I recently received a set of Slaw Device 109 pedals and thought I'd share my impressions of them with you fella's at SimHQ
My experience with Pedals started with a set of CH Pro pedals. I liked them but felt the distance between the pedals was too narrow. So I upgraded to a set of Simped Pro usb (no toe brake version), this was very much an upgrade IMO. The SImpeds were perfect I thought. Comfortable distance between the pedals nice action etc. I owned them for at least 5 years quite happily until I saw a thread in the SImpit Builders forum from Slaw about some pedals he'd developed. It was love at first sight I'd followed a thread from VO101MMaister on his 109 pedals and was very jealous that I didn't have the skill to do the same, so when Slaw posted that he had developed some 109 pedals and was planning to sell them i promptly put my name on the waiting list.
Towards the middle of November Slaw PM'd me and let me know he had some pedals for me, at the time I was embarrassingly short of cash after having just paid for some much needed repairs on my bike and some other bits and pieces I had laid out cash on and begged Slaw to wait until the end of the month and save me a pair of pedals. Thankfully Slaw agreed and just after the start of December I sent Slaw the cash for the pedals. 10 days later i received a package from Poland
Woot!! It's here. Very well packaged with the pedals themselves well protected with cable ties to keep everything in place.
Initial set up was easy. Fit the centring spring and plug them in. No drivers needed, no calibration totally plug and play. A quick test showed that these pedals had been very well engineered. The movement of the mechanical parts was smooth as silk with no play in the mechanism at all, they just glide across the axis. I put them in place at default configuration. Out of the box they are the same width as my old simpeds
After some use it became apparent that I needed some adjustments to get them comfortable and this is where these pedals start to shine. There is adjustment for width and for incline of the actual pedals.
Width adjustment is via positional holes, this gives you you 3 positions. The actual holes are about an inch apart which gives you quite a bit of scope. I've settled on the middle setting, which is slightly wider than my Simpeds were
Similarly the incline can be adjusted via positional holes. The are 4 settings from steep to shallow incline. As my seat is close to the ground I have them on the steepest setting.
In the same way that the width and inline are adjustable the centring springs can be adjusted too. I believe the config of the holes will allow 3 settings. i have them on the lowest setting as I don't like the centre to be too pronounced.
Another thing worth mentioning is the weight of the pedals. My old simpeds weighed next to nothing and needed to be secured to my setup to stop them moving around. The Slaw pedals weigh about 6 kilos and have rubber strips on the underside of the pedal base. My setup is a Gameracer driving seat heavily modified for my flight Sim use. The foot section is a heavy metal plate. This nice flat surface coupled with the weight of the pedals and the rubber strip makes them feel solid under foot with no need for extras securing. I am toying with the idea of mounting the actual mechanism to the footplate of my set up, but the Slaw pedal base has a "sexy" ID plate that I quite like the look of
That pretty much wraps up the aesthetics and set up of the mechanical part of these pedals. There is also the electronic side to these pedals, which seem first class. Slaw posted some you tube clips to demonstrate the quality of the internals of these pedals
I can say that I have found the precision of the pedals to be pin point accurate. My old simpeds travelled a little further in full deflection than the input would suggest. i.e. once the sensors had hit 100% the pedals still had a little more travel in them. This was never a problem for me as the Simpeds still performed great and gave me excellent control over the yaw axis. However with the Slaw pedals full deflection on the pedal is full deflection for the input. At the stop of the pedal it gives 100% deflection in the software without fail. Releasing the pedal and they return to centre and 0% every time.
Normally when someone does one of these type of review there is a pros and cons part. I honestly have found no cons so far, not one thing.
My overall opinion is that I love this inanimate object. It really has added something to my set up in a significant way and I believe they are worth every penny. I thoroughly recommend them.
Final picture is of them in situ
I do believe there are some F16 pedals on the way soon too, so al you jet jockeys will be catered for too
I paid around £270 with shipping, which is pretty much what I expected.
Plus a further £15 for Western Union payment, which was my choice. I did this for Slaw as his Paypal is not fully set up yet and if I'd paid him through Paypal it would have meant he would have to wait 21 days for the money. He should be set up by now and that would be the best way to pay him as the international charge to send money to "friends or family" is either free or nominal charge, depending on where you are sending it from and where it is going.
Quite pricey, and a small risk on my part. Parting with that much cash on photos alone is not something I would normally do. I like to see stuff in the flesh or be able to research other users experience. However the worry completely subsided once I had the pedals in my hands.
Also the above statement is why I put out the review. I wanted to give others my impressions and give confidence in Slaw's product, it really is worth the investment.
Thanks Brigstock for posting the pics and your review of these pedals. Sure look beautiful and worth every cent you paid for them. Am going to have to practice being patient waiting for Slaw to make more of these beauties.
Asus Maximus IX Formula | i7 7700k | 32GB DDR4 | Nvidia GTX 1080ti | Dell U3011 2560 x 1600 | Benchmark DAC2 HGC | dynaudio MKII Studio Monitors | Thrustmaster WartHog
I can't really add to this review, but I can attest to the quality and downright sexiness of the Slaw rudder pedals. I gave my old Saitek Pro's to a friend once I started using the Slaw.
I just received my Email from Slaw this morning confirming my pedals are ready to ship.
Cost plus shipping was 375 Euro which came out to $510.68 USD. Very expensive. I hope these pedals are worth it. I'll be doing a MFG crosswind vs Slaw pedal comparison once I receive and test Slaws.
My plan is to use Milans pedals at my home in the country and use Slaw pedals at my primary residence.
I can't wait to trash these Saitek combat pedals. The worst peripheral I've ever owned. Surprisingly the Saitek X55 is really good. I almost like the x55 over the warthog.
Rest assured Slaw will deliver. He'll even email a photo of the pedals all packed ready to go. Just as he has done for all his customers. BTW €375 is very reasonable for bespoke peripherals. Both Slaw and Milan can provide high end kit because material and labour costs are much lower in Eastern Europe. They'd cost twice that if they were made in the US or UK.
But the Warthog is a massed produced consumer product. What Milan and Slaw do is hand produce bespoke items when they are not doing their day jobs. You won't find quality pedals like these any where else cheaper. If simpeds were still in production, they'd be over $400, and the crosswinds and slaw pedals are both superior products. There's a uk based indie pit maker doing replica spit controls. His set ups are around $5000 It's all about perspective.