What? that's so simple... Excellent! I m gonna get phidgets.

There's lots of products out there, and all have their pros and cons. It's what one does with them that makes each sim individual and as accurate as ones skills permit.

>There's lots of products out there, and all have their pros>and cons. It's what one does with them that makes each sim>individual and as accurate as ones skills permit.And some have some SERIOUS cons :-hahRobert

Mitch you're right, It does depend on the person that can make difficult parts come together. But we're not all experts, and we depend on the people that manufacture the parts to make it easier for some of us to build our SIM. Also, to get them in a timely manner, as promised, by the manufacturer.Quite frankly Mitch, I get email everyday from fellow builders that tell me the same story. How disappointed they are in either the quality of the product or service provided by the manufacturer. Because of the limitations of access to this type of product, they are held hostage, and are afraid to complain, otherwise they may be reprimanded. It astonishes me to see some of the smartest, talented and strongest people I've met, are accepting this.When I see the craftsmanship, imagination, ingenuity, etc, at work here..... I'm truly amazed. I encourage those who build their own parts, take old, real parts and rebuild them to make them work like new, in our own sim environment. Those are the amazing builders Mitch, and THEY have the RIGHT to say "And some have some SERIOUS cons"

Yes, Not some "Most have some SERIOUS cons" Well Matt... For the fact, for those who have serious cons with their product provided by maufacturer were anxious to stand or speak up and share how they feel. That's because they did not want their reputation to be ruined among simbuilder community. This community is very small, once their name is ruined it will always stay there. I agree with you about encourging other simmers to build their own parts, find old real parts and etc. But sometimes it would be very difficult since some of them don't have a proper tools, or these parts may be hard to find. I'll admit you, I am one of the victim that is being used by one of the popular manufacturer. So, from there I decided that I'll never buy from them again and started making one of my own, but went through a lot of frustuation in time, especially with insufficent information on actual diameter for each parts. So its like 50 to 50 cons between manufacturers and hand made.

>> That's because they did not want their reputation to be ruined >> among simbuilder community. This community is very small, once >> their name is ruined it will always stay there. Arthur, I agree 100% my friend. That considered though, isn't it unfair for a company to promote a product as perfect when it has known flaws? It isn't fair that people should literally feel scared to say anything CONSTRUCTIVELY negative about a product.I have received some VERY nasty e-mails about how I am bashing companies, when I am offering my constructive and honest opinion as a DIRECT CUSTOMER . If everything a company releases is reviewed as "simply phenomenal and absolutely as good as it gets", how is that fair to someone who will buy it and then find out, "hmm, it doesn't fit my DZUS rails," or "hmm, this panel is pretty accurate but it's the wrong thickness". These aren't necessarily bad things, but these are constructive differences that people should be able to FREELY discuss about products.I also get MANY e-mails from people who for instance purchased x,y,z part, then found obvious inaccuracies, and the supplier wouldn't correct it (which has happened to me as well). Is that fair to those who will buy the part and not know about the flaws?Robert

Just want to make sure, what I said about manufacturers, that NOT ALL manufacturers/suppliers are as I have written. There ARE those that will go out of there way to provide you with the best service, BUT, VERY FEW.....It's only a matter of time, someone else will come along and provide the quality, service and fair pricing for the products we require. Then, those others will be history.

Well - this has gone off on a tangent that I never intended... all I said was the kid did a nice job wiring his panel, and that his skills have obviously improved in the last couple of years (which we can all hope to do!). I know that on the third iteration of my sim I have come a LONG way in refining my skills :)With a niche hobby like ours, I think that the manufacturers are going through the same learning curve as the consumer, which puts us as the consumer in a position to have to "pay the price" for development of these specialty products to a higher level.Quality and ease of use are a moving target... but you gotta admit, it's getting better all the time :)Matt, I have to disagree with you somewhat in your assesment as far as service after the sale... in my experience it is not nearly as high as you have seen. I have products from PFC, GoFLight, FDS, Project Magenta, Leo Lacava, Simkits and Flight Illusion, and I have found every one of these companies to provide excellent advice before the sale and excellent service after the sale. I gues the experience varies from person to person and company to company. I've been lucky so far, as I can't really complain about the service I have received from any of these firms (that's 100% satisfaction with service after the sale). ;)

Mitch, your experience IS unique, either that, or you just accept the way it is.In my opinion and reports from other builders, Project Magenta far exceeds the industry standard in product quality and Enrico Shiratti leads all other competitors in meeting his level of personalized customer service. All manufacturers should strive to meet his lead in setting this customer satisfaction standard. Generally speaking I feel we have come to expect mediocre products and services that are focused on satisfying the manufacturer not the consumer. Whenever we are pleasantly surprised by the unexpected and unusual event of actually getting what we want from these types of vendors, we are fooled into thinking we were well services. I guess that is why I have become a loyal support of Project Magenta and openly praise Enrico's work ethic and dedication to his craft. My point here is not just applauding Enrico, but "all" the independent creators and craftsman

Well so far so good... I'm no pushover, I just have not had to endure any of the scenarios you mention (yet!) It may be in part because of the type of sim I am building... allot different than the commercial jet cockpit experience.

This is a VERY intersting discussion.Why ? Because it provides a different approach to some commercial parts providers.We do have a lot of REVIEWS for FS addons, like aircraft or sceneries. These reviews are almost objectives, nobody fears to tell "this aircraft has really good design, but guys don't buy it if you expect real panel functions etc..". That objectives reviews do not exist for hardware parts, as far as i know... And this should be a must. Reviews are an absolute need for potential customers. We give our money for a product, if this product is not worth the money, people have to say it. The consequence will be that the supplier will solve the problem or will simply stop making the product has it does not meet the customers expectations.Yes we are a "great family", fellows simmers. But never forget some companies are just here to make money, they are not parts of the family has we may think it, or money just make them lost their initial philosophy of high-quality product and support. We don't have to "shut our mouth" if we had a problem with one of them. That's make me think about the guy who had a really big problem with a 737 yoke he has purchased, incredible story, just think about the numbers of us he had saved from being abused by the supplier.If a company makes awesome products, just say it.If not, just say it also, everybody should know. And the companies always have the right to answer and to give explaination for a particular problem, if it is sincere, that won't penalize them.Commafroggy eater'n'flyer, so forgive my english :)

Regarding Roberts FANTASTIC work and the use of PHIDGET, I've switched over to PHIDGET myself. Absolutely FANTASTIC interfaces. Alan Dyers FS2Phidget.exe software is also a fantastic piece of work. It is rapidly evolving and of course you can take Roberts approach too. I like options:) But just to get back to FS2Phidget (Alan Dyer), and regarding to our off topic discussion. FS2Phidget is FREE, totally produced by Alan, he's not related to Phidgets at all, he's doing this out of the kindness of his heart. So there is an other example of an independent creator helping other builders build there sim.

Yes my friend, I am glad you agree 100%, In my opinion I think its unfair for those well-spent client getting lack of service, or is unstatisfied with the quality of their products to keep their mouth shut, and they knew if they take an action for it would have make it worse. That's sound a little communism threat in our sim community. Question is, how can a manufactuer improve their reputation if they don't please their clients or consumers? The purpose of selling business is to observe how client can really enjoy having their products, help them, give them lot of supports by taking their objects and listen clients on how they want it to be. instead of mainly focus how much they stock their money in investment, rasing price on their products, or try not to allow any similar-manufactuers to get involve in competition against theirs. You can now see why Wal-Mart, nearly 250 billion dollar worth of company has turned into 30th richest company in the world that is because they gave their customer 100 percent statisfication. Regardless, if their products are so cheap. But the quality to customer need is rich. Walmart doesn't really care if they get a bad remarks, or how much money they loses everyday but try hardest to get consumers to smile once they visit walmart stores again. That is what we need in our cockpit sim community. Other objective...Frankly, this community is not all about critizing or giving bad remarks to manufactuers who is trying hard to establish business or giving effort to please their clients. I have notice some a client who own best quality products from well-know manufactuers giving bad remakrs to another small manufactuers that is building similar products. Why is it necessary to destroy their goal, dismay them from continuing their business? Why is that you are too busy critizing others, aren't you supposed to build a sim and get it to fly? That would be unfair for small manufactuers, and among to conusmers who wish to buy from them instead of well-known manufactuers. Of course, the purpose in this community, if for everyone that is entiled to have an opinion, share feedbacks or thoughts, help eachother, giving suggestion or idea in nice way. Not throwing against eachother because they have better one.

WOW comma, Thats POWERFUL word for a french guy like ya ....you are absolutely correct we the "family" dont have to shut up if we disagree with the quality or service that companies provide.

Uh... communism in the flight sim community? Interesting concept.Matt - Getting back to the original thread - I've shyed away from Phidgits because I have been reticent to learn to program in C++. My understanding from Robert's original post is that he did not use FSPhidgets because of the limitations of the variables available in FS9. Were you able to work around this in FSPhidgets to implement your systems without having to resort to C++ or some other complier-level programming language? bAlso - Robert, you mention the installing the hphidget.msi to your compiler - my understanding is that an .msi file is a program installation package... how does this integrate with your compiler, and what complier are you using?