A spad alternative?

[Bazonka]

Hello!

I have only the Saitek Multipanel and it is dark now for a long time because I always had problems setting it up correctly. I tried it with the old Spad driver and the Spadnext programm. But this is one pain in the *** to setup, the ui is extremely unintuitive and development seems dead.

As Saitek is not able to develop proper software for its products I asked myself if there is something else out there beside of spad that makes it possible to use the Multi panel with 3rd party addons like the ones from A2A or PMDG and so on.

Or is there anyone who is able to use it completely without any complicated software?

Thank you very much!

[Tomas Linnet]

I'm running FSX SE on a Win7 PC. I use SPAD for my panels with no problem.
Are you on Win7? I'd can easily send you some screenshots of my settings

[Bazonka]

Thank you, but the program is running and all. My problem is that I dont get it how to setup a profile for example the Autopilot controls for the C172. No assignment is working and the user interface is very bad made. Also there is no development anymore. So I hoped there is something else, but I couldnt find anything out there

[Raceguy]

SPAD and SPAD.neXt are two different programs and you are correct that development for SPAD has stopped but SPAD.neXt is working great. I'll admit that it is not as easy to use as I would like it to be but it is a powerful program.

I don't have the Saitek AP Panel but I do have their Switch and Radio Panels and both use SPAD.neXt. Have you tried downloading a snippet from inside SPAD.neXt for the AP? I setup the switch panel on my own but I'm using a snippet for the radio and it works great.

Ed

[Tomas Linnet]

Thank you, but the program is running and all. My problem is that I dont get it how to setup a profile for example the Autopilot controls for the C172. No assignment is working and the user interface is very bad made. Also there is no development anymore. So I hoped there is something else, but I couldnt find anything out there

SPAD is using the normal FSX commands for the autopilot, but A2A use their own parameters, so SPAD will not control either the C172 or the C182 out of the box. I also use LANDA to control my A2A addons. LINDA is freeware but require a registered version of FSUIPC. Do you have a reg. FSUIPC? in that case it is possible to have the auto pilot working.

[WB_FlashOver]

I have not used SPAD at all so cannot speak to it. I have been using LINDA and find it pretty easy. It is a freeware for donations so the support is as the developers have time and see fit but I have not been disappointed as of yet. There are frequent updates as is needed as well.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/424-linda/

In my experience there will be issues with any computer program.
Good luck on finding what you are looking for.
Roger

[Bazonka]

I use P3Dv4 on WIN10 with registered FSUIPC.

Thank you guys for input! I think I will learn some things about LINDA, never tried it because I thought you have to be a fully fledged programmer to use it. But youtube will guide me the way I hope.

[WB_FlashOver]

I use P3Dv4 on WIN10 with registered FSUIPC.

Thank you guys for input! I think I will learn some things about LINDA, never tried it because I thought you have to be a fully fledged programmer to use it. But youtube will guide me the way I hope.

To use the program in it's basic form you only need to assign controls to buttons. Easy as that. It gets more complicated if you wish to combine several controls into a single button or re-write controls that are already there.

The fella that got me into LINDA just bailed on it a few months ago for SPADnext so who knows. I'm not sure if he's still happy with Spad or not.

[Raceguy]

For my simpit I use a combination of FSUIPC, LINDA and SPAD.neXt. Make sure you get the A2A Mustang profile for LINDA as that makes setting up buttons a click from the menu,

Ed