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Presto Change-o! Saitek Cyborg 3D USB
By Kurt ‘Froglips’ Giesselman, European Bureau ChiefSaitek’s Cyborg 3D USB Gold
I recently completed the first phase of construction for my home cockpit. It is pretty rough at this point but quite serviceable. I haven’t finished building the new computer to power the beast nor have I found a good deal on the flat panel display I hope to install in my cockpit. The result of this ‘partially-completed’ stage of my cockpit construction means that I must plug the cockpit into my current mini-tower PC that I use at my desk. This is about a twenty minute operation that always involves a series of computer reboots followed by banging my head into the underside of my desk.
I do quite a bit of sim flight testing for my work with the F4 Realism Patch group, the F4 Alliance, and the F4 Terrain group as well as my writing for online magazines. I often need to briefly start up a simulation to test a modification, get a screenshot, or check a new feature against a document I am writing. A week after I finished the work on my cockpit, and I had banged my head ten or fifteen times, I decided I was in the market for a new HOTAS that I could use for quick flights.
I wanted a USB setup to facilitate changing between my full cockpit (completely USB through a hub so it connects with a single USB cable) and my new “Quickie” HOTAS. I needed a full stick, throttle, and rudder setup for my wrestling matches with helicopter simulations. And it needed to be programmable so I could use it with different simulations easily.
I have a Saitek Cyborg 2000 that I keep around for testing analog pedals. It really fits my somewhat small hand very well. I knew their USB models have the same range of adjustments and that they were reasonably priced. I was pleased to discover that Saitek has introduced a new, upscale model of their USB Cyborg stick called the Cyborg 3D USB Gold.
The new Cyborg 3D USB Gold is more attractive to me than their all black Cyborg 2000 and similarly styled, previous USB sticks. The two tone color was a great match for my PC Dash2 (now renamed P8000) and fit on my mouse table perfectly. The stick was easy to adjust with the included Allen wrench.
Set up for right hand use
This is one of the few sticks that can be configured to work for left handed people. The change takes less than one minute.
Set up for left hand use
There are adjustments for hand size/wrist position (five positions), thumb length (three positions), and thumb cant (three positions). The throttle handle can be swapped to match the left or right hand setup quickly and easily.
Wrist and hand size adjustment
Head cant adjustment
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