Saitek FIPs used in Elite Dangerous using SPAD.neXt www.fipgauges.com (not publicly available)

Gauges are NOT publicly available unfortunately as they are hard coded to my setup and will not work on any other system than mine.
While I was releasing these originally they are two complex to setup and were permanently withdrawn. This video is a showcase of what is possible if you are creative enough and are expert level on SPAD.neXt.
There is NO output from Elite to the gauges, the animations come from the interaction with my hardware and not the game.

[@canopener9214]

8 years ago, nice, I had my mods as well, so many did, wish they would release a proper api. Then the doors open...

[@TimGray]

You should tell people this is using generic of SPAD and that it's not actually talking to ED and you get no acual feedback. I asked the SPAD programmer and he has zero interest in ever actually supporting ED

[@ShumaiAxeman]

If I'm ever rich I am so doing this. Dude this...this is amazing

[@dagoelius]

Configuring the Saitek panel to ED functions is one thing, getting those in-game feeds to sync with the panel takes a true pro. Tip my hat to you sir.

[@mk3ferret]

I'm scratching my head with those panels

[@fipgauges1305]

Good news: I finally have these working for public profiles, with minimal configuration, which is documented. I will be doing Star Citizen ones eventually

[@chaosquall1]

Really want to see more star citizen ones

[@brandonedwards1181]

Where can we get these?

[@vesnl]

Did you ever managed to do it for Star Citizen?

[@fipgauges1305]

Vilmar Simson hi, no, never got star citizen, I spend too much time on flight simulators. Even if I did I would be able to share due to the system hardcoding

[@fipgauges1305]

While these went public for a very short time they were withdrawn within a month.

[@augustca1984]

Oh man this is awesome.

[@CelticArmory]

Is there a tool for getting the switch and multi panels to work?

[@fedearce5311]

I'm sorry for my laziness, I don't want to go through all the documentation if it is not possible, but you may have a quick answer for me, so I can start investigating on this if there is some light at the end of the road. I'm trying to do something like this for star citizen. I kind of understand the input side, but How did you manage the render those graphic outputs on the displays?

[@fipgauges1305]

Federico Arce Federico Arce hi, it's fairly complex, none of it documented anywhere. Basically I photoshop the graphics from screen captures and animate and render using SPAD.next. Animation respond to changes make to SPAD.next local variables. The variables are changed when moving input controls, pressing buttons or sending voice commands from voice attack to SPAD.next. Unless you know how to code FIP gauges and understand how local variables work in SPAD.next you might as well learn rocket fusion unfortunately. I'm planning on doing star citizen gauges when I finally get around to installing it myself. The reason I can't sell the gauges is because they are hard coded to work with my specific hardware/cockpit

[@fedearce5311]

FIP Gauges great thank you that helps a lot! So bassically they are just custom gauges right? Do they read information from the game, or it is just from voice attack and the physical input from the gauges? I mean if you change something in game with you mouse or hotas does it get updated in the gauges?

[@fipgauges1305]

Federico Arce: communication is one way. Game data can not be read but the gauge buttons can send key commands to game and animations can mimic joystick movements and button presses. Gauges can also respond to voice control from voice attack which can also operate game functions. But to be clear nothing generated by the game can interact with gauge. Interaction comes purely through human interaction with the game

[@dr.oversteer]

Hey, i was looking for something to get the Panels work for Star Citizen, and then I found this video. So do I need the spad.next programm to but key press to the Panels. If yes, which version of spad.next do I need. I hope you see this ;)

[@fipgauges1305]

I'd love to be able to sell these, but the animations as mentioned are hard coded to my controls. While I could document how to modify some of my code in SPAD.neXt the gauge code is encrypted now and can't be modified. If this was going to generate any revenue I may have tried harder to softcode it, but I couldn't possibly support something so complex or expect people to re-code my source code and not have a million and one questions. If there was an easy way for me to make the gauges universal then I would have by now. Off course the gauges would work as static images (no animations) on any system, but still means coding the buttons to use your own key mapping in Elite would be required. Because my button to key mapping doesn't use the default Elite keyboard mapping that creates a hole load of other issues. I know I shouldn't show off my gauges and tease, it was more a promotion of how far SPAD.neXt & FIP gauges together have come since the original Saitek drivers. I also love elite, which is why I spend over 6 months creating these for my own cockpit. All the gauges I sell were for my own cockpit originally, but fortunately they are mostly universal. I do have 30+ gauges for my system I've never sold for the same reason as above. Daz

[@Sithishe]

So, I just get SPAD.neXt, and from there configure all controls for Elite? Your video inspired me for some upgrades

[@fipgauges1305]

No, SPAD doesn’t natively support elite the gauges are hard coded to my system and these gauges are not publicly available

[@Ironwind1972]

Just curious if you still use this setup in 2021?

[@fipgauges1305]

If I was still playing elite then yes I would still use this setup. It’s still works just haven’t played in around 12 months

[@Boemel]

How did you do this ? :D

[@fipgauges1305]

Lots of time and effort !! I coded the gauges using SPAD.next’s enhanced gauge coding. The buttons send key strokes to Voice Attack, which is what gives the voice feedback and then sends keystrokes to Elite. Animations are hard coded to my SPAD.next joysticks. It’s far to complex to explain in any real detail though. I use custom local variables in both SPAD and Voice Attack too and the end result is pretty good I would say. Shame I can’t sell them as the bindings don’t match Elites defaults and animations for throttle and joystick work off my hardware variables. I wish I had more time to play elite, my other elite demo video shows how Voice Attack operates SPAD.next and operates the gauge by speech alone, also very awesome. I wish I had done a better video, it’s a bit random and one of my earlier efforts. Daz

[@Boemel]

I hope someday we can get raw data out of the game. That would open up a lot of possibilities.

[@fipgauges1305]

I wouldn’t be surprised if that is currently possible it’s just SPAD.neXt hasn’t had the time to look at it and make elite compatible with SPAD. They have train sim 2017 and Euro trucks working. I’m asked a few time for elite support but it never happened

[@callekeule5195]

i got the two on the left and the one top right, where do i get the program code for this, because i thought you made it like open source but probably you didnt. All i wanted to say: LOVE IT AND WANT IT greetings from Germany

[@fipgauges1305]

I just program local variables in SPAD to control output to panels and then send keystrokes to elite. Nothing fancy. Their is no direct communication between the panels and elite other than sending keystrokes and using variables to control display values. It’s not something I support more a display of SPAD and my creativity

[@callekeule5195]

is it one of the offers from www.spadnext.com? pls take a look, because i didn't found it at fipgauges.com And if yes wich one would it be? Thanks for answer

[@fipgauges1305]

None of the elite programming is available or supported. It’s all custom stuff and if you are an advanced SPAD programmer you can may it do stuff in anything. But there is no code available for sharing. Only gauges where public for a short while but after 6 months of work and zero sales I pull it permanently. This is just a showcase of what can be done and in no way supported or available to anyone again it’s all custom coded

[@marcusfranconium3392]

A question how did you make the radio and controll pannel work i tried it a dozen times and nothing. and the sad part is the farm simulator console does work.

[@fipgauges1305]

Marcus Franconium SPAD.next drives the devices and sends keystrokes to elite. The fips and radios respond to local variables generated by gauge button presses or movements of the axis variables in SPAD.next

[@marcusfranconium3392]

@@fipgauges1305 Ah thank you , iam thinking of building a 2 seater cockpit for a cobra and have some spare saitek parts and pcs to incorporate in to the dashboard. Making the controls and information as realistics as i can. If you have the chance to get the thrustmaster 16000 series get the duo sticks they are great for lateral and vertical thrust combinations and are only 100 euros for the pair and you get a starcitizen flight feeling for elite .

[@TheEldrik]

Where can i found this gauges ??? thks

[@fipgauges1305]

Sacré Fabrice hi, you can’t find them anywhere, I made them and they are totally custom to my hardware. I was just showing off. I did spend three months recoding them for public use and didn’t make a single sale. So now they have been withdrawn from sale permanently with no chance whatsoever of going back. Sorry

[@surfninja]

How did you put different parts of the hud on those screens? And where can I get small screens like that?

[@fipgauges1305]

surphninja I’m not displaying elite hud on small screens. These are flight simulator panels running interactive gauges I designed, they are not small screens and not displaying any output from elite they are interacting with my flight controls and obviously look great. I was selling these, but after spending months converting them so FIP customers could by them I didn’t sell a single gauge so have removed them from sale permanently with no intention to make them public again.

[@jasonnickerson5705]

@@fipgauges1305 I would buy this if you can set me up. I have a cockpit built. I'm looking for immersion like this with interactive panels.

[@fipgauges1305]

jason nickerson unfortunately I spent three months making these gauges sellable because of some demand and them 6 months after they were on sale no one bought any, not even those people who pleaded me to make these public as a result they have been permanently withdrawn and will not be made available to anyone. Especially when asked to do some thing to make a sale on them. I’m not selling them even if I wasn’t ask to do anything in addition to the time I’m already wasted on them. Sorry. Definitely not worth my time setting up someone else’s system to make a sale of a few gauges is not really an incentive at all

[@jasonnickerson5705]

@@fipgauges1305 sorry your time was wasted. You did a great job!

[@rythmflow1727]

any updates on star citizen profiles?

[@fipgauges1305]

Unfortunately not, I never owned star citizen and even if I did they would have to be hard coded to my system like Elite so wouldn’t be transferable anyway

[@rythmflow1727]

@@fipgauges1305 thank you for your reply, do you have any idea about how i can display the velocity in star citizen which is IN M/S in the flight multi panel? or any hints?

[@fipgauges1305]

@@rythmflow1727 it’s not showing velocity :-) it’s reading the 0-100% throttle axis position and mimics the joystick position not the actual game but it look that way because I can not get any game data. You can easily do the same just output you joystick axis variable found in SPAD data definitions

[@fipgauges1305]

That also how I do the hand movement on the joystick it’s tied to the joystick axis again nothing is coming from the game

[@rythmflow1727]

@@fipgauges1305 thank you very much

[@signa7883]

hi,Where can I buy a keypad like that?

[@fipgauges1305]

Keypad?

[@signa7883]

I'm looking for a Cockpit Panel for elite dangerous and I can not find it anywhere, if possible if they see it somewhere with backlighting

[@fipgauges1305]

I’ve not seen any dedicated elite panels, doubt any exist, which is why I customised my flight information panels. At some point I’ll probably do the same with star citizen