Yesterday I received my Multi-Panel, and I have to say, I’m very pleased with it (for the most part). Installed the MSFS plugin from the Logitech site, and it worked immediately. It makes intereacting with the AP so much smoother. I don’t regret getting it.
But I have some minor issues / quibbles here:
Selecting increments of whatever mode I’m in via the dial works. HDG will give me single degrees, and ALT will give me 100 foot increments. For a while. Then it changes. HDG will switch to 10 degree increments, and ALT will only switch in 1000 ft increments. That makes it pretty difficult to set precise headings and altitudes, especially the latter when doing low altitude VFR fights. Anyone know if there’s a modifier or something to toggle between these increments?
The panel lacks FLC mode using IAS instead, which is useless in most GA aircraft. I can live without it, since I can do what I did before and have my FLC activated from a switch on my X56 throttle, and another switch for up / down. But it would be nice to be able to reassign if necessary. I’m not too hopeful about this one. This is a secondary concern I’m really not that concerned about.
But it’s about 1000 posts long going back to launch date, where there were multiple workarounds / hacks / 3rd party products being offered due to lack of direct drivers. Too much to follow and read through for what I’m asking. FIgured I would post the specific questions here in a new thread instead of clogging down and already clogged down thread.
I was seriously researching this product yesterday and was ready to buy one, until I noticed the lack of FLC and the lack of twin knobs for Altitude setting. I am going to go back to try and figure out how to use my X-Touch and A&O. While that won’t have a nice display, at least it will do what I want it to (IF I ever figure out how to get it set up).
There’s a very good solution to this but unfortunately it costs more money. It’s called ‘SPAD.neXt’. In practice it acts as a driver/configuration utility for Saitek controls. Main advantage is that it can be configured semi-programmatically to perform some very advanced functions.
For example, I have set up a profile to enable FLC mode if I press the VS button for two seconds, in which case both the IAS and VS panel buttons flash to remind me that it’s in that mode, whilst also changing the VS selection display on the panel to read actual climb/decent rate.
For the selection knob (silver one) it offers an interesting solution, you can set the knob to say 1 degree increments, but then configure an option to change that to say, between 10-50 degrees as you turn the knob faster. This works pretty well once you get use to it.
It’s a shame that Logitech didn’t think of including/licensing this when it took over Saitek, but it is what it is I guess.
I just tried the 8.0.290.0 and it is still not working properly…
The altitude, heading , speed just jumps from 1000 steps and heading 10/20 degrees. I think with this version works even worse than before… I am starting to think that it may be a hardware issue… I dont know how can I be sure of it.
The panel barely is a couple of months old and til now it was working perfectly
There are so many variables here that the problem can be difficult to pin down.
All I can tell you for sure is that the yoke and panels driven by the 8.0.290.0 plug in DO work
[at least on my machine]. This is very frustrating.
You might follow this that I posted earlier:
And be sure to have uninstalled any and all previous plug in’s.
Beyond that perhaps you have a conflict with your keyboard/panel assignments.
I hope your persistence pays off!
Keep us posted.
Good luck.
BTW The 1000ft/10 degree bug is caused by USB devices that send events continuously to the sim.
For example the switches on the Honeycomb when set on (up) send repetitive messages, so fast it confuses the sim. The magneto switch does this on any of the 5 positions.
So disable all 5 magneto positions in Controls and keep all switches off. Magically the AP problem will go away.
This can happen to any USB peripheral that sends repetitive events. We have to be patient until Asobo fix it. As they promise to support the Honeycomb Bravo throttle in the next patch, hopefully these problems will go away permanently.
I only have the AP multipanel, not the Logitech switch panel.
But now that you are saying this, my AP multipanel started failing once I started using my new Alpha Yoke with that magneto switch… I dont know if that could be related. I will try to disable all those switches and check if that solves it.
I have a honeycomb yoke and experience this exact problem. My workaround (until it gets fixed ) is this:
Setup 2 profiles for the Alpha yoke
profile #1. Have all the rocker type switches (lights, magenetos, battery etc) ENABLED. Name it “Preflight / On Final”
profile #2 : Have all rocker type switches DISABLED and name it “Taxing / Flight”
Now i switch between the 2 profiles accordingly ( Taxing, on final etc) Loses some of the immersion but allows me to set my OBS etc in single degree increments once i have done my Battery, avionics lights etc and am taxing and have no more use for them. I can then switch back to using my rocker switches when on final as I no longer need to be setting my compass heading, OBS etc.
Will just add yesterday the only way i could get the multi panel to change increments correctly was to unplug the honeycomb yoke then the adjustments work correctly.
I’ve uploaded the whole profile, should be available in the app’s online profiles under my username (Droide_E326). I haven’t been using it regularly for a while so I’m not sure if anything is broken and needs updating due to ongoing changes in the sim. Had a quick look earlier and it seemed to be working (for FLC and VS, at least), hope you find it useful.
