Fanatec CSW/CSR Elite Modders Thread *UPDATE February 2014*

  • Thread starter eKretz
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While researching wheels, what to do, blah, blah I have stumbled across this. I won't be purchasing a wheel until March but this has been bookmarked. Seems a better option to the v2 as I've already read grumblings on it about motor fade and durability issues.

Same dog and pony show I guess. It is this or fork over a couple grand on a base and I'm not really prepared to do that yet.
 
Not even the V2 is a perfect solution it seems. I'm getting a slight click when racing and the rear fan sometimes makes a fluttering noise. No fade though.
 
Hi all. Just reporting back after receiving my modded CSW back. I went for the all out upgrade package which included everything Eric offered.

1st thing that struck me was how tidy the upgrade was, looking through the window seeing them motors made me smile straight away. Apart from the 2 air valves the exterior it looks completely stock. As the motors are bigger the plastic back didn't fit back snug but how Eric has overcome this is brilliant and looks completely professional. Quite possibly an improvement on the original design allowing a bit more air flow.

So unpacked it and tried it with the original Fanatec PSU (new 1 was in post) and O MY!!!!! Just using 5A it completely blows the original away in every way. Just using the Fanatec PSU I would say it has easily double the strength. But I soon worked out the strength is just the first in a long line of surprises in I had to come.

It took me a few days to start to learn how this new base works and i'm still learning after a few weeks. Every game I've tried new needs a few hours of FFB setting tinkering as the forces are so great its easy to over power some of the effects. It enables you to easily feel and define each individual output and feel the effects of just the slightest + or - on the slider. I have Pcars so still in development and quite normal to have no FFB on certain car due to WIP. I can crank the FOR setting on wheel and I have FFB, Epic.

Now wheel settings. I went for every low friction mod offered and it had an effect I was not expecting, don't laugh but no friction, at all and that felt weird for sure. I have had to add SPR and DPR for the first time. I never have ever liked the effect of artificial spring or dampening as it has always had an effect on environmental but I guess everyone has their own idea of what feels right. I drive a 111R that has no power steering so I have always tried to copy the weight and this base can go way beyond what my car offers up. Even with the Fanatec 5A PSU for the first time I had my FOR setting down to 70 on wheel and went through my game settings and took 20 - 25% from all of them too. Its safe to say the force will never be an issue again.

I have the CSW bolted to a Redbull F1 Playseat and even though its a solid frame to mount it to it still needs strengthening. I'm not just talking about wheel weight, even the enviro FFB shakes the rig like its made from plastic.

I have had to swap the recommended air compressor for a more tame, ultra quiet alternative. The cost was a lot more but the noise was too much and was not really happy having an electrical device in a soundproof box but maybe just over cautious but feel better about it.

For those interested here it is -
http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/uk/product/A852-q2-air-pump/#.VM-8KGisWlc

Also my PSU -
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/produ...le-_-7059835&gclid=CIehlvqQrr0CFYjLtAodR0oAmQ


Now i'm a hardcore sim racer full stop but for me Dirt 2 & 3 are great games for FFB and mates gathering for some fun racing. If your lucky enough to already own the Ekretz CSW and Dirt 2/3 I strongly suggest you give it a go. I had to mute my mic, the sound of me whooping and the CSW shaking my rig was too much for my mates to listen to.


So before conclusion I would just like to say what a pleasure it was doing business and communicating with Eric, a reel professional guy that could of quite easily just modded his own wheel and left us all not knowing any better, cheers.


So there we are guys I'm completely blown away, the way I see it is its the equivalent of a £2000 professional wheel for half the price. When my 2nd breaks I will be sending it across the pond for the same treatment. I love strong FFB and this offers up more than I can ever ask for, lots more. I think someone should open a thread so we can share wheel / game setting allowing the lucky new owners to quickly get into game.


Thank you

Alex
 
Alex Bonner
Hi all. Just reporting back after receiving my modded CSW back. I went for the all out upgrade package which included everything Eric offered.

1st thing that struck me was how tidy the upgrade was, looking through the window seeing them motors made me smile straight away. Apart from the 2 air valves the exterior it looks completely stock. As the motors are bigger the plastic back didn't fit back snug but how Eric has overcome this is brilliant and looks completely professional. Quite possibly an improvement on the original design allowing a bit more air flow.[...]
Click to expand...

By reading your post I can not wait for my kit now, it makes you want!
I look forward to have mine in my hands!:bowdown::crazy:
 
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Alex, glad you are enjoying your wheel buddy, I LOVE this modded wheel on rally, it's SO awesome!

I'm doing my best to work on getting those motor mounts ready guys, I got really sick the last few weeks, had to go to doctor twice - was getting quite a lot of blood when I blew my nose for over a week even! Finally feeling better and then we get almost 2 feet of snow dumped on us. Not much longer, and as you can see from the reviews, you will not be disappointed. I should be able to ship some more kits by end of this week.
 
Hi guys,

I found this thread via link from RaceDepartment. I own a Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel. They were limited edition and aren't sold any more, but internally I'm pretty sure it's identical to the CSR and Porsche GT3 wheels (or near enough.) I know for sure it has the same "Mabuchi RS 550 Motor".

I've had the wheel for five years, since end Dec 2009. But until recently I had barely used it; it was mostly in storage. Starting Jan 1st 2015 I've been using it heavily - probably 100-150 hours in the last 6 weeks.

Last night, it seems that the motor started to fail. The wheel is now very 'lumpy' or 'jerky' when I turn it in-game - instead of moving smoothly against the force of the FFB, it seems to turn in jerks or steps. I put pressure on it and it doesn't move at first, then suddenly it moves one 'notch' or 'step'.

This is apparent even when I turn the wheel outside of a game - I can feel the wheel juddering slightly as I turn it. Then it's distinctly noticeable when in-game - there's a very noticeable "stepping" effect as I try to turn the wheel against the FFB, especially when cornering, but also to some extent when the car is sitting still. I tried lowering the wheel FF from 100 to 50, but to no avail.

There's a thread on RaceDepartment describing the same problem with the same wheel, and it seems that it's almost certain that my motor has gone.

I'd be most grateful if you guys could help me out with a few questions:

  1. Is there any chance at all that I could repair the problem without replacing the motor? Taking the motor out and cleaning it, anything like that?
  2. I believe the replacement motor I need is the Mabuchi RS-555PH 12V DC, as seen here on eBay.
    1. EDIT: Just found the reference in this thread, and apparently I actually need the RS555PH-22130 ? Eric says the basic RS-555PH is "different armature"? How much does that matter?
    2. Another thread on here says that the RS555PH-22130 is out of production - and indeed I can't find any for sale.
  3. If I do replace the motor with the same/similar make/model, could you tell me how hard that is to do? I am highly technical when it comes to software, but have very little hardware experience. I do own a soldering iron (a 48W that I bought from a supermarket for £8 / $12), but have never used it.
  4. But given that I (probably) have to change the motor, maybe I should think about getting a better one? I can see that these Mabuchi's are cheap and crap.
    1. I've read some of this thread and have been getting very jealous at you guys getting your CSWs and CSR Elites modified with Bühler motors!
    2. But I can't afford to send anything to Eric for proper modding (and if I could, I should surely do so with a CSW not a basic Porsche wheel), and as I say I'm not experienced with hardware.
    3. So I don't fancy my chances of being able to modify a motor that doesn't quite fit. I certainly don't have access to a lathe or anything fancy like that.
    4. But maybe there's a motor that's similar enough to the Mabuchi that it would be an easy fit - but is also stronger/better quality? I don't mind spending £20 or even £60 ($30 - $100) on a better motor if I'm sure I can fit it and it'll be a worthwhile upgrade.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated. I really wish I could use this opportunity to upgrade to a better wheel, but I can't afford £300 (Thrustmaster) to £700 (CSW v1 + Rims etc) any time soon. And I'd hate to have to spend £100+ on a replacement wheel that's no little or no better than the one I have. (I do rather like the real leather on my Turbo S, and think it looks nicer than the Alcantara and plastic CSR/Porsche GT wheels.)

Worst case scenario I guess I'll just buy a replacement RS-555PH motor, and hopefully the different armature doesn't matter too much, and it's not too hard to fit? At least that's not too expensive (£10 -£12 including delivery from the US to UK - I can't find any in the UK itself.)

PS. I said my Turbo S Wheel was hopefully identical to more modern wheels. Internally, I'm pretty sure that's true - certainly the same motor. But there is at least one firmware difference. I have wheel settings for "FF", "Shock", and Drift (0-5), same as other wheels. But I don't have a FOR setting, and I don't have the 0-100 "Spring" and "Damper" settings that you guys have (I know the CSW has these, not fully sure about the CSR but it probably does?) To be precise, my wheel does have SPR and DPR settings, but they're not 0-100 like on new(er) wheels, they go -3 to +3 and the manual says they're only for use on consoles, not PC. I don't know if this affects anything regarding to potentially modding the motor?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Whew, that was a long read, lol. First things first, you may be able to help your motor out without replacing it but there's no guarantee. Another member mentioned having some success doing a water break-in on a damaged motor and having it help, but I have tried it on several with no luck. It will depend on the damage. If you have a short in the armature wiring it will do nothing. If you have only commutator damage it could conceivably help but will only be a temporary fix.

The important part of the motor designation isn't the RS555PH, it's the 22130. That means .22mm wire, 130 turns. Those two parameters set the torque and RPM of the motors. BTW your motor should run at 24V, not 12V. There is a direct replacement motor from Canon printers, IIRC it's model QK1 or something. I think I have further info in the first post of this thread.
 
My Fanatec CSR-Elite has been plagued by a intermittent problem that I was hoping to get some advise on.

The problem is that something is occurring during power up that is causing the wheel to have a huge force feedback dead zone.

I have created a couple of videos to detail the problem.

In the first video it shows me powering on the wheel and then pressing the connect button. Then I open iRacing's Wheel Check program and set the 'Spring Force' setting to 'Simple Spring'. Then I move the wheel back and forth until I can feel resistance. You can see I can move the wheel 20-30 degrees before I feel any resistance. This means if I race with the wheel in this state, it will have a 20-30 degree force feedback dead zone in any game and it just feels awful.



In the second video it shows me again doing the same power up procedure, but this time the wheel has almost zero resistance when I try to move it and it feels fantastic in games.



What could be causing this problem? This occurs with PC and PS3 so it seems it is solely related to the wheel. I often spend 5-10 minutes powering on and off the wheel until it is right before I can race.

I can usually tell if it will work by the way the wheel behaves on power up. When I power it on and it does it's spin calibrating, if the wheel returns weakly to center and is off center then it will have the dead zone problem.

If it returns strongly and almost exactly on center then it will not have the dead zone problem.

The wheel is using Firmware 757.

Any advise?
 
FatnSlo
My Fanatec CSR-Elite has been plagued by a intermittent problem that I was hoping to get some advise on.

The problem is that something is occurring during power up that is causing the wheel to have a huge force feedback dead zone.

I have created a couple of videos to detail the problem.

In the first video it shows me powering on the wheel and then pressing the connect button. Then I open iRacing's Wheel Check program and set the 'Spring Force' setting to 'Simple Spring'. Then I move the wheel back and forth until I can feel resistance. You can see I can move the wheel 20-30 degrees before I feel any resistance. This means if I race with the wheel in this state, it will have a 20-30 degree force feedback dead zone in any game and it just feels awful.



In the second video it shows me again doing the same power up procedure, but this time the wheel has almost zero resistance when I try to move it and it feels fantastic in games.



What could be causing this problem? This occurs with PC and PS3 so it seems it is solely related to the wheel. I often spend 5-10 minutes powering on and off the wheel until it is right before I can race.

I can usually tell if it will work by the way the wheel behaves on power up. When I power it on and it does it's spin calibrating, if the wheel returns weakly to center and is off center then it will have the dead zone problem.

If it returns strongly and almost exactly on center then it will not have the dead zone problem.

The wheel is using Firmware 757.

Any advice?
Click to expand...


Maybe not advise but my CSR-E had the same problem. Every time I fired it up the ffb would be different from not working at all, weird ffb so bad you couldn't drive, to working perfectly. It got to the point where I would have to fire the wheel up, try it in the sim to see if it was good, and if not turn the wheel off and try again. I got so sick of turning the wheel on and off up to 10 times to get it to work so it was drivable that I went back to my trusty DFGT.

I think its just the cheap electronic components starting to fail, thats what you get for buying a fanatec product. My wheel lasted 1 year 10 months which is better than the majority. You could try submitting a support ticket to fanatec, :lol:, they are really good with discontinued products :lol:, or do as I did and find your biggest sledge hammer and get some revenge for the pain and suffering the wheel has given you.

My advice, DON'T BUY A FANATEC WHEEL!.......EVA! no matter how much hype and BS they publish.

Sorry I could not be of any help but the problem is only going to get worse until you replace the pcb with one from fanatec or buy another csr-e and use it for spare parts.

Good luck, Mick.
 
@FatnSlo I have the exact same problem on my modded elite too. Is your wheel also modded? I find I have to aid when the wheel is calibrating to get it to tighten up the ffb in the center, once the wheel has stopped turning left after the lock stop It will do a small twitch before it returns to center, I believe the twitch is setting the minimum force/ voltage to apply to the motor to get movement. If you simply grip the wheel with your hands to add drag so it must increase the minimum voltage it fixes the issue, it may still take a couple of goes to get it to feel right but that is the only solution I have found
 
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Thanks for the depressing replies guys :confused:. Yes it is a modded wheel that is well out of warranty.

I just figured out I don't even need to bother with connecting it to a PC and using Wheel Check to determine if it will have the FFB dead zone or not. All I have to do is turn it on and wait for it to calibrate and then I can feel if it will have the dead zone or not. Like MickF said it seems to have all kinds of varying degrees of deadzone from large to small.

I will try your suggestion Blue028.
 
I am certain it has to do with changing the motors (or maybe even the power supply?), when I had problems with my PCB the brand new one i received did the same thing and the old one I put into an elite that I rebuilt with stock motor and the problem disappeared.

I find with the method I posted earlier using a profile on the wheel with 100 ff and max spring when Starting up the wheel, I normally put my fingertips on the base of the wheel and use my palms to try hold the rim still. Once it springs to center you can tell straight away if it's firmed up or not without having to connect to the pc
 
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Well that may accelerate it but it can't be the root cause as I did have the problem with my stock wheel, just like MickF. This doesn't happen on the CSW either.
 
Ah I see, do you think it is a problem with the electronic components or perhaps a bug in the csr elites firmware? I have had the problem for over a year but i find it to be very consistent, and it hasn't degraded any further with use either
 
I have been thinking maybe it's an issue with the startup routine somehow, but I would think it would be the same between the wheels. It could be that the controller isn't seeing what it's expecting voltage or amperage wise on startup and it's outside the expected range maybe. I don't have an Elite currently or I'd do some further testing. Maybe monitor the voltage and amperage at startup on a wheel that works correctly with stock and then modded motors, and one that doesn't work correctly with stock and modded motors. Might need an oscilloscope or at least logging software to really see what's going on though.

It's a possibility that it only happens on stock wheels when the motors are slightly damaged and pulling extra amperage.
 
eKertz, I been starting to work on a box for my medo like air pump. To me it seems that most of the noise is coming out ,with the air, from the outlet line it self. The pump noise it's self doesn't seem so bad. When the line is plugged in and terminates into the motor cans, does it dampen the noise well?

Also I must ask how is production going? I know you've been under some delays, just curious of an ETA. I'm sure I'm near the back of the line. It's hard to read the others reviews :) Thanks for all the work.
 
Blue028, I did the finger drag thing and it worked great each time. In fact I don't remember it having this low of a FFB dead zone before. Thanks for the tip!
 
Quartza
eKertz, I been starting to work on a box for my medo like air pump. To me it seems that most of the noise is coming out ,with the air, from the outlet line it self. The pump noise it's self doesn't seem so bad. When the line is plugged in and terminates into the motor cans, does it dampen the noise well?

Also I must ask how is production going? I know you've been under some delays, just curious of an ETA. I'm sure I'm near the back of the line. It's hard to read the others reviews :) Thanks for all the work.
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It does dampen the noise a bit but you will of course still hear it. Some guys have had some success quieting it a bit more by filling the gap between the rear cover and the main housing with something like weather-stripping. The machine I need has been tied up this week but I think I will be able to ship some kits at the end of this week or the beginning of next.
 
FatnSlo
Blue028, I did the finger drag thing and it worked great each time. In fact I don't remember it having this low of a FFB dead zone before. Thanks for the tip!
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That is interesting as it seems then that a higher than stock amp draw can't be the problem. Very odd.
 
I am not using any low drag technique. The wide belt on mine is tighter than stock and the two rib belt is about the same as stock.
 
@eKretz

I did not read all posts through, there are just too many, but i just bought a used CSW V1 and i am looking for a long working motor upgrade.

I plan on doing the mods myself, i also have access to a metal lathe to bore out the pulleys.

But what else exactly is needed for the new bühler motors you use ? when im right you changed the bühler motor type during those many threads here, so im not exactly sure what changed.

Also it looks like i need the motors from you, do you have them on stock ?
I couldn't find the motors here in europe, it is kinda weird because i think they are manufactured in europe ;-)

Hope you can guide me through here, because i want to use my csw v1 for a long time, and not till the current cheap motors die.

Cheers
Lorien
 
Blue028
Maybe it's a bug in the startup when the drag has been reduced, @FatnSlo @eKretz @MickF we're your wheels low drag modded when the problem first occurred?
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I think my wheel has always had this problem of a force feedback deadzone even with the stock motors now that I think back on how it has behaved. I know I could never get consistent results on Wheel Check's Min Force calculation with results from 1-10% (now with finger drag it is 0-1%) and I am sure the wheel often did not return tightly to center on power up.
 

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