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Post by blackey on May 14, 2015 9:00:48 GMT
Well i bought way to much Saitek gear a couple years back after a motorcycle wreck that almost cost me a leg. I still have troubles from it. But my main trouble now is getting my simpit up and going. I built a tower using a Lancool PC-K60 tower added a cooler Master 850W psu for AS Rock Z77 Motherboard hosting a I7 Intel chip, not sure of the one since the psu died while sitting. We cooled the cpu with a corsair H55 liquid cooler. Added 16GB ddr3 1600 Ram and toped it off with a egva geforce gtx 680 4gb video card as I recall. I'm in the process of rebuilding the system with a new or repaired psu once tat one goes out this week. Adding two 960gb ssd drives one for Win7 and the other for FSX the traditional hdds will become library discs one for fsx and the other for the rest.
I bought the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke with TQ, an additional TQ, pro flight Rudder all for controls and then added the saitek switch, multi, bip, and two radio panels. plus the saitek cessna trim wheel. i mounted the yoke to the pan on the wheel stand pro then mounted the bip on top of the yoke then mounted the two radios on top of each other and mounted the top one to the bip on the rhs, did the same with the multi and switch panels on the lhs. That left me in a quandary where to mount the two tq and trim wheel. first thought was extend a bar out from the pan under the radio for the tq and under the other panels for the trim wheel. well the clamps just didn't work out so a friend bent me some heavy duty brackets up to mount the three pieces to but i don't think it will work out either sags on the outside corers bad.
So if you use the wheel stand pro or something similar how did you mount your tqs? I'm thinking getting some wood and build a center console and mount the tqs and trim wheel there along with some switches i've planing on building up.
My idea is to have a removal/portable simpit that will fly the otter and other planes dark and cold to dark and cold without touching the mouse or keyboard.
I also just added the track ir 5 but havent got it integrated yet as im unable to get the f7 or f9 keys in fsx loaded to a switch to pause or recenter the trackir so that it is useable imo.
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Post by MarkH on May 14, 2015 17:16:54 GMT
That Wheel Stand Pro look s a bit flimsy, which I think is what you are finding for mounting other things on alongside the yoke. I would build a wooden frame of some sort around it, or perhaps start again using a table as the basis of the frame. For the TrackIR you don't need to map the F keys to buttons, you can map buttons directly from the TrackIR program. Alternatively you can change the keystrokes and generate those from FSUIPC if you have that.
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richts
Almost Aviator
Posts: 21
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Post by richts on May 17, 2015 22:45:12 GMT
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Post by blackey on May 23, 2015 7:09:04 GMT
Well I've got the rhs working by using the table behind to steady the tgs. The other side is sitting in the floor right now. I just got fsx loaded with all my addons only having a couple of problems one is I have the HMN. H60 the stealth one from Area 51 but it's not showing up I think the problem may be a conflict between abacus Blackhawks package as I've reinstalled several times verifying everything I even cut and copied it over no jolly. I think one more had a similar problem but when I used a different installer it worked. My other problem child is cargo pilot from just flight I choose the dhc-2 and the fuel is maxed out at 100% and that is the only thing I think could be stopping it from accepting the job. I really like using spad and FSUIPC for setting up the Saitek stuff. Works better than st and windows controller. I'm reading sim samari'sugtafs manual. In chapter four now where it talks hardware so I will be deciding what keys the Saitek stuff will simulate in the next day or so. I received the plug and play did button kit but have not but a box for it yet. I have connected all the switches with the god being the center connection by guess I have not dug out the soldering iron or multimeter yet. This first setup will be a test. The switches except for the push button are useless for my setup. I need on off or on off on toggles preferiblity.5" hole models. Right now for the two panels from the Twotter that I've lauded out I need six each and three or four covers but add one on off and two of the momentarily push buttons and I got the little prop beta test panel and the toggle for arming the prop feather system. My panels are not gonna to look like the real ones but hopefully will have the same function. I am building three 7x11 panels for switches and knobs only laid out as conservative as possible. I have a VRInsight pro prop panel coming in used. That will be nice although the gauges on the Twotter ext is very readable in the vc. But the gps sucks but I haven't read up on it. I miss the gps 550 gauge.
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Post by MarkH on May 23, 2015 7:37:11 GMT
I miss the gps 550 gauge. ...I received the plug and play did button kit I don't understand what you mean - what is the GPS 550? The GPS530 in the Twin Otter is the same as the default GPS500 but with a few extra buttons. I assume you realise you can use the 2D popup and make it bigger? You can also install the GPS500 2D popup if you want. What is the button kit you are referring to?
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Post by blackeycole on May 24, 2015 1:23:34 GMT
I guess it was 500 eyes aren't what they use to be. I got a ebay 20 button plug n play dyi kit. I need to get better correct switches for my desired panels.
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Post by blackeycole on May 24, 2015 1:26:02 GMT
I'm flying the newer twin otter extended version it's GPS looks different than the one for the earlier Twotter from aerosoft.
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Post by MarkH on May 24, 2015 8:11:46 GMT
I'm flying the newer twin otter extended version it's GPS looks different than the one for the earlier Twotter from aerosoft. Oh yeah, that's a different beast altogether! It is the same GPS as you get in the Catalina and also the Flight1 BN-2 Islander.
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Post by MarkH on May 24, 2015 8:12:25 GMT
P.S. You seem to have two accounts here, which is confusing me...
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Post by blackeycole on May 24, 2015 21:46:57 GMT
I do didn't know that as I'm only logging in under this account. Thanks for the Photoshop files you gave me a couple weeks ago sorry I haven't said it earlier. I need to find a good source for toggles. I like to buy in bulk so I only have to order every few months ten or so of each at a time. On off on, on off, on off on momentary, on off momentary, push button momentary I think that's what I need right now between the radio panels I have from Saitek, and the vrinsight pro panel I'm not sure if I'll need any rotary encoders. I need to find a new lever for my Saitek throttle quad. My assembly fell and broke the far right lever off at the edge of the box. Not that I have a need for it at this moment as I use one lever each for the prop and fuel levers. I have a gear and flap lever on the multi panel and switch panel. I'm getting ready to define my switches on the yoke and tax using FSUIPC and Linda I think. I'm disableing the controllers in fs and going straight FSUIPC for calibration and switch assignments.
Once I get fsx and the hardware straighten out I'm going to use the fs as real as it get book or what ever it's actually called to learn correct procedures better then I'll go to your single engine bible, multi engine bible then if r bible in that order but that's after I finish the ultimate guide. I thinking I'm in chapter four now the area on fsuip. I really have learned a lot from the guide. I'm surprised how well my laptop is running fs. I have it configured based on your setting in the guide except for a couple I maxed out to see if it would handle it and it did. But I'm using a single monitor right now, next week I'll have to go back to the 17" screen when the pro panel shows up I can not plug two external sources in at the same time because the connections are too close together and will not accept both plugs. But I want have to read the gauges on it just the exterior view. I'll hook up my old iPad for a GPS I think. That is if I can find an app that will work. Later
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Post by blackeycole on May 27, 2015 3:04:28 GMT
Got the ProPit today but didn't realize that it would only work with a few places none that I normally fly. I'm checking to see what it will take to build more panels.
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Post by blackeycole on May 28, 2015 3:18:04 GMT
It appears I can design my own panel that works behind the ProPit façade using panel builder then take FSUIPC and assign the events to to the hardware and never use VRInsight software. That may be my first attempt and just move the gps500 over so that it fits the area on the VRInsight monitor. It being at ft monitor will I need to use FSUIPC or does the hardware automatically work as touch items on the panel?
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Post by MarkH on May 28, 2015 6:49:20 GMT
It being at ft monitor will I need to use FSUIPC or does the hardware automatically work as touch items on the panel? I'm not sure I understand the question. You will no doubt be able to design the panel with Panel Builder (or Air Manager) as you suggest but whether you can get the knobs to work (and does it have buttons on the GPS?) will depend on what's behind the scenes. It looks like it uses a thing called 'SerialFP2', which I don't know anything about. I would say load up this software and then see if Windows can see the buttons and knobs in Control Panel. Or maybe it will see them withour SerialFP2. Either way, that's all you need to be able to program them. You can then assign buttons and knobs within FSX or LINDA and/or FSUIPC as you like.
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Post by blackeycole on May 29, 2015 4:46:18 GMT
My line of thinking was this build a panel using panel builder and position the gauges on the ProPit as if using the ProPit gauges. This will allow me to build a main panel for my favorite aircraft. Once that is working correctly take either or bot FSUIPC and or Linda and program the switches and knobs on the ProPit panel for proper ops. I'm not sure they are working with the ProPit panels as I've not tested them once everything was working.
My other problem will be getting the GPS panel/view positioned and lined up on the ProPit since panel builder doesn't have a gps500 but I'm thinking I can just drag it over and hopefully it will work that the main panel will not hide it when something is activated from it. And I'll have to re show the GPS everytime. I flew a little with it today and it is nice having it working as the gauges are large and readable.
One thing I learned is it requires 2d view and goes dark if you select virtual cockpit bummer as if it worked in 3-d and I could get my track ir5 set for my movement everything would be great but with the bp main panel I might get my best of the best who knows.
My thought are to run the bp panel from a second computer but plug the USB into the main pc because I'm not sure it would work the other way. I'm to the point of treating like two separate items. The first is the txt monitor and the second is the switch and knob panel the is over it. I think that's the best way to address it.
My other thought is why these aren't doing well besides the cost. No sdk for them to help power users to build other panels on that format that will work with other AC. The ten they mention are for ms fs, p3d and plane as I recall. The actually means they're only 3 to 4 AC per sim. For ms fs I recall the c-172,c182 and mooney but they might be one more but I'm not sure. I still have a lot of testing left before I'm sure how to progress.
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Post by MarkH on May 29, 2015 6:50:28 GMT
I think you have discovered Panel Builder requires windowed mode. Of course you can run it on a separate computer, which would allow you to run in full-screen, but you are right that you would not be able to run the FSX GPS panel on the ProPit screen. I don't know what 'bp panel' is.
Why aren't these doing well? I think you've answered the question! They are very expensive and don't do anything that can't be done much more flexibly by other means.
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