Hey all, stumbled onto this thread via Google.
(Full disclosure) Im one of the engineers on this project.
The yoke is designed to work out of the box "to an extent" with all simulation software irrespective of if a port/plugin etc has been written for it. In a situation where the yoke doesn't have access to speed/attitude/COP/COG information it will revert to a "normal" yoke, with the notable exception that the trim switches become internal to the yoke, and do not necessarily feed data back to the simulated environment. So for example if you apply nose up/down trim the yoke will physically move itself to the new position. Of coerce with respects to variable force, a generic model is applied which will assume your at a leisurely cruise speed. For proper integration of force models however we will need to be able to access flight variables from IL2 and pass them back to the yoke. Are they any IL2 developers here who could attest to how easy it is to extract such data?
As for "cogging" or "bumps" on the stepper, we are using a very fine pitch motor (0.9 deg/400steps per rev). Additionally its a pretty under powered guy, (~48N/M) so even in a "free wheeling" mode there are no describable steps from the yoke handle. (a more involved explanation on our decision making process on the roll system is here: (cant post links.... Check out avsim dot com and hardware, "Kickstarter: Affordable Force Feedback Yoke", and checkout post number 10)
Also I should point out that the $2500 option is only for those who want an early prototype AND a production unit. If your just looking for a production unit they are currently $600. We have 2 more days left to find ~25 more people interested in supporting this project by ordering a yoke.
If anyone has any technical questions on this project, OR if there are any IL2 developers here interested in helping to make this unit fully functional with IL2, please either let me know here or on our Kickstarter page.
Additionally if your interesting in keeping up to date with the project you can join our mailing list here: (sorry cant post links)
All the best
-pat