Conversion of a Logitech shifter for Fanatec wheelbase compatibility, enabling 7th gear & other mods

[93360]

I did a thing and made a pdf document about it, enjoy

CONTENTS
Preface
Summary
Introduction
Disassembling the shifter
Rewiring the shifter

Rewiring for a PS/2 connection (Backwards compatible)

Suitable PS/2 cables from the Fanatec Webshop​

Rewiring for an RJ12 connection (Current generation)

Suitable RJ12 cables from the Fanatec Webshop​

Enabling reverse gear selection
Enabling 7th gear selection
Increasing the required shifting force
Increasing gear lever centring force
Other shifter feeling mods
Checklist for reassembling the shifter assembly
Securing the replacement cable and completing reassembly
Repositioning the shifter knob cap
Other shifter knob mods
Appendix A: Wiring diagrams

Fanatec shifter wiring diagram
Logitech shifter wiring diagram
Fanatec compatible Logitech shifter wiring diagram​

Appendix B: Altering potentiometer output voltages

Alternative wiring to use the Logitech reverse gear position
Alternative wiring to enable the Fanatec 7th gear position​

Edit 19/12/2018: pdf file updated with some revised formatting.

 

[Outspacer]

I don't have a fanatec wheel, but wow, what a great resource for logitech shifter mods! Thank-you!

 

[kikie]

I'm definitely going to read that PDF.

I'm intrigued.

 

[Fabriziooo]

Hi

you made exactly what i'm looking for

i bought a G29 shifter because my Fanatec porsche shifter broke, and it was crap anyway.

my first option were to place the electronics of the fanatec into the logitech shifter, but it seems way more easy to do what you explain.

i juste finished it, and there are 2 problems :

in neutral, it sometime thinks it is in 3rd, i only need to touch the knob for it to think that.

also, my 1st gear is recognized as the reverse i don't know why

 

[Fabriziooo]

edit :

i found a way to calibrate the neutral without 3rd issue, i have to push a little bit the knob in front when it ask neutral, and then it's ok after calibration.

but for the 1st seen as a reverse, i don't know what to do moving it here and there during calibration doesn't change anything :/

 

[93360]

edit :

i found a way to calibrate the neutral without 3rd issue, i have to push a little bit the knob in front when it ask neutral, and then it's ok after calibration.

but for the 1st seen as a reverse, i don't know what to do moving it here and there during calibration doesn't change anything :/

I'm glad that your are finding my guide useful, but you will need to specify which modifications you have performed before I can tell what might have gone wrong.
If you haven't already read the appendix, I suggest you try to understand the wiring diagrams so that you can determine if there is an issue with your wiring or not.

 

[Jarmand83]

Hi, I know this is an old thread now, but I have just upgraded from a g29 to a fanatec gt dd pro, so decided to do this conversion.

I am having the same issues as fabriziooo where the 1st gear position is being recognised as reverse, then 3rd is 1st, 5th is 3rd etc. I have done just the rj12 wiring and the reverse gear mod from the pdf.

It seems that where the push switch is supposed to activate the reverse selection nothing happens. I have triple checked all of the wiring for both the pinouts and the diagrams provided.

Has anyone else managed to get this all working correctly and can give me some advice on fixing my issues please.

 

[mrmaniacnf]

This is awesome. I switched from g923/shifter..too csldd/fanatec shifter. I know this is old post, and actually the first I have looked at.

I want to convert the shifter to use as a handbrake. I'm also on console, I'm guessing it should work fine. Would that be possible? I have a couple 3d printers, so the physical conversion is simple.

thanks in advance

 

[RS60NR]

This is awesome. I switched from g923/shifter..too csldd/fanatec shifter. I know this is old post, and actually the first I have looked at.

I want to convert the shifter to use as a handbrake. I'm also on console, I'm guessing it should work fine. Would that be possible? I have a couple 3d printers, so the physical conversion is simple.

thanks in advance

The Fanatec handbrake input comes from potentiometer, so generates a variable signal - the shifters are sending static , not a range, so your handbrake would only be on/off. Someone on the forum sells a hall effect sensor replacement for the pot so maybe you could use that w the shifter mechanism

 

[ShoneGT]

Hi, I know this is an old thread now, but I have just upgraded from a g29 to a fanatec gt dd pro, so decided to do this conversion.

I am having the same issues as fabriziooo where the 1st gear position is being recognised as reverse, then 3rd is 1st, 5th is 3rd etc. I have done just the rj12 wiring and the reverse gear mod from the pdf.

It seems that where the push switch is supposed to activate the reverse selection nothing happens. I have triple checked all of the wiring for both the pinouts and the diagrams provided.

Has anyone else managed to get this all working correctly and can give me some advice on fixing my issues please.

I did the same thing and have the same issue... Were you able to find some solution for this?

 

[CritiicaaL]

Do we know if this works on ps5?

 

[mc2face]

Hi, I know this is an old thread now, but I have just upgraded from a g29 to a fanatec gt dd pro, so decided to do this conversion.

I am having the same issues as fabriziooo where the 1st gear position is being recognised as reverse, then 3rd is 1st, 5th is 3rd etc. I have done just the rj12 wiring and the reverse gear mod from the pdf.

It seems that where the push switch is supposed to activate the reverse selection nothing happens. I have triple checked all of the wiring for both the pinouts and the diagrams provided.

Has anyone else managed to get this all working correctly and can give me some advice on fixing my issues please.

I did the same thing and have the same issue... Were you able to find some solution for this?

I did a thing and made a pdf document about it, enjoy

CONTENTS
Preface
Summary
Introduction
Disassembling the shifter
Rewiring the shifter

Rewiring for a PS/2 connection (Backwards compatible)

Suitable PS/2 cables from the Fanatec Webshop​

Rewiring for an RJ12 connection (Current generation)

Suitable RJ12 cables from the Fanatec Webshop​

Enabling reverse gear selection
Enabling 7th gear selection
Increasing the required shifting force
Increasing gear lever centring force
Other shifter feeling mods
Checklist for reassembling the shifter assembly
Securing the replacement cable and completing reassembly
Repositioning the shifter knob cap
Other shifter knob mods
Appendix A: Wiring diagrams

Fanatec shifter wiring diagram
Logitech shifter wiring diagram
Fanatec compatible Logitech shifter wiring diagram​

Appendix B: Altering potentiometer output voltages

Alternative wiring to use the Logitech reverse gear position
Alternative wiring to enable the Fanatec 7th gear position​

Edit 19/12/2018: pdf file updated with some revised formatting.

I know it’s older still, but I just found this thread and had the same issue.
You just need to switch the connector on the rear potentiometer, this plus the simple wire swap, gives you gears 1-6 you have to mess with the calibration for reverse and gear 7 but once dialled in gears 1 through 6 plus neutral work like a dream. For Gran Turismo I don’t really need reverse or 7th and can use the paddles if really necessary.

 

[Skyline2042]

Hi all, great thread!
My contribution is to add that if all you want is to use this mod on the PC and are satisfied with having 6 gears only, then you DO NOT need to open up the shifter! I've just made a custom plug converter, plugged my g29 shifter into it, the other end straight into fanatec base, a quick calibration and, hey presto, Fanatec and all six gears work perfectly.

Positives: easy to do, no soldering, no Arduino, not butchering the shifter, you simply plug it in -just like like into a G29 wheel... and the biggest plus - no extra USB plug for the shifter, the entire rig (wheel+pedals+shifter) runs off a single USB

Negatives: only 6 gears (including or excluding reverse - up to you), game must allow reassigning gears as by default the gear sequence is messed up (after reassigning everything works perfect).


Here is my method.
PARTS NEEDED:
1 DB9 male connector to connect the shifter. I recommend a solderless $2 job like "DB9 RS232 Connector D-SUB 9 Pin Male Female Plug RS485 Breakout Terminals 21-24 AWG Wire Solderless Connectors"
1 RJ12 6P6C STRAIGHT wire to connect to the Fanatec wheelbase - about $2 again.
1 G29 shifter (g27 etc may potentially have slightly different pinouts)
1 Fanatec wheel base (any with RJ12 connectors)

PROCESS:

DB9 G29 shifter pinout (if you buy the solderless plug like the above, each terminal is nicely numbered):

Pin 1
Pin 2 reverse
Pin 3 1st power
Pin 4 x axis
Pin 6 ground
Pin 7 2nd power
Pin 8 y axis
Pin 9

Fanatec Shifter 1 shifter pinout:

Pin 1 GND
Pin 2 not used (low = H-pattern, high = sequential)
Pin 3 shorted to pin 1 (needed for the shifter to be registered as an H-shifter)
Pin 4 X axis (H-pattern); lever push (sequential)
Pin 5 Y axis (H-pattern); lever pull (sequential)
Pin 6 power

Combining the two above into a converter plug. Cut the RJ12 wire into two, we will use only one of the halves. Separate the six wires and identify which RJ12 pins they lead to. Then use the individual RJ12 wires to connect to DB9 pin terminals:

G29 DB9 PINS - fanatec_rj12 pins
---------------------------
PIN 1 -
PIN 2 -
PIN 3 - bridge* to pin6 power
PIN 4 - pin 4 x-axis
PIN 6 - pin1 ground + pin3 (two wires into one terminal - this short makes the wheelbase detect the H-shifter and not sequential)
PIN 7 - bridge* to pin6 power
PIN 8 - pin5 y-axis
PIN 9 -

*Bridge means that you pass one wire from DB9 PIN3 to DB9 PIN7 - thus creating a bridge. You then connect wire from rj12 pin6 to anywhere on that bridge- including the "entrance", so no need to solder to the middle of the bridge.
DONE!

Connect the shifter and launch shifter calibration. This must be done on the wheel, not the app. On the Fanatec P1 V2 wheel, shifter calibration is activated by pressing the Spanner+3 button. For neutral, reverse and 7th, keep the shifter in neutral and press the 3 button to confirm. For the 1st gear put the shifter into 5th, for 2nd put it into 6th, 3rd and 4th are normal, for 5th put it into 1st, for 6th put it into 2nd. The tip below is golden as well:

i found a way to calibrate the neutral without 3rd issue, i have to push a little bit the knob in front when it ask neutral, and then it's ok after calibration.

You'll reassign them later in games, it's the price we pay for not changing the wiring of X-axis potentiometer - as described in the OP. The steering wheel display will also show correct gears once you reassign them in game (checked with rF2, ACE and AMS2).
Calibration only needs to be done once. Assign the gears in game and enjoy g29 shifter plugged straight into Fanatec! Great for foldable rigs

PS G29 pedals can also be plugged into a similar DB9 plug (female for the pedals, male for the shifter). They are even easier to wire and work perfect with no side effects whatsoever. So yes, g29 pedals+ shifter can both be plugged into Fanatec and thus your entire Fanatec+g29 sim rig can run off a single USB.