[Review] Simped F16/USB vs. MFG Crosswind

im just waiting for them to arrive...ordered in the second patch...serial number 15..cant wait

Vivoune I use those Pedals almost daily for a bit more than Month now. The built quality is excellent,I rate it even higher than the Warthog. The Material is very strong and sturdy and has nothing in common with wood. I doubt that anyone could break it using the bare Hands (or feet in that matter^^) Of course it can be broken using brute force and the right tools. But so can almost any other Material.

Wow these look fantasic :)

I've got the Warthog HOTAS but am flying without pedals atm and really need to get some. Was going to get Saitek Combat pedals but might have to save a bit more and get these instead! No way am I getting cheap pedals when I've spent so much on the HOTAS.....

Thank you for your valuable input Lausbub, that's reassuring. I'm currently balancing these MFG set with VKB products (Although the new Mk22 [A revised Mk21-3] is only due to Q1 2014, probably Q4 2013 but unlikely) and also that great looking set that just arrived on the market last month. The price is about the same though I gotta learn more about how it fares against the MFG in terms of features, the controller card, the type of sensors and their precision..

Good to have choices :D

I think either of those Pedals is great. But the VBK ones are hard to get and I'm not certain if anything can be adjusted to your needs,like the MFG Pedals can. The other one is a very good looking set of Pedals and seems to be well built and adjustable in some aspects too. I haven't tried these to compare,though by the looks the centering mechanism is different...propably it gives a hard center.

On the MFG Pedals you can change the centering profiles,it ships with 2 different ones. You can either have a well definied centering or a very soft one which is almost not noticable. And in the future there may be more different profiles aswell as Footplates in different styles which then can be bought seperatly.

I indeed salute the modability and adaptability of the MFG set. The centering feeling has been one of the first raised concerns/questions about the SlowDevice pedals and apparently it is very well handled. As in: it is felt but non intrusive and there's no noticeable backlash when you fast change direction. The design mechanic is similar to VKB pedals.

I can't quite get the grasp of the material used for that set of pedals. It looks like compensed wood with paint and plastic casing on the sides. That can't be right, right? I'm searching for a proper high quality set of rudder pedals and these looks nice but I have my doubts about the main material of it.

Milan unfortunately doesn't have an account here at ED forums. I did point him to your question though, and he pointed me to one of his replies on other forums. Here it goes:

To answer your last question about Material...which is also what I wrote on SimHQ somewhere

 

Material is composite. Closest thing you might be familiar with is HPL - High pressure laminate. There are various types of this material and Final specs I will not give...simply to keep someone from copying my design.

 

In general HPL is made by putting layers of paper and glue and hot pressing it together with 600 tons of pressure or more. What is not general here is glue ammount, paper orientation in cross 45 degree ( like carbon fiber) etc.

Material can be mostly compared to Bakelite. It has a solid black core, and white surface is thin layer...in future it maybe won't be white. In greater quantities I could order grey for example - which is what I would like to see my pedals colored grey/black. Bakelite was made by glueing cotton with phenolic resign - so it's not identical.

 

Approx mechanical characteristic is 30% weaker on impact than aluminium. I compensated that with thickness.

Again - final thickness can be measured by my customers, but I prefer not to go public with that info, again, afraid of someone copying my design and using a lot of my engineering work for free.

 

All you need to know is that it's more then enough thick,sturdy and tested on a long term use. It does not conduct electricity and it does not have magnetic interference to sensors like metal has.

 

There are already enough people who tried my pedals and buyers like IvanK who can confirm the ruggednes of my pedals...

As others will testify, the material is of superb quality for the task. For more information you can always shoot off an email through his website.

Thanks for the digging and sharing Thor, that's very helpful! And I can only read everywhere great testimonies of that product construction quality so I'm sure it is indeed very solid, your video on youtube also helped a lot on getting a good view of that set of pedals thanks for doing it.

Still to be honest if in the same price range I can get full steel/alu product with about the same features/precision I probably would go for the full metal one. So features/precision and general feel is what is gonna weight in the balance in the end, hopefully the SlowDevice pedals creator can help shed some lights about specifications of his sets, I've asked him more specs on SimHQ.

All metal VKB pedals are about 700$. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Well I don't know about all of their lineups, but for example the Mk.18 is about 280 euros.

Great review and wow looks like I may need to get these in next few months

I can't quite get the grasp of the material used for that set of pedals. It looks like compensed wood with paint and plastic casing on the sides. That can't be right, right? I'm searching for a proper high quality set of rudder pedals and these looks nice but I have my doubts about the main material of it.

The material is "High Pressure Laminate", example Formica™.

The white side is part of material, in future MFG should offer in gray too.

Slaw Pedal, VKB, Simped, CH, Saitek... all have some form of center stop.

MFG and Bauer have "soft" center due use of cam.

Sokol1

Thanks for the digging and sharing Thor, that's very helpful! And I can only read everywhere great testimonies of that product construction quality so I'm sure it is indeed very solid, your video on youtube also helped a lot on getting a good view of that set of pedals thanks for doing it.

 

Still to be honest if in the same price range I can get full steel/alu product with about the same features/precision I probably would go for the full metal one. So features/precision and general feel is what is gonna weight in the balance in the end, hopefully the SlowDevice pedals creator can help shed some lights about specifications of his sets, I've asked him more specs on SimHQ.

Hawing owned (sold by now) Simpeds for over a year and a half I will say this. If looking for the ultimate precision/control and quality then you need pedals without a pronounced center and something that isn't made strictly from metal. Simpeds were always cold on touch during winter/fall and had a very pronounced center. The other vital area where the pedals need to score high are ergonomics. Simpeds were built for a simpit use, not so much for mounting below your desk. The adjustable pedal angle is a must here. MFG score on all three areas and for the price mr. Šimundža is asking - there is no better model currently on the market.

The material is "High Pressure Laminate", example Formica™.

The white side is part of material, in future MFG should offer in gray too.

 

Slaw Pedal, VKB, Simped, CH, Saitek... all have some form of center stop.

 

MFG and Bauer have "soft" center due use of cam.

 

Sokol1

Ditto. Only Bauer and MFG currently feature cam profiles. The difference is huge in comparison with what others have to offer, and in some simulators this translates into a substantial advantage...

From what I can see, SlowDevice's pedals feature a more or lees a pronounced center. Which is a shame. They look amazing.

Hmm, maybe I'll give the MFG a try then, after all I was searching for a second hand Simped a few months ago and since these apparently are vastly superior, it's only logical. Being 'stuck' with the saiteks, I really want to "be done" with that rudder pedal hunt for quality I'm having for a long time now, I really just hope that they can withstand the damages of time.

Material looks like Trespa to me, which I've worked with during my technical education and is very dense and waterproof.

It can also be found in DIY stores; although quite pricey and hard to cut it makes a perfect replacement for multiplex.

I've owned a Simped F-16/USB and sold it earlier this year to a Falcon BMS aficionado. Since then, I'm rudderless.

I'm thinking to purchase the VKB Mk22 when it comes out in Q1 next year, but also contemplating re-purchasing the Simped (Vario).

They can be found second-hand at good prices (150 Euro), since the Hoffman family have stopped producing the Simped.

UPDATE

After electronics update pedals now feature a bootloader, I am now running the latest firmwire:

- The problem of high ID is now gone and the pedals will assume the very last ID in line.

- Additionally, the pedals now feature auto calibration so that you can just plug them in and go do some flying.

You would be hard pressed to find an issue with these now, and Milan is constantly working on improving them.

^^

Second batch of pedals is being shipped out with the above fixes.

Good to know Thor, thanks for the update. I still find the choice between the MFG Xwind and the Slaw-device to be quite hard, it feels good to have choices in that price range though. Btw here's a color work I've done a few weeks ago to try out and see how colors would translate on the MFGs uhuh. Here's to hope one day he sells enough to order colored parts.

I recently bought my Crosswind Pedals (serial #14) and tested them with BoS, DCS and 1946. I´d like to advice that I was a very convinced user of simped pedals an thought: "better than german arts of mechanics and machinery will hardly be achived".

Now I´m a Milan S disciple ... :smartass:

The pedals are very sturdy, have exellent possibilities to be adjusted to your likes in terms of dimension and angles needed in your simpit.

Today nothing can be said about a longterm use and wear of components. If I compare to material and construction desing of my simped pedals I would assume they are at least equally robust.

17 bearings and magnetic sensors help in precision and possible wear.

price wise I would say they are NOT cheap but worth every Pfennig!

Milans approach in terms of used electronics and software and the support provided is NOT comparable to any support by logitech, saitek, microsoft or any other producer of hardware of our genre. I think he does an oustanding job here especially in terms of support given, video tutorials, firmware upgrades and so on.

The firmware upgrades are easy to implement through a software device, as easy as it could be!

That said, its very easy to capitalize progress made in firmware development of the pedals.

conclusion: I´m excited.

maybe you already realized?!

I´d like to absolutely recommend this fine hardware to all of you who think about buying a new set of pedals!:joystick:

I was looking at buying either the Slaw or the MFGs but opted for the MFGs after a very long look at the pros and cons of both pedals.

I received my MFG crosswind just after Christmas; they replaced my trusty CH pro-pedals.

They were a Christmas present to myself and replaced the Game Racer Pro flight chair which was an early Christmas present to myself.:P

The MFGs are light and use felt pads for footers (I do not know if these pads are optional as I insta- flipped my wallet too fast to look into options. The light weight of the pedals combined with the felt pads could not be used on my wooden floor as they kept slipping (the felt pads work very well on carpets).

However 2 hours later I had the MFGs screwed to a wooden base footed with large round anti slip pads and I was up and flying. When I fly the Kamov I can be very fast and aggressive with the pedals so this new Locked down set up works perfectly for me.

Moving from the good CH ProPedals to the MFG was an eye opener, I did not expect there to be that much difference and I guess this has a lot to do with the high resolution of the Hall Effect sensors, unguided rockets are a dream to use now.

These pedals are super smooth and infinitely adjustable. I needed to tweak them to a low resistance setting to help me through my transition from the CH ProPedals as the progressive resistance is quite different to my old pedals. The progressive resistance feels very good in the Mustang giving more of a feeling that I am pushing the rudder against the slip stream of the aircraft via a length of old wire and a few pulleys. I am now slowly increasing the spring resistance.

I think the CAM system offers a lot of tweak ability for aircraft types and/ or personal flying style and only takes a couple of minutes to change cams. I hope Milan offers aircraft specific cams in the future especially helicopters, which there are not enough of in DCS.

The brake spring strength is perfect for me (push to brake), no more accidently applying brakes when using the mustang (swinging all over the runway on take-off and pushing the propeller into the ground on landing) which was a pain with the ProPedals.

The MFGs are better quality than my Warthog Hotas system, which, is no slouch in the quality department.

Great service and great pedals. Highly recommended.

While I was searching for the simpeds, I bumped the review from thor and now that I've watched it, I really want these pedals.

I have a question though. I am mainly a helicopter "pilot", has anyone tried these with the Ka-50 and other modules and can comment on how they feel?

I have got the Saitek Pro Flight rudder pedals and while I think they're decent, I don't think they're up to par with my TM Warthog.

Software features are visible at ~ 7:00 min.

Okay, okay, okay, you can stop with the reviews now. I've finally ordered a set of MFGs. :D

Great... now I stand to spend more on upgrading my gaming peripherals than on my whole computer cost next time I embark on that Quinquennial project.