USB3.0 Instrument Display1

Excellent product from Winwing. You are getting what you pay for with this display. There are a lot of DIY displays on the market but require a ridiculous amount of tedious set up and messing with resolution displays. With the SimApp Pro software that comes w/ the screen the system will easily update the firmware and bam. You're ready to go. There are also numerous youtube tutorials to assist in this process as well. Great product decent price. Definitely recommended for any flight sim enthusiast.

TL;DR: The USB 3.0 Instrument Display1 is fantastic for flight sim enthusiasts—if it works out of the box. If it doesn’t, be prepared for slow, frustrating support and compulsory DIY repairs, even for factory defects.If you’ve done your homework, then you know that WinWing products offer tremendous value at the expense of customer service—it’s all over Reddit. You also know that if you want to fly in DCS or Falcon BMS with a working MFD—that is, working OSBs and a working display—then the USB 3.0 Instrument Display1 (“D1” for short), paired with WinWing’s MFD Unit1 (“MFD1”), is just about the only game in town.To me, purchasing anything beyond a stick, throttle, and pedals felt excessive. But then, on an impulse, I bought WinWing’s F-16 ICP here on Amazon. After a taste of what I’d been missing, I fully embraced the idea, buying a pair of D1s and MFD1s directly from WinWing.As far as the product goes, I have my quibbles. The required control software, SimAppPro, is rough around the edges. The LCD colors aren’t as vibrant as you’d get on an iPad or iPhone. Then again, the D1 doesn’t cost anywhere near an i-device. And considering the intended use—text, grainy FLIR images, and vector-like HSD maps—the D1 is more than up to the task. In fact, the HSD and A-A FCR pages in BMS look fantastic.Had both my D1s worked out of the box, this would be a 4.5 star review, the half-star lost to WinWing’s software. But one didn’t work. And that’s how I came to learn first hand just what poor customer service is.WinWing’s customer service has its fierce defenders. Some say the horror stories are a lie, overblown, or the fault of the customer. “I actually prefer WinWing’s approach,” someone even wrote. Fine. Rather than pass judgment, I’ll explain what the WinWing approach is.My first challenge was simply reaching customer support. An Internet search yielded several URLs for WinWing. Some of those just didn’t load. Once I found a working link to their online ticket system, I discovered I couldn’t open one, no matter how many times I clicked the chat icon. WinWing accepts customer support requests by email, too, but according to their website, that’s only in the event the customer can’t get the ticket system to work. Seeing as I couldn’t, I sent an email, explaining up front that the ticket system wasn’t loading on my end. WinWing responded by informing me they ignore emails that don’t reference a ticket number. Catch-22! Backed into a corner, I regrouped, tried a new browser, got in, and successfully created a ticket, landing me in a chat with technical support, where I’d be for the next five hours.Our conversation moved at a glacial pace. Every response came after a 5 to 15 minute wait. Much of that conversation was unnecessary, as far as I’m concerned. You see, since I received two D1s in my order—one working, one not—I could test each under the same conditions. So I did. And for every test, one passed, one didn’t.None of this mattered to technical support. Not only did they insist that I repeat each test, they required that I submit video evidence. Sure, they said “please,” but it was a “parent please”—you ask your kids, “would you please” do this, “would you please” do that, but as my older son explained to my younger, “When he says that, it’s not really a choice.”After two hours, WinWing finally conceded that yes, my D1 did indeed have a defect—specifically, the display, while powered and recognized by Windows, showed nothing, not even WinWing’s power-up logo. Normally this is where the company ships you a new unit, free of charge, and sends you a prepaid shipping label for the defective unit. Ah, but that’s not WinWing way! WinWing told me to disassemble the unit to examine the circuit board. “I don’t feel comfortable doing that,” I told them. “I’d like to return this and receive a replacement.” “Please,” they responded, “Just do this.” WinWing flatly refused to issue a return until I’d found the mechanical problem—in other words, WinWing wouldn’t issue me a replacement until I’d done their job for them.I suspect I’m not the first customer to be told to do this. Why? Because they sent a Word .doc outlining the procedure, step by step, in English. So I did it. What else was I supposed to do? But I stripped two screws during the process, and one just wasn’t coming out. I explained the problem and once more asked for a replacement unit. Instead, they sent me another Word .doc, this one explaining how to deal with a stripped screw head, instructing me to hammer an oversized flathead screwdriver into the stripped head to furrow a new groove.That actually worked. I pried open the case and discovered that the ribbon cable connecting the LCD to the circuit board wasn’t attached. WinWing sent another Word .doc providing instructions on how to reattach it. In the process I hit a few more snags, WinWing sent a video, and at one point in another “parent-please” request, they asked me to send pictures of all QC cards and stickers (probably to uncover who’s due for a reprimand). But in the end, I reattached it, put things back together, and it worked! And then, to my chagrin, I noticed several scratches and two grain-sized pits on the LCD that weren’t there before.There’s a reason I don’t perform certain repairs myself. It’s because on the first time through, one often makes mistakes, and some mistakes are best avoided. Like a scratched, pitted LCD. I raised this complaint to WinWing. They apologized, then offered to make matters right with a $20 discount on a future purchase, never mind that at that moment, a future purchase was the furthest thing from my mind. But that was the end of the road. He said he’d relay my complaint to his manager and get back to me. And that was that.Nothing more came of this—no follow-up, no $20 voucher, no offer to replace my scratched and pitted D1 for free. Not that it matters, I suppose, because someday soon I’ll get over the blemishes and get back to enjoying what’s still a great product at a reasonable price. But for now, I’m still upset, because when I placed my order, I didn’t think I’d signed up for any of this. Which is why I’m writing this review: If you buy a D1 from WinWing and something goes wrong, this is what you signed up for.