Extra dials for the Pro Flight instrument panels

Hi All,

Over the last couple of months, Dr Fritx Hoppe has been working on developing some extra dials for the Pro Flight instrument panels, you may have seen some of the threads and blog posts over the last months, his forum name is dfhflight.

While we put an installer together contain all the extra dials, we thought that you may like have a play with them. Please follow the instructions below

  • Locate your Direct Output folder – should be here C:\Program Files\Saitek\DirectOutput
  • Down load the files SaiFlightSimX.rar from here
  • Down load the files Gauges.rar from here
  • Unzip both attached rar files to your desktop or another location of your choosing
  • copy the SaiFlightSimX.xml from point 4 and paste in the direct out put folder from point 1 – it will ask if you want to overwrite, make sure you say yes
  • Copy the Gauges.rar folder from point 4 and paste in the direct out put folder from point 1 – it will ask if you want to overwrite, make sure you say yes
  • shut down the folder and start flight sim
  • gauges will now be available

Gauges available:-
– VOR 1
– VOR 2
– ADF
– HSI
– Eng Gauges

Note – you will need to have administrator rights for all the above


   59 Comments


  1. Patrick
      November 15, 2010

    Is there any way I can get the deminsions of this panel?

    • Marc A
        November 15, 2010

      Hi,

      Here’s a link to the dimensions of the instrument panel

      https://www1.saitek.com/manuals/PZ46_TEMPLATE_1%20-%20May09.pdf

      Best regards

      Marc

      • Greg
          April 25, 2011

        Hi Marc,

        Are there other diagrams showing the dimensions available for the rest of the Pro Flight series?

        Thanks
        Greg

        • Marc A
            May 3, 2011

          Hi Greg,

          Here’s the link to the radio panel,

          https://www1.saitek.com/manuals/PZ69_TEMPLATE_1%20-%20May09.pdf

          At the moment this is all we have, but I will put a request into our engineers for the other products.

          Best regards
          Marc

          • Greg
              May 6, 2011

            Thanks Marc… that’s a big help for those of us building flight decks.

            Cheers
            Greg

  2. Dan
      November 18, 2010

    I tryed the additional gauges and like em a lot.
    Is it possible to speed em a bit up?
    Great work!
    D.

    • Donovan
        November 23, 2010

      I haven’t purchased my own yet, but what I’ve read and heard, all the gauges on these panels tend to lag behind the flight sim some. Only real remedy is to either boost your computer with a processor upgrade, or use the client-server setup described in the users manual.

      • Dan
          November 26, 2010

        I do use a client-server setup. the Poit is, with the new Gauges it slows down. it’s faster without em.
        maybe i will do some overclocking, but i guess U’r right there. ….i ve got to upgrade my CPU on the second Machine.
        Thanx.

        • Donovan
            December 8, 2010

          No problem, yeah a CPU upgrade on both machines will definitely help. Since I’m going to be getting these myself soon, do you mind me asking what CPU(s) and RAM you currently have so I can know what kind of upgrades I may need to make. Thanks

      • Mike Atcheson
          March 18, 2011

        I have 6 FIP’s and they kept lagging despite 6 core CPU etc.

        Then I connected 2 x USB3 hubs to the mobo and put 3 FIPs on each hub.
        No more lag – performance is vastly improved.

        cheer,
        Mike A Joburg RSA

  3. Fernando Gutierrez
      November 22, 2010

    I downloaed both files; however, I was not able to Unzip the files (SaiFlightSimX.rar & Gauges.rar). The *.rar format is not a zip file???

  4. Douglas Walsh
      December 4, 2010

    I am very interested in buying the Combat Rudder Pedals and TPM panel. Can you tell me when they will be available for sale? I currently have the Yoke System, extra Quadrant, Swich Panel, Multi Panel and AV8R joystick.

    Thanks,
    Doug Walsh

    • Marc A
        December 14, 2010

      Both should be available in store around the middle of January, we will place announcements on the web site, www1.saitek.com , when the units become available

  5. DocLotus
      December 7, 2010

    Hi;

    “2: What is with the “dead” pointers that never move on the engine gauges. These are the ones that stay at zero all the time.”

    I finally figured this one out when I flew a twin engine. Two needles for two engines; neat. Would still like to see two fully independent engine RPM’s on one gauge with the fuel and ect on still another gauge.

    Thanks;
    Doc

  6. DocLotus
      December 9, 2010

    Hi;

    I have noticed that you made small changes to some of the 6 default Saitek gauge faces and am wondering if you can also…
    1. Default AIRSPEED dial… Double the font size to make it more readable; the current numbers are much too small. It would be nice if all gauges had the same size numbers for consistency.
    2. Additional AIRSPEED dial… we really need an additional airspeed dial with about one half the total range of the default; somewhere in the order of 160 – 180 KNOTS would be nice. This would make it MUCH easier flying those slower single engine aircraft such as the Piper J3 Cub and the Cessna 172.
    3. I have noticed that I can change my aircrafts heading just by turning the COMPUS heading knob on the instrument panel and the heading will change on the Multi-Panel as well… VERY nice indeed. It would be likewise nice if we could do the same with the addition of a pointer or bug on the ALTIMETER dial. What do you think?

    Thanks again;
    Doc

    • dfhflight
        December 15, 2010

      Hi Doc,
      Please wait a few days, I’ll try it.
      Are you logged into the Saitek forum? There I could then send the files.
      dfhflight

      • DocLotus
          December 20, 2010

        Hi Dfhflight;

        I have tried to sign up on the Forum but never got the e-mail notification to click on to confirm my account.

        I have tried to access my account but it won’t let me in, it says Im not logged on but I can’t log on without a confirmed e-mail. I have tried to do another sign up but it says the login and password are already used… a real catch 22. What a mess.

        This has been one VERY frustrating experience to say the least.

        Any suggestions?

        Thanks;
        Doc

      • DocLotus
          December 20, 2010

        Hi Dfhflight;

        Another problem; when I try to register I always get …
        “Sorry, registration has been disabled by the administrator.”
        What is with that anyway?

        Any suggestions?

        Thanks;
        Doc

    • Nelson Coppola
        July 5, 2011

      I Have all Saitek Pro I need 6 additional guage available for Instrument Panel need down load drivers

  7. pedro antonio luis
      December 9, 2010

    Hello; i brought pro flight instrumental panel, is it only fsx ?? because i have fs2004
    thanks
    best regards;
    Pedro A. Luis Exposito

    • Marc A
        December 13, 2010

      Sorry only FSX

      • Victor Dangond
          January 12, 2012

        Why you don’t have a patch to use this instruments on the fS 2004?
        thanks

  8. Drover
      January 10, 2011

    Hey there Saitek pros,
    great job on everything you have. in saying this, i have pretty well everything you have, 3 throttle quadrants, pro flight yoke, X65F, 6 instrument panels, switch, radio and multi panel, and rudder peddals,
    Can you tell me when the bip panel will be coming out, and also, are you coming out with more intrument panels.

    thanks
    Dwayne Drover

  9. Donovan
      January 17, 2011

    Is there ever going to be a tachometer and mannifold pressure? I’m glad they got the Nav dials and fuel/oild stuff on here, but I think the tach and mann are a bit more important. I know I would, and I think most of us can’t wait to see those.

    • dfhflight
        January 22, 2011

      Please wait a bit. Domenico and I are working together just that.
      Best regards
      Fritz

  10. Johnny F
      January 20, 2011

    Hi!
    I have purchased the rudder pedals and would like to ask just one question. The rudder pedals are also to use as ailerons but how do i disconnet this since its very ignoring when i tip my toes and the airplane miss the controls steering…

    Johnny F.

  11. Haluk Yuksel
      January 26, 2011

    I have 6 instrument panels mimicking Cessna cockpit. They are set up as air speed, attitude indicator, altimeter, turn coord, compass, and vertical speed. What I need is a tachometer display because most tutorial lessons mention adjusting RPM to various speed. When this control is coming out?
    Thanks

  12. Brian Decker
      January 29, 2011

    I have been trying very unsuccessfully to install my pro flight instrument panels on a client pc on my home network. I’m pretty sure that I have followed the instructions correctly. When I go to run the saiFlightSimX exe on the client machine, I cannot get it to connect. It does not show up in the list of running processes. I am running windows 7 on both machines and was wondering if there are any known issues with that. I looked on the forums for any discussion on this and can’t find any. Also wanted to see if there were any video tutorials, but it would not let me register. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
    Thanks!

    • Marc A
        February 7, 2011

      Hi Brian,

      Here a link to a document that may help you, download here (pdf)

      Best regards

      Marc

  13. Drover
      February 6, 2011

    Do you know if Saitek will be building a plug and play GPS in the future…
    have a great day

    • Donovan
        March 27, 2011

      If your looking to have a GPS screen you could try my setup. I bought a 7in portable TV for only about $40 on sale (they’re probably $100 max regular) and have it connected as a secondary monitor via a VGA-RCA adapter. Then just set up FSX for multiple monitors and drag the GPS window onto the smaller screen.

      • Donovan
          May 9, 2011

        But make sure you have a graphics card that supports TV-out via VGA, I had an issue with that while trying to set this up. And while I’m posting again, I might mention the upgrade I’m considering. Currently the GPS is simply a small TV, but I recently found a Touch Screen monitor of similar size and very reasonable price. The touch screen element would also make using the GPS that much more realistic.

  14. Stan Howard
      February 6, 2011

    Great simulation gear. Are you planning a Pro Flight Transponder, ADF and DME panels? It would complete the set nicely.

    • Stan Howard
        February 6, 2011

      Cancel that, I’ve not bought one yet but read the manual. One unit does serve all the avionics functualities

  15. Stephen E
      February 26, 2011

    I am about to purchase the PRO Flight Commercial Pilot Bundle with the six Pro flight instruments panels. Am I limited to six FIP’s? I would like eight and include some of the new dials. Also does the new VOR include an ILS glideslope?

    Thanks

    • Marc A
        February 28, 2011

      Hi Steven,

      You would have to purchase the extra FIPs along with the bundle. VOR1 includes the glidescope as does the ILS.

      Best regards

      Marc

  16. Donovan
      March 26, 2011

    I know I’ve already asked this, just posting again to see if there’s been any news regarding- Tachometer/Manifold pressure gauges?

  17. Roger Rouma
      March 28, 2011

    Bonjour a tous; serait-il possible de concevoir des fichiers permettant de faire fonctionner les instruments
    panneaux vor,hsi etc. pour x-plane 9 sous win7, j’ai déja ceux pour les switchs;multi pannels et autres.
    mais pas pour les instruments de vol, je compte en acheter 8
    D’avance, un tout grand MERCI pour les futurs renseignement
    Roger.R

    • Donovan
        May 9, 2011

      J’avais essaye de repondre a ton question trois fois avant ca, mais pour un raison ne sais par moi, mon reponse n’est pas visible. Comme j’ai deja essaye de dire, je ne pense pas que Saitek faire des fichiers comme ca, mais je sais qu’il y a beaucoup de pilote-virtuelle qui faire des fichiers soi memes pour utiliser les pannaux Saitek avec Xplane.

      Aussi, pardon moi si mon francais est un peu incomprehensible. Je suis seulement un americain.

  18. Mark G.
      March 28, 2011

    Hi,

    Just purchased my first Pro Flight panel and am planning on getting more. I love the new guages expecially the HSI, however I noticed the HSI needle tracks VOR1 but the DME readout on the bottom is tied to Nav Radio 2 requiring both nav radios to be set to the same freq. Is there a way to correct this?

    Also I am not sure the DME is showing NM as the distance displayed is different from the distance shown on the aircraft panel.

    Thanks

  19. Jean Carlo
      May 9, 2011

    Hey guys im doing a purchase of this in amazon at this link http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-PZ46-Flight-Information-Panel/dp/tech-data/B000VLNXRU/ref=de_a_smtd

    I want to know what is in the package because im not sure if it comes with the 6 gauges.

    Thank you so much guys, greetings.

    • Marc A
        May 11, 2011

      Hi Jean,

      It’s 1 panel, that will display the the 6 gauges, these are selected with the buttons down the left hand side of the panel.

      If you have any more questions please feel free to ask.

      Best regards

      Marc

  20. MARK HEMMINGS
      May 17, 2011

    G’day,

    I am Making a Flight Simulator and Donating it to the Australian Air League Tamworth Sqaudran. im trying to set it up as a Cessna. i currently have 6 gauges and looking at buying 3 more to set up as Fuel, Oil Press, RPM, can anyone tell me where the best place to get the Software for these gauges would be?

  21. Matt
      May 22, 2011

    Please can someone post photos of all the new dials to help me decide if I should buy or not?

    If I buy the instrument panels, are they upgradable via software when more layouts/gauges are released?

    Thx
    Matt

  22. Jay-Bernie
      June 1, 2011

    Hi,

    Does the lag that I keep hearing people talk about comes from the dials themselves or from the result of a mediocre system? Would you say it won’t lag if I have a high-end top of the range PC rig?

    Jay

  23. Dan
      June 17, 2011

    @No.1, I would second Patrick and Greg’s request for any dimensioned details of the other panels would be exceedingly helpful and much appreciated.

    Any other dimension info for things such as the yoke/throttle quadrant would be great too.

    Many thanks,
    Dan

  24. Mao rui
      July 27, 2011

    Hi!!! Great job on the dials!!! There’s a couple of problems though.
    I was referring the attitude indicator to the actual ones in the game:
    It seems that you guys designed it to look like the artificial horizon on the small planes:
    There’s a discrepancy between the fsx pitch and bank indication. Every marking in the fsx artificial horizon is supposed to be 5 deg of pitch, but the pitch indication for Saitek indicates differently(around 8 deg or so). Is there anyway to change that with the XML files? Also, to other users, it seems some are getting lag on their gauges. For those who aren’t getting lag, how good is the framerate? So we can use as a benchmark

  25. Rick S
      August 6, 2011

    I had a terrible lag with a I7-920 running at 3.66MHz. No lag today with a I7-2600 running at 4.8GHz. I am running 6 Gauges, 1 Switch Panel, 1 Radio, 1 AP, 1 BIP, 1 Pro yoke with quad, 1 extra quad and a Pro rudder.

    I did try running the gauges and panels on a second computer to begin with but it didn’t help much.

    I will add that I also made this change to the fsx.cfg AffinityMask=14 //was 84

  26. Jack
      December 20, 2011

    HI , Rick s you say I7-2600 at 4.8 Ghz or i7-2600 at 3.8 Ghz. or you do i7-2600k cpu.

    • Rick S
        February 1, 2012

      I7-2600k @ 4.8 Ghz. Running 12 FIP’s now with most everything in FSX set to max. I see 15 fps on occasion but mostly 20+ even in major hubs. I just wish there were more choices for FIP gauges.

      Rick S.

  27. BILL YOUNG
      December 27, 2011

    When do you think they will come up with guages and controls and a program for us rotor heads

  28. Manny
      January 21, 2012

    Is there any way we can program the Pro Flight Instrument Panel ourselves? Is there a development Kit?

    I used the engine gauge.,.. but I need the engine gauge for a twin prop.. which means L and R Manifold pressue, L and R RPM and L and R Fuel gauge.

    The existing engine gauge is too small since all the 4 gauges are in one panel. I;d prefer each gauge per panel.

    Particularly the manifold pressure gauge is non existent..

    Thx

  29. Manny
      February 5, 2012

    It would be nice if we could have a Beach Baron like L & R MP gauge and RPM Gauge and Fuel flow Gauge.

    A Set of three with these three engine gauges would complete my twin prop aircraft sim cockput.

    🙂

  30. jack bek
      April 3, 2012

    has anyone build a cockpit using saitek’s product
    for a fighter plane..eg F5,F15, F16,Mig21…
    how about a bomber eg A4

    Jacky

  31. Marc L
      April 20, 2012

    Is there any Chance to get Drivers for MS Flight so I can get my Instrument ans Switch Panels working?