Connecting Simkits Gauges.

[Geremy Britton]

Dissappointing Response from Peter at Simkits.

Hi Pete & support team,

This is my first time of owning Simkits parts, and i have the Artificial horizon and the speed IAS gauge. However these are not the usb type but rather the older grey rectangle connectors. Could you tell me what i need to get these connected to my computer. I noticed the CCU board however this looks like its for connecting around 30 guages. I only have 2! So this huge cost for the CCU board to power just 2 guages makes is largly unviable. Could you offer me a single more cost effective alternative to get just these two gauges working. When i purchased the guages i was unaware i'd have to potentially spend more then the original investment for a PCB to get them functional.

Your help would be much appreciated.
Best Regards

And the Response i was given From Peter is here:

Dear Mr. Britton,

You will need a CCU board to connect these instruments. We do not have an alternative other than the USB instruments. I’m sorry.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email.

Best Regards,

Peter Brown,

Simkits Support.

I was hoping Simkits could help me out further especially as they failed to mention what Kermit has, which is the Standby Instrument card, which is significantly cheaper.

Hmm

[No Longer Active]

Simkits are heavily involved in their USB lines at the moment and it looks like the old CCU type instruments are gone. Simkits have also discontinued their Generic USB Gauge Kit, Generic USB Guage 4pc discount and also put up their prices on single and dual pointer gauges considerably, the old CCU gauges are pretty much just a piece of plastic with a servo and nothing more....unless you buy the CCU, the CCU does all the brain power! Its the CCU you need my friend or just flog em again!

Good luck!

Alex

[Geremy Britton]

Yeah, they're just disowning the older guages like an old record. Doesn't appear they want to get involved with that side of things at all. And yeah saying the prices are rather high is an understatement.

NOTE: For anyone planning on buying just one of the old type (Non USB) Simkits gauges second hand. Please be aware you will, should you want it functional, have to pay probably over 4 times as much just to get it working. Just a thought to consider before purchasing.

Valuable advice has come out of this for others if nothing else.

[No Longer Active]

Yep you got it....

But then again simkits is not a 'budget' supplier of simulated instruments and is a premium manufacturer, if you want the privilege of having or using simkits in your pit then you sure do pay the price for it......

I owned the simkits CCU EGT gauge which was given to me to be used as a dummy but it would look blimmin odd just having one so I sold it on ebay, it didnt even sell first time and had to relist it, I got peanuts for it, but then again its not much good without a CCU which costs a fortune, I was unpleasantly surprised to see how very little there is in a ccu gauge, just a plastic ring with a card faceplate with 2 servo's and 2 pointers, and that's it!!! Not a fan of the CCU stuff...

Its like trying to buy software for windows 3.1.....it doesn't happen now!

[Geremy Britton]

Its like trying to buy software for windows 3.1.....it doesn't happen now!

...Apart from as the stuff gets older and more outdated the price goes higher. Kinda like cars i guess if you want the privilage of old cars you have to pay the price.

Best Regards

[No Longer Active]

Simkits are very much with the times at the moment, they are concentrating on their glass cockpit technology, GPS units and cockpit shells, it wont be too long before the gauges are limited down to just a selection and prices may increase again. But just think how much it has cost them to get all this gear manufactured like having to pay for all the tooling, casts, molds, machining, designing, processing, manafacturing, electronics etc etc.....think of their overheads they have to pay etc and make their money back for the cost of manufacturing their injection moulding tools (I have worked in an injection moulding factory before where the tools have to be crane lifted into the machine just to make the part that is the size of the hand) the tools used cost £££,£££'s per tool and thats just to inject a few parts at a time, then you need to manufacture all the models etc etc etc and the whole thing is VERY pricey, so I do take this into account when looking at the price of their products, not bad value at all, but still expensive, expensive if you haven't got the money, and cheap if you have the money!

[CrashEd]

Unfortunately Peter is your best friend when you are spending thousands of pounds with them (like I did), but your worst enemy when it all goes wrong and you need their help or when you want to buy old stock.

I always said I wasn't going to come on here and bash Simkits as I know a lot of people have had good experiences with them, but my experience wasn't the best given the large amount of money I shelled out (and they were the newer USB gauges). That's all I'm saying.

My advice? Sell the lot, do not look back and go down another route. I ended up replacing my Simkits gauges with Flight Illusion gauges and I have never looked back. They work, they are robust, they look awesome, they are now a similar price to Simkits and they will even make custom gauges for you. It's just a shame they do not do the 'full package' (panels etc) like Simkits do otherwise they would be on to a winner. So what do you do? Do what I did and mix and match.


BTW: I have no affiliation with either company blah, blah, blah...

[kermit]

I had a little discussion with Alex about the two
so I will not bring that up again.
But are these Flight Illusion Ed, the Vor 1&2 and the ADF looks out of centre
Also the instruments looks like there not attached to the panel.
greetz

[No Longer Active]

.....personal preference.....

....the 2 are similar, that is all I am saying!.....

[kermit]

Hi Alex ,
did you recieve the face plates I send you
greetz