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+1 vote
asked by (15 points)
I'm using the Saitech Flight Switch Panel, and before selecting any plane to fly , the green lights are "on". When flying a plane with retracts, it works as it should, but when selecting a fixed gear plane, the lights stay green all the time. ( even when parked with all switches off ) . Is this a normal situation ???    ---  It doesn't happen in FSX !

1 Answer

+1 vote
answered by (253 points)
Richard,

Saitek panels (switch, radios, autopilot and others) rely on data passed by saitek plugin, which reads the data from x-plane and sends them via USB to these panels. During x-plane startup, these plugins are not reliable, thus the green lights. After x-plane has started up, all plugins stabilise and all data are correct. Also, when you are flying a fixed gear plane, the gear is technically down, so green lights are ok, though 'three greens' look strange in this kind of the aircraft.

Happy flying.
commented by (15 points)
Thank you Marys54.
Your answer makes good  sense to me..
I have another question for you. The panel light switch on the Saitech device will not turn on the aircraft instrument panel lights, but I can make them work if I use the mouse to click on the switch in cockpit-view.  What do
you think about this ??

   Richard
commented by (253 points)
Richard,

Looks to me as different aircraft use different datarefs (even custom ones) to control various lights inside their cockpits and these datarefs are somehow not standardised.

I would say that saitek plugin uses incorrect darefs for a particular aircraft, example:

These datarefs

sim/cockpit/electrical/cockpit_lights
sim/cockpit/electrical/instrument_brightness work fine for stock cessna172, but do not for baron58, which is a more complex aircraft and has more knobs controlling just the dashboard lights.

Try your panels on cessna172 and if everything is fine, and all that fails on baron58, then I am right about the various datarefs with various aircraft.

Happy flying.
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