Racing sim hardware

Gnomie · February 19, 2009, 01:08:17 PM

The G25 can take a lot of abuse.. but even this wheel has its limitations.

Quote from: some guy at the iRacing forumsWas just in a race at Lime Rock with the Mazdas, running in 2nd about 2 secs back of the leader. LRP scares the crap out of me and i have the wheel in a deathgrip trying to keep control while turning laps which amount to a blur, with a brief respite on the main straight.

I had just landed the "jump"(i hate the uphill, iv'e lost it there too many times to count)when "SNAP" my G25's wheel broke in HALF!! The wheel itself broke right above the lateral spokes!! Needless to say, i lost control at T7 and put an end to my race.

I can't believe this happened. I just got back into iRacing after having my PC down for over a month and now this!! I gotta try and RMA this G25 but i doubt Logitech even has any left.

I swear, if it ain't one thing it is another...

Turns out the wheel itself is actually made of plastic!

Doorman · February 19, 2009, 03:16:13 PM

Quote from: Gnomie;264802The G25 can take a lot of abuse.. but even this wheel has its limitations.

Turns out the wheel itself is actually made of plastic!

Replace it with a proper Sparco wheel. No breaking that sucker! :flirty:

easyed · February 20, 2009, 04:31:53 PM

Got my replacement G25

Tried the 107% ffb setting in Profiler (55% in LFS settings)......... Seems a bit tighter in the middle but haven't tried but a couple of cars so far.

While I really have enjoyed my G25 and before that a DF Pro - it sure seems Logitech is not overdoing reliability. Seems to be made just sturdy enough to make it throough the year warranty.

Shortly afrter my DFP was out of warranty I had to redo the soldering for the button (paddle) shifters because the solder joints crack since the buttons press directly on the poorly supported joints.

Romus · February 22, 2009, 08:54:30 PM

There's been quite a many positive reviews about this little box, that widens the G25 pedal resolution from 256 to 1024. Most of the users of this box reported that they improved their braking a lot thanks to increased precision.

Link to USB controller:
http://www.leobodnar.com/products/DFPG25conn/

I instead ordered a bit more capable model, that I'm gonna use for my pedals and also for a special cockpit buttons and who knows what.
http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/

I'll post my report here once I get the controller.

Gnomie · February 22, 2009, 10:41:21 PM

Interesting, I'll look forward to hearing what you think.

I've heard lots of nice things about this!

Romus · February 27, 2009, 05:46:58 PM

BU0836X arrived today and I've tested it just a bit. It works. Much else I cannot say yet.

One interesting test was to check if I could actually use all the range from 0 to 1024. When the pedal meets the Nixim rubber (Nixim G25 pedal mod) I could keep the axis value at for example 234 for some seconds, then increase it to 235, keep it there, and then again increase by one. This proves that this controller makes pedals more accurate, but does it mean anything in the braking performance I don't know yet.

I'll report again after some more seat time.

Romus · March 02, 2009, 09:03:45 AM

I could not do more than about 20 minutes of testing during the weekend, but I did not feel any difference in braking or under acceleration. Some people have reported that it takes some time to learn to get everything out of the added accuracy, but many have reported tremendous improvements right away. I'm inclined to think, that those who report huge improvement, have actually finally started driving smooth when they get the controller that is 'smooth', so their improvement might be from there.

But, I also remember reading Dale Earnhardt Jr. reporting that his lap times improved nearly half a second after he upgraded to CST pedals from G25, and if I've understood correctly, CST uses Bodnar electronics. So part of the quality from CST pedals comes from good electronics, but for sure the mechanics and the pressure sensitive brake play a role as well.

EDIT: If the USB controller does not do much to my braking, I at least got a much better looking cockpit, because I re-did all the cabling in the weekend and now it looks really clean. Before it was a jungle, but now every cable has a nice route and cables are mostly hidden.

Gnomie · March 21, 2009, 04:27:46 PM

I've made yet another pedal mod!

Well, not so much a "new" mod as a repair, really.. I have G25 pedals with the Nixim mod, and lately it started feeling softer than it used to. I could reach full braking quite easily. So I opened it up (and removed ~ 4 pounds of dust, crap and bits of socks while I was in there :lmfao:), and as I suspected, the red plastic cylider had dug a 4mm deep groove in the rubber on both sides! No wonder it was feeling softer. So I glued on some pieces of plastic on either end, along with a piece of cardboard to make the whole thing a little longer (to reduce the deadzone). And now it's MUCH better!

So, some advice: if you're going to order the nixim mod, you might as well save yourself the trouble and apply this PlasticFantastic mod(TM) right away. And, likewise, if you already have nixim installed and think it feels a little too soft (or that your deadzone is too large) you know what to do!

lovretta · May 06, 2009, 07:00:20 PM

well, as the title says, here is mine version of it

Cheap'n'easy'n'ugly'n'effective*

*we will see if it is any good.

It made heel'n'toeing whole lot easier, and hopefully my shoes will torn off at slower rate :woot2:

Gnomie · May 06, 2009, 07:30:21 PM

Looking good!

Very similar to what I've done myself. I threw together a quick video to show what I've done.

Lameduck · May 06, 2009, 07:39:36 PM

If a picture paints a thousand words.......
Excellent video, add 'film director' to your list of talents

Seany · May 06, 2009, 08:14:51 PM

Good vid Gnomie, and nice mods. Never thought about the washers, pretty simple but excellent idea. I'd say it helps being able to tilt the pedals also with that nice seating arrangement you have.

lovretta · May 06, 2009, 11:45:19 PM

Quote from: Gnomie;275235Looking good! Very similar to what I've done myself. I threw together a quick video to show what I've done.

Looking really good! I'm tempted now do some more stuff!

Also i notice you have RinoSeat? How is it? I'm too having one for year and a half, and i'm very pleased with it.

Gnomie · May 07, 2009, 08:03:04 AM

I like my Rinoseat very much!

Very very comfortable even for long sessions. It isn't quite as solid as I could have hoped for, but I've made some modifications (you know me by now, right? I'll modifiy anything that comes within view! :lmfao:) so now it's better.

Moving the gas pedal changed everything for me. I recently tried moving it back to its original position, but that was just horrible in comparison. You should try it! Just get a piece of wood like this and some screws + washers, and you're all set.

lovretta · May 07, 2009, 12:16:08 PM

What mods have you done to the seat?

Also about moving gas pedal, you gave me idea of moving the brake pedal like this, purpose of it would be not to lose "height" difference between gas and brake.
I find this more important, in my car brake and gas are ~2 - 3 cm difference and h'n't is totally easy there, even tough the distance between them is huge.

I see you also have Nixim brake mod. Do you use 50% deazone with it? I was considering it, but it felt bit odd to me to use 50% of nothing then something.
I would rather tried fiddleing with dxtweak to get some exponential curve...