Gauges

325: GPS Navigation Fix for VOR1

| Tom Tsui

Trevor Bagnell in Canada recently reported that when NAV1 radio is controlled by the GPS signal under a filed flight plan, the Standalone C172 VOR1 gauge (Integrated as well) doesn’t respond accordingly.

With no flight plan, he said, the localizer needle on the VOR1 of course remains centered when the NAV/GPS Switch is toggled to GPS.

But when a flight plan is active, the NAV1 radio will be controlled by the GPS signal.  The localizer needle on the VOR1 should deflect accordingly.

The virtual panel gauge localizer needle reacts to being off the centreline of the flight plan.  The FIP gauge does not, he added.

Trevor submitted a video explaining the case as follows: Continue reading →

322: Wind Indicator on C172 Heading Gyro

| Tom Tsui

Different to the Integrated version, the design of my Standalone C172 Heading Gyro doesn’t come with anyC172_HDG_Wind_Taxi indication of wind direction so as to render a more realistic appearance.

Many users, however, have been requesting to include such a feature because it is a useful reference while taxiing on the ground so that proper aileron and elevator actions could be conducted against strong headwinds, crosswinds or tailwinds as in the real life situation. Continue reading →

321: C172 Gauges Price Reduced

| Tom Tsui

Due to the coming of Christmas and the new A36 and B58 gauges, plus the C172 gauges have been released for nearly a year, prices of both the Integrated and Standalone C172 gauges have been reduced up to 25% off.

In addition, the latest versions of both series, now equipped with the newly written installer, are fully compatible with both the file structures from the old and the new Saitek drivers as well as the SPAD.neXt driver as mentioned in the previous post.

Installation is even simpler.   Continue reading →

320: SPAD.neXt with FIP Support Released

| Tom Tsui

SPAD.neXt (Saitek Panel Advanced Drivers neXt Generation) by Ulrich Strauss is a replacement driver for Saitek’s Flight Simulation Panels.   The just released version 0.8 now provides full support to Saitek’s Flight Instrument Panels as well.

HDCMPIndeed, the recent drivers from Saitek have brought improvements over older versions.  That’s no doubt about it.  But they are still lack of flexibility and configurability.   Especially, the company’s FIP driver still only support a subset of the simulation variables.  This has caused incompatibility issue among those 3rd-party aircrafts which use the simulation variables extensively in their designs. Continue reading →

319: B58 and A36 FIP Gauges Preview

| Tom Tsui

B58 ENGLately, half of my minimal flightsim time were spent on creating new FIP gauges for Baron B58 (both default & Carenado versions) and Bonanza A36 simultaneously as they share many similarities.

Different from the last C172 gauges which categorizes into Standalone and Integrated versions, and charges separately, the new B58 and A36 gauges to come will include both Standalone and Integrated or Extended gauge face-plates altogether in a single package, when applicable.

This includes customization for both default and Carenado aircrafts, making some of the gauges consisting of up to four different versions.

In addition, the installer for the new gauges will be compatible to Windows 10 and the new Saitek drivers file structure as well.

Followings are a few more preview screenshots of the gauges already completed or about to complete.   Continue reading →

308: Switching Between inHg and mBar

| Tom Tsui

A friend recently asked if there is a simple way to change the barometric units from inHg to mBar on the Altimeter.   Unfortunately, no, it is NOT possible on the earlier free gauges.   But YES, it is possible on the paid gauges as their codings and image designs have been rewritten.

This automatic barometric unit switching feature should have been implemented earlier.   Anyway, here it comes at last.

C172_ALT_inHg-mBar

Users of  the current Continue reading →

307: Wet Compass Got a Face-Lift

| Tom Tsui

Received some comments from friends who said the faceplate of the current Standalone Wet C172_CMP_150710C_NarrowedCompass is a bit wide.    Well, it very much depends on personal preferences.

Anyway, here’ the face-lift version.   Current users should have the new faceplate in their mailbox now.

If not, let know me in the Comment section below.

306: The New Saitek Drivers – Part 2: SaiFlightFip.xml

| Tom Tsui

The ability of starting up multiple FIPs in specific order everytime has been a feature requested by almost all FIP users for a long long time.   Saitek has finally implemented it onto its new drivers.   However, this feature may need another tweak in order to function.

After the installation of the new drivers, a file called “SaiFlightFip.xml” containing the current setup information of the FIPs and the gauges should be created accordingly.

Via this “SaiFlightFip.xml”, the start-up order of the multiple gauges can be specified as desired.

The file is supposed to be stored under: Continue reading →

305: The New Saitek Drivers – Part 1: Installation

| Tom Tsui

Normally, driver installation should be no more than pointing-and-clicking on the mouse.   Saitek’s new ProFlight drivers, “ProFlight_FSX_Plugin_7_0_40_9_x64_Software” and “Saitek_Pro_Flight_Instrument_Panel_7_0_40_9_x64_Full_pfw”, however, might need a little tweak.

Some friends said to me that the installation of these two drivers was as easy as snapping fingers.   However, there were others telling me the opposite.  To be more exact, their FIPs wouldn’t start up after the installation, even though all the other Saitek gears work as usual.

To me, both statements are true since I experienced both extremes myself over the last few days. Continue reading →