Crispy's CSR Elite Thread: Review Final--Writeup--FAQ

[LogiForce]

Well, I probably won't be able to use my wheel tonight. It's very very difficult to get the CSR Elite onto the Clubsport Table Clamp. Does anyone have any tricks they know of to get the wheel on the easiest?

Use duct tape? 💡
Sorry, I have no idea. No clubsport base or clamp here, else i'd help you gladly.

What's the trouble though? Can't hold the nuts with a wrench while tightening the screws or something?

 

[superbike81]

All I know is that I'm not doing CSW as I don't have a PC which is good enough to run any decent sims so I would be unable to give the CSW the full attention that it, and the community interested in it, deserves.

Ummmmmmmmm, no?

You could go buy an off-the-shelf PC from your local electronics chain store for $300 or so and have a computer good enough to run some of the best sims out there (Grand Prix Legends, rFactor, Richard Burns Rally, etc).

Sure, you need a good PC to run triple screens on iRacing at max settings, but you do not need anything amazing to run the older games very well.

 

[porsche 9146]

wait, your accessories actually came with your wheel?

outspokenflunky and I are both missing our accessories but got our wheels today, do you know any of the other US testers and what the status of their accessories was?

 

[paskowitz]

Well, I probably won't be able to use my wheel tonight. It's very very difficult to get the CSR Elite onto the Clubsport Table Clamp. Does anyone have any tricks they know of to get the wheel on the easiest?

Gorilla Glue duct tape. It will hold anything.

 

[porsche 9146]

Gorilla Glue duct tape. It will hold anything.

funny you say that. that's exactly what I've been doing while waiting for my clubsport table clamp's arrival. I've got a sheet of wax paper over the base, then a few pieces of gorilla glue duct tape stretching over the stand to keep it in place. works surprisingly well, but I can't wait for a better looking, more permanent solution!

 

[HoiHman]

Well, I probably won't be able to use my wheel tonight. It's very very difficult to get the CSR Elite onto the Clubsport Table Clamp. Does anyone have any tricks they know of to get the wheel on the easiest?

I just made a deskmount myself:

Here's the topic:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=234848

 

[Caz]

Damn Caz, you have more stuff then I have. I'm jealous. Every use any of the old stuff still? If I was you i'd dust them off once in a while. ghehe

I got a Commodore Amiga 2000, SNES, Gameboy Pocket, DS-lite, PSP, PS2, PS3, XBOX, XBOX 360.
I know the Amiga is a computer, but it still kicked ass as a gaming 'console' in the day. The diskettes with games on them were my cardridges, and when I started the thing it asked me to give it the diskette. Like feeding cookies to cookie monster.

Forgot about the old floppy disk had an apple 2c when i was a kid too.

My lake house has dualing tvs with an nes hooked to both in the upstairs. N64 is in my bedroom, snes and 2 ps1 bagged up. Ps2 is at my moms. Started cleaning out an area in the house to set them all up on there own tv's. As well as building a permanent rig for my wheel. Its a huge room!!!!

 

[jonboy1066]

for $300 or so and have a computer good enough to run some of the best sims out there (Grand Prix Legends, rFactor, Richard Burns Rally, etc).

It's not just the money, it's the time and knowledge. I work 40 Hours a week (Shifts), Study a further 20 and have a wife and two kids at home. The consoles and console games at home take up enough time at the moment (at least until I finish my course at Uni) so I just don't have the time to start building a gaming PC and getting into al those games.

I'm not much of an IT buff, looking at some of the oldies like me in this thread many people will remember a time when IT was not even a subject taught at school. My upper school had 1 computer room with a bank of 16 computers in it (shared between 2000 kids) ... it was hallowed ground and only those in the top maths groups were ever allowed in there. The lower schools I went to before that only had one BBC Computer for the whole school which was wheeled out on special occaisions.

My working life has never really required any serious IT so all I know is what I've picked up from gaming. Setting up a PC seems like too much of a faff and too fraught with complicated issues for me when I can just turn on a console and get just as good an experience and have just as much fun without anywhere near the aggro.. and consoles are catching up with PCs very very fast.


I'm staying away from the temptation on PC Sim racing for now ... then if next year lives up to expectations none of us may ever need a PC for racing thrills again with C.A.R.S and maybe ...just maybe... GTR3 coming to consoles.

But if next year doesn't live up to my expectations I'm thinking I may reward myself once I've passed my course at Uni with a PC that I'll future proof as much as I can and run iRacing at as max settings as is possible

 

[Mr Latte]

Well, I probably won't be able to use my wheel tonight. It's very very difficult to get the CSR Elite onto the Clubsport Table Clamp. Does anyone have any tricks they know of to get the wheel on the easiest?

It is a real pain in the butt.
You have to mount the adapter to the wheel then mount it to the clamp.
I think you might need flat head but shorter 6mm bolts.

I do believe their are two small alan head threads in the hinge which might allow the hinge pin and angle plate to be removed. Never tried that mate.

Alternatively drill the top two holes of the triangle which might be enough to bolt directly. You cant drill the hole in the centre but two might hold it with some velcro at the front.

 

[LogiForce]

It's not just the money, it's the time and knowledge. I work 40 Hours a week (Shifts), Study a further 20 and have a wife and two kids at home. The consoles and console games at home take up enough time at the moment (at least until I finish my course at Uni) so I just don't have the time to start building a gaming PC and getting into al those games.

I'm not much of an IT buff, looking at some of the oldies like me in this thread many people will remember a time when IT was not even a subject taught at school. My upper school had 1 computer room with a bank of 16 computers in it (shared between 2000 kids) ... it was hallowed ground and only those in the top maths groups were ever allowed in there. The lower schools I went to before that only had one BBC Computer for the whole school which was wheeled out on special occaisions.

My working life has never really required any serious IT so all I know is what I've picked up from gaming. Setting up a PC seems like too much of a faff and too fraught with complicated issues for me when I can just turn on a console and get just as good an experience and have just as much fun without anywhere near the aggro.. and consoles are catching up with PCs very very fast.

I'm staying away from the temptation on PC Sim racing for now ... then if next year lives up to expectations none of us may ever need a PC for racing thrills again with C.A.R.S and maybe ...just maybe... GTR3 coming to consoles.

But if next year doesn't live up to my expectations I'm thinking I may reward myself once I've passed my course at Uni with a PC that I'll future proof as much as I can and run iRacing at as max settings as is possible

I hear ya about computers in the past. I remember the days when having a computer was considered as a weird and expensive geeks hobby. There weren't much people around with one at all.
At the age of 4 my dad started teaching me about the pc. He always took me to the Maths Center at the University of Groningen where there were public PCs and we could get new software from them. We were allowed since my mom worked in the university restaurant. Then at the age of 7/8 I was considered the IT guy for my primary school which had two PCs. It was the same age I started building my PCs as well. By the age of 16 when I left secondary school, they still didn't have a decent IT course. But they improved the amount of computers from 10 in the IT classroom to 8 extra in the school library.

So yeah, that's a short story leaving out the facts that when you had a virus you couldn't get rid of it easily, since you didn't have the Internet in those days. You had Bulletin Board Systems or BBS for short instead. Dialing to someone else their PC who would pick up and show you a sort of forum where you could also chat or download stuff from. Including viruses.
Also there weren't much computer shops at all. We actually just had an electronics store that also tended to sell PC parts as they were considered electronics devices and parts and not some separate market. Ah... those were the days. Maybe some Dutch here still remember Chriet Titulaer and his show "de wondere wereld van". Let me post a video for the heck of it.

 

[Crispy]

Alright, I woke up today to find my wheel mounted and ready to go. Not asking how, it just was! I'm trying to get into my Xbox Live account, but it's not really helping much at all. I can't find my Password anywhere.

How do you update the firmware? I can't seem to figure out how?

 

[jonboy1066]

You need to download the firmware from Thomas's email Crispy.

I had trouble with it at first but follow the instructions and you'll get there ... it also helps to use XP as your OS instead of Windows 7 ... I had to drag my old PC out of the attic to do it with XP but once I did it worked straight away.

 

[LogiForce]

You need to download the firmware from Thomas's email Crispy.

I had trouble with it at first but follow the instructions and you'll get there ... it also helps to use XP as your OS instead of Windows 7 ... I had to drag my old PC out of the attic to do it with XP but once I did it worked straight away.

Thomas really needs to update his firmware flashing tool then to support Win7 and 64bit as well. I will have to build a whole computer again now for when I have to flash the CSW in the near future. Ugh... what a pain.

 

[VWMasteR]

When I get my wheel I'll give it a shot using a virtualized environment. I'll fire an email off to Thomas to see if he sees any reasons why this would be a problem.

 

[jonboy1066]

He is currently working on the uploader to make it more user friendly, idiot proof and able to run on more modern OS's So don't panic

 

[12thgear]

It's been a while since I've had to update firmware, but on my Win 7 x64 system I've always been able to update my Fanatec wheels. I changed the properties of the update programs to run in XP SP3 compatibility mode with admin privileges. As I recall, the trickiest part was installing the appropriate USB driver for the wheel via the Device Manager, but that was an important step for me.

 

[Crispy]

Also, have any of you tried using Mics? My mic seems to be connecting and disconnecting every second.

Very, very, very smooth wheel. It's quite a thriller. Can't wait until todays Forza Races to try it against other people! Love packaging as well. Comes in a nice dust cover!

 

[jonboy1066]

Only used a wireless mic myself might try it out later

 

[Crispy]

Tried to update the firmware. I can get past the 1st Step, then it says hardware removed and I can't access the 2nd Step?

 

[urm]

install the generic wheel usb driver for step 2

 

[Crispy]

^Where might that be? I installed the wheel to my system earlier BTW. Also, the first time I entered Bootloader, and did Step 1, it tried to install something else. I clicked okay and it said unable to install.

I just drove around for a while. I must say WOW! This wheel is incredibly smooth, it's quite fast, and it's very powerful. It stays incredibly cool even after going through two long and crazy driving sessions.

 

[Caz]

i just drove around for a while. I must say wow! This wheel is incredibly smooth, it's quite fast, and it's very powerful. It stays incredibly cool even after going through two long and crazy driving sessions.

best review ever!!!!!

 

[Crispy]

best review ever!!!!!

Haha, yup! I spent a lot of time on the detail, oh and I remembered the pictures too, aren't they beautiful?

Adding a FAQ, if you have any questions I'll be glad to answer and add to the FAQ for everyone to see.

 

[LogiForce]

He is currently working on the uploader to make it more user friendly, idiot proof and able to run on more modern OS's So don't panic

I don't need it idiot proof, just don't want it to be compatible with modern OS's. If you really want it to be idiot proof then he has to let everyone make a bootable USB disc that boots into DOS and starts the procedure automatically. Cause using a Windows firmware updater is risky since other programs could interfere. Like Windows shutting down suddenly for Windows Updates or stuff like that.

So that is the safest, most user friendly, OS independent and idiot proof way. A DOS usb stick


@Crispy's FAQ:

How bad or good is the cogging effect compared to the T500 RS?
How fast the turning speed compared to the T500 RS?
How strong strong is the FFB compared to the T500 RS?
Which wheel is more precise, the CSR Elite or the T500 RS?
Which wheel's steering feels more direct?

 

[paskowitz]

What are dimensions of the Forza logo on the front of the wheel?

 

[LogiForce]

Does the dual motors in the wheel drive one belt assembly with two belts, or each drive its individual belt?
How prominent are the vibration motors in the wheel? Has this improved over previous Fanatec wheels that you know of?
Does the PC software allow more control features over the wheel compared to previous wheels and which ones?

Well, I could think of a thousand more questions but then there would be nothing left for your review.

 

[superbike81]

Could you possibly list the full dimensions of the wheel base (length, width, depth, height, etc, etc). I'm trying to get my rig ready for the CSW, and need to start fabricating the new pieces.

 

[LogiForce]

Could you possibly list the full dimensions of the wheel base (length, width, depth, height, etc, etc). I'm trying to get my rig ready for the CSW, and need to start fabricating the new pieces.

The dimensions are already on the drill template on the support page I believe. Either that or Thomas his blog.

 

[superbike81]

Really? I looked all over, maybe I was looking in the wrong places. I checked over the Fanatec support site and only found the CSR stuff, I'll browse through Thomas' Blog now. Thanks!

 

[Crispy]

I updated the OP to include the full dimensions as well as a link to where I found that. The link has things like Drilling Templates, Manuals, and much, much more.

I also updated it with a Daily Impressions section. I will post up videos or photos, whichever is to my taste at that moment.