While working FIP Gauges for X-Plane these days, I find the time reaching the main menu at sim launch takes much longer while FIPs are powered on as well.
Not a big deal, probably. But if one can shorten the load up time of X-Plane significantly by simply turning on the FIPs ONLY AFTER the main menu is shown, why not ? Additionally, I find the act eliminates the occasional crash of FIP Gauges in X-Plane as well.
In last post, I mentioned that some of the commands I used to assign to buttons and knobs on the FIP are not functioning or matching when using the valuetranscribing feature to run FSX/P3D gauges in X-Plane.
A friend, Rodrigo in Brazil, says the trick is Continue reading
Not sure how many of you have occasionally encountered a bizarre situation in which all functions, such as OBS and heading bug, that are controlled by the knobs on the Logitech/Saitek FIPs (Flight Instrument Panels) suddenly move faster in 10-degree (step) per turn than the default 1-degree (step) per turn.
The cause of the issue is unknown but generally it can be cured by warm-booting (or in some cases, cold-booting) the computer.
In the last six months, I encountered the issue once or twice. Instead of rebooting the computer, Continue reading
A friend, Sergey Dronyaev in Moscow, who reported an issue that he found the Autopilot Heading Bug on the A2A Cessna Shared HDG FIP gauge didn’t synchronize with the one in the virtual cockpit. I had my head scratched since it was the first time I heard about the issue regarding the gauge.
Sergey later submitted a solution he found from the A2A forum: Pressing the AP button once (Autopilot on/off) – both gauges will synchronize accordingly.
Just in case someone encounters the same issue, above tip should help.
When my FIP gauges are having major updates, say from version R3 to R4, they will be installed onto a new folder ending with the new version in their names, e.g. A36_Bonanza_R4. This is to prevent mixing the new files with the old files, and to avoid the possibility of overwriting user-customized files, just in case.
For those who are running the Saitek/Logitech Drivers, the gauge installer will create corresponding links for the update automatically.
But for those who are using SPAD.neXt, they will have to reinstall the gauges to the SPAD.neXt system again as the folder location has changed. This is quite troublesome especially when one has configured the buttons and knobs on the FIP extensively.
Following is what I do and it is relatively simple and efficient. Continue reading
It is commonly known that SPAD.neXt and Saitek/Logitech drivers cannot be run simultaneoulsy; otherwise conflicts will occur.
Here’s how to avoid the conflict when running the new X-Plane FIP Gauges (using Saitek/Logitech drivers) together with SPAD.neXt; since the development of my earlier X-Plane gauges designed for SPAD.neXt has come to a stop for the moment.
Edit: Just found that there are still conflicts between the Logitech plugins and SPAD.neXt. Under this combination, all basic functions work ok but not the many extra features provided by SPAD.neXt.
Will explore further if there are solutions.
Step 1
Install the Saitek/Logitech FIP drivers (if they have been removed from the computer) — it is necessary for the Windows OS to recognize the hardware.
You could download the Flight Instrument Panel Drivers from Logitech’s support web page here. Or if you have the older version 7 on hand, it works fine as well.
Step 2
Follow the instructions in Post 471 to install the X-Plane Plug-in.
Step 3
After restarting the computer, right-click on the Windows Menu bar at the bottom to call up “Task Manager” Continue reading
Whether you are using the Saitek or the Logitech FIP drivers for FSX and P3D at present, further adding FIP option to X-Plane is very simple:
Step 1
Download the “X Plane Plug-in” from Logitech’s support page — No worry even if you are still using the previous Saitek drivers and not the recently renamed Logitech drivers.
Step 2
Run the downloaded file to install the Plug-in — A new folder called “XSaitekProFlight” will be added to the “\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins” folder automatically.
That’s all and you are now able to fly with the default gauges in X-Plane.
Fine-Tuning Continue reading
My Post 111 described the swapping of toggle switches on the Saitek Panel to make them easier to be identified in a dim environment. On my new Yoke, I have the toggle switches “color-coded” with heat shrinkable tubes.
The modification is a lot simpler and meet the same purpose. And it prevents, or to the least covers up, oxidation on the switch handles. Also, they are cheap and easy to replace if worn out. Continue reading
When I was reinstalling A2A aircraft for P3Dv4, I grumbled what the heck the developers are doing in altering the aircraft installation folder from “SimObjects” to “Prepar3D v4 Add-ons” under Documents. But after reviewing the file hierarchy further, I have to admit that it is in fact a nice user-friendly touch.
The move not only avoids the chance of messing up with original files in P3D, but it also can eliminate the need of reinstalling aircraft after P3D is forced to clean install again for whatever reasons or when update is available.
Under the new structure, the P3Dv4-ready A2A installer (in my case) added the aircraft location to the “add-ons.cfg” in the Prepar3D.cfg directory after
installation. Then created an XML file called “add-on.xml“, which contains all the sub-folder information, in the root directory of the aircraft folder as well.
Since these two files Continue reading
