After reading several reviews of semi-realistic flight simulator controls, I bought a Saitek yoke, throttle quadrant and rudder pedals.

When they arrived, I plugged them into my computer and ran Flight Gear 2.10. It instantly recognized them and the fun began.

Note: my computer is an old Dell, dual core 3.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, dual boot Ubuntu 12.10 and Windows XP.

After about a minute, however, the fun ended. The yoke and throttle suddenly, without warning, in the middle of a flight, stopped working. I paused the simulator to check it out. Flightgear still recognized all controls plugged in, but did not register any motion whatsoever from the yoke, throttle quadrant, or any of their switches. The pedals continued working, but they're not much use without the rest of the controls.

I saw an error message in the console from which I ran Flightgear. It said something like "/dev/input/js0: no such device".

I unplugged the yoke and plugged it back in. It was instantly recognized and started working again! A few seconds later, it froze again. I closed Flightgear, fired up my browser and started Googling for answers.

First thing I did was check out the device files Flightgear complained about. I checked and those files did exist, but they were mode 644. I added a file to "/etc/udev/rules.d" to make them mode 666.

  • I ran "lsusb" to see what their Vendor & Product IDs were.
  • I added a new file "99-saitek.rules" to /etc/udev/rules.d:
    # Rules for Saitek yoke & rudder pedals
    # Saitek PLC Pro Flight Yoke
    KERNEL=="event*",ATTRS{idProduct}=="0bac",ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3",MODE="0666"
    KERNEL=="js*",ATTRS{idProduct}=="0bac",ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3",MODE="0666"
    # Saitek PLC Pro Flight Rudder Pedals
    KERNEL=="event*",ATTRS{idProduct}=="0763",ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3",MODE="0666"
    KERNEL=="js*",ATTRS{idProduct}=="0763",ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3",MODE="0666"
    # Saitek PLC Pro Flight Yoke integrated hub
    KERNEL=="event*",ATTRS{idProduct}=="712c",ATTRS{idVendor}=="06a3",MODE="0666"
  • I unplugged them then plugged them back in.
    • This worked - the device files were now mode 666 (no longer 644).

    Unfortunately, this didn't fix the problem.

    Next, I tried plugging the rudder pedals directly into the computer, instead of into the USB hub on the yoke. This did not fix the problem.

    Next, I tried plugging both devices into the USB ports on my PCI expansion board, instead of the built-in USB ports. This did not fix the problem.

    Next, I tried disabling the built-in USB ports (from the BIOS) and using the USBs on the PCI expansion board. This did not fix the problem.

    Next, I read somewhere that Flightgear wants the yoke to be joystick 0 (not joystick 1). Whichever you plug in first becomes joystick 0. But if the rudder pedals are already plugged into the yoke's USB hub when you plug in the yoke, the rudder pedals become joystick 0, the yoke joystick 1. So I plugged the yoke in first, without the pedals plugged in, then plugged in the pedals. This forced the yoke to be joystick 1. But it did not fix the problem.

    Next, I tried booting to Windows XP, where I had Flight Simulator X installed (via Steam). First I went to Control Panel / Joysticks (or Game Devices). Windows recognized the yoke, throttles & rudder pedals and calibrated them. But after a few minutes, the yoke & throttles stopped responding - just like they did on Ubuntu. If I unplugged them, then plugged them back in, they worked for a minute or two then froze again. I tried running Flight Simulator X, but it was a horrible experience. I couldn't get it to recognize the yoke, throttles or pedals properly at all.

    I booted back to Ubuntu and tried a different joystick game: GL-117, free from the Ubuntu Software Center. Like Flightgear, this game worked perfectly for a minute or so, then the yoke stopped responding entirely.

    The yoke has a USB hub and a power adapter. I wondered if it wasn't getting enough power from USB and needed the power adapter. But Saitek says the adapter is optional, only needed if you use the hub. And reviewers on Amazon reported it works fine without the power adapter even you're plugging the rudder pedals into the hub. I wasn't using the hub, I was plugging the rudder pedals directly into the computer. So I shouldn't need the power adapter.

    I tried it in my wife's computer, which is similar to my own. It had the exact same problem - worked perfectly at first, then after a few moments became completely unresponsive.

    Now, this computer has had intermittent USB problems for a long time. Perhaps that was causing the Yoke & pedals not to work. I did some more Googling and learned something about USB auto suspend. First, I checked whether USB auto suspend was enabled:
    cat /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
    cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb*/power/autosuspend
    Both commands returned "2", meaning USB devices would auto-suspend after 2 seconds. This is a desktop machine, I don't need or want USB devices to auto-suspend at all. I turned this off in 2 ways:

  • First I added a boot kernel parameter to /etc/default/grub, like this:
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="usbcore.autosuspend=-1"
  • Next I created a file /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf that says
    options usbcore autosuspend=-1

    • After the first, I confirmed (by repeating the above commands) that USB autosuspend was disabled. I did the second too, just for good measure. This could be useful if a future version of the kernel includes USB as a module instead of built into the kernel.

    I tried the Yoke again in Flightgear, but it still failed with the same problem. However, the intermittent USB problems this computer used to have are all fixed. It prints faster and more reliably, USB flash drives work perfectly, etc.

    Conclusion: this Saitek Yoke and throttle quadrant did not work on my computer, in Linux or in Windows, despite significant troubleshooting. Summary of troubleshooting:

  • Tried different USB ports, both built-in and add-on via PCI card
  • Tried using a different computer
  • Tried Linux and Windows XP
  • Tried plugging rudder pedals into Yoke USB hub, and directly into the computer
  • Tried forcing Yoke to be joystick 0, pedals joystick 1
  • Tried opening settings of Linux devices from 644 to 666
  • Tried disabling USB auto-suspend in the operating system

    • Otherwise, it seems to be a high quality product so I must assume that:

  • It is defective
  • The power adapter is not optional, as Saitek says, but required
  • It is unusually sensitive to the type of computer and USB ports used

    • Whatever the reason, it doesn't work and I had to return it.