Wheel Turning Itself
Hi all,
Turning to this forum for help as it's been multiple weeks without much help from support.
I bought a DD1 wheel base with Formula 2.5 wheel. As soon as I started using it, the wheel started sharply turning itself at full torque. To the point of being dangerous. It just happened at random.
I messed with downgrading the firmware and managed to alter the problem rather than fix it. Instead of happening at random, it started happening on sharp turns.
Ended up sending it back to Fanatec to fix. Received it back today. So disappointed to find the same issue still persists.
Am I doing something wrong on my end here? Has anyone heard of this problem?
The small handful of similar sounding problems with Fanatec wheels I found online all said they sent it back and it had to be replaced.
Comments
Sounds like it could be caused by EMI. How is your equipment mounted to your rig? Is your rig made of metal? Are there any electrical appliances in close proximity (air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.)? Is your wheelbase attached directly to your PC, or through a hub?
You might try adding some ferrite cores to the USB cable, that can sometimes help. Try switching USB ports (use your computer's rear ports instead of front, or vice versa). Other than that, you could consider grounding your rig, or at least isolating each piece so that there is no metal-to-metal contact.
You might take a look here for further info and suggestions:
https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/25344/csl-dd-mclaren-v2-in-game-controls-lock-up-recurring-issue/p1
to you mean if you go to track then it starts turn self, depends off game you may need increase the steering rotation or change game settings
Thank you for your response.
You could be onto something. It's mounted to a Trak Racer TR160. And it's located in a very busy games room with electrical appliances everywhere. Air conditioner. PC. TV. Gaming consoles. So that theory could make a lot of sense.
It's plugged directly into the PC. Tried a few different USB outlets with no luck there.
Really appreciate the advice. Might try a few of these options when I have some time over the weekend. Definitely starting to think it's on my end if they serviced it and gave the tick of approval.
Sorry. I could have described it a bit better. But definitely not this. Don't even have to be a game. Can just be on, you start touching it and it will randomly flip itself.
Edit:Apparently I do suck with technology lol. Let's try a YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/WxwvfQX_Y1c?si=Hz1C6Sw6AiaFNn2Y
Video didnt work, its a Screenshot, so not much to see.
However that sounds like the FFB is inverte so have a look at the game settings to make sure the FFB is not inverted.
Given that you've already received a replacement/ repair unit and they both exhibited the same behavior makes me less inclined to believe it's something mechanical at fault. If it's happening without even loading up a game, that to me would seem to reinforce the idea that EMI may be the culprit.
Exactly what I'm thinking. So many possibilities. I'll just have to mess around trying a few different things and see how we go.
I think I eventually got there uploading the video if that helps.
The only thing that I think works against this theory is the fact that it seems to have different errors on different firmware.
On the latest firmware it spins at the slightest touch as shown in that video.
When I downgrade the firmware it only happens on sharp corners when I really turn the wheel. And even then it's at random on sharp corners.
Then on the brief go I had on it last night since I got it back from repair, it was somewhere in between those two. It wasn't happening at a slight touch like in that video. But then I jumped in to do a lap and it did it twice on what weren't even sharp corners.
Very complicated and frustrating!
Just an update. Been messing around with it a bit. Trying different plugs. Firmware etc.
Currently seems to be okay unless I have to turn the wheel full lock. Then it can randomly snaps itself around and essentially resets its centre position.
Any ideas from here?
Keep in mind that electric motors are the major contributors to EMI emissions. For how much electric stuff you have around, DD1 himself is probably the biggest culprit. So if you change the firmware or the position of the sockets and cables, you could possibly change the noise as well.
What seems to have happened to me, Gregg and others is that when the wheelbase is bolted to the cockpit the metallic electrical contact between the wheelbase and cockpit starts to circulate the parasitic currents into the cockpit, rather than dispersing them towards the ground. The ground connection is probably not very efficient, and these currents prefer the simplest way, i.e. the one with a lower resistance.
When I speak of connection to ground, I mean earth, the planet earth. The ground pin of the electrical system is just connected to a solid metal prong in the house ground. That's where all the EMI crap should go, but for some reason they aren't. So either you make them go into the ground, or you reduce their intensity.
Add ferrite cores to the USB cable, on both sides. You may have to add more than one. These ferrite cores act essentially like inductors, and reduce eddy currents. However their inductance is a function of the frequency of the currents they are to reduce, so they do not have a well defined ability to reduce these currents, many of them may need to be added to achieve sufficient inductance.
If the problem disappears, or more likely diminishes, you will have to think about carrying out one of the measures already recommended by Gregg to solve the problem permanently. Because ferrite cores are a Band-Aid, they reduce EMI problems but they don't eliminate them.
In any case I would start with ferrite cores, cheap and simple to use. This should give you an indication if you're on the right way.
you need contact with customer support again
That's why I'm afraid to buy dd wheel from fanatec. I do believe they have ansolveble issues with dd1 and dd2 so that's why they are on discount now.
This would definitely make a lot of sense.
Thank you for your help. I've just ordered some in. Will see how we go once they arrive.
unplug all cables from base expect the power and try again, if you issue still continue then its not a EMI
and yeah, better use usb 2 /usb 3 regular ones not with the usb3 ss