Appropriate Replacement Motor for a DFGT

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finnracer

finnracer

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TheFinners96
Hi all, my DFGT motor recently burnt out (mid-drift in the C7 Corvette since you asked!) after around 4 years of good use and it is seemingly impossible to directly replace the motor. Does anyone on here know what would be a suitable replacement motor for the wheel, i.e. similarly powered, as I want it to last without having to adjust it too much?

Thank you in advance! :)
 
finnracer
Hi all, my DFGT motor recently burnt out (mid-drift in the C7 Corvette since you asked!) after around 4 years of good use and it is seemingly impossible to directly replace the motor. Does anyone on here know what would be a suitable replacement motor for the wheel, i.e. similarly powered, as I want it to last without having to adjust it too much?

Thank you in advance! :)
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I recently saw an ad for factory reconditioned DFGTs for 49 dollars including everything. That might be the easiest option if they are still available.

Here are some DFGT motors, the guy has 7 but it seems like they may be used?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOR-Logit...t=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item1c2ef85566
 
Thank you Racer XX - I will find out how old those motors are off the person selling! Can you remember where you found the ad for the reconditioned ones?
 
I had the same problem but am in the UK. I was also drifting. I shouldn't even have tried drifting with this wheel, it was working absolutely fine otherwise...

I couldn't see any adds for motors on your link, RacerXX.

Unfortunately DFGTs go out here in the UK, used, for like £90 on ebay.
 
eKretz
Luiz, you are responding to posts that are almost a year old.
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Indeed, sorry about that. I saw the Jan/2013 and didn't realize we were already in 2014.

Welp, in any case I'd open a new thread for this. I am still looking for a ffb motor for the DFGT. Couldn't find it anywhere on the internet so far, but surely it shouldn't be that hard to find a compatible RC motor...

Considering the sheer number of these motors that just burn I'm surprised no one would know how to replace them.
 
The motors in most of these wheels are fairly niche items. Most RC motors are wound with many fewer turns of considerably thicker wire...which means they spin much faster and draw a lot more amperage. They aren't suitable replacements.
 
Thanks a bunch, even if it's not the greatest news.

I've been reading what I can about my problem, and it seems like there might not be the whole ffb motor that got toasted but just the fuse? I didn't even know there was a fuse in these wheels. I didn't open it yet, but looking at this picture I surely can't find one...

Thanks again, hopefully it'll be just that.
 
eKretz
There are such animals as surface mount fuses, but I don't see any on that circuit board.
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Indeed. So I cracked the wheel open and that's exactly my circuit board. No sign of fuses. Yet I read in quite a few boards that there is one, and that my problem (not powering up the wheel or the ffb but all buttons and axis work normally) is akin to a fuse blown.

Man, Logitech irks me so much for not helping with these things at all. The purpose of having a fuse is to have a quick/easy/cheap fix, yet they don't provide any info on that, nor allow anyone else to post the fix on their forums...
 
Post a photo of the opposite side of the board too. Do you have a voltmeter? The wheel doesn't turn on at all?
 
eKretz
Post a photo of the opposite side of the board too. Do you have a voltmeter? The wheel doesn't turn on at all?
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There is literally nothing on the other side but the soldering.

As you see, my board is even a bit different than that one in the other picture (although not much). The very only thing that looks like a fuse is the D6 on the top left (edit, you can't really see the D6 written but it's the last component, alone in the top left). Unfortunately I don't have a voltimeter. I think I'll end up bringing the board to a repair shot and see if they'd be kind enough to find the fuse and test it out.

The wheel does not turn on at all but oddly everything works. So the USB works, and all buttons and all axis (steering and pedals). But plugging it on the mains makes no difference - the "GT light" in the centre never comes on, and the ffb motor never turns on either.

I don't know exactly how the circuit works (as is clear), but since the GT light doesn't come on at all I'm thinking it looks more like a fuse than a busted ffb motor indeed, since the light wouldn't be dependent on the motor I'd think.

I have an extra power adaptor which I'm sure works. I've tested with it and same results.

Thanks for the help.
 
Hmm, perhaps the fuse is in your wall plug (power supply). That would be the first place I'd check if the wheel is completely dead as far as power. I think those wheels have separate power for FFB and position sensors and buttons; the FFB is powered by the wall plug and the sensors and buttons function using USB voltage. If your motor has kicked the bucket it could have raised the stall current enough to blow a fuse or something else, so you might still need a new motor or this may happen again even if you fix the weak link.

D6 is a diode, BTW.

Edit: oops, missed the part about the extra wall plug. Another possibility is you blew both of them. You need a voltmeter! You'll need to take it to an electrical repair place then I guess. Let me know if they find a fuse, cuz I sure don't see one. I'd guess you have a failed diode or transistor. If you look at the markings on the board (like d6) a fuse would have an 'f' with or without a number as it's marking.
 
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Ok, so a few updates. Yes, I'm getting a voltmeter. But I'm not sure that'll help.

No one in town was willing to test either the board or the motor. Except a nice RC shop dude, but the connection was a bit different so he backed out.

Anyway, I decided to use my brains for a bit and realized the MOMO and the DFGT have the same ffb motor. So... I popped open my old and faulty MOMO and decided to swap motors.

Results: both motors work fine when plugged on the MOMO. Both motors work REALLY SLOW AND UNPOWERED when plugged into the DFGT. They turn reeeeally slowly and have barely any power. If I just hold them with my fingers they stop and that's it.

So. I think we can rule out the fuse problem it seems. If a fuse had popped no current at all would go through. Right? We can also rule out the motor, as it spins nicely when plugged to the MOMO.

What else could it be? Just something wrong with the circuit board, I can't think of nothing else. In all this disassembling and assembling back I think I'd have found a loose cable connection by now if that was the problem.

One last symptom: the steering on the DFGT is dead. Oddly enough, when the problem started, the steering kept working. However, after turning the computer off and on again, no more steering at all. I've tried with both the motor plugged and unplugged, and with the MOMO motor on, no steering. All other buttons work.

And one last thing: I have bought a faulty DFGT for myself, in an attempt to make two out of one. But I don't know which one of these to get:

1) powers up, calibrates to the right and then full left and stops then keeps doing that over and over again.
2) when plugged in the GT light just flashes, nothing else.

If the problem was the motor I'd go with #1 of course. But now that the problem seems to be on the board... I'm lost. And lonely, and sad. And I feel bad for hijacking this thread now.

Thanks.
 
Well, having more than one makes troubleshooting easier, because you can compare voltages, resistances, and voltage drops from one to the other... However it's always better to compare to one that is known to be good. If I had to pick one, I myself would probably choose the one that actually spins to try to help fix yours. At least you know it's getting power to the motor, which yours isn't.

If you want to try to find the problem, start at the motor and trace your way back along the circuit, comparing voltages at each component. Be very careful not to short any pins together or you could do further damage. Also be extremely careful around live line level electricity... don't work on this around pets or kids. If you feel uncomfortable working on it with live electricity flowing you should probably find another way to solve your problem.
 
Thanks for all the pointers.

I agree with you and I asked for #1 wheel as well but unfortunately I took a bit too long to decide and they had already shipped #2. Unfortunate.

Fingers crossed in any case. Hopefully the one coming has a good board but busted motor. But I think you were right and going to the one that actually powered the motor was best.
 
eKretz
Good luck!
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Thanks, but unfortunately it didn't work. I don't think I'll manage to get it to work at all.

Wheel arrived and indeed the symptom is: plug it in, GT light keeps flashing. Nothing else.

So I swapped what I could back and forth: ffb motor, optic sensor, the wheel itself... nothing changes. The symptom of both wheels remain exactly the same throughout.

Therefore... if my troubleshooting is correct, both wheels have problems in the circuit board. It's unlikely I'll be able to fix that. Unfortunate. I wish I'd have gotten a wheel with any other problem.

On the bright side, I finally have something to contribute to this particular thread: I now have a fully working ffb motor for a DFGT, if anyone wants it.

Edit: and just a quick update. With my wheel, when it's disassembled and plugged in the ffb motor spins reeeeally slowly (it probably can turn only because there is zero resistance, i.e. the whole wheel is not assembled). I tested the ffb motor plug and the board has 1V there. Isn't that a bit too little? The AC/DC adaptor is 24V.

Decided to create another thread to declutter this since it's changing subject. But the offer of a working ffb motor persists.
 
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I had my dfgt die on me the other night, well the ffb anyway. Steering and buttons all work just no ffb. I may be interested in that motor if it turns out mine is bad.

Also, if you are willing there is a guy in one of my threads in need of an encoder wheel for his dfgt (he doesn't want to shell out for a fancy brass one)
 

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