New company out there called www.prosimparts.com

[nricky]

Hi everyone

There is a new company out there on the sim market, called www.prosimparts.com (http://www.prosimparts.com/). Saw them a couple months ago on eBay. To that time, they did not have a webpage yet. What the make, Radio panels for a very low price. When you see the pictures, and then the price, the only thing that I can say is wow. Had a few emails back and forth, have to say nice email contact.

He said the only thing is what you need is the hardware from opencokcpits to make them work.

Please all take a look and say what you think. I want to place an order next month and get a few radios for myself.

Just want to share this with you.

Cheers Norbert

[tiburon]

Nobody knows anything about them ? It looks very promising....


Martin

[No Longer Active]

At long last, a seller with some common sence! Sell in quantities at low prices = more demand! Genius!

Cockpit building should not be expensive, and I think this seller is very reasonable and more should follow. I wish this seller the very best and that I hope this seller does well.

[jonesthesoftware]

Why do these people who want to sell their products put up an excellent looking website, good looking products and prices but no means of contacting them that is checkable i.e landline phone number, ground based address? This always arouses my suspicions when buying via the interweb thingy. DO they have something to hide? Are they afraid of having bad comments/rejects? Maybe I'm just being a cynical old B$^stard.

geoff

[No Longer Active]

I don't think this is the case. The company or website is probably an 'individual' and probably does this as an enjoyable hobby and intends to make a few bob (without being greedy) Maybe the guy has a day job and prefers email contact. As one says the email contact is good, what's wrong with that alone? Give the guy some time and I am sure it will evolve. He's just gone from ebay to a 'website' so that's a good achievement in its own right. I think the guy just wants to knock out a few units to see what the demand is first, then maybe the website and other contact info will evolve.

Just my 2 cents!

Alex

[fsaviator]

I've communicated with him via his messaging function on the website. He replied promptly. I'm considering purchasing two radio sets as I've got too much other stuff going on to do it myself right now. 150 Euro is very reasonable. It comes ready to hookup to any interface. Unfortunately by the time I get it, my sim will be crated up for my move overseas and I won't be able to mess with it. I will probably end up having to wait until July to order them.

[No Longer Active]

I agree, I got an email back within an hour! He probably has his webmail linked to a smart phone so that comms is regular. The seller is also going to produce airbus parts too!

[stinger]

Hi Guys,
i purchased the pedestal set through ebay, about 12 months ago! was a little wary but thought ebay would give me some security? anyway,good communication with him and 5 days later the panels arrived.All individualy wrapped, and all i can say is great,paint finish was excellent,they are the basic series line. Easily better in paint finish than OC stuff wich tends to be a bit rough to the touch. Go ahead and order guys you won't be dissapointed.:lol:

[fsaviator]

I just ordered from them. So far I am very happy with the transaction. We'll see what arrives. I was going to just order one Radio Set for 150 Euro (plus 37 Euro SH). I emailed them via their website and told them I was in the US and they removed the taxes on my order which brought it down to 124 Euro. The shipping is 37 Euro regardless, so for those savings, I went ahead and ordered two Radio Sets for a total of 285 Euro.

There should be no issue interfacing them with my SISMO cards in my pedestal. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

[Efe Cem Elci]

Keep us updated on the progress Warren...

I look forward to a nice review once you receive the items :)

[NedHamilton]

fsaviator:

What's in your Sismo Pedestal now?

And do you know what kind of controls are on the radio sets? I would assume digital segments, a few switches, and rotary concentric encoders???

[fsaviator]

Right now all I have in my pedestal is panel faceplates. I'm missing one of the comm panels. I haven't mounted anything into the panels yet. I also have all the SISMO cards I need.

The radio sets need five to six .36" 7-segment Displays each and some encoders, LEDs, and switches. Are you looking for a list? What I do is go to the Opencockpits store and look at the hardware list for each panel. That tells you the minimum you need.

While I have all the hardware I would need, my encoders are PCB mount so I would have to either make a PCB or use some test board just to mount the encoder. My CNC is down right now, and I don't have the time to mess with this. Trying out this guys stuff seemed like the perfect opportunity to outfit myself with COMMS and NAV as well as ATC. The price is very reasonable. Keep in mind... these are NOT plug and play. They need an interface solution such as OC, Sismo, FDS, etc.

[NedHamilton]

Is the hardware list for OC panels the same as the ones for Prosimparts?

Are you saying that the prosimparts encoders are PCB mount? So there are dual concentric encoders mounted in the panels but the encoder's terminals are for mounting in a PCB?

I have Sismo boards but I'm not sure I want to have to wire up 3 panels each with five or six 7-seg displays and 2 encoders

[fsaviator]

I'm not sure what is on the panels... He says they are ready to be wired, I'll take his word and see what I get. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I do know that its up to you to do the wiring. That is why the panels are so cheap. Prosimparts is providing you the panels, the hardware, and the labor of putting it all together. Very reasonable at 50 Euro a module I think. The savings comes in you having to provide the interface (FDS, SIOC, Sismo... it doesn't matter... even FSUIPC will work). If you want to just plug something in, and it works, regardless of interface, then you are looking for Plug and play... meaning no wiring involved and it will cost you 375 Euro at Sismo, over $1000 at FDS, and 510 Euro at Opencockpits.

Hardware is hardware... a switch is a switch, and encoder is a switch, a pot is a pot... they all connect the same. The software that drives your sim (Prosim, PM, Sim-Avionics... they all read those inputs directly or through other software such as SIOC, FSUIPC, Interface-It or whatever). At the end of the day, it's still two wires coming off of a SPST switch, or two wires and resistors going to an LED all through some interface such as Pokeys, OC, FDS, etc. As for 7-segment displays... I have plenty of PCBs for those if needed.

Hold on a bit and I'll do up a nice review of the panels when I get them.

[fsaviator]

Well, I received my Radio Sets (VHF, NAV, ADF) from Prosimparts!
Very nice panels. The package included everything needed to connect to whatever interface you choose. Along with the panels that already had the switches, encoders, and 7-segment displays installed, the package included wire with female pin receptacles on each end for connecting the Displays, and ribbon cable with connectors for the switches. Some assembly is required though in the form of soldering the switches to the supplied wire. The package also included LEDs in seperate housings that you insert into holes in the lightplates for backlighting. These would need to be hot-glued (or superglued) into place.

Let me stress that these panels ARE NOT plug-n-play. One needs to have some idea about wiring and soldering. Nothing difficult. What you get for 50Euro a piece is a nice looking panel with all the hardware already fitted in. I find the quality to be very good. Unfortunately, there will have to be a part two to this as I will not have access to my sim for a couple of months, and so I can't hook them up to show you. Here's pics:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/002.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/003.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/004.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/005.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/006.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/007.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/008.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/009.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/010.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/011.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/012.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/014.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/015.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/017.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/wsoeldner/Forums%20and%20Posts/018.jpg

[nricky]

Hi Warren

Cool Pics, now we know what we get for 50 Euros each panel. For that price you can't make them yourself.

Cheers Norbert

[Sammy-E]

I too have ordered and received this set. As the pictures show it is well worth the money.
I am rather new to this cockpit building stuff, so I was a little confused how to make it all work, because there are no specs provided how to connect the digits, or the 4 pins on a pushbutton.

I sent an e-mail asking for the info and I got a very quick reply with my answers. So support seems good too!
Hopefully I will be able to connect it all soon to my pokeys USB card + displays cards.

greetings Sammy-E

[NedHamilton]

I'm interested in seeing how fsaviator wires up these panels into the Sismo boards.

I'm totally sold on Sismo (I think UDP/http connectivity is where the sim world needs to go--USB is too old).

[Sammy-E]

I'm interested in seeing how fsaviator wires up these panels into the Sismo .

Well, I am wiring them to Pokeys USB... Am I too old too? Lol.

[Bassam45]

Hi Everyone,
what an interesting website prosimparts, i like it already and i am thinking about buying the radio set but i dont know what interface card to get for them?

i would really appreciate some help from you guys to point me to some interface cards, i know there are few out there but i need to know which one will do the job!!

thank you all.

[Sammy-E]

Hi,
It is matter of budget and personal taste. I wired them to 2 pokeys usb, but I personally think the sismo board is a cheaper solution. Count the digits, its 32 in total, so probably that will give you an indication what boards and how many can support that.
Also, software you prefer to use for controlling the inputs and outputs is an important consideration.
Greetings,
Eric