Software
Repairing Saitek Pro Flight Switch Panel with Arduino
The Saitek Pro Flight Panels were awesome. I bought all of them years ago and they worked great… with Windows 7 and USB 2. Unfortunately when I upgraded my computer everything stopped working due to Windows 10 and all USB3 ports. I have followed every guide, every driver, every bios setting I could find and I can’t get any of the panels to function. I’ve been able to get the radio panel and multi panel working with Spad.NEXT but the switch panel refuses to function. I can only assume something on the circuit board has gone bad. Now that Logitech has bought Saitek this thing is basically a brick with no support. Really without Spad.NEXT all three would be bricks as the Logitech software does not work at all. I really want my simulator to work again so I set off to figure out how to fix switch panel.
TL:DNR – Check out my video of it in action and view the code on github
Read on to see how I did this.
FlightConnect Open Sourced
FlightConnect for FSX has been released to GitHub under the Apache license. This is the first step in releasing the rest of the code. You can find the source code on my github repo here:
FlightMap and FlightGauge Removed from Sale
I can hardly believe it’s been 8 years since FlightMap was released to the play store. I want to thank everyone who has supported the apps over the years. I can’t tell you how much I learned and how much fun I had building these apps. Unfortunately, I have very little choice but to remove the apps from sale. I do not have the resources to continue feature development any longer along with other issues.
What does this mean for the users?
- If you have purchased the apps they will remain in your google play library and you can continue to use them however you like. I am not taking the apps off the store I am only removing them from sale.
- If you are looking to purchase the apps there is no way to do so now.
- I can still push releases if there is a bug or issue is found. I am not stopping support for the app at this time. If you have any issues please continue to use the contact form
So what about the future…
I am contemplating what to do and there is a very real possibility I open source everything. Before doing that I have some research to do with regards to the google maps api licensing and other issues. You may see FlightGauge open sourced first as it doesn’t have any external resources.
I want to thank everyone again for all of the support over the years. Stay tuned as I figure out what to do with the apps going forward.
Spirit Halloween Ghostbusters Proton Pack Lighting Upgrade and other mods…
Spirit Halloween recently released a pretty nice proton pack replica for a really good price. There are a few issues that I have with it though. The lighting they included is not very good and there are some real issues with the way the wand is mounted. These issues needed to be fixed!
I had a bunch of extra components lying around from the full proton pack so I got to wiring. I wanted the standard powercell and cyclotron animations while I walk around. I kept the flashing light in the powercell when firing the wand but removed them on the cyclotron. The result can be seen here:
The full Arduino code, 3d models, and diagrams for this mod have been added to my github repo and you can find it here:
3D Printing a Proton Pack! Plus Lights and Sounds
What started as just the Neutrino Wand has turned into building a full pack for my son this Halloween. The goals were pretty simple. Replicate the movie pack as best as I could, keep it low weight, and give him some stuff to play with. Here is what I came up with…
The result is about 80% scale, around 8 pounds on the back, and completely mirrored as my son is left handed. The pack is 3D printed using a PVC backpack frame and some other odds and ends to finish it off. The lights and sounds are based off an Arduino Nano that is controlling a bunch of Neopixel LED’s and an Adafruit Audio FX Board. The entire code, models, and PC boards used can be found on github here:
FlightMap 2.10 Released to the Play Store
After a long time coming I’m happy to announce the immediate release of FlightMap 2.10. While there is not a lot new to see this is a massive upgrade to the application. I had to spend a lot of time reworking the code to work with the new Google Maps. I also moved to a completely new and modern build system for the app. It should make it much easier for me to program now.
There is one new feature in this build. I have added a scale bar to the map. This is an often requested feature and you can now find it in the top right corner of the map view.
The next step is to do the same upgrade for FlightGauge
Get FlightMap For Android Here:
There is a fully functional 5 minute trial version of FlightMap on the Play Store here:
FlightMap 2.9.0 Released to the Play Store
Over the past few months I have seen an increase in application crashes due to memory issues. Almost all of these crashes were deep in the Google Maps library which FlightMap uses for the map view. This was caused by an update to the Google Play Services on the user’s tablet in July. I have made a number of changes to FlightMap to mitigate this problem and I believe I have worked around it.
Google has been making a lot of changes to Android over the last year and FlightMap and FlightGauge will continue to get updates to keep in line with these changes. My day job and life have slowed updates down a bit but I do have plans for updates to both applications in the near future.
On a different note, I have had to remove the country of Japan from countries FlightMap and FlightGauge are sold in. As of October 1st individuals are required to pay taxes directly to the Japanese government and I do not have the resources to deal with this. If you are a user from Japan you will still be able to use the application I just won’t be selling it in that country any more and I am truly sorry for this.
FlightConnect 2.8.3 Released
FlightConnect, the application used by FlightMap and FlightGauge to talk to FSX and P3D, has been updated. This update includes support for FS9 flight plans. Third party flight plan software tends to output in the older format so FlightConnect can now utilize them. This version also better handles the situation where SimConnect is not properly installed for FSX. Users will get an error dialog on application startup letting them know that FlightConnect cannot talk to FSX.
Troubleshooting FlightConnect with FSX
For the new STEAM version of FSX:
I’ve had a few support cases from new users of the Steam version of FSX. The issue is with FlightConnect crashing on launch. It looks like sometimes the SimConnect library is not installed properly when the rest of FSX is installed thru Steam. This can be easily fixed by manually installing SimConnect from the installation directory of FSX. In my case it exists here:
Announcing FlightConnect support for the new STEAM version of Flight Simulator X
Today, Dovetail games announced the availability of a new Steam Powered version of Flight Simulator X. Vine Ripe Software is pleased to announce that FlightConnect, the application that FlightMap and FlightGauge rely on for simulator data, fully supports the Steam version of FSX right out of the box without any modification or patches.
More information on the Steam version of FSX can be found here (plus it’s on sale right now)
VINE RIPE SOFTWARE™ 