Saitek ST290 throttle isn't proportional

I have my old Saitek ST290 joystick working in FS2020 except for the throttle. I was able to program throttle increase and decrease as toggle-switch type binary action. When I move the throttle to 75% or more, it starts a throttle up. Moving it to 25% or less position will decrease. In between is a dead space. It's pretty annoying.

Is there any way to program this joystick's throttle to be proportional from 0 to 100%?

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I think the most likely is that your throttle is mapped to keystrokes, rather than an axis... which should be a quick easy fix.

I say that because honestly, when I used to fly FS2004 with my Saitek Cyborg EVo, almost exactly the same stick (slightly older maybe?) I never had any problems with the throttle feature working well in FS2004, in Forgotten Battles (ww2 dogfighting sim expansion of IL-2) and a few other products...

Again, this is assuming that no parts on your stick are worn out.

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This might help:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?330980-The-sensitivity-page-msfs2020

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Hmm... ok so if there is a controller that in one position doesn't do anything even with tiny movements, we tend to call that a "dead zone". On high quality flightsticks this is either very tiny, or none at all. On low end sticks, deadzones are often a fair size, and they expect customers to just be "ham fisted" in all moves. Makes it difficult to be precise. Sometimes the deadzone is an option you can tune in the game's own software. Other times it's in the stick's own software drivers. And sometimes, there is a hardware dead zone, where the sensors simply have a physical "deadzone" built in... it's this last one that is usually difficult or impossible to fix, but on an X52 can be an easy fast fix of adding more magnets.

First, take a look at this suggestion:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/sensitivities-dead-zone-translations/201952

So maybe try assigning your throttle to the throttle axis, see if right now it's maybe assigned to keypresses "throttle up, throttle down"?

Ok there is a 3rd party program/app that gives the user a whole host of fine tuning options for getting your stick to work exactly like you want it. It'd be independent of FS2020, but ought to work. .. allowing you to create and shape curves into the output. Normally it all should be proportional as it comes out of the box, but since it seems to be giving you an unwanted output, this program's settings MAY help.

Now... you may discover that this throttle was maybe not designed for flight simulation... maybe it was designed for space battle games, where they use the throttle almost like an automatic transmition (forward for go forward, pull back toback up, leave it in the middle to just sit there). People who play games like Elite Dangerous like such features. Sometimes, "game sticks" have hardware that has that built in dead zone. Maybe yours is like that, you'll have to research that and see if there are any mods. But try that software and try different curves first, do some searches for "dead zones" for your specific throttle, see what people are saying.

You could also try:

http://www.saitek.com/manuals/st/advanced_EN.html

And

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/124078/how-to-make-a-joystick-axis-completely-undetectable-in-windows-7

I'll try to dig up more about that specific stick.

Let us know how it goes, with your future discoveries and attempts, the new info may help give us more ideas to try.

There's a few other things too: how much use has it had? From what I gather, this is quite an old design, and not designed for pure precision, but rather an "entry level" stick for back in the early 2000's. It's possible, no guarantees though, that maybe the pot for the throttle is worn out. Pot meaning potentiometer, the rotary that actually detects movement and translates that into electrical signal to send to your PC.

IF you can afford it, I'd encourage you to try finding a Thrustmaster TCA "side stick". It's not super expensive like a Honeycomb or Warthog. But it does have precision, it has a built-in throttle slider that's nice, and although mechanically it's almost the same as a T.16000m, the TCA has a better feel to it. It has a twist/rudder function, but you can lock out that function too. It's ambidextrous, has a hat switch that you can use either for trimming or as a point of view to snap view all around you, and back to front view. The precision comes from using Hall Effect sensors, that are normally seen on more expensive flight sticks. I've noticed that just lately, you can now find TCA's on the second hand market, whether it's Kijiji or others, save some bucks there. Besides it's got official Airbus licensing too!

http://www.thrustmaster.com/products/tca-sidestick-airbus-edition

Now, the throttle slider on the stick has a short throw, so it might not be good enough for your expectations, in that case you could add the airbus throttle pack, or the fighterjet HOTAS throttle setup called the TWCS, that resembles an F/A-18 Hornet throttle setup (just one instead of two side by side, but the hat switches are pretty much all in the same locations).

I used to have a Cyborg Evo, very similar to the ST290 I think, but it gave up a long time ago... when FS2004 was still at the top!

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I think the most likely is that your throttle is mapped to keystrokes, rather than an axis... which should be a quick easy fix.

Well dang if you didn't nail it.

I double-checked in Windows that my throttle-pot was working and it was... actually pretty well for an antique joystick.

I then went looking in MSFS 2020 for the Throttle settings. I had the joystick's throttle set as Joystick L-Axis Z+ and Z- set to Increase Throttle and Decrease Throttle (keystrokes).

I deleted out those entries and set the Throttle Axis to the Joystick L-Axis Z. I then just need to Reverse the Axis with a check and presto!

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.

Your welcome, glad it worked out nice!

Funny, in another sim, a guy noticed in a game folder that there was thousands and thousands of screenshots, that he never intended to take. Many suggestions. I said he should check the key mapping, see if it was taking a screen when another event was going on. Turns out, that was going on, sorta, he had a voice recognition thing, but for some reason, every time it activated, it also hit the "print screen" keyboard function! That was just weeks ago.

Best part of this is you don't need to buy new hardware, which is in shorter supply and higher prices than they ought to be!