An article over at the other place pointed me to www.desktopaviator.com who seem to have some very flexible and competitively priced products. Anyone here using them, or can comment on the quality, customer service etc.?--Bryn

Surprised nobody using this kit :)Anyone like to comment on how it looks compared with the competition? It looks like a good deal to me, but I am a novice in this field.--Bryn

>Surprised nobody using this kit :)>>Anyone like to comment on how it looks compared with the>competition? It looks like a good deal to me, but I am a>novice in this field.No personal experience, but looks clever.In any case good food for thought for people who want to start this hobby and dont want to sacrifice a whole room just yet :) Such a panel would make an ideal first building project.//Tuomas

Hmm - does anybody smell that somebody is trying to give GF a run for their money?The concept is right, quality seems very good and the price attractive - a perfect entry into the cockpit world. It does not really need a custom encasing like GF does - only stack several boxes each on top of another, use two flat aluminum pieces to connect them and you're in business.I'd really like to see them come out with a super cheap generic MCP and maybe radios and one could have a full GA stack for less than US$500.

BTW, just a note that the schematic ("Figure 9") on the original article was incorrect - it shorted out pins 4 and 5. I wrote to the author about it, and he had an update posted within a couple of days. It has NOT been updated on the Desktop Aviator site, so use the FS.com version.Not affiliated with them in any way, just something that my eagle eyes caught when reading the article.

A friend ordered the "Cessna" switch panel and said "it works fine" and uses a joystick interface, you map the functions with FSUIPC or FS input assignments. The delivery was quick too (he was in the US though)//Tuomas

>I'd really like to see them come out with a super cheap>generic MCP and maybe radios and one could have a full GA>stack for less than US$500.Hi,About generic MCP, when first boom hit Finland around this hobby, this kind of setup came aroundhttp://www.ee.oulu.fi/~partanen/MCPuus.jpg- this is build by Mr. Partanen and it is based on FSBUS. It was build for PIC767.Do you find any similarities about boxes? Take care,Joni

Steve at desktopaviator is awesome to deal with!!! I have two of his 10 button USB interfaces and have the following modeled in my sim,Nav-Gps, Autothrottle,Flight director, Landing gear,Engine start valve 1, Engine start valve 2,parking brake,Fuel pump 1,Fuel pump 2, Avionics master,Yawdampner,Battery master,Wing de-icers,Engine de-icers and pitot heat all easily assigned in FS9's assignment section !!! I plan on adding reverser control, flaps and spoilers all doable with this setup!!! I purchased my switches and capacitors at RadioShack and took the relays from an old junk Ford Crown Victoria.I use a computer power supply to light the switches but they dont need to be powered externally, the device uses the power from the USB.You have to do some wiring and pick up some relays and capacitors plus whatever switch you would want but it is real easy to do and if you have a question he's right there with the answer.In short i highly reccomend it, so far everything else seems way tooverpriced and this is very very easy to do and adds buckets of realism !!!Happy Flyin'David