Home: Custom Flight Instrument Panel Gauges

This blog and its pages are dedicated to custom instrument panels using Saitek's FIP hardware on the X-Plane Flight Simulator. I noticed there were quite a few resources for using these panels with MS Flight Simulator X, but failed to find a decent repository for X-Plane, so I thought I'd set about creating one!

As well as the Info Pages (on which I will list reference information), I will also be making blog posts detailing my trials and tribulations making custom gauges for these nifty little bits of kit.

If you have not already done so, please read the X-Plane and Saitek Hardware page to learn my motivations for doing this and the reasons why I have opted to just stick with the standard Saitek plugin rather than using the plethora of third party plugins available via the X-Plane Forums; if all you're after are some nice looking FIP displays then others have done far more detailed work than I have towards this end and you might be better served using one of their solutions.

I will list any links to external (ie. on other sites) resources or information pertaining to X-Plane and using the Saitek hardware in the Useful Links page.

Downloads

If you're itching to get going, why not check out my first gauge? Just click the link below the picture for more information including a (free) download link:
All-in-one HSI, RMI, DME, VSI with Turn Coordinator and Wind Indicator


Tutorials & In-depth How-To's:

I've started creating a series of informational how-to posts to help those aspiring to create their own gauges - I hope they're of use to you:

OS Support

Please note that the Saitek plugin only supports the Windows platform. I'd like to see a version for Mac and Windows, but as I strongly suspect that the plugin is linked against FSX APIs I think this is probably unlikely. I may later code a driver of my own (I'd love to see these panels working in FlightGear), but this is such a low priority for me that you may as well just assume that only Windows will ever be supported.

Feedback please!

Please feel free to comment throughout this blog if you so desire; in particular I always want to hear about anything I've gotten wrong, but if you have any questions, requests, suggestions or general remarks feel free to contribute. I do, however, only have limited time to devote to this blog so please don't be offended if I don't respond.

DISCLAIMER:


I create custom gauges purely for my own interest and use. I am providing all the information here as well as links to download my gauges free of charge and open source in the hopes that it will be useful to you, but I cannot accept any responsibility or liability for anything that may happen as a result of using my gauges or the information in this blog and its pages.

This is as much a learning process for me as it will be for you, and it is likely that I have made assumptions that turn out to be false or otherwise come to false conclusions throughout this blog and it's pages! Of course I will correct any errors as soon as I am aware of them, so please let me know if you find something here that isn't quite right!