This one was actually announced on Thursday and managed to slip through theour net, but GoFlight have released their GF-DIO input/output board.
“While there are many other products similar to this one on the market already, we are very confident this is the best one out there. We worked extremely hard to bring out the best in an input/output board like this and with the huge number of ports, along with the ease of installment, there really aren’t any rivals to this DIO Board. There are a total of 88 input/output ports on one board alone, 56 are designated for both input and output for hardware components such as knobs, switches, push buttons and rotary selectors. The remaining 32 ports are output only designated for LED’s use for indicator lights etc.”
To read the full press release, please click on “Read More” below
“We are excited to announce the formal release of the newest product from GoFlight Technologies. The new GF-DIO (Digital Input/Output) Board is the latest piece of equipment to join the already vast family of flight simulation equipment GoFlight currently offers.
While there are many other products similar to this one on the market already, we are very confident this is the best one out there. We worked extremely hard to bring out the best in an input/output board like this and with the huge number of ports, along with the ease of installment, there really aren’t any rivals to this DIO Board. There are a total of 88 input/output ports on one board alone, 56 are designated for both input and output for hardware components such as knobs, switches, push buttons and rotary selectors. The remaining 32 ports are output only designated for LED’s use for indicator lights etc.
Each unit is sold with a selection of hardware components made up of ten pieces, (2, two position toggles; 2, three position toggles; 1, momentary toggle; 2, push buttons; 3 LED’s and ten connection wire assemblies plus the board itself) to get started. Once the board is purchased, varied packages of accessory components is made available through purchase on our online store, www.goflightinc.com.
We are very excited to bring this item to market as the options are truly endless. Any function that is desired in the cockpit can be realized through the use of a GF-DIO Board. Also, it is possible to daisy-chain the cable assemblies together for even further customization through the placement of hardware in the cockpit environment. We made this product extremely easy to use through GoFlight’s already existing GF-Config software platform. No need to download additional drivers at premium costs to get it to work with GoFlight hardware. This unit also works seamlessly with Prosim737 JetStream. Some add-on planes do require a driver, such as PMDG 737NGX, however these too are offered for free online. Software, drivers and the user manual can be found on the Goflight forum.
Plans initially called for this item to be released during the beginning of the year and while the project was postponed, the reasons were consistently related to adding value to the product. When the project was first conceived, it was a shadow of what the final product has become today. If we may, here is a little bit of history on this items life cycle. The GF-DIO was initially thought up nearly two years ago, and while it is not an original piece of equipment in itself, the amount of capabilities and ease of use are truly unique. As mentioned above, the item is completely plug and play. Simple configuration users have come to love and expect through GF-Config. As a confession, we over engineered this product for what was initially being asked of it. At first, the product supported only the default planes in Microsoft FSX, though it had the ability to support four times the amount of input and output ‘hooks’ available in FSX. Instead of trimming down the product, we instead spoke with add-on plane manufacturers and developers to understand what they were offering and how we could link this product to theirs for the betterment of top level simming. It became evident that this new GF-DIO would be a perfect fit for many of these add-ons planes and their robust offerings. The amount of functions made available in the new add-on planes would play perfectly into the capabilities of the GF-DIO Board!
While many of you asked questions about final release dates, and we kept “missing” those dates, we were working at bringing you the best product available! Once we got this hooked up to our own flight simulator and realized all the possibilities for this beast, our excitement went through the roof! With over 80 connections for input/outputs, this board could drive many overhead panels completely. You can double up the use of boards to fully outfit a full Boeing 737 over head panel, but the options are truly endless. The GF-DIO features LED connection as well, so you can now tie light indicators to each and every switch as you desire.”
