Fanatec H Shifter Problem/Question

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Vital1
I continue to miss third gear in the middle of races. It just seems like the transition between 2nd and 3rd is a little rough or that the shifter doesn't always lock in place. I don't know what else it could be because I don't miss
5th gear and I never miss 2 or 4.

Does anyone else have this problem?
 
Not had that Problem, is it jamming in the gate, or going into third but not getting detected by the game.

If it's the later you might want to do a quick shifter calibration.

Good luck.
 
H-shifters are by far the least reliable component of a driving control set, in arcades and at home. It doesn't help that the fastest way to race with them -- lightning-quick shifts -- is also the fastest way to kill them.

I don't have a Fanatec, but I imagine the plates that slide over the shift gates could be binding, or some bent plastic somewhere is inhibiting movement. I don't mean to imply you don't take care of your wheel; usually it's the "charitable" offer of a race to a friend or family member that does the most damage. :ouch:

Of course if you get empathetic responses from other Fanatec users then it could be design-related.
 
Yeah, I've experienced it; it sort of gets "caught" and just doesn't easily go to 3rd gear and I have to kind of wiggle it up there. The number of times it actually happens compared to the number of times you make the shift from 2->3 is pretty small, but since you're making that shift so often, it's still a lot.
 
You need to re-calibrate it. Look in the Fanatec guide and follow the steps. It will display each gear on the LED screen then shift into that gear and press a button.
 
varmintx
The problem seems mechanical to me.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the CSR shifter? If so then I can't say. I have the Porsche shifter and have been abusing it for over two years and although the clicking drives me bonkers, it still works like it did when it was new.
 
I have no input on your problem, other than to commiserate. I just got my full CSR setup yesterday and the shifter is defective. No amount of calibrating will get it to recognize the odd numbered gears reliably.

The shifter was a good majority of the reason I decided to upgrade to the Fanatec gear and get Forza 4. So, needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed that I got a defective product right out of the box.

Tomorrow morning will be spent taking video of the issue & emailing it off to Fanatec so hopefully they'll ship me a new one Monday morning.
 
My solution for now - I switched to the sequential shifter. I've never used a sequential shifter and I thought that down on the shifter would shift down and up on the shifter would go up through the gears. Found out its the opposite on my first race. Why is this the case? Shouldn't up be up and down be down? Is there a way to change it?
 
dougdoberman
I have no input on your problem, other than to commiserate. I just got my full CSR setup yesterday and the shifter is defective. No amount of calibrating will get it to recognize the odd numbered gears reliably.

The shifter was a good majority of the reason I decided to upgrade to the Fanatec gear and get Forza 4. So, needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed that I got a defective product right out of the box.

Tomorrow morning will be spent taking video of the issue & emailing it off to Fanatec so hopefully they'll ship me a new one Monday morning.
Click to expand...

Did you try the shifter with the PC or the PS3? Mine has the same problem with Forza but everything is fine on the PC and PS3.
Even with Forza it seems that works if I follow certain steps. I need to start the XBox from the button. I need to turn on the wheel after the XBox is on and calibrate the shifter and then start the game. This could have been a solution, since it doesn't bother me to do this all the time, but I noticed that if I do this my wheel does not support the 900 degree rotation. So for now it looks like I have to choose between having the H shifter with clutch and 270 degree rotation or I play without the H shifter and I enjoy the game the way it was designed. I did not write to Fanatec yet and I will be interested in the response you get. Please let me know. I think there is a problem with the saving function on the wheel. It seems taht every time I use the PC or PS3 I have to recalibrate my shifeter and my settings on the steering wheel are not remembered when I turn the wheel off.
 
nikos
Did you try the shifter with the PC or the PS3? Mine has the same problem with Forza but everything is fine on the PC and PS3.
Even with Forza it seems that works if I follow certain steps. I need to start the XBox from the button. I need to turn on the wheel after the XBox is on and calibrate the shifter and then start the game. This could have been a solution, since it doesn't bother me to do this all the time, but I noticed that if I do this my wheel does not support the 900 degree rotation. So for now it looks like I have to choose between having the H shifter with clutch and 270 degree rotation or I play without the H shifter and I enjoy the game the way it was designed. I did not write to Fanatec yet and I will be interested in the response you get. Please let me know. I think there is a problem with the saving function on the wheel. It seems taht every time I use the PC or PS3 I have to recalibrate my shifeter and my settings on the steering wheel are not remembered when I turn the wheel off.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as soon as it started acting wonky 5 minutes into my first session with Forza 4, I moved it over to the PC to check it out there. Same deal. Something's gotta be loose inside I'd imagine. I'll do a calibration and it'll immediately not recognize gears.

No reply from Fanatec customer support yet. :(
 
Nikos, here's my update:

Still no response from Fanatec.

I'm beginning to think that Joel3219's suggestion may be advisable. I'd heard that Fanatec's quality control & support response time have vastly improved lately, which convinced me to go ahead and give them a chance. Now I'm thinking I may have made a mistake.
 
Post your problem at insidesimracing.tv. They have a specific forum for fanatec hardware. There is a customer service thread that Darin monitors to help people.

Also, make sure you follow Fanatec's extremely specific and lengthy email format email for reporting problems.

Good luck!
 
Try use the short Cable, see if it solve the problem; it worked for me, I don't know why the shifter is always not calibrate properly when I use long cable, is this problem been addressed?
 
This problem has NOT been addressed from the source yet. A Fanatec rep on another forum has said that he'll check into it with support for me, but still no official response.

I received 4 different cords with my setup. 2 short and 2 long. The results are the same with all of them.
 
LickitySplit
Are you referring to the CSR shifter? If so then I can't say. I have the Porsche shifter and have been abusing it for over two years and although the clicking drives me bonkers, it still works like it did when it was new.
Click to expand...

:nervous:

I use the XBOX Wireless wheel at the minute, with paddle shifter.
It clicks with each gear change which has never actually bothered me, but now I've read you're comment I know it's all I'm ever going to hear when racing. :D
 
RikkiGTR
:nervous:

I use the XBOX Wireless wheel at the minute, with paddle shifter.
It clicks with each gear change which has never actually bothered me, but now I've read you're comment I know it's all I'm ever going to hear when racing. :D
Click to expand...

The clicking from the Fanatec shifter is MUCH louder than the paddle shifters on the MS wheel.
 
dougdoberman
This problem has NOT been addressed from the source yet. A Fanatec rep on another forum has said that he'll check into it with support for me, but still no official response.

I received 4 different cords with my setup. 2 short and 2 long. The results are the same with all of them.
Click to expand...

same as my, i have 2 short(purple color) 2 long(green color)
theoretically cable length shouldn't change the result of the device
BUT
I could calibrate the shifter using the short cable, but on one of the long cable, I have problem calibrate the shifter, no matter how many time i calibrate, when it rest in N, it shows it is in 3rd gear on PC control.

However, i changed to another long cable which was use for pedals, then the problem is gone, works normal

could it be one of my long cable has problem? but works fine on pedals when I use the problem long cable.

how weird..
here is screen shot on fanatec's site
Screenshot2011-11-11at110014AM.png
 
I don't think it's weird. The pedals have some electronics on board and receive communications from the wheel that tells the feb motor on clubsports etc to vibrate.. so the communication method with the pedals may be different to the shifter.

With the shifter the wheel puts out a voltage and variable resistors in the shifter (think of it as a joystick) change the voltages presented back to the wheel depending on the gear that your in.

so the resistance of the cable might play a significant part in upsetting these values outwit the tolerance that perhaps the wheel is looking for.

I'm not sure if the pedals work the same way, but I suspect not (based on the need for variable feedback on the clubsport pedals etc. hence variations on the resistance of the cable may not have an impact on the pedals, or if the voltages are higher may not impact them just as much.
 
I think that it more likely a pre-contact troubleshooting step. Everyone who has a shifter likely has pedals, giving you an alternate set to test with. I could be wrong, just pointing out an alternative possibility.
 
You should really just send them a video of the issue. I, too, have the CSR H shifter and I sometimes misshift, but I blame myself. hah.
 
I did have some problems with the H-shifters (CSR) at first too. When I did receive them (together with the CSR Elite Wheel and the CSR Elite pedals) they worked fine (without any calibration).

Than I wanted to do it exactly like the manuals says and did calibrate them - and then the shifter did not recognize the fourth gear anymore. I did repeat the calibration several times without any difference. So I switched to the sequential shifter (as the shifter paddles on the wheel did not work on the X-BOX as well).

After switching to firmware 715 I had to do the calibration again and now the H-shifter is working without any problems again. So now I have to choose between the H-shifter, the sequential shifter and the shifter paddles on the wheel. Most of the times I try to duplicate the shifting of the real car, so if the virtaul driver takes the hands of the wheel for shifting, I use the H-shifter as well.
 

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