Looking for a decent USB wheel

[Hristo Itchov]

Received my SB Live card today and the wheel was recognized normally with the Creative Gameport (as opposed to Standard one)! 

The only problem is the card is bigger and blocks the whole fan of my video card, so I should use a USB adapter or a USB wheel eventually, but this will do for now. Thanks everyone for the tips and see you in the races!

[bernie]

Thanks everyone for the tips and see you in the races!

that's good news ?


 

[Hristo Itchov]

Not for you I guess! 

[Billy Nobrakes]

A quick update on the Ferrari Thrustmaster.

Its a piece of junk - don't waste money on it.

The upshift became eratic after about 3 months. I wasn't happy about sending it back to to the internet seller I bought it from whilst they looked at it (anything up to 3 months) so I reassigned the steering wheel buttons to change gear. That let go tonight - after about a year.

I'm going back to to Logitech.

[Hristo Itchov]

There are extremely positive views on this Thrustmaster wheel:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrustmaster-T500-Force-Wheel-Feedback/dp/B004GNG2MW

It's bigger and more solid, and apparently feels a lot more real than any Logitech. The only downside is the rubber covering instead of leather, but that's something insignificant IMO.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the Logitech DFP I got almost an year ago now.

[BadBlood]

At £380 I would expect it to drive the race for me!

I had the Ferrari Thrustmaster and Billy is right, it is shite. The electronics inside are mega-cheap and the clamping system is a bit rubbish. My paddles stopped functioning after three monthas and although using the buttons on the wheel was OK the plastic thread for the retaining bolt just wore away to the point that I couldn't atually clamp the wheel to the desk. Much happier with the Logitech and just look how my driving has improved <ahem>

[clouds]

I bought 2 DFPs second handed on ebay years ago and in both I've lost the right Gear paddle (upshift) in 3 months or less, so I've been forced to reassign the up and down shift paddles to buttons that I use with thumbs.  
I had a MS Sidewinder years before and I experienced lots of troubles to find the right drivers and finally all went good but I had to install the drivers on a previously FAT32 formatted partition of my HD (otherwise the drivers were not recognized from windows Xp and GPL and also the Sidewinder).
About the apparently functioning PCI-Sound card (and included Game-port) I've noticed sometimes installing a card to another PCI slot, makes the worst things get right instantly (maybe because some PCIs have exclusive use and have also problems with Interrupts mapping so certain cards works very well on a PCI port and they don't on another).

[Hristo Itchov]

I bought 2 DFPs second handed on ebay years ago and in both I've lost the right Gear paddle (upshift) in 3 months or less, so I've been force to reassign up and down shift pads to buttons that I use with thumbs.  
I had a MS Sidewinder years before and I experienced lots of troubles to find the right drivers and finally all went good but I had to install the drivers on a previously FAT32 formatted partition of my HD (otherwise the drivers were not recognized from windows Xp and GPL and also the Sidewinder).
About the apparently functioning PCI-Sound card (and included Game-port) I've noticed sometimes installing a card to another PCI socket it makes the worst things get right instantly (maybe because some PCIs have exclusive use and have also problems with Interrupts mapping so certain cards works very well on a PCI port and they don't on another).

Yeah, my DFP's left paddle is skipping a bit sometimes, so I change 2 gears instead of 1. Everything else is fine so far though, it feels solid. I've been using a MSFF gameport for years, with a PCI sound card, but no FF on XP because there are no drivers for that, only 98, and it just doesn't feel right in GPL, so I turned FF off. In other seems FF was fine. I would be surprised if any modern wheel, including G25/27, can last as long as the Microsoft wheel. Mine is still functioning and it's over 12 years old by now lol. Keeping it in a box though, it deserves a rest!

[Podkrecony_Ziutek]

As for the skipping paddles in DFP it can be fixed quite easy Here are the instructions how to do it(text is in Polish, but pictures say everything, plus you can allways use google translator ): http://simracing.pl/forum/f197/naprawa-paddlesow-w-kierownicach-logitech-8139/

BTW: BadBlood, witch Ferrari wheel do you have? Because Thrustmaster makes few of them

[BadBlood]

Not sure as I binned it but it was cheap and nasty - 5-in-1 or something...

[Podkrecony_Ziutek]

I see. At that price point, brand of the wheel isn't important, they all are as bad made as yours Thrustmaster

IMO the minimum is DFGT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGVo9otfU4M
Thrustmaster also made similar quality wheel, but it has only 270 deg. of rotaton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lwfSUKnmqI that's why I would stick to Logitech

[Hristo Itchov]

As for the skipping paddles in DFP it can be fixed quite easy Here are the instructions how to do it(text is in Polish, but pictures say everything, plus you can allways use google translator ): http://simracing.pl/forum/f197/naprawa-paddlesow-w-kierownicach-logitech-8139/

BTW: BadBlood, witch Ferrari wheel do you have? Because Thrustmaster makes few of them

Awesome, thanks!

[BadBlood]

Thanks Pod but I already treated myself to a Logitech G27 - the wife hasn't asked me how much it was luckily 

[Ron-C]

I use one of these http://www.hyperstimulator.com/personal/gp.html  with the 12 programmable buttons on the wheel, which doesn't have a lot of rotation, 180deg max in each direction, I use about 110-120deg tops. I also have the sequential shifter. I use 1 of the paddles on the wheel for the clutch. It has no FF. It's also very comfy, I've done many full gp's in GPL (2 hr race plus qualy) no problems. It's done very well in the almost 14years I've had it....

[Hristo Itchov]

I use one of these http://www.hyperstimulator.com/personal/gp.html  with the 12 programmable buttons on the wheel, which doesn't have a lot of rotation, 180deg max in each direction, I use about 110-120deg tops. I also have the sequential shifter. I use 1 of the paddles on the wheel for the clutch. It has no FF. It's also very comfy, I've done many full gp's in GPL (2 hr race plus qualy) no problems. It's done very well in the almost 14years I've had it....

I remember seeing those back in the day, looks very solid. No FF is actually beneficial in GPL, allowing you to make quicker corrections, but tricky in other sims, especially with high downforce cars.