Mixing controller brands?

[dom92 0]

Has anyone had any luck mixing controller brands in your sim? I am looking to acquire a used Elite Pro panel SE and AP2000 avionics stack, but due to the cost I can't really afford to get the rest of their product line so I'm looking to supplement it with a Saitek/Logitech switch panel and CH Products rudders. Will the drivers from all of these brands behave themselves when used at the same time, or are there any known incompatibilities? I would be splitting time between P3D v4 and XP10 with these.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

There shouldn't be any problem at all with doing this with P3DV4 so long as there are compatible drivers - and if there aren't then you can likely add them manually.

I can't speak about X-Plane except to say that I can't image there being a problem.

Best wishes.

 

[dom92 0]

Sounds great, thanks Dave!

[MarkDH 234]

4 hours ago, dom92 said:

Has anyone had any luck mixing controller brands in your sim? I am looking to acquire a used Elite Pro panel SE and AP2000 avionics stack, but due to the cost I can't really afford to get the rest of their product line so I'm looking to supplement it with a Saitek/Logitech switch panel and CH Products rudders. Will the drivers from all of these brands behave themselves when used at the same time, or are there any known incompatibilities? I would be splitting time between P3D v4 and XP10 with these.

Mixing brands per se is not an issue, as such hardware usually presents as a standard HID. But BEWARE, as Elite hardware does not. You will need specific drivers for any OS and flight sim combination you wish to run Elite hardware on, and some of it you have to pay for. I know this because I have an Elite yoke and two of the AP-4000 radios, both of which I can use in FSX but not in X-Plane. In addition, you will not be able to use any advanced software to program your controls, such as FSUIPC, LINDA or SPAD.neXt, so you're stuck with whatever the Elite drivers give you. On my yoke this means the only things I can program onto the (just two) buttons is A/P disconnect or Pause. For me it also means, for example, that my Elite COM/NAV panel is stuck as COM1/NAV1 when I would like to be able to use it as COM2/NAV2, and I can't use my Elite transponder in X-Plane.

There is (now) an Elite X-Plane driver but you have to buy it for $50, which leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. It's also made and sold by Simplugins, which doesn't give me confidence about its quality or the level of support that will be available for it. Personally, although it's great hardware, I would not buy Elite for these reasons, although I guess if you're getting it used at a good enough price then it probably makes sense.