Saitek X52 Flight Control System 4

The standard software that comes with the Saitek X52 Flight Control System is easy to use. It has a nice 3D interface that shows you which button on the stick you pressed and you assign a key press or macro to it.

But it's also a little limiting AND time consuming. Trying to organise your controls is difficult, although the X52 Flight Control System does have three modes each of which can have a shifted and unshifted state.

That essentially gives you 6 modes on the Saitek X52 -- that's 6 different keypresses (or macros) which can be emulated by each button.

Saitek's beta programming software is even better for hardcore enthusiasts allowing much more flexibility including the ability to assign other buttons as 'shift' buttons. You don't get the fancy 3D graphics with this beta interface but it's worth it. Just by introducing one more shift button you can add another 6 modes to your X52 flight control system.

So forget the software on the disk and go for the beta.

But beware -- any profiles made with the standard Saitek SST software will not be compatable with Saitek's beta which is a real pain in the butt.

Another function that's missing from the Saitek programming software is the Cycle command which allowed a button to cycle through keypresses. This is missing both from saitek's standard software and the x52 beta.

You'll have to be patient to program the X52 flight system. With 12 different modes in my current x52 profile there are about 560 button presses to program.

This is where the x52's clutch button has it's use -- hold it and press another button to see a description of it's function displayed on the LCD screen.

You can also use the clutch button to change profiles on the fly. If 500 commands aren't enough, set up another profile for your flight control system with another 500 commands and swap profiles on the fly, in game.

But neither of these things are really as good as they might at first appear. The x52's clutch button doesn't show info on all the hats or sliders, so if you forget what a certain rotary does in a certain mode, you may be outa luck. Swapping profiles for the x52 mid game is a little clumsy. This would be best suited for games where you control a variety of vehicles and set up a profile for each vehicle type.

However, even with the complexity and key-mashing involved with something like Falcon 4, 500 commands should sbe enough.

Next my final thoughts on the Ssitek X52 Flight Control System.