I bought Honeycomb alpha and bravo, i keep hearing about spad.next.
I am wondering do i need to get that for setting that up, and if not what kind of benefits do i get by buying spad.next and using it for setting up honeycomb.
I’ve been using SPAD for two years. I still consider myself just an advanced beginner. There’s simply so much you can do with it. The main benefit I see is that you can create profiles for each individual aircraft you fly, and SPAD automatically switches to the appropriate profile when you load the aircraft in the sim.
This was more important in FS2020, which had no way to switch control profiles automatically. They supposedly added that function to FS2024, but I find the new Controls UI practically incomprehensible.
SPAD takes some learning, to be sure. And for a simple setup like the Alpha/Bravo (which I also have) you won’t really be tapping into its power all that much. But start adding other peripherals (like StreamDecks, for example) and you’ll quickly come to appreciate that the time and effort you spend learning SPAD is worth it.
One example would be for a turboprop aircraft that has a Beta range and Reverser on it’s throttle control. Good luck getting that to work the way you want using the sim controls. With SPAD there are videos that can guide you in configuring your Bravo axis for smooth and logical control of those features.
Again, not super easy to do, and you’ll need to dedicate yourself to learning. But the power can be unlocked, and once you unlock it you’ll never want to use the in-sim controls for much of anything.
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So i suppose i can also grab some premade profiles for spad for certain confige online?
So there isnt much benefits in 2024 version using spad for just honeycomb? I am have streamdeck but on ipad as an app
When I bought the Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo models, I found that it was impossible to configure them using the MSFS key configurator. Many interactions cannot be configured in the simulator. SPADnext together with FSUIPC 7 can tell you what action is sent to the simulator when you operate an axis, button or switch with the event monitor. The most frustrating thing at first is learning how to use SPADnext, as it has so many options, but little by little and with time you can learn how to configure, for example, a sequence of actions for the same button or the illumination of the buttons. The best thing to do is to create a profile for each aircraft in the simulator and, once configured, forget that it is running in the background.
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What kind of actions you can do in SPAD and not in configurator?
Can i also download other profiles instead of learning to configure on my own
You can download complete aircraft profiles, but that’s tricky. Better is to grab snippets, which are typically more device specific.
Examples of things you can do with SPAD that you can’t (AFAIK) do with the sim controls:
- Alert you when a circuit breaker blows.
- Give you realtime feedback of any data you choose.
- Add voice callouts to any aircraft.
- Configure multiple axis ranges on a single lever.
- Create user variables.
- Create If/Then conditions that can trigger particular events.
That’s just scratching the surface.
As a simple example: I created an event that looked at Cylinder Head Temperature, Altitude, and Airspeed as conditions for automatically opening and closing the cowl flap on my Bonanza.
And monitoring left/right fuel levels for automatically triggering the manual fuel valve to switch tanks.
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Look on youtube for Spad videos by Les O’Reilly. Very good tutorials ! Look for Spad and alpha or Bravo if that’s what your using.
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Answering your questions Bosko95.
The A320’s ADIRS system has three switches. With SPADnext, you can assign a switch on the Honecomb Bravo to activate it and configure it as you wish: turn on all ADIRS switches at the same time or sequentially by assigning a pause time between them. It is not possible to do this from MSFS.
There are published profiles for many aircraft; I’ve used them to learn how to configure, but I don’t recommend it because there is a lot of variability between them. It doesn’t make sense that you have to learn a different parking brake button for different aircraft, it’s better to keep your profiles consistent.
Just want to chime in with the same as what BegottenPoet said in their well-stated post - I’m in basically the same place. I find SPAD.next indispensable for managing my simpit’s wide array of modular controls that I use for a variety of aircraft.
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Question guys? I have Spad just handling the trim wheel in my MSFS 2024. The Bravo and Alpha are handled in the Sim right now. If I add a Spad profile for lets say the Bravo, do I have to disable the Bravo profile in the Sim? Or does Spad “override” it? Thanks
But what about if just using honeycomb stuff and ipad no other modules at all?
Is it worth for it then?
I am just starting sim so its gonna be GA for a bit before switching to airliners and learning more complex stuff
You MUST disable in 2024 whatever you’re binding in Spad. Otherwise they conflict. And the same for 2020
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I save a duplicate copy of the default Alpha/Bravo bindings in the sim. Then I delete all the bindings from the copy. I also go through the keyboard and delete a lot, particularly engine and flight controls. I don’t want any conflicts with the commands I send through SPAD.
I would say if you’re switching things up a lot then yes. If you just need to set standard bindings that work across most aircraft (lights, gear, flaps, etc), then it might be overkill. There are also other apps out there that have a whole graphical interface for iPad, but I don’t use them so someone else can chime in on those.
The best reason to use Spad…not having to touch the god forsaken MSFS Control Binding UI.
There is a slight learning curve but it is oh so worth it
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Thanks for the reply’s all.. Appreciated!
I setup my controls before FS24 was released for this reason and was able to fly immediately.
One good use is controlling the turboprop thrust levers. Getting the ranges and reversers set can be tricky and a chore, and I’m not sure how it would be done using the stock Flight Simulator controller configuration. For example, with a Bravo and Spad, you can set a custom range on the lever to make sure you’re within normal flying range and don’t accidentally go into Beta. And then when you pull the lever past the detent, which is no longer an axis but a button, you can send a series of decrease throttle events with a short delay between each, so it smoothly goes into the beta or reverse range. Or if you need finer control, you could use a separate lever just to control the beta range even if it’s the same throttle axis.
Spad also activates all the lights on the Bravo and makes setting them up a snap using the snippets functions.
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Yes is was nice to be able to hop right in and fly in 2024 without having to rebind controls. Only some slight modifications here or there.
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It’s an amazing tool.
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There are simply things you CAN NOT configure in MSFS, either 2020 or 2024. That goes especially for 3rd party planes. But you can do that in SPAD.
Its a learning curve, no doubt about it. Yes, you will have to invest a bit of time to get the hang of it. But eventually you will find it becoming quite indispensable.
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