Quick G27 question. Does this wheel have a deadzone? Could someone explain that to me. I've heard others talk about it but im not sure what it means.
Well, first let me say there is a difference between a wheel's deadzone and the deadzone you set in game.
Let me first explain how a sensor works. You have a wheel with holes in it or bars which let light pass through. Like this:
The light gets stopped whenever it hits a bar. One one end of the wheel you put a infrared led light and on the other a photo-transistor that looks if there is light or not basically. By the rotation of the 'sensor' wheel your steering wheel will send a signal to your PC or console to steer left or right. This information can range from say -450 to +450 degrees (we'll call it degrees so it's easy to visualize. Also 450 left + 450 right = 900 degrees rotation), whereas 0 is dead center.
Now what an in game deadzone setting does is usual in increments of percentages increase a zone in which the game will not react to the wheel. For example if the deadzone is set to 10% it means you'll have a zone from -45 to +45 degrees. Any movement you'll do with your steering wheel the game won't respond to at all, after that the game will respond again.
When we talk about wheel deadzone however then we talk about how sensitive the wheel registers movement around dead center. What often happens is that with a wheel that has a deadzone of itself, is that the car in game begins swaying over the road from left to right even though you keep the rim/wheel in your hands dead centered and steady.
The reasons this happens can be various. Many wheels have the sensor mounted directly onto the force feedback motor. This seems good, but is in fact a cheap solution. The reason is that when you hold the wheel straight on long straight and hit a bump the force feedback motor wants to let you feel this, during this you keep the wheel steady. After this is done the wheel wants to find dead center again while you keep that wheel steady still. What it begins to do is push the wheel in your hands from left to right forcing you to counter the forces. The reason this happens is that there is slack in the transmission system from the wheel axle to the motor's axle. This can be due to the space in between teeth of the gears or the stretch of a rubber belt.
The other type of wheels with the sensor mounted on the wheel's axle shouldn't have this problem (or at least not that noticeably), since the input for the PC comes directly from your input... in other words how you hold the wheel. What I read and heard from Fanatec CSR Elite (which has a wheel mounted sensor) reviewers is that there is no deadzone or any of this behavior at all.
I hope this explained a bit what a deadzone is.
Moved the couch closer for that night and the next day went out and bought the cheapest extension I saw.
