Startup flight sim hardware company miniCockpit have confirmed that development on their second product, the miniEFIS, has commenced following the extraordinary success of their Kickstarter campaign in June.
The miniEFIS panel had previously not been assigned a date for the commencement of development, however as part of a stretch goal target the team confirmed on a Facebook post that R&D on the product will now begin as soon as the miniFCU has gone into mass production.
The miniFCU was made available on Kickstarter at the beginning of June with the Hong-Kong based team placing a fundraising target of approximately $1200USD. That target was surpassed within seconds as the initial batch of 1000 units being sold for a special launch day price of $100USD sold out entirely. At the time of writing this article, the two-man team at miniCockpit have raised over half a million US dollars from over 4000 backers.
All things going to plan, the team are planning to eventually release a total of four products – the miniFCU, miniEFIS, miniECAM and then a final all-in-one solution which will contain the three units bundled together.
Earlier this week the miniCockpit team also confirmed on their social media channels that the miniFCU will now be compatible with Mobiflight and SPAD.next on launch. These programs allow the individual functions of a hardware controller to be mapped to practically anything, meaning that you could theoretically use your miniFCU to anything from a Boeing jet to an F-16.
The team also previously confirmed that the miniFCU will be compatible with the Fenix Simulations A320 CEO for Microsoft Flight Simulator after receiving a deluge of requests that the two addons be made compatible.
Readers who still wish to pick up a miniFCU at a reduced price point can still head over to the team’s Kickstarter page and purchase a unit in one of the remaining pledge tiers that have not sold out. However, be warned that as with all crowdfunding projects, your donation is not necessarily a guarantee that you will receive a final product in the event the company is unable to ship, or runs into solvency issues.
We have ordered a miniFCU unit here at FSElite and intend to review it when it is shipped to us. In the meantime, we will keep you updated with the latest news on this exciting new piece of hardware as and when we get it!
