What to use for Radio / Nav Knobs in VR, Honeycomb Bravo or X-Touch Mini

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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What do you use to dial in frequencies in VR?

Looking for hardware with knobs to interact with radios, coms, G1000, Nav/Com/GPS/ etc. Using the mouse to dial in a frequency is tedious. Would love to find out what everyone is using/doing to change frequencies. I Only fly in VR

Current setup
Honeycomb Alpha yoke
Logitech Throttle quadrant
Logitech rudder pedals

Considering the following,

  1. X-Touch Mini -
    Pros - Light and easy to mount. Knobs and buttons.
    Cons - no native drivers/support. msfs support via 3rd party devs
  2. Honeycomb Bravo -
    Pros - Good build quality, has two knobs. Great looking throttle with trim wheel
    Cons - Bulky, Heavy (~13 pounds) Mounting on my rig will be an issue.

Not considering atm:
Logitech Saitek Flight Panels (but open to revisiting)
- Dont fly 2D so will never use the LED display, and build quality is as expected.
Knobster - too expensive for just the knobs

Thanks

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Might try Axair Mili or miap. Relatively inexpensive and compact

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Thanks these looks interesting. Have you used any of these?

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For around £30 it’s possible to make an Arduino with MobiFlight software, left encoder is map zoom, 3 way rocker switch selects FMS - ADF - VLOC/Com.

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Both. Do a search And you’ll find previous discussions.

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Hey Tony
This looks interesting!

Did you print the box or buy that?
Which Arduino do you recommend for this with Mobiflight?
Are you using the Dual Encoder Kit w/switch from propwash? which knobs do you recommend?

Thanks

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I bought the box and encoder knobs (I’m based in UK), I took inspiration from this channel and MobiFlight Discord super helpful. I used a pro micro, and yesterday dual encoder has push button. I’ve since added 3 micro switches Enter, Clear (short and long press works), and Direct. Discord

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Or there’s the Knobster

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I fly exclusively in VR and I always have used the mouse (a Kensington trackball in my case).
Imho preferable to any Knobster and the likes, becaue with the mouse pointer I “reach” for the knobs in their true (simulated) position, instead of fumbling with a device that will always be in the same place. I think that is more of an immersion breaker than the mouse pointer….

Just my opinion - and of course I’m eagerly awaiting a workable haptic gloves solution!

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Bravo is great for activating nav functions and rotary encoder for AP values (altitude, VS, IAS, heading, CRS, etc., but I use a Logitech Radio Panel to set radio frequencies, XPNDR, ADF, DME, etc.

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sorry…I re-read the comment…changes what I said
I use the Logitech Radio panel for all radio/comms…excellent and easy. However I also the X-touch as it provides 8 knobs x 2 layers = 16 avail knobs. I have eng starts, (cabin) light controls, baro, elevation, auto brakes and many more mapped to these knobs. And this device gives you about 48 press button functions too - most of which I have mapped. I don’t fly in VR though, so not sure how these would go…

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I have to agree with this. As much as it feels like a waste of capability to let those Honeycomb buttons and knobs go unused, I find it more intuitive to look at the actual control in VR and move my mouse to control the button. Some planes have light switches on the side or overhead, or the AP on the console between the seats and blindly feeling for the right knob is time consuming and error prone.

I use the Honeycomb equipment plus rudder pedalks for primary flight controls mainly.