First things first, as a real A320 pilot maybe my expectations are too high, maybe I was expecting it to be like the real thing…
The good bit is that this panel fills a gap in the market for fairly well priced ECAM Switching panel hardware.
Unfortunately, my panel took a month to dispatch, I ordered about mid September and it arrived 15th October. They dispatched a V1 unit to me even though the dispatch was after V3 had released. I contacted about upgrading to V3 prior to dispatch with sadly no reply, I didn’t expect a free upgrade but I would have paid for the better backlight feature. That was a shame.
It eventually arrived though and I must say, the box was great, lovely and printed with an Airbus A320 flight-deck shown, in a clear cellophane wrap. The packaging is good, sturdy and protects the contents well with the use of foam etc.
The panel itself was ok but I wasn’t blown away when I first held it. It felt light, cheap and very fragile, like if you held it wrong it would come apart. There is no backlight dimming control too when plugged in. It has a print on the faceplate for the text and panel colour, but the colour seems really off - a faded purple/grey rather than the Airbus colour and as such matches none of my other cockpit panels. The print also scratches super easy and when this happens the backlight bleeds through.
Speaking of backlight, it’s on permanently from the USB power. It’s so bright - very overpowering, and because the panel only has paint/print on the top of the panel, the bleed of light on the edges is unsightly.
The 3d printed knobs are ok, the dimmers are actually a really nice print, however the selectors are far smaller than irl, they also need 45 degree potentiometers rather than 30 degrees which are installed, in order to make them align with the printed text when turned.
The ECAM page selection buttons are a solid plastic feel, they’re tactile and nice to the touch, sadly they don’t backlight the text, so in the dark it can be tough to know which button is being pressed, until it illuminates from selection.
It would have been really cool to have the spring loaded guard over the emergency cancel too.
My other issue with it is the mobiflight config file which I believe they’re doing away with now through their own software so probably not an issue anymore, but I basically had to re-do it myself as the selectors were totally set up wrong, half the LEDs and buttons hadn’t even been assigned - good job I know how to configure mobiflight!
Anyway. It now sits there in my home cockpit pedestal having been modified to bring it up to my standards, I did a DIY solution for dimming the backlight and with a change to the LEDs to allow a more amber and softer backlight. I think for casual gamers putting it on a desk it’s fine, but maybe not so much for cockpit builders. Perhaps V3 is much better though, or maybe my expectations were too high. I emailed about my panel issues but wasn’t satisfied with the reply offering a $10 voucher, so I accepted my panel and fixed it up myself.
