Saitek
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.
Latest SimPit Update – Finally finished painting it :)
Here is the latest update on my SimPit. FlightMap works really well aesthetically with it which was always the goal.
I’ve got it setup now so that it’s really easy to swap in and out the flight stick for the flight yoke. I can even do it while I’m flying.
Flight Simulator SimPit Update #3
I’ve been trying to find a way to get a second screen on my pit for a while now. I was at home depot yesterday and they had a tablet mount for $20 so I bought it. The mount that they had was not going to work for me but I figured out a way to change out the arm for something that would work on my pit. It works really nice. There are lots of good apps for the iPad but not so many for android. Right now I’m using fsMoveMap which is ok but there are a bunch of features that I want that it does not have. I think I’ll work on building my own moving map app for android over the next few days. I want something that will fit aesthetically with my pit 🙂
Here’s a video and a pic of it all working 🙂 very happy with how it worked out.
Flight Simulator SimPit Update #2
The biggest change to the SimPit is an upgrade to a 40 inch screen :). The wife didn’t think it would be possible but it is HAHA. It really makes such a huge difference. I’ve also done a quick video of how it all works with Flight Simulator. I’m really pleased with how this all came out. I still need to paint the mounts for the stick and throttle black. It’s always that last 1% that takes forever to get done 🙂
Flight Simulator SimPit Update #1
I’ve now painted the pit and I think it looks really good. I’ve tested the ability to take it down like the wife asked and it comes apart in less than 15 minutes and is only a few parts so yay me 🙂
I have also made a few modifications. I’ve bought a Saitek flight stick and throttle for jet sims and needed to have the ability to convert from GA to flight stick. Ended up coming up with this option. It works really well but I have the huge gap where the flight yoke goes that I need to fill somehow. Still trying to figure that out.
I did have to move the cup holder though 😦 Not as nice a location…
Flight Simulator SimPit
About 3 weeks ago I got the bright idea that I would build my first sim cockpit and after showing my wife drawings (on napkins) and pleading with her she finally let me start it on fathers day weekend 🙂
The wife had a few requirements.
1. it be as small as possible
2. able to be torn down quickly
3. I only had fathers day weekend to build it
I decided on a simple setup. Two 30 inch deep, 27 inch tall, and 4 1/2 inch wide side walls with the cockpit panel sitting on top at 38 inches wide, 8 inches tall, and 15 inches deep. Trying to keep it modular I made the monitor mount 6 inches deep and the panel 9 inches deep but I should have built it as a single unit and when I redo it I will make it a single unit.
VINE RIPE SOFTWARE™ 