Awesome review! Thanks for sharing, and I’m really glad that it’s such high quality. It really looks like the real thing!
I’ve been working with Simmax for a long time on my home cockpit. I’ve mostly spoken with Simone and I can vouch for how nice he is to work with.
A few observations/things from my side.
- The screws are probably meant for the mounting holes on the front faceplate. Simmax’s products are primarily designed to be mounted in a home cockpit.
- That’s also why the product has a lip on it around all four sides. I’m willing to bet that if someone orders it and to asks them to trim the lip so that it was flush with the box that they could do that. (And they could probably move the lettering, too, and remove the mounting holes.)
- As they’re meant for a home cockpit, that’s probably also why the USB cable is so short. I’m guessing they’re assuming that everything is going into a hub first before going to your PC.
- Even though the expensive TPM is automatically backlit, I’m betting that the lettering on the front goes all the way to the back of the faceplate. Simmax products are designed to be backlit. You could put a flashlight back there, or if you wanted to, you could connect LEDs to your Arduino and program them to turn on and off when you turn the panel lighting on and off in the cockpit. (Although in this case, the lettering is partially blocked by the desk, so it wouldn’t work. But for someone else wanting to purchase these, that’s something to think about!)