Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Anyone getting the Saitek Backlit Information Panel?

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Anyone getting the Saitek Backlit Information Panel?

Poll Results
(1 vote)

I plan on getting one when it comes out (1 vote)
Nice but its a little too expensive for what it does

Nice but its a little too expensive for what it does (5 votes)
Useless - I would never get one

Useless - I would never get one (8 votes)

DVA7636
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
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Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 08:30 ET by Tracy Norris

Just cruised over to the Saitek site and saw the following page:

http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/bip.html

It's a backlit information panel that apparently can be configured for any number of annunciations (low fuel, gear unsafe, etc). It has 24 LEDs and each can be configured for Red, Orange or Green (or maybe a combo if there's a problem? Dunno!).

Saitek says it will be released in October with an MSRP of about $149 U.S. With 24 LEDs that works out to about $6.25 per LED indication which sounds a bit steep. I would suggest $99.95 as a better price point so maybe they'll consider that.

I'm on the fence about it but will probably get one to play with. Ideally it would be configurable through FSUIPC but I suspect Saitek will probably throw in some FPS-grabbing drivers to go along with it frown

Tracy Norris

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

DVA3931
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
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Surry, ME

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Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 10:05 ET by Andrew Kaufmann

I have a bunch of Saitek stuff - and I pretty much trash their drivers and SST program...and use FSUIPC for everything

Andrew Kaufmann (DVA3931)

DVA8622
First Officer, B777-200

Joined on April 14 2010
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Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 15:36 ET by Ethan Olshever

First, no, I will probably not get one.

Second, and more importantly, since when do we have polls here?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Ethan Olshever

First Officer, B777-200

DVA3196
Senior Captain, MD-11
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Joined on June 03 2006
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"pitchpowertrim.com"
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Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 17:48 ET by Michael Brown

Nice find...but I likely won't be getting it.

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 19:36 ET by Andrew Kaufmann

Ethan Oshever wrote:

First, no, I will probably not get one.

Second, and more importantly, since when do we have polls here?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Poles have always been available.

Andrew Kaufmann (DVA3931)

Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 19:54 ET by Michael Brown

Hmmm...how do i vote??

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

DVA8622
First Officer, B777-200

Joined on April 14 2010
Century Club

"We're off, like a heard of turtles."
Commack, NY USA

189 legs, 783.0 hours
182 legs, 751.4 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 20:12 ET by Ethan Olshever

Andrew Kaufmann wrote:

Ethan Oshever wrote:

First, no, I will probably not get one.

Second, and more importantly, since when do we have polls here?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Poles have always been available.

Oh... I guess only for staff?

Ethan Olshever

First Officer, B777-200

DVA4176
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Horn Lake, MS USA

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Posted onPost created on October 04 2010 20:45 ET by Scott D Williams

You mean 149 dollars to tell you what our basic fleet airplanes already do? Not in my budget...but thanks for keeping us posted on the new stuff Tracy.

Scott D Williams

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

Posted onPost created on October 05 2010 07:54 ET by Tracy Norris

I agree it sounds a little pricey but it certainly looks nice enough. I *do* like the fact that Saitek makes all of their panels in a standard size (albeit a bit oversized compared to real life).

It would be relatively easy for a home-cockpit builder tearing this thing apart, unsoldering the LEDs and running wires (and LEDs) from the circuit board to a home-made overhead panel to make things easier. I use an Arduino Mega microcontroller to control my overhead and I would probably need 3 of these to get the same functionality HOWEVER, if Saitek is wise and makes this appear as a standard HID programmable device, then one would not have to write special interface software (like I did).

I have strongly urged Saitek to stop making their devices 'proprietary' in nature and simple make them standard HID devices. Doing this would alleviate a lot of the headaches when trying to make (for example) the Radio Panel work with something other than FS9 and FSX (X-plane for example). We'll have to see where that goes.

In their defense, I also like the fact that they will include 70 'command tiles' to replace whatever is installed so it can be customized. With the addition of a few dollars, they could easily have included a small sound processor that would chime for the seat belt annunciation, gong for the overspeed warning, etc but maybe they have a dedicated 'sound processor' in the works wink

Regardless, overpriced or not, it's nice to see a company step up to the plate and offer products for us sim enthusiasts IMHO biggrin

Tracy Norris

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

DVA7693
First Officer, CRJ-200
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Mason, OH

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Posted onPost created on October 11 2010 16:35 ET by Brian Berendts

totally overpriced - this is a 20 dollar add-on - at best.

Brian Berendts

First Officer, CRJ-200

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