old Saitek Cyborg 3D Force and the F.L.Y.5 (also called Cyborg X) caught my eyes...

My force feedback joystick started to give strange results since Windows 7, vibrating when not expected, and remaining still when it should have been triggered. The spring force was also not applied all the time.
As my flight sim sessions became more occasional, I found more appropriate to base my research on the following criteria:

- no force feedback and power adapter needed
- compact and plug-and-play
- twist handle for rudder control
- throttle
- enough buttons
- price limit: 80€


So no, X52 (although I've been really tempted) or Hotas Warthog for me.

The F.L.Y.5 is a nice object, with all the above conditions met, plus a double throttle for twin engine aircrafts, a small wheel for the elevator trim, and adjustable handle parts. I didn't play with this and left the allen key in place. I still have in mind the previous joysticks and racing wheel I had from Saitek and how fragile they all were (with the only exception of Cyborg 3D so far).

Simple to operate, keys conveniently placed, firm enough, especially the twin throttles. It could be a bit more precise but worked well enough with FSX, HAWX and IL2 (1946!, can't speak for COD yet...)

During the first weeks of use, I really thought that I'd ever need another joystick !
...I was wrong!

"What you buy cheap, you pay twice"


...and the proverb is unfortunately true, and in the middle of a dogfight,  one of the buttons around the hat switch popped out! A plastic part keeping the whole thing in place suddenly cracked, ejecting the spring-loaded button, which crashed on my desk...(as did my Spitfire shortly after).

My first though was, "ok, Saitek's legendary fragility is still true...I should have known better"




Almost ready to pay it twice...
No replacement available at the shop, only a credit note so I'm now back, in the interim, with my old Cyborg 3D. I'm very tempted to buy another "Cyborg X", trying to convince myself that it was just one bad Monday-built unit, but I know I'm  fooling myself, it is the usual Saitek quality problem!

In conclusion, this is probably one of the nicest and best-thought compact joystick out there BUT...it's unfortunately made by Saitek! Come on Thrustmaster, for once, make a clone!


Type "Saitek defect" on youtube or see this video review from another (IL2) gamer for a stronger warning.

Update: I finally changed for the less pretty but sturdy and precise Thrustmaster T.16000M.

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