If you want to go scientific you can measure the force of the spring with a hook scale in kg at the base of the grip, to get Newtons - 1kg - 10N and multiply that by length from pivot to measurement point in m, you'll get the actual Nm
50 + 50 with the MCGU on a 200mm is still pretty light in force, the short grips like the K12/SCG/F14 50/50 on 200mm is what I would term medium weight.
I wanted it higher because I have my ac vent below it, it ended up bring alot taller than I wanted in the end, but I have to climb into it so it also gives me more of a sense of realism; still debating on cutting it down though.
@the.face Quick update on my VKB support ticket if you're interested. After a couple rounds back and forth, I sent them some pictures and some screenshots from the VKB USB error monitoring program, they said the pins on mine "look shorter than normal" and offered to send me replacement parts (new cable with contact pads and pogo pins) for free. Unfortunately I'm a few months outside the 2-year warranty so I need to pay for shipping from China via Alibaba, which is $26. Some quick googling doesn't turn up any generic replacements (wasn't really expecting to find any for this specific part), so looks like I'll probably have to eat the cost. I don't necessarily expect companies to support their products all the way to the heat death of the universe, and I've certainly gotten my money out of this (nevertheless very expensive) joystick, but I'll say that I'm totally unconvinced that this is not a weak point in the design that is almost bound to fail eventually. Contacts are notoriously hard to make durable, and these seem worse than most. When I take it apart to put in the new parts, I'll definitely be looking for a way to cut the whole thing out and replace it with a JST plug to avoid this happening again in a couple years.
Damage almost always happens after a non level install. Not always but it's usually the culprit. I have off level installed and it was glitchy. It didn't damage my pads at all. All the grip connectors out there require gentle handling, I know many people that have had failures on TM style. Especially the TM grip. The VPC at least went with a loose connection so the pins don't get smashed as easily.
Lol, I had to resolder wires in my WH grip twice, once because the wires were not soldered properly and second time was another wire, so I resoldered the 2nd time and hot glued it all together
VPC grip with twist adapter (Alpha grip) would unscrew when using ‘under normal operation’ the twist adapter on the WarBRD base, I returned both to Virpil
I found a post on r/hotas from 4 months ago that almost perfectly describes the issue I'm having, complete with pictures of the contact pads that look basically like mine do, except a little worse https://www.reddit.com/r/hotas/comments/tbsfkz/any_vkb_gunfighter_owners_having_connection_issues/ I would simply rather have a free-floating plug. At least that would only have the possibility of wear when it's actually being plugged or unplugged, rather than every time I move the stick. I'm going to be very very hard to convince that this is a good design compared to the alternatives. :-D