Fanatec CSW Broken

  • Thread starter sk8man
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sk8man

7
New Zealand
New Zealand
My wheel stopped working.

Wheel would power up but would not centre. No lights worked on the rim.

I opened a ticket with Fanatec and 4 days later some one emailed back asking for a video of the wheel powering up. I did that and have had no reply for 7 days and counting.

Hardly the level of support you would expect for a premium product.

Being an impatient sort I opened up the back of the base, and found that the ribbon cable that has all the connections to the wheel rim was completed sheared off !!!

It seems like a massive design flaw that they didn't use a specialist coupling (like slip rings) or at the very least a round cable that is less likely to get caught and ripped apart.

Has any one else been unlucky enough to have the same thing happen ?

broken-1.jpg


broken-2.jpg
 
This is the fault of poor QC (Quality Control) at the Chinese factory. If you look at the rear of your steering shaft where the bore meets the chamfer you'll see a very sharp edge where the chamfer isn't perfectly formed. There are 2 varieties of steering shaft that I've seen. The better ones are radiused here and don't have the sharp edge. The sharp edge is like a knife sawing/slicing through the cable, slowly but surely. I suggest you switch to the slip ring or at least get rid of the sharp corner.
 
eKretz
The better ones are radiused here and don't have the sharp edge. The sharp edge is like a knife sawing/slicing through the cable, slowly but surely. I suggest you switch to the slip ring or at least get rid of the sharp corner.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

So you are saying Fanatec is obviously aware of it and corrected it on later builds ?

Is there a slip ring upgrade available ?

I can remake the cable and get things going again, but there isn't much point if it's only a temporary fix
 
I know nothing about these Fanatec wheels, but uhh... those black/red wires in the middle...

Are they supposed to be tied around that white plastic tab? They look like there's a good amount of tension on them already...
 
SayChiSinLo
I know nothing about these Fanatec wheels, but uhh... those black/red wires in the middle...

Are they supposed to be tied around that white plastic tab? They look like there's a good amount of tension on them already...
Click to expand...

Yup, that's how it came ....
They are clear of the shaft so don't move.
 
Personally, I'd just rewire or re-layout the whole thing. I don't fully agree that this is solely a QC issue. I think it is more of a design inadequacy since flat ribbon cable is simply not intended to be used as Fanatec does in the first place. These devices spin around with some degree of speed by definition. And the wiring is in the eye of the hurricane lol. You can buy round cable bundles with sufficient wires too.

I have a CSR-E which uses individual steering shaft harness wires enclosed within a clear plastic tube made of ~vinyl. So this version of the same basic base comes with more protection than just the insulation on the actual individual wiring. I switched my clear wiring cover over to convoluted tubing. Looks nicer and helps provide incrementally less drag on my modded wheel.

The convuluted tubing I used has a smaller outside diameter (0.360 /~9 mm) than the stock protection and it has way less stiction if it does touch anything. It's split along the length and many cars use this for their wiring harnesses. The way I have it laid out it floats centralized within the tubular cavity through which it passes. I have some teflon tubing I'd purchased to help cut friction where anything touches, however it turned out that I did not use it since now there is no contact taking place anyway. If I found any sharp metal edges I'd smooth those out, my sample is not afflicted with anything alarming in that regard.

I have not messed with a CSW shaft harness, but from your images I might consider doing the following. Remove the entire harness and anything attached. Then separate each individual wire from it's neighbors. So that they are all individual. Maybe zip tie each end near but a short distance from the terminations, possibly twist the collection of wires in the middle. Now the wires can be laid out in a round cord bundle. Add a convoluted cable cover which then "hangs" in the tubular cavity. During install make sure that "straight ahead" is relaxed for the cable and that it behaves basically symmetrically when the wheel is turned fully in either direction.

Yes you could deal with warranty and CS efforts. But whatever they (Fanatec) do you'd still have a shakier layout than is used on stock CSR-Es. That's why I don't mind doing little TLC efforts on these devices, it's not difficult, kinda fun, and it leads to fewer potential headaches.
 
Ridiculous. This is nothing BUT a QC issue. If there was no sharp edge the cable wouldn't have been cut. The other end of the cable also sometimes comes loose due to the stress put on the solder joints by the twisting cable. This is usually a QC issue also. The factory either applies hot glue as strain relief but often fails to apply it thoroughly or uses watertight (adhesive lined) heatshrink that doesn't thoroughly coat the joint. There are slip rings available that will make it a moot point regardless. You need 12 wires in and 12 wires out to maintain the stock connections. They aren't all used at the moment as far as I know but may be in future rims. It's a fool's errand to try using a cable in this application when a slip ring is available, IMO.
 
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eKretz
Ridiculous. This is nothing BUT a QC issue. If there was no sharp edge the cable wouldn't have been cut. The other end of the cable also sometimes comes loose due to the stress put on the solder joints by the twisting cable. This is usually a QC issue also. The factory either applies hot glue as strain relief but often fails to apply it thoroughly or uses watertight (adhesive lined) heatshrink that doesn't thoroughly coat the joint. There are slip rings available that will make it a moot point regardless. You need 12 wires in and 12 wires out to maintain the stock connections. They aren't all used at the moment as far as I know but may be in future rims. It's a fool's errand to try using a cable in this application when a slip ring is available, IMO.
Click to expand...

The stock CSW design uses a flat cable which is simply not intended for confined space rotary motion applications in the first place. It's inclined to contact the sides of the shaft ID and any sharp edges too. If sharp edges were not present it still would not be a good cable solution in my opinion since some tugging is implicit due to the width and how the cable folds and twists itself. You can discern this from some of the photos too. Some of the wires get yanked more or less than others. If I was designing the wheel I doubt I'd have specified wide, flat ribbon cable like was used in this case. And of course sharp edges are not good.

This is what I wound up doing. It turns very freely (remember that I consider drag and inertia quite important) and the wiring is protected within. It does not even contact the ID of the shaft at all, not one bit, through over 900º of rotation. The slight inherent stiffness or preference to remain straight wound up helping out here which was fortuitous. I wanted some safety there since I no longer use the stock travel limiter and have been using adjustable mechanical limit functionality for awhile. Looks nice, cheap, simple. Slip rings or other means might be nice too, but I am not feeling any major need to go in that direction at this point.

shaft-harness_zps6c6e22e6.jpg
 
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Yes obviously a flat wide ribbon cable was a poor choice. Didn't see anyone saying otherwise. The only reason the cable is getting cut is the sharp edge however, and again, that is a QC issue. No self respecting machinist in the U.S. would put out work like that; nor would any company worth a d@mn accept it.
 
Fanatec finally got back to me after I offered to post my video and pictures on Youtube :)

Turns out they are well aware of the problem and have redesigned the cable.

From the tech support email from Fanatec:-
We have changed the design of the main-cable indeed and the issue which you are having occurred with the old design of the main-cables which were used in the first batches of the CSW.
When the new main-cable was installed in other bases, the problem did not reoccur again.
Click to expand...

How to replace the Main-cable (CSW).jpg



Whilst it doesn't address the problem of bad design and poor QC, this cable should at the very least last several years.
 
Nice. They added a thick sheath of vinyl tube like on the CSR Elite. Great Band-Aid. Better would be to climb up the @ss of the QC guy and radius the rest rather than chamfer them. Guess that's about all they can do for existing customers though.
 
Haha, eK you managed to accidentally tag someone named ss. Though that person was last seen in 2001, and never actually made any posts.

On QC vs design: Given the choice, I'd rather be stuck with non-ideal over fatal, in the flaw department.
 

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