Saitek radio panel detents, frequency skips, etc.

[GuillermoG 1]

_{On reading all the posts here and before I install my recently purchase Saitek Radio Panel, I will jump into this and ask if it is best to start by loading SPAD drivers prior to connecting the device. I guess I know those of you who have the experience and have experienced the pain of installing and going thru issues can tell me what is best to do. Do I then forget installing the Saitek drivers? By the way I own a registered copy of FSUIPC and Wide FS7}

 

_{Thanks and happy flights!!}

[Kermit_70 7]

Regarding the very first question in this topic, that is how to fix Saitek radio panel skipping frequencies...

How does this get resolved with SPAD and FSUIPC?

I have both (registered version of FSUIPC, newest update), and I using them successfully for Saitek switch panel, already.

Just got Saitek Radio panel and I am in the process of re-programming it with SPAD and FSUIPC. I uninstalled Saitek drivers.

 

OK, I can get the outer-inner knobs to change frequencies in the stby position, but can't find a way to fix the skipping of frequencies, especially for the decimals (inner knob)?

Are they supposed to be changeable with steps 0.1? If so, how do I set it?

 

Please give me detailed answer if you know how to do it, because "just use SPAD and FSUIPC dude" will not help...

 

many thanks!!

[Gregg_Seipp 573]

Have you ever tried LINDA?  I used to use SPAD and switched due to its limitations.  Sorry for the generic answer.

[Kermit_70 7]

I am very resistant to jump into LINDA, because I have a relatively simple setup (Saitek yoke, pedals, quadrant, switch panel, radios, trim-wheel), and don't want to get sucked in in even deeper problems...

Just out of curiosity, what do YOU do with LINDA tat couldn't with SPAD?

 

Thanks

Regarding the main topic,

 

I am reading around that in the Saitek radio stack it is "normal" to have the fine knob for COM1/2 having steps of 25KHz=0.25MHz, is it correct?

Since Saitek radio only show 2 decimals, should the normal behaviour be: .00 , .03, .05, .08, .10, etc ?

 

If so, how do you handle a frequency like 123.01? does it even exist? 

[Gregg_Seipp 573]

I haven't used SPAD in over a year so I can't really give advice there.  In terms of LINDA, you can program buttons and switches using custom LUA.  For example, on some of my airplanes, my trim switch on the yoke both does trim as well as turns off the autopilot if it's on...like the R/W airplane does.  Also, on some airplanes I wanted to adjust the trim wheel speed, quite easily done with LINDA. 

[schulrog 0]

So I've been searching and searching the web for a solution and even with SPAD I was having issues with the frequency knobs and it was driving me crazy. It actually seemed that the more I used them, the worse it got. At one point, I went the leobodnar route but unfortunately, once assigned, the encoder would only operate the specific setting it was assigned to and changing the assignment knobs on the saitek panels of course would still have the same issues as before with their frequency knobs. I didn't want to install a knob for every single setting I wanted to change so that was out of the picture.

 

In the end, it may not have been the cheapest solution but it works so well, that I haven't looked back since installing it today. A small outfit called MotiveMods makes a kit that replaces the frequency knobs on the radio and multi panel for a solution, which preserves all the oringinal functionality of the panels using the original saitek drivers. Now, one indent actually means one frequency, NAV, etc change rather than some ambiguous number!

 

If anyone has been as frustrated with the saitek knobs as I have been, I'd suggest checking out the site: http://www.motivemods.com/Flight-Sim-s/888.htm

 

Youtube video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc_NUn2wTwg

[MarkDH 234]

If anyone has been as frustrated with the saitek knobs as I have been, I'd suggest checking out the site: http://www.motivemods.com/Flight-Sim-s/888.htm

 

Awesome! Although it does more or less double the price

[schulrog 0]

That is very true but honestly, I'm ok with that. I've spent so much $ already trying other solutions that didn't work to my satisfaction, that at this point, it was somewhat of a last resort effort to get something that actually works and is simple PnP. At least now it's usable! Before, it somewhat ruined the experience especially when learning how to navigate by map or when you are on approach and forgot to pre-dial the frequencies for your desitination. I know I know... my bad:) Now it's a quick and painless process to dial in the correct frequencies.

[robb13 22]

Thought I would add to the wealth of confusion on htis problem.

I have never bothered to use SPAD. My Saitek panels worked fine for me . My Saitek rotary would skip two numbers on the one click but it was always possible for me to get a single advancement up or down by making a half click with the rotary, up until very recently.  Then I noticed that I too was getting the frequency skips as well.

I have only recently downloaded the Saitek PlugIn Drivers which uses the ProFlight FSX Plugin folder. Upon FSX start up I only ever got the one message re Saitek. Things worked ok for a few weeks and then I got a glitch.. I was getting two messages for Saitek and I was saying Yes to both.I then noticed both paths were leading to  SaiFlightSimX.exe file.  Whenever I said No to one entry and started FSX. the panels got the  single advancement of frequency again but I had no FIP functionality. Eventually I noticed in the fsx.cfg under [Trusted], I had three saitek entries.(SaiPanels.exe, SaiFlightSimX and ProFlightPlugin.exe.

I deleted these entries and then uninstalled  the three saitek direct output, plugin and panels entry from Control Panel / Programs etc list and reloaded each of the drivers from the original thru to the  most recent ( with FIPs unplugged) and clicking Yes to All for overwriting previous driver files.. ..( I always keep the old drivers for this )

When FSX started up , FIPs worked, the panel frequencies were back to one digit intervals and I now have only the (x86)\Saitek\ProFlight FSX Plugin\SaiFlightSimX.exe entry in the [Trusted] list.

 

In short I think that in the installation of latest drivers, a conflict got created with the old entries and so when the rotary switch was moved it was processing that request twice and not just the once..

In short if you have the latest drivers and the same problem, start by checking the fsx.cfg [Trusted] listing to see if it is as per above..

[MarkDH 234]

In short I think that in the installation of latest drivers, a conflict got created with the old entries and so when the rotary switch was moved it was processing that request twice and not just the once..

In short if you have the latest drivers and the same problem, start by checking the fsx.cfg [Trusted] listing to see if it is as per above..

 

It's always good to know the workarounds, although I am convinced this is basically a problem of shoddy components. In my Twin Otter cockpit I have used a Saitek panel and I have included a fix in my Lua code to ignore double clicks that seem to generate the digit skipping. Basically this lets you increment the digits smoothly but at the expense of slowing things down - with this code there is a minimum 310 millisecond pause between digits when you spin the dial. I established this time interval by experiment - 310ms was the minimum that would reliably skip multiple clicks. If anyone's interested, I have posted a code snippet below.

 

In the meantime I am hoping to get one of the MotiveMods fixed panels to try before Xmas!

 

Saitek 'fix' in Lua:

-- Extract from the LINDA Twin Otter Extended library.
-- Full library available from the LINDA download forum.

local SAITEK_ADF_ROTARY_FIX = 0  -- Set this to 1 if you are using the dual concentric knob
                                                -- on a Saitek radio panel to be your ADF tuning knob.

-- If the above flag is set to 1, the ADF rotaries use the following 'too fast'
-- function in an attempt to mitigate the nasty rotary controls on the Saitek radio
-- panel, which I (MDH) was originally using for the ADF. We basically ignore any click
-- that arrives too soon after the previous click, thereby eliminating the Saitek's spurious
-- extra clicks. The interval value used here is a practical minimum determined through
-- experiments.
--
-- The penalty for this approach is that we can't make fast changes with these
-- controls. However, by holding down any button that is bound to the rotary SHIFT
-- function we can suspend the 'too fast' fix and make faster changes. The Saitek dual
-- concentric itself doesn't have a central push-button but we can hold down any other rotary
-- control to make use of its shift function (assuming its push-button calls the Rotary_Shift_ON()
-- and Rotary_Shift_OFF() functions).

local ADFKnobLastTime = ipc.elapsedtime()
local SAITEK_INTERVAL = 310  -- Milliseconds

local function ADFTooFast()

    if SAITEK_ADF_ROTARY_FIX == 0 then return false end  -- No speed limit 'cos we ain't using Saiteks. (Yippee!)
    if RotaryShiftActive == 1 then return false end      -- No speed limit 'cos we have a shift key held down.

    -- Otherwise go ahead and check we haven't been called again to quickly

    local TimeNow = ipc.elapsedtime()
    local Interval = (TimeNow - ADFKnobLastTime)
    ADFKnobLastTime = TimeNow
    --ipc.log("Interval = " .. Interval)

    return Interval < SAITEK_INTERVAL
end

[MarkDH 234]

Just posted a review of the MotiveMods upgraded panel. Short version: it works great!