pdmarsh

You know, you're right. I forgot about that. If you want to give it a try, you should be able to modify the profile in a text editor. Pressing the ID button in Flightpanels will put that device's ID number in the clipboard. You can then do a search & replace in the text editor for each panel. A pain, I know, but yes, the profile is tied to a panel ID. This allows for multiple panels of the same type to be used. Skeeter

Regarding lag, a certain level of this is normal. However, after you get things working and if you still see significant lag, i.e. seconds, between a panel action and cockpit reaction, there might be something there Artur will want to look at. I have one switch set up with a sequence to activate all four SAS switches. I put in a 0.5 second delay just to give each one time to react. Best practice would be to wait for all four cockpit switches to change before doing another input from a panel. Skeeter

@Baldawg -- After entering the frequency you want in the STBY window on the radio panel, press the AVT/STBY button to the right. This will send the frequency to the virtual radio in the cockpit. Once the change is made there, it will be fed back to the ACTIVE window on the Saitek panel. Thanks, Skeeter

@Baldawg--Are you referring to Saitek Panel drivers? I don't believe either Fightpanels or DCS-BIOS should lead to a driver error message. Thanks, Paul

Sample Flightpanels 2.0 A-10C Profile As promised by ArturDCS, I have attached to this post an example of an A-10C profile that makes use of all supported panels; Switch, Multi, Radio and B.I.P. This is mainly to allow you to see various key bindings, sequences and DCS-BIOS uses within the profile. It hasn't been refined and is really my own test profile. I'll try to follow-up this post in a day or so with a bit more detail on what the bindings mean, or what functions they control, but I did want to get this posted ASAP. Of course, you can sit in the cockpit, throw a few switches, and see what happens! Thanks, Skeeter (pdmarsh/Paul) P.S. -- I was going to post this photo later when I show a few ways to create custom tiles for the B.I.P, but I'll put it here so you can see what the B.I.P. bindings in the attached profile relate to. The custom tiles will probably be obvious. The photo makes them look worse than they really do in practice. A-10C.zip

FlightPanels Version 2.0 Update I have the pleasure of working with ArturDCS as a tester on his FlightPanels V2.0 project. As was mentioned in earlier posts, he is now making use of DCS-BIOS. The progress is exciting and I'd like to give users a heads-up of what's coming (with ArturDCS's permission). The Switch Panel functionality has been great from the get-go and remains so. He has already released a version of FlightPanels that precludes the need of a special driver and we now have use of the LED indicators. :thumbup: He's making great progress on the Back-lit Information Panel (B.I.P.). Each LED will be programmable in four modes; dark, green, red and yellow. Since the standard tiles that come with the B.I.P. don't cover all possible uses, I'll be posting a number of different approaches to making custom tiles when V2.0 goes live. ArturDCS is already thinking ahead to the MultiPanel. As this was designed to emulate civil aircraft, we're looking at how best to apply it to DCS modules. And now for The Big Kahuna -- The Saitek Radio Panel. :) ArturDCS has functionality working for the A-10C AM, FM and ILS radios. We're still testing and working out bugs, but it's going to work! I think ILS landings will forever be a part of my missions now (kind of been ignoring that in the Warthog). Edit: This was just to note progress. Other radios, e.g. UHF, and other modules are being worked on. Thanks, Skeeter (a.k.a. Paul)

@Mike5560 -- Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and for the lead about sam simulator. I will definitely have a look at that. Paul

It really is amazing how much can be found on the internet in general for free. It's almost a modern barter system, but not like "I'll give you sack of potatoes if you fix my wagon wheel." It's more like a pay-it-forward economic model, along the lines of--I get a free graphics package over there, but post missions here. It's not a direct trade, but an exchange of effort nonetheless. I imagine that lots of articles, if not books, have been written on the economics of the internet. Thanks, Skeeter

First, thanks to all for commenting in this post. Regarding... This certainly does seem to be the case. I imagine most folks here, at least in the U.S., have heard about the following, but if it was missed: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/28/general-alleged-treason-remark-probed-by-air-force/ Granted this is an alleged act, but it has a ring of truth to me.

Our little multiplayer group loves this mission. It's a staple of our flying sessions. Thanks, Skeeter

I would like to make a request on behalf of all those who put in the time and effort to script and post missions. As one who has only scratched the surface of this activity, I can attest to how much work is involved and, I can assure you, we don't do it for the money--at least not yet for some I'm sure. :) Negative feedback is better than no feedback and will hopefully lead to better missions down the road, if not improvements to the mission in question. Positive feedback is very much appreciated. Please do post your star ratings and comments--even just a few words will do. Thank you, Skeeter (a.k.a. Paul)

Thanks Grimes. I'll have to let this sink in a bit, but I do appreciate the information. Paul

I'd like to understand the interaction, if any, between a SAM battery and a standalone search and track radar system. The Kub 2P25 LN SAM launcher, for example, is shown as having both optical and radar modes. Will placing a radar system such as the Kub-M1 1S91 STR nearby allow the SAMs to be launched in radar mode? If an STR is not nearby, or is destroyed, will the missiles still launch, but in optical mode? There is a vague reference to this in the manual, but it isn't clear. ("For Surface to Air Missile (SAM) batteries like SA-10, SA-11, etc., all the needed units of the SAM battery must all be part of the same Vehicle Group.") I guess another question would be, where is "all of the needed units" explained? For mission success goals, I'm wondering if the missiles need to be destroyed or just an STR if the above is indeed how they interact. Thanks, Paul

Interesting article on status of the Warthog: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/warthog-lives_823820.html Paul

Thank you ArturDCS!!! You just saved me, and others I'm sure, a ton of work. :thumbup: Paul

I have not been able to find or identify the keyboard commands for the following switches, described on page 43 of the MiG-21 manual. Any help will be appreciated. 2. Aircraft distance transponder SOD-57 power switch 3. Aircraft distance transponder SOD-57channels (wave) selector switch 4. Type 81 IFF transponder switch Thanks, Paul

Please note that the following commands share the same key strokes: RAlt - RCtrl - B Radio Altimeter/Marker Off Avionics RAlt - RCtrl - B ARC Off Avionics Hope this helps. Thanks, Paul

Hi ArturDCS, So far, v1.6 looks great. I tested a few profiles within DCS and all looks good. I also tested the switch panel in X-Plane without running Flight Panels v1.6, i.e. just using the Saitek driver and X-Plane plugin, and it worked as expected. Great job! Thanks, Paul

@Nac33 -- Please feel free to have a look at a mission I recently posted which does exactly what you are looking to do. It's fairly straight forward, though. You will need to create both the client and AI as separate aircraft. Set the AI to late start, then use flags as dooom noted above. However, if you don't want AI aircraft to spawn during the mission should the client aircraft die, you will need to create a trigger to stop that as well. I initially used the presence of client aircraft in a theater-sized trigger zone to preclude their AI counterpart from spawning. However, if the client aircraft dies during the mission, its AI counterpart then spawns, which is not something you would necessarily want to happen. My approach was to create a "crew chief" for any given client aircraft that gets used in the mission. These crew chiefs are safely tucked away at the home airfield. It their associated client aircraft gets shot down, they remain in the mission to preclude the AI aircraft from spawning. There could be much better ways to do this--I'm still somewhat new at mission scripting. If you want, have a look at the triggers in the mission I mentioned above: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1101978/ Hope this helps. Paul

@Xeno426 -- All good observations and changes. Thank you very much, and thanks for posting the modified version. I took a quick look and your mods are very thorough, e.g. following the method I chose to preclude AI aircraft from spawning both at mission start and after. Your suggestions are in keeping with the scenario I was going after, and even the guys I fly with made similar observations--but I was perhaps a bit too anxious to get it posted. The hope was to create a somewhat realistic flow of events. SEAD initially makes the area of operations safe for CAS and transports. CAS not only covers transports, but eliminates enemy reinforcements. Transports put boots on the ground to secure and hold the area. Long range radar SAMs are indeed needed, I now see, and I'm sure other changes would (will?) make this a more realistic and demanding mission. I'll see if I can use this as a foundation and build a better mission. Thanks again, Paul (a.k.a. Skeeter)

Perfect! I actually went ahead and bought Mi-8 earlier today. I'm going to get familiar with it over the next few days, then will work on the mission. Thanks, Skeeter (Paul)

Great news, ArturDCS, thanks. The switch panel has been working great with your software in both DCS World and X-Plane. However, it will be nice to get back the green LEDs. :) I was going to ask how the radio panel work was coming along, but I stumbled upon another post where you say you are having some difficulty and that you haven't received enough from donations. I encourage anyone reading this to make a contribution to the effort. Thanks, Paul

I recently purchased the Saitek TPM (throttle, prop, mixture ) panel and had no option but to update to SST 7.0.27 as the older software does not support this panel. I am running SST on a PC with Windows 7 64 bit. SST repeatedly crashes the PC to a blue screen. I am able to program one or two switches, but eventually SST will crash after clicking on something, e.g. test profile or load profile. I have submitted a ticket with Saitek. If I receive any encouraging feedback I'll post it here for anyone else who finds this thread as I did when researching the issue. By the way, the nine switches on the TPM panel can be used with DCS. If I were knowledgeable about LUA programming, that might be a better way to go. For now, I simply map unused keyboard commands in DCS and then program the TPM switches accordingly. Of course, this has been a painful process given that SST crashes a lot! Thanks, Paul

Hi Xeno426, Thank you very much for the feedback--I appreciate it a great deal. I will definitely give some thought to incorporating these aircraft into the mission. I don't have the Mi-8MTV2, but this might be all the incentive I need! Thanks again, Paul

Mission Tweaks --Changed SAM smoke markers from white to orange. Found white to be a little too wispy from the recent DCSW changes. --Set western enemy infantry to late start like eastern infantry to avoid being attacked too early by AI CAS flights. If enemy infantry is shooting, AI transports won't land. Only applies when Huey transports being flown by AI pilots. When human pilots are flying the Huey(s), enemy infantry is already activated and on free fire! Operation Erase & Replace V2.miz