I have been talking to Leo Lacava of Beta Innovations, via email. It seems that with the introduction of FSX Leo is getting out of the MSFS business. FSX has changed the interfacing method, requiring him to rewrite his software. His MSFS customer base is too small to warrant so much time and effort.While I can understand and agree with the business decision, I am sorry he is leaving the MSFS world. He builds high quality boards, provides excellent customer support and was an early innovator in ready to install flight sim products. Besides, I realy like the guy.It also leaves me with a quandary. Should I continue to use his products and attempt to code them for FSX, something I have no knowledge of and dislike doing, or, try and find another supplier of ready made boards?He mentioned Open Cockpits and FSBUS. Have any of you had experience with either of these organizations? In looking over their sites they seem to use either the parallel or com ports? I would prefer a USB port setup. The world is going that way. I already own a laptop that doesn

Hi John,I am also sorry for the direction Leo took.I was a big supporter of his hardware, but with his BIFS software he started ignoring any 'proper' software (i.e. his cards only worked with default FS9 planes), so I dumped it and moved on.I switched to Opencockpits, and haven't looked back. ( I also use some phidget boards for LED's and autothrottle controls).Opencockpits stuff is cheap, easy, definitely USB, and programming via SIOC or IOCards is basic. There stuff works with FSX. I would recommend opencockpits all the way.thats my 2c.Chris

Are you the Chris from New Zealand who made some radios and had a C-172 (?) Pit? If so, I remember your site. You did fine work. John

If you can still buy any of what Leo still has, you can still use it with FSX. Contrary to what Chris says, you can use his boards - even in FSX - with any plane that can use keystrokes for commands. All you have to do is use his "Keyboard Studio" app instead of his "BIFS" app. The only planes you'd be locked out of is any that are "mouse commands only".Richard

Yeah,only problem with keyboard commands, is if the software does not have the keystrokes mapped, you are out of luck. Most of the payware planes (and project magenta)have the ability to assign switches/toggles to offsets (either through FSUIPC or their own SDK (i.e. LDS)).For keymapping to work with offsets, you have to run through wideFS, assign the keystroke to WideFS, which is then mapped to a joystick button press in FSUIPC, which can then trigger a offset change.Very flaky and not reliable (I tried this many times over the past 12 months), and in the end was about 75-80% effective. Not very good when my software is leading my button positions and i have to toggle twice to get it to match up if it misses the first signal.BTW, I am Chris from Aus, who is working on a 767, but its a good name :)

If you are looking for USB devices, Opencockpits has the "USB Expansion board" that permits to connect up to 4 (parallel) Master Cards using only 1 USB port.If you go to their web site you will see that the only card that is not using USB is the Master Card, but with the USB Expansion Board you can get rid of the parallel port and go through the USB port.All of the other boards are USB connectable, except for the Display (7 segment) Card that you must connect to the Master Card.In the section "Sales" you will find prices for all the Opencockpits stuff.Regards,Bob

Thank you guys, for your advice. I will look more into Open cockpits. Currently, my requirements aren