Has anyone bought and is using one of these: Cost is around £80 and i just wondered if there are better boxes out there for that sort of money, never bought one before so any help would be appreciated.
I currently have one for sale which might interest you. It's a second hand Derek Speare CSW Panel - Ultra It is a bit of a different layout of the buttons though. See pictures below..
Don't know the brand of the box you are showing, so I can't comment, but I can fully recommend the boxes of IgnitionControls: http://www.ignitioncontrols.com/category-s/145.htm I bought my first one a few years ago. It was made to work with a PS3 (the only BB's that worked on a console at that time) and when I switched to PC I bought one with more functions. Some sims gave me issues assigning some controls and I did not understood how to change them in the software (my bad). I then bought a DSD Race King LED (Derek Speare Design) which worked fine with JoyToKey (if needed). After a while I was so dissatisfied with the build quality (the plastic box and the layout of the switches - no possibility to switch the leds off) that I just ordered a new one from IginitionCentrols (that also can be managed by JoyToKey or other similar software). All metal housing, very sturdy thing. I had the DSD hard mounted on a aluminium plate but the screws kept coming loose due to rig vibrations. I changed the screws three times for larger ones and then I got fed up with that. DSD answered in a very short mail that a metal casing and threaded inserts for mounting would be to expensive to produce... (IC's are cheaper...!) I could have tried putting a thin foam layer between the box and the alu plate, maybe Velcro would have been better, but I gave up. I am about to receive this one: http://www.ignitioncontrols.com/Button-Box-p/0060.htm and I'm sure I will be very satisfied...
Yeh it's a BBJ box http://bbjsimracing.com/ they seem quite good for the price, I had a DSD box, for the money there ok, but I wouldn't say there right at the top, I think Ignition boxes look very nice, again good pricing, don't forget there pricing is in dollars, but I believe they distributed in Europe, so no import tax.
@Jona777 thanks for the offer, i have seen some like the ones you have but liked the layout and colours of the one i have shown as it will blend in better with my other stuff, @Fanapryde nice boxes but a little too expensive, @Gopher04 thanks for the input also, really if anyone had posted these boxes were not very good at all i would look at something else, i can barely stretch to the cost of this one so at the moment this seems one of very few that fit into my budget with so many buttons and swithches, and i do like buttons and switches.
@Neil Bateman That box looks good, it even has threaded hard mount inserts (which is a must) and even 30 functions. Had I noticed them before I might as well have bought one like it. I just took the easy path, re-ordering an IgnitionControls, because I knew they were high quality.
Believe me if i had a few extra pounds those are the sort of quality boxes i would go for, but as with most of the things on my cockpit, including the cockpit itself, cost is a huge barrier for me as its months and months of saving the pennies, it always ends up a balance of getting the best you can for a smaller budget.
Yes , but not with key , got it on eBay , they are excellent, I took it apart to see how well it was put together and add a few of my own switches and man ---they are professionally done--- 10 out of 10 http://www.ebay.ie/sch/johnhyde04/m.html?ssPageName=&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2654 . Ah found photos of inside. . .
How about DIY? I got some help from another forum. In the end it was about 200€. Not cheap but I could do what I liked. Ok, you need all that equipment for welding. It took me a while but now I have in total 37 buttons, switches to use.
Fair shout on that one Fanapryde, just grabbed one, of course on your recommendation so if it's a duffer I know who to throw it at!
Don't worry, they are great quality. But in case you'd want to throw it... I'll be waiting to catch it ... BTW: for AC (if you have that) there are some "special" key bindings (e.g. damage displayer ON/OFF needs CTRL+Q), which can easily be assigned using JoyToKey (or similar program). Just programmed some of these and it works great. Another thing I noticed: the rotary dials on the DSD worked as expected in pCars, but for R3E and others, changing seat position (e.g.) needed a hell of a lot of turning... The ones on the IC box act the same in every sim. I am 100% satisfied.
Well it turned up today and looks to be a good build quality, cant wait to get it all set up. I might even keep what i have been using temporarily which is the button pad from my old g27 shifter which i butchered after buying my TH8RS and made into sort of a button box.
Hope your just as happy with yours as i am with mine Just need to work out button allocation, if i keep the one i made from the g27 shifter i have 42 buttons.