Wheel

Mar 00:

How to straighten the Wheel

I've seen a lot of posts in r.a.s. about wheels not centering properly. I didn't care at all, since my wheel was centering perfectly (Taiwan?). Changing to my new China wheel, I got the same problem as others:

Wheel centers a bit to the right

Now it was time to think about a solution.

I guessed that the faulty centering was due to lack of linearity of the pot. How should the wheel know, where the middle is, if the electronics cannot rely on the pot?

I checked the pot (100kOhm, 3 pins) in full left / center / full right deflection. Forget the left and the right, important is only the center reading. I found on one side (pin1-pin2) 50,5 kOhm and on the other side (pin2-pin3) 54,5 kOhm.

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!  

Adjusting the wheel to 52,5 kOhm on both sides gave me the typical right deflection (wheel center) I hate already.

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

OK, easy job. Only arrange the resistance on both sides to 52,5 kOhm when the wheel is in its physical center.

Physics

If you connect 2 resistors inline, the resistances add. Easy, on one side I solder in a 2kOhm resistor to reach the proper value.

If you connect 2 resistors parallel, OH MY GOD, where are the maths???
1/R1 + 1/R2 = 1/R3 (shit formula)
Shortcut to the result:
R1= 1/(1/R3 - 1/R2)

With my values:
R3= 52,5 (what I want to reach)
R2= 50,5 (what I have)

I get

R1 = 1325 kOhm (the resistor I have to connect the two pins with)

Calculated it, done it.

The wheel centers absolutely perfect now.

One thing more I have to specify:
I guess that most wheels center to the right.
In this case you have to solder resistor 1 (in my case 2kOhm) inline with the black wire at the pot. The other resistor (1,3xx MegOhm) has to connect the red and the brown wire.

If your wheel centers to the left, its just the other way round:
2 kOhm inline with red wire and 1,3XX MegOhm connects black and brown cable.

Have fun, drive straight.

Aug 00:
Scratching noises, when the wheel is turned to it's limits
I had this funny noises quite awhile, until I found out the reason.
The picture below shows the secondary cable (between pulley 1 and pulley 2) in the wheel-straight position. There are 2 slings on each side of the in-slot cable. 

If the wheel is turned to the limit, the number of slings increases to 4 per side, which can get quite narrow, if not aligned properly.

So: get something to push the cables into best position (no screwdriver, since this could damage the nylon-coating. Use a piece of wood or something similar) and align the cables. Check out the alignment by moving the wheel between the dead-ends several times.
There is no need to dismantle the mechanism itself, only the black plastic cover has to be removed. Make sure to leave the wheel-stop on when trying this left and right thingie, or the cable could jump off.

It's highly recommended to do this procedure after each wheel assembly, so about twice a day in my case ;-)

Aug 00:
Replacement cables for the Logi

After having dismantled the wheel several times, the nylon-coating of the cables turned out to be quite damaged. Main reason for this: It took my quite a while to understand that tricky bracket and its role during the wheel-assembly. So I used serious force to get the cables in place, which brings me right here :-(

First thing I did was to peel off the remaining nylon coating and to try without. Main problem in this stage was the reduced thickness of the cable, which turned out to long now. Solution was easy: I simply took off one of the springs.

In this stage I learned about the importance of the cable-tension:
If too strong, the wheel stays quite stiff.
If too low, the cable pack jumps when the wheel is smashed to its limits (e.g. opposite lock) and tends to misalignment (see above) or even to jump off.

After having the cable in again, I enjoyed two wonderful weeks of racing, until I felt small resistances, mostly around the wheel center.

Inspection of the cable showed several broken micro-wires <sp?>, which interacted in a jamming manner :-(

Again: This cable damage should be due to earlier mistreatment. If aligned properly, the cable should not rub anywhere, so no damage should occur.

I found replacement cable in a fishing shop, where I could by the nylon coated stainless steel stuff in various thickness quite cheap :-)

Went home and found that this stuff is way to stiff to get it round the barrel and other obstacles in the wheel :-(

Went back to the shop and told the guy about my problems. Although his face expression was a bit like the assistant ones on Nunini's page, he finally found the right stuff:
Don't use 1x7 fishing line, only 7 wires in which are quite stiff
Get the 7x7 stuff, 49 tiny wires inside guarantee the proper flexibility :-)
Of course price was factor 3 compared to the 1x7 line :-(
But one roll should last for my 8 next lifes :-)
    BTW:
    Anybody knows why did Logitech changed to gear-drive now?
    Anybody knows where to buy 100 old LWFF?
Unluckily I couldn't get the line with nylon-coating, but BTN :-(
I expect the cable not to last for eternity, but anyhow: I got a whole roll of this stuff :-)

For making the hooks I used automotive cable-connectors  (you know, that funny colorful thingies). Make sure to adjust the length properly and DON'T just follow the previous length.

For making the small ball in the secondary cable everybody has to distort his own brain, haven't found anything tricky yet.

July 01:
Update

I've been using a 7x7 strand fishing line since some months now. The cable is quite thin, 0.7mm instead of the original 1.1mm stuff (incl. Nylon-coating). Also my new cables are not coated.

Time to give some feedback:
The thinner cable runs smoother. 

Due to more space on the upper pulley2 end it doesn't tend to overlap. 
As long as the cables get mounted properly, there is no damage due to the missing coating to expect.

Spare cables can be easily fabricated from the a.m. fishing line. In UK this stuff is called shark-line.... Hmmmm, how many...
The end loops I make 'natural' by use of this cramping-pods <sp?>, also available from the fishing-shop.
The end-cylinder on the secondary cable is a bit more tricky: I use a 3mm diameter cramping-pod and solder the cable in. You have to try whether your solder and flux is suitable. While the normal (electronics) solder doesn't work, I had nice success with acid as flux and a solid (no flux core) solder. No idea about the composition of the stuff, sorry.
The ball in the secondary cable is simulated by a knot, which I soak in solder for stabilization.   

If the cable turns out too long (this will happen due to the lower material thickness), just make a knot into the cable somewhere it doesn't disturb.

Sept. 00:
Crackling FF-feeling 

Recently I got some "spiking" feeling in my wheel. It was sometimes a bit nervous on the straight and notchy in corners. The corner thing was most annoying, since it happened exactly in the range where the wheels brake loose. It felt like driving on scattered gravel all the time, which is nice for a rally-sim, but not in GPL.

The symptoms were as follows:

• when standing still in GPL - no spiking

• when driving spiking only somewhere between straight (no side-load) and wheel-slide

Update

Forget all the rubbish I wrote here earlier.
The crackling feeling is caused by a spiking wheel-pot.

AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! 

That's the moment I always was horrified about. My wheel is out of warranty (due to some minor manipulation) and Logitech doesn't supply spare-parts, not even those, which are considered as wear. I guess there is no need to tell you now what I think about this pile of <nospam a_t nospam>$#^%$&#$<nospam a_t nospam>&*(*# !!!

OK, chilled down for now.

How did I recognize the defective pot?
First there was this crackling feeling on the straights. It happens when applying little steering - just up to the FF-reaction.
Later I was able to see the pot spiking in the Windows game-controller control, where the (screen-)wheel jumps slightly back from time to time when turning the (real) wheel slowly.

Since there is no spare-pot available, I opened the old one (quite straight-forward), cleaned the graphite-layer and sliders with alcohol (no brandy, acetone or thinner please), and re-greased the thingie slightly with this grease for car-battery contacts. This stuff is acid-free and I hope it doesn't attack the graphite-layer.

Reassembled and the wheel is smooth as silk again :-)

I have no idea how long this lasts, but it's BTN (better than nothing). 

Update

Two weeks later now and the same problem again. Cleaned the pot again with alcohol and tried contact cleaner (electronic shop). Since I'm a bit scared to leave the pot ungreased, I tested the stuff first. It leaves a reasonable amount of an oil-like substance after the solvent has evaporated. So lets try it.

As usual, smooth as silk after assembling.

Update

Another week later again spiking. 
Can anybody tell me, what causes this spiking???
It cannot be wear, since this could not be healed (temporarily) by cleaning and greasing.
It cannot be dust, or why did it occur first after 6 month and now every 2 weeks?
I cleaned the pot again and regreased with the a.m. battery contact grease. This time I wiped off the excess grease to leave only a greasy shine. This way I hope to reduce the stickiness for particles.   

Update

Again it didn't last long :-(
In the meanwhile I got some input and consider the problem as wear-related.
Time for one of MikeT's pot-replacement kits :-)

Oct.00:
Straightening a bent motor-shaft, by Greg Campbell

Dec. 00:

Remove slack around the wheel-center

 If you encounter extensive play around the wheel-center, two things could be the reason for it.

• there is play at the pot, either at the pot-shaft or pot-casing. For repair you have to open the casing, take off the core unit and check the pot. Refer to my BB-manual to get things done.

• The steering wheel has play on the main shaft. Although my wheels don't show that problem, there seem to be many wheels out there which have this kind of slack.

If your wheel is of the second a.m. type, cure can be quite easy. First take off the wheel hub and check the nut. If it is loose (which is standard on most wheels), just fix it.
This could already has solved your problem, so check before proceeding.
There are some warnings out there about the danger to break the circuit board underneath. Actually there is no chance to brake the board, since the washer (under nut) sits on a collar of black plastic and doesn't put tension on the board.
What actually happens, if you tighten the nut too much:
The plastic gets compressed and the clearance of the shifter shrinks. If you miss that crisp feeling on the shifter after tightening, the nut is tightened too much.

If this didn't help, the problem is in the misfit between steering wheel and main shaft (this two sides flat thingie). Take off the wheel and try to feed some material like paper, plastic sheet, metal sheet,... between into the flat zones when putting back the wheel.
The rest should be routine.

Dec. 00:
New Logi in - what's the difference between a Taiwan and a China one?

Got a new wheel, since my old one was smoked by a lightning strike :-(
Bought it over ebay Germany. 1,5 year old Taiwan one, never really used. Comparison of both:

• The Taiwan wheel has significantly lower forces. I had to crank up everything in core.ini and Profiler to get a similar FF like on my previous chinese wheel. Of course I compared motor and circuit board, but the only difference I could find was the small capacitor soldered to one motor-pole (funnily inline). Anybody got an idea, what they changed?

• Pedal springs are both stiffer on the chinese wheels

• wheel nut slacky on both. There must be someone, who unscrews the nuts in the factory ;-) 

Jul. 01:
Update

Thanks ebay now I own (at least) one wheel from each series, as there are:

• Taiwan grey box (Taiwan)

• China early model grey box (China 1)

• China late model red box (China 2)

From what I can read from the guts of the wheels (almost like those fortunetellers in the Middle Ages ;-), I got the following theory:

• Taiwan: Production starts in Taiwan (Wooohooo!!!), parts are machined nicely and the wheels are assembled accurately and carefully. Unluckily the forces of those wheels are rather low and you have to crank everything up to the ultimate limits to get a decent FF

• China1: Production shifts to China, where they still use the Taiwan-produced material. The cirquit board gets some tweaking, which results in higher forces. Unluckily the factory staff also uses higher forces, which guaranteed a bent-motorshaft-rate of 100% (I have still to find a China wheel with straight shaft)

• China2: The material is now produced in China, the manufacturing quality is lousy. Actually it's a miracle that the wheels, esp. the mechanical part are still very accurate (See photos below)
  The sheet-steel parts are no more galvanized (shining yellow), but gray painted.
  The pots are changed to a different brand. Though they look and feel quite lousy (plastic-shaft), I don't know about the quality yet. Cannot be much worse than the former type.

From bottom to top: Taiwan, China1, China2

The different sheet coatings. Actually the gray color is no backdraw.

Pots old (right) and new (left)

Sep. 01:
Update

I just dismantled my latest Logis wheel rim. What a surprise, they changed the nice and sophisticated (apart from the diaphragm contacts) plunger design to a really lousy only-one-plastic-piece-solution. This must concern only red-box wheels (latest series, China).

The plunger solution (no pic yet, sorry) had an integrated spring, which assured a proper shifting, even when the internal measures were a bit messy (happens, if you pull or press one side of the rim by flexing). Knowing this, I compared the old and new rims and really found the shifting-accuracy easier to affect (by wheel flexing) on the newer rim compared to the older ones. 

Dec. 00:
Rubberish steering (or should that be rubbish steering?)

Just switched to a new wheel, installed the ball bearings of course, and found it a bit rubberish, especially when having some opposite lock/fishtailing. I'm not sure yet, but I could come from the cable's nylon-coating, which was removed in my last wheel. Anybody else who discovered a much stiffer response after removing the coating from the cables?

If I'm right, the next step will be to machine some Aluminum pulleys :-)

Dec. 00:
Sluggish shifter response 

If the nut is loose, which seems to be at 90% of all new wheels, you not only get an annoying dead (loose) zone around the wheel center, it also affects the shifter response. In both cases, nut too loose or nut to tight you will lose the crisp feeling of the shifter.

Dec. 00:
Damaged paddle shifter - what to do?

If the tension of the wheel nut is right but you still miss the crisp feeling, your shifter-diaphragms could be cracked. About 1,5 years ago I repaired one of those thingies by soldering the crack (please don't use the big iron for the job). What I didn't expect to last long or anyhow, is still on the road with no probs. A long-lasting solution is offered by Mike Turner (check out the Links). He uses proper switches for the job instead of this flimsy diaphragm thingies. For the double left-handers he prepares the circuit board on an exchange basis.

Dec. 00:
Steering pot replacement: Choose to your liking

Believe it or not, replacement pots are available from CH at $5 per piece (check out the Links). I haven't tried them yet, but they look the same and also have the correct resistance. BTW, does anybody know how much ActLabs charges for a replacement pot? The same pot you also find in their wheels (thx for checking, Gary).

If you don't want to exchange the pot on a regular basis, check out Mike Turners page (check out the Links). He converts high-quality Spectrol pots for use in our Logis.

Aug. 01:
Spare cables for the Logi

From now on you can obtain one spare cable set with your BB-conversion kit. Please don't expect a high-tech solution, the cables are purpose built. The material I use is not nylon coated (cannot get this stuff here) and thinner than the original Logitech-cables (aligns better). Due to the missing coating they don't like attacks with sharp items, so please be careful when assembling the wheel.

For details check out the BB-info file.

Nov. 01:
Overheating problem - Solved by Sylvain Dufour

Some wheels frequently loose FF, which was always suspected to be an overheating problem.

Affected wheels have a thermistor, soldered inline to one Motor pole. The thermistor is rated 74 degC (shut-off temp), what IMO should never be exceeded anyhow. It is most likely that those thermistors, which cut off the motor, are defect.

Since there are also wheels w/o any thermistor and those wheels don't tend to burn down frequently, I have no problems to eliminate the thermistor it it gives me trouble.

for people with soldering iron:
unsolder the thermistor from the motor pole and the cable and solder the cable directly to the pole.

for people w/o soldering iron:
peel off the thermistor from the motor casing and twist the wires few times. It is advisable to however clamp the wires together for a good electrical contact. Insulate the pack after the surgery by electrical tape to avoid short circuits on the board.

I will publish some pics later here, Sylvain's original post and pics can be found in the LWFF-forum, files section.

Thanks Sylvain