Small review VRinsight Tact & Toggle Switch panel

Picture: http://www.simw.com/sfr/hardware/tact-toggle-switch-panel-tt-panel.html

This afternoon i have bought the VRI T&T switch panel. I'm still flying with a Logitech 3D extreme, Saitek rudders and for the throttle i use the saitek throttle quadrant.

The logitech and the saitek gave me 18 buttons to assign. With the VRI next to it i win 15 press buttons, 6 on/off switches and 11 metal on/off switches which makes it in total 50(!) buttons excluding the HAT from the logitech.

Installation:

Its truly plug and play. No drivers needed (windows 7 64 bit). In the device section its called "USB PAD". It has a USB 2.0 connector.

Visual:

The case is from metal and it stands in an angle. In the foot there are pre made drill holes so you can mount it with screws. The angle is not changeable.

The 15 press buttons have a blue black light. I don't understand why only the 15 press buttons have black light but okay...a nice addition.

Quality

As said the case is made out of metal which makes it a solid device. The 15 press buttons could be better. When not pressed but laying your thumb on them you can move the buttons. The 6 on/off switches are made of good quality. They are a bit small but okay. The 11 metal switches are very solid.

All switches work perfect and respond well. They deliver a bunch of pre made stickers.

Use:

I use the panel together with LO FC 2.0 and its great! Now i'm able to assign all important functions to the switches. Assignment in FC 2.0 is a piece of cake. It appears as the USB PAD.

There was only one disappointment with the switches. They are 1 way switches...

Example: i had a red on / off switch assigned for left engine startup = ON position. But i cant use the same switch in OFF position for left engine shut down.

So yeah, i'm happy with it. But hey...whats the difference between a keystroke on the keyboard and this panel? Well...not much but it feels more "simmy" than a keyboard:D

Thanks for this review.

I think Im going to buy 1 for BS and A10. Sure you can use the keyboard. But damn, metall switches are much cooler! :D

Thx again

Same as NEO here. Its the whole diference between switching the APU on keuboard and on the TM hog, same for flap etc.

Thank you for the review. i wonder why noone has realeased a military looking panel yet, those are all civi oriented.

Does anyone know if this piece of kit works well with DCS 1.5/2.0? Does DCS now allow for setting on/off on the same switch?

hughlb, DCS uses on/off (known as Single Pole, Single Throw) switches just fine. It can also use on/off/on (known as single pole, dual throw) as well.

A10's AHCC's Laser On, Safe, Off is an example of SPDT switch. And on/off is self explanatory.

SPDT switches can be on/on or on/off/on. The "double throw" just refers to how many "on" positions there are, not the total number of switch positions.

If you have an on/off switch, how well it works depends on whether the module you are flying has a keybinding intended for an on/off switch or not. If it doesn't have it, you can add one by editing some Lua files, but that requires some reading and you will have to reapply your changes after every DCS update (e.g. with JSGME or some sort of revision control system).

They are 1 way switches...

Example: i had a red on / off switch assigned for left engine startup = ON position. But i cant use the same switch in OFF position for left engine shut down.

You can, editing plane LUA files, or using a keymapper with "mapped key on press" and "mapped key on release" functions, e.g SVMapper, Joy2Key, Xpadder. ;)

Since the above link are redirecting for Simw main page, picture of the device:

screen shots

Excellent, thanks for your responses guys :)