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Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

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Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby ht.davis@bigpond.com » Tue Jul 30, 2019 11:58 pm

I would like get my Saitek radio & swich panel to work with flightgear windows 10 Have been in contact with Logetek here in Australia but they sent the drivers fot FSX yours sincerely Harry Davis ht.davis at bigpond.com
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Johan G » Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:19 pm

Unfortunately it is not likely that there will ever be support for them. There have been previous attempts at making them work, but they are "black boxes" requiring proprietary drivers that simply is not available for FlightGear. Making them work would require reverse engineering communication protocols used, possibly braking panels in the process.

The alternative is to build panels using switches, potentiometers/rotary encoders, stepper motors and some development board like an Arduino. If done simple it might be cheaper, but will in turn take time. If it sounds interesting you could have a look in the Cockpit building category on the wiki for inspiration. There are vendors selling complete kits for cockpit/simpit builders, kits that more likely will work with FlightGear.

Edit (November 2019): Grammar: "not unlikely that there will never" (triple negative) --> "not likely that there will ever" (Thanks Alan).
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Alant » Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:29 pm

Several folk have been down this route. Google "flightgear saitek panel" will find some of them and some hopefully useful links.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby simulant » Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:13 pm

Johan G wrote in Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:19 pm:Unfortunately it is not unlikely that there will never be support for them.

There is definitely a lot of progress, and at least in Linux it will work soon.
The radio panel already works using the nightly build (version 2019.2) in Linux and the .xml file provided as an attachement in https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/mailman/message/36678827/ it should already work. A demo video is available.
The author says that he will do some improvements before it gets included in flightgear.

Best regards,
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Ysop » Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:54 pm

this is highly appreciated, as this solution https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31677&p=340332&hilit=saitek+switch+panel#p340332 never worked for me.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby J Maverick 16 » Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:50 pm

Just bought me the Thrustmaster Cougar MFD pack on sale for Black Friday, hopefully it will be less of a mess to set up and customize. I've been tempted about the switch panel as well but I preferred the MFDs, especially considering the price. Good luck with that!
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Ovazor » Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:47 am

I got yesterday the radio panel as used from a friend of a friend, and could not get it to work with the .xml file linked above, but the driver in the link below worked with openSuse 15.2

https://github.com/hdd-robot/flightgear_saitek_radio_panel

Edit: nevermind, it worked for a while with the Cessna, but the driver then exits with sigsev.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby SurferTim » Sat Jan 25, 2020 12:32 pm

Ovazor wrote in Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:47 am:I got yesterday the radio panel as used from a friend of a friend, and could not get it to work with the .xml file linked above, but the driver in the link below worked with openSuse 15.2

https://github.com/hdd-robot/flightgear_saitek_radio_panel

Edit: nevermind, it worked for a while with the Cessna, but the driver then exits with sigsev.

It seems a "man in the middle" Python app would work here. Let the Saitek communicate with a Python script, and the Python script communicates with FG.
I suggested this same solution to Air Manager, but they seemed to think I couldn't do it.
So I built Pirate's Panel instead.

Edit: The Protocol input file shows the Saitek will send a CSV packet. Parsing CSV is what I do best.
I may end up regretting this, but I can build you a Python packet reader for that.

I presume the driver sits between the USB port and the socket.
That will probably require opening the USB port and translating to CSV.

This is called "reverse engineering". Logitech may not like me doing this. The Logitech rep implied that in our last conversation. I haven't read their EULA in a while.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Robertfm » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:19 pm

Ovazor wrote in Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:47 am:I got yesterday the radio panel as used from a friend of a friend, and could not get it to work with the .xml file linked above, but the driver in the link below worked with openSuse 15.2

https://github.com/hdd-robot/flightgear_saitek_radio_panel

Edit: nevermind, it worked for a while with the Cessna, but the driver then exits with sigsev.


If Surfer Tim is willing to help, take him up on it. There are others who have said they have the radio panel who would probably benefit. I know Tim knows his stuff he built the Pirate Panel (Instrument panel) and a radio stack both of which work extremely well. I use them when flying it saves having to fiddle with buttons you can't always see. I have them mounted on a near monitor alongside the Phi moving map.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Ovazor » Sun Feb 02, 2020 3:01 pm

I had time to try again, and this time I was able to complete a flight with the Saitek Radio panel working in Linux (OpenSuse 15.2). The solution I used was the one in https://github.com/hdd-robot/flightgear_saitek_radio_panel. (No, I have nothing to do with that sofware.)

The solution was -as usual- simpler than what I first thought - all I had to do was to use the F12 view and flick all the active/standby buttons once before running the saitek_fg program. May be the previous segmentation fault problem is just an initialization issue.

Although it still does not work quite out of the box, I have to first use xinput to resolve the radio panel acting as a mouse, and then use dmesg to make certain that I am addressing the right hidraw device, and created a simple udev rule to make it unnecessary to run the program as root.

What works: the basics. The displays light up and display the selected frequency correctly, except for the ADF. Using the controls on the radio panel change the frequencies in the sim, and this is visible in the radio stack.

Issues: I could not figure out how to change the VOR radials, except via the F12 dialog. When tuning down the frequency hops up if crossing a full number from up to down, e.g. if tuning down from 122.02 it will change to something to 122.97 when crossing the 122.0 downwards. Upwards tuning seems to work. The Saitek radio panel does not display the frequencies for ADF, but they change correctly in Flightgear when tuning from the panel.

Of course, I did not find it the easy way- since the panel seemed to work with the Cessna 172 (which I never fly), but no other aircraft I tried last time, I initially thought that the software might be particular to the way the radio equipment is implmemented, This turned not to be the case, in the end, but I did end up figuring out how to change the radios in my DC-3, and at least now my (t)rusty Dakota has more radio equipment visible in the cockput :)
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Ovazor » Sun Feb 02, 2020 3:05 pm

And of course I am willing to try the python app and help in its development if SurferTim or somebody else wants to do one. I am afraid that I am not much help in the programming side - I could not code my way out of a paper bag.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Ovazor » Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:20 pm

Second flight completed without a hitch. I was wrong above, the large knobs control whole numbers and the small knobs the decimals in the frequencies, i.e. tuning up with the small knob from 112.95 will get you to 112.02, and vice versa.

A feature rather than a bug, I think. Also, the frequencies are changed with a step, and there are frequencies that are impossible to tune to - even the small step will change the frequency more than needed.

Still, I can definitely use the thing, and that is something.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Willieboy » Thu May 07, 2020 6:39 am

I'm definitely a Newbie to FlightGear, but I have the complete stack of CH/Saitek panels. Has there been a simple fix for me to utilize them? :roll:
I'm definitely just a user/ pawn of the evil MS Empire
I'm definitely just a user/pawn of the evil MS Empire.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby Robertfm » Thu May 07, 2020 9:02 am

In short No. Myself and others have contacted Saitek about making their panels FG friendly but they are not interested. Devs say without Saiteks codes or permission little can be done.
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Re: Drivers for Saitek Radio and Switch panel

Postby V12 » Thu May 07, 2020 9:44 am

FG developers would contact FSUIPC development team for some info, how FSUIPC comunicate with that hardware and then develop some "translator" for FG.
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