miniFCU Real Customer Experience
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- This video is not sponsored and was NOT a provided Unit. This was purchased via the Kickstarter and includes the process from Initial charges to the Final costs on my Door!!
Great news is it can now be configured via other software to control any plane.. Not just for Airbus!!
00:00 - Intro
01:15 - Opening Up the Package
02:28 - First Issue - Plugging it in
03:19 - Quality of Components - Look Inside
04:30 - Spring Sound Audible
05:05 - Second Issue - Case Structure
05:56 - Suction Cups - Great Idea!
06:35 - Second Issue - Continued
07:36 - Great Idea Number Two - Vesa Mount
08:04 - Issue # 3 - Knob Paint Bleed
08:47 - Value - Total Cost?
08:53 - Kickstarter Charge
09:42 - Shipping Charge
10:53 - Duty and Taxes Charge
11:29 - Final Total Paid
12:41 - What About NEW Pre Orders in January
15:40 - Pre-Order Est Total Cost
16:23 - Value Proposition - Needs More than Airbus
17:48 - Example 1 - WT CJ4
23:40 - Example 2 - FFX/MG HJet 420
26:26 - Example 3 - SWS PC 12
29:34 - Outro 
Игры
Unit 4088 here - the USB on mine was a-okay. Didn't have any alignment issues, but I also have that seam where the front panel meets the metal casing around it. However they also seemed to have fixed the white paint bleed on the 100-1000 knob too. They did a great job with the custom LCD display and while I was early but didn't get as much off as you, I think it's a great and cool piece of kit, and I'll happily overlook the construction criticisms. I was one of the apple customers that had the whole form issue and missed the email batch so I completely missed the second form they send out in November and only recently got in contact with their support to get it shipped to me.
Speaking of support - I contacted them and they always responded the next working day. They helped me set up my shipment when EasyShip wouldn't take my card and OVERNIGHTED it to me for no more additional cost than what was initially expected. Left Hong Kong Tuesday morning and was on my desk (Midwest US) Wednesday afternoon. They were very super polite and professional the whole time. Support was top notch through and through.
thanks for sharing!
No pb at all with mine received a weeh ago. It seems they have fixed all the issues😊
@remymarchand3816 good to hear.
Excellent detail in the review, thank you!
Appreciate it. Thanks for dropping a supportive comment.
Now this was a very interesting and useful video. Very elaborate and clear !
Thanks. Two hours later and the connector for the USB Micro came off on the board stuck to the cable…
Fantastic news. I'm hopefully getting mine in a week or two. Thank you so much for you all the work you do for Spad in general, but in particular for the Mini FCU!
Appreciate that you stopes by to leave a comment!
Fantastic review, thank you!
Glad you found use to it.
I was order 1346 and received my unit on 17 Dec using the same shipping option as you. It became a Christmas present so I just opened it this morning. Your video timing is perfect as I want to try it on the H-Jet. I agree the included cable is useless but it's good to see the important bits are well made when you opened the case.
Nice! Be extra careful with that connector :)
Much obliged Les. That’s exactly what I needed to know. Cheers
no worries
@@LesOReilly A little trivia. Completed my private license winter/spring Ottawa Flying Club 1966. Cheers and happy flying..
pretty cool .. complete my PPL 2016 :)... Things are going to hell here pretty quick in the Ottawa area. OAA wants all the GA to just go away..
West Capital developments took control of CYRP and are now in the process to trying to run out GA (now has a 25 dollar landing fee.) but more seems like to reduce use of the airport so they can sell more homes at the end of the runways. Then probably eventually site the drop in aviation as a requirement to get approval to re-zone it and tear up the airport.
We have the YOW VOR and the OW NDB being taken out of service this month.. NAV Canada getting this done but TC seemingly not really having answers for things like "how do we do an IPC if we now have NO ground based Non Precision approaches to fulfill the requirements of the TC IPC guidelines?
How does an Initial ride get done?
Then to get even better -- those are going offline and at the same time NAV is not going to replace the VOR A and VOR B approaches into CYRP ... but wait they are also no longer going to maintain the RNAV 10 GPS to CYRP. The airport is not going to pay for it to be maintained either.
So now we have the point where CYRP is about to become an "No-approaches" VFR airport that will also reduce any traffic to that airport since there won't be training flights flying the approaches. You require pre-approval to get approach training at CYOW ... so that burden will go up all while they are trying to get GA to Go Away....
Great video!!!!! First time here. Cheers from Arnprior. Ordered mine on Monday the 15th…..
Many landings in arnprior :). Also lots of hockey tournaments for the kid.
@@LesOReilly Tina says Hi!!!
I agree with every point you made in this video. Anyone wiling to buy the unit please watch it. Overall I am pleased and do recommend but there are few snags that should have been addressed. Used nano tape to secure mine under the desk which works very well due to the mini size.
Oh that is a good idea for mounting.
Thanks for your reply. Expense is high for sure. Was hoping I could pop out the pfd and mfd displays from the hjet, Tbm etc to the 1000 suite displays even if the buttons and dials etc weren’t operational. Cheers
Sure they are just monitors and with software like Spad you can remap them pretty easy to G3000 events. Or you can manually edit command mapping files from RSG and they will work. It’s good stuff.
Great vid. You should take the second half of this video and make it its own under a different title. A lot more people will watch and I think a lot more people will love that this works with other planes!
Thanks. The plan was to make another videos showing a little more detail on that… but then unplugging it the usb micro socket came off the arduino. So guess it will have to wait until I can solder it back on.
@@LesOReilly oh man what a bummer. Thats the kind of luck i have with things like that too. Have a great Christmas!
@7willymak merry Christmas 🎄 to you as well.
Hi Les, I am #2461. I just got a notice that it was picked up by the shipper. I will see how long it takes to get here. I love your videos especially your Spadnext videos. Happy New Year!
Very cool!! Hope you get it soon.
I backed the original Kickstarter and my order no was 508. It arrived late November and the first thing I did was throw out the suction cups and that useless cable and made myself a mounting plate like you suggested. The build quality on mine is shocking, same as yours, the USB on mine didn't quite line up with the hole in the casing. I found that by lightly pressing down on the top of the case I could just about get the cable in without having to take it apart. The biggest issue I've had is the faceplate screw on the top left had stripped the threads of the plastic behind it and so it wasn't secure and there was quite a gap between the faceplate and the case. I finished up having to put a strip of Gorilla Tape around the join between the face plate and the casing. I'm left with the overall impression that they have found the cheapest possible way to make it and the I suspect the build quality will probably not improve. Having said that, as far as actually using it, all the displays, buttons and knobs work exactly as they should so I'm willing to overlook the minor construction issues.
You probably could contact them about the defect and they will replace it.. I know when I ripped the connector of the board from the case putting pressure on it they were willing to send me one. But I already had a couple Mega Pro arduino units that I swapped it out.
Hello Les, I'm just down the road from you. Great video. I am #2104 and it shipped by e-Express on Dec 15. Still hasn't made its way into Canada Post's hands.
Hopefully it does not take too long for you!
Morning Les, not sure why but my unit was dropped off at my community mail box with no request for duty/taxes and I did not pay them up front when setting up shipping. I don't think everyone has had the same experience wrt shipping. Happy New Year and love the content.
@stephenmcrae3883 cool. Would love to hear a follow up if there is any “bill” in the mail. Was the shipping vendor HK mail or another vendor?
Oooo Les, I got my pledge in just a few before you did. Hehehe... #684 here!
I'm only planning on using mine for Airbus aircraft (since you know all the darn FCUs/MCPs/Garmins I have - hehehe). I do like it but definitely need to redo my setup to mount it.
I will say that the price does seem a little high (even if it does include shipping). However as we are part of a niche market, prices for our goodies is always more expensive. Of course I'm sitting here with my CS 737 MCP that's more than four times the cost of the MiniFCU.
So far, I would say I'm getting my money's worth for the $99 I spent. I'm not sure if I will get the EFIS or ECAM but time will tell.
The CS MCP is soo nice though ;).
@@LesOReilly It is and I definitely don't regret buying it (although I'm still without the EFIS and MCDU - hehehe).
That CDU is nice.
Nice and interesting video! Thanks for that!
But, why haven't you mapped the push on the altitude selector for activating the NAV mode, like it also would be in an Airbus?
There are specific 1-1 airbus snippets already made. I was just making it how I wanted - I used LOC for NAV mode.
Hello, my order is 1680. Thank you for the amazing review.
Cool when did it arrive for you?
@@LesOReilly Mine hasn't arrived yet. They said it would start shipping out in March. Can’t wait!
oh.. right .. duh me ... 1680 -- they only did 1500 in the initial run.
@@LesOReilly Oh I didn't even know they only sent out 1500 in the initial run 😅
I was #11 and got my unit in Canada (Aylmer, QC) on November 29 with UPS
Nice. You have had it for some solid time then.
I received my unit few weeks ago, concerning the feel and touch it's pretty close to the real, the notching (32 per revs) is slightly harder, the push/pull depht and feel is perfect. The 100/1000 selector is a bit hard (nothing dramatic). The push-buttons operations are close to the real except the size (80% scale).
Finally the displays are crisp and very realistic to the real, now it must be understood that the FCU displays color have evolved from the original yellowish one.
Overall I'm impressed by my first contact with this device, the only question is, what's the reliability of this product over the time?
I'm not a pilot, but I have been working during 30 years on A320 as an avionics manipulating the FCU more than ... necessary 😉😀
So the buttons have zero throw. ? Just solid click with no travel?
@@LesOReilly The push-buttons like SPD/MACH or AP1 have the same feeling as real ones.
The push/pull "feeling" of all four selectors is very close to the real FCU.
Excellent review, its 370 CAD at the moment for pre order, will it also drop down to 200 CAD when it gets released in the next month or two?
I do not believe they will reduce the price. The original early bird Kickstarter was the lower price... but again that also was only for the first few hundred units. I would not expect there to be a price change now that they have it released on their website as a MSRP.
Greetings from YYZ. Fantastic critique. It certainly influenced my decision for the immediate future. Real sim gear G1000 suite has been on my mind for quite sometime. Have you any comments concerning its build quality and potential use with G3000 equipped MSFS aircraft. Thanks.
I own their GTN 750 and their GMA 345. They are decent products. They are not cheap. But the molded plastic cases are sturdy and the connections are always flush to the surface. That said if you were to compare the price of the GFC-500 module to getting this then I would say the miniFCU does have a display and is probably going to be less expensive…
Thank you very much for the interesting information and especially the calculations. I am Order No #2573 (I am in Switzerland), I have already paid for Shipping FedEx ($26.20) and (!) Import Tax an Duty ($25.61), USD. I doubt about that, how should Swiss customs know that Tax and Duty are already paid?? Still waiting for delivery...
I am sure it will be covered if you pre paid it as they will be filling the entry paper work .. so probably will be fine!!
Your unit is one of the very early builds serial # 157. I wonder if that is a reason for the slightly inferior build quality on the usb connection. I took delivery of my unit last year and have to say build quality was fine.
Don’t know. They did a single run for the kickstarter. Couple other people has the same issues it seems.
Would it be possible to please show how you added the FCU into Spad? Checked the Spad Discord and couldnt find anything to explain. Thanks so much in advance!
I was planning to do a proper spad video once it is available broader than beta. However my connector broke when moving it to the sim pit… so waiting on replacement parts or try soldering the connector back on.
You need to link your spad license as explained in the discord so that you can access the registered channels and also activate the beta if your license allows it.
when it goes on sale , can you post another video as a reminder? thanks, no big deal if you can't
The email shot posted was January 15th. Maybe set a reminder on you phone to tell you to go look for it on January 14th.
@@LesOReilly cool, thanks! I'll put the 14th in there. Much obliged.
@@LesOReilly Do you think this blows away the GF-MCP Pro? (that is what I currently have)
I don't have that product .. I have the CS 737 MCP. I don't fly the Airbus 320s at all.. I am more of a boeing person and the 737 MCP can easily be mapped to other planes as well.. If you are a big Airbus person well this is an option.. however WinWig is apparently coming out with a unit in the new year that is supposed to be affordable.. Good news is you have time to wait and see what comes of it..
Can someone please explain how to purchase one of these.
As per the video… they will be doing the next round of pre-orders for 2500 units on their website.
I am no. 2705, I am in Germany and waiting for the unit. :)
Did it say when it shipped for you?
@@LesOReilly It was shipped on 28th of December and has just arrived at home. Has the issue that the Micro USB doesnt fit without additional work.
I paid with taxes and shipping about 260,- €
@HoNau77 yeah thinking I will get the dremel out at some point.
Is it compatible with XBOX or it's for PC only?
PC only. You can’t run outside applications on XBOX.
Hi Les.Backer #2502, Order #2502. My unit is arriving first week of January 2024
Nice. Okay so the numbers are different :) must have been a lot of people clicking that back it button..
Where i can buy it in online shop ? The FCU airbus
You can not currently. As per the video there is a pre order available from minicockpit starting in mid January.
Is the mini FCU available in Indonesia?
see the chapter at 12:41 of the video for information regarding Pre-Order
When they will make more. Because its sold out.
I don’t know. I ordered it during the initial offering. I am just a customer. Best to ask them directly.
@@LesOReilly
Alr thanks
Sadly, only altitude displays on mine. Super disappointed.
with what plane and which software? their software should support the FBW or default A320 just fine
Using the default A320 and the software they had me install ;( The speed knob affects the speed setting but does not display anything (not even zeros) Only the altitude knob seems to work and even that doesn't fully function (the 100/1000 foot setting make no difference)
@@LesOReilly
do they not light up at all when you power it up? or it's just not working with the A320? maybe try the flyby wire? Can also use SPAD now to connect it to anything and program all the controls and displays.
where can i buy it
You can’t pre order it until January 15th from them. This unit was part of the kickstarter program which I ordered back in June. This is covered in the video….
@@LesOReilly so after january 15th I can order it?
please see the Chapter at 12:41 .. It provides all of the information you are asking about.
I'm glad I didn't buy this sc..
Something like a stream deck plus would definitely be more versatile unless you fly a lot of airbus.