Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro Internal Pictures and Dissassembly Instructions \ VOGONS

Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro Internal Pictures and Dissassembly Instructions

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First post, by Retrograde_i486

Posted on 2023-03-20, 20:55

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I picked up a Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro from ebay and wanted to give it a clean. Opening it up was fairly easy at first, there are 7 screws total with two screws hidden under rubber feet and one under the serial / hardware info sticker.

Once you get it open I recommend you NOT remove the 4 screws in the middle of the board. This holds together the thrust lever and the left/right roll sensors on the joystick. They were a royal pain to get back together and didn't seem to need cleaning

There are two small screws the hold the pcb on, those are safe to remove and get the board out. There are little white screw icons printed on the board showing you where. Again, don't remove the 4 larger screws unless you want an un-fun puzzle putting this thing back together.

Front of the board:

Back of the board:

All the parts inside this thing, those are 4 metal ball bearings that give it some weight haha:

Happy to report that it's working great in Windows 98 so far, tested Fury3 and Hellbender with Hellbender taking far more advantage of all the buttons (Fury3 only uses 2).

One thing that's eluded me since I was a kid was the 4 digital buttons on the base of the flight stick. I've never gotten them to work, they show up in Windows Game controllers but pressing them doesn't do anything. Anyone ever gotten them to function?

Reply 1 of 5, by GulchWinder3D

Posted on 2023-03-20, 21:56

GulchWinder3D Offline

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IIRC the buttons on the base are disabled under Thrustmaster/CH emulation mode. Windows 98 should already have drivers for digital mode.

Edit: Someone was kind enough to upload a Sidewinder 3D manual PDF, which pretty much says the same thing (well, for 95). https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 840&menustate=0

Reply 2 of 5, by Retrograde_i486

Posted on 2023-03-21, 00:20

Retrograde_i486 Offline

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GulchWinder3D wrote on 2023-03-20, 21:56:

IIRC the buttons on the base are disabled under Thrustmaster/CH emulation mode. Windows 98 should already have drivers for digital mode.

Edit: Someone was kind enough to upload a Sidewinder 3D manual PDF, which pretty much says the same thing (well, for 95). https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 840&menustate=0

Yeah I read through that manual too, I've got it installed as a Microsoft Sidewinder 3d Pro running in windows 98 and with the newer drivers posted by akula65 here: https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 840&menustate=0 so one would think the digital buttons would function but I dunno. Maybe it's the sound card I have it plugged into, gameport on a ISA Soundblaster 16?

Reply 3 of 5, by Retrograde_i486

Posted on 2023-03-21, 00:31

Retrograde_i486 Offline

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Found this that might be the reason it's running in analog mode:

Which way do I have to set the switch on the bottom?

There are pros and cons to each method. As background, the switch on the bottom can be set to one dot or two dots. The one-dot position supports the CH button protocol and the two-dot position supports the ThrustMaster button protocol. For easy reference, we've scratched a CH near the one-dot position and a TM near the two-dot position on our joysticks.

The one-dot position supports the 8 buttons on the handle, the two handle axes, the rudder and the throttle. However, you can only press one button at a time. Two simultaneous presses will not be detected.

The two-dot position supports the 8 buttons on the handle, the two handle axes and the rudder. The throttle is not supported. Additionally, any of the buttons can be pressed simultaneously.

If I move the switch to the two-dot mode I lose the rudder control (needed for Fury3 and Hellbender at least) but gain the 4 buttons, probably works in MechWarrior II need to track that down and test it out
Source:http://www.vsavoldi.com/fpweb/a3d/techside.htm

Reply 4 of 5, by Orzene

Posted on 2024-03-01, 04:25

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Have you had to deal with "drifting" with these controllers? And if "yes", have you had to open it up fully to fix said problem?

Reply 5 of 5, by Errius

Posted on 2024-03-01, 14:02

Errius Offline

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I noticed that. IIRC, I fixed it in software (IL-2) by configuring a 'deadzone' where no input is registered, so the aircraft doesn't drift when you take your hand off the stick. (This is separate from the trim settings)

Is this too much voodoo?

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