Err...faint burning smell coming from my G25..

[Shaggy Alonso]

Yep, just finished a few laps at Spa on Supercar Challenge when I smelt something strange. I didn't know what it was at first but then I noticed it was coming from the vents in the G25. It had been working perfectly but I immediately unplugged it when I smelt that.

Has anyone else come across this for their G25, or indeed any other wheel?

 

[Niels_at_home]

It can certainly happen. If you play a good sim, plus you've configured the force feedback so that 'hard cornering' gives 100% ffb, then you have little or no chance to overheat the motors.

However, in PC gaming and probably in console gaming too, it is all too easy to overload the FFB. Sure you can set the Logitech software to 100% forces, but the sim/game setting can still massively overload the motors.

In iRacing or LFS for example, the in game FFB strength is often already too high when you use 10%! What happens then is, using 10% in the game would give you nice scaled force feedback where the hardest forces you feel in a fast corner correspond with 100% G25 motor power.

If you instead run the game at 100%, then it only takes 1/10th of the forces, i.e. even the most shallow bend or bump in the road, to max out the FFB motors. This means that the motors are working 100% power almost all the time, which will make them overheat.

I'm pretty sure there is not a game or sim that doesn't massively overload the FFB motors when you set the forces to 100% in the game.

Conclusion; turn the FFB down a good deal, you'll probably also feel a bit more fidelity!

 

[Sureboss]

How long you had it? Remember the EU legislation regarding guarantees, it might be useful. Don't they have 2 year guarantee's from Logitech anyway?

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

How long you had it? Remember the EU legislation regarding guarantees, it might be useful. Don't they have 2 year guarantee's from Logitech anyway?

Got it last christmas. Just to reiterate, the wheel as far as I'm aware is functioning perfectly, but that's the first time i've noticed any smell coming from it. I'll have to nurse it to the end of my F1 Championship. Feels like Vettel with his Renault engines.

And yes Niel, I usually have the FFB set to maximum, and I figured this is higher risk than if you have it turned down. Hopefully this turns out to be nothing, the smell was quite faint. But where there's smoke........

 

[Sureboss]

Well, I'd hazard a guess it will soon go.

Last Christmas, under a year. Contact Logitech, ask for advice.

 

[Niels_at_home]

Well you might get a replacement even, but Logitech has a pretty consistent build quality so if this one does this in a year, the replacement will do the same. The root of the problem is running too high forces.

 

[Leonidae]

meh, I've had my G25 since the launch, and I've had that smell coming out for a long time. probably just smell of heated dust within the casing. After all, it does heat up rather nicely when you play long stints. Nothing to worry about.

 

[Cigol]

MOMO and G25 user here and the smell is normal. Especially on the former, earlier wheel. Nothing will happen. The more you play, the more forces you use... the more it will smell and the hotter it will run - but it will not break. I've had both my wheels for many years and the only issue with reliability is the MOMO pedals.

Don't worry about the smell - although do turn down the forces because you are getting less feedback as the other user already explained.

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

MOMO and G25 user here and the smell is normal. Especially on the former, earlier wheel. Nothing will happen. The more you play, the more forces you use... the more it will smell and the hotter it will run - but it will not break. I've had both my wheels for many years and the only issue with reliability is the MOMO pedals.

Don't worry about the smell - although do turn down the forces because you are getting less feedback as the other user already explained.

I'm not sure I fully understand that point that Niel made. I got the point about having it on full means that it's almost constantly working the wheel, but you can tell the difference between small kerbs and big ones, and small bumps and big bumps on full. What I like about it is that when it's set to full you can feel the cornering forces much better.

The problem with turning it down is that the only two racing games i've been playing recently are F1 Championship Edition and Supercar Challenge, the former of which you can only set FFB to simply on or off, and Supercar Challenge is either low, medium, or high. I didn't find it as much fun when I had it turned down any lower than 'high'. I can appreciate that having it up to 100% can't be healthy for the wheel in the long run. Sometimes when I let go of the wheel during Supercar Challenge it starts shaking like crazy, making me realise how much energy from the wheel I am resisting against when I'm just holding the wheel steady.

 

[Cigol]

Sorry, I meant turn it down on the PC. I've not played Supercar Challenge and I haven't played F1:CE in a long time so I can't comment on those specifically. PC games typically you want the forces very low - not because it's unhealthy for the wheel (because it isn't) - but because it gives you much more variable feedback. It's a demonstrable fact. I don't know the ins and outs myself, but it's because the motors in the wheel are only capable of generating a finite (and relatively) small amount of force. The higher you crank the overall force feedback the smaller the spectrum for forces becomes - so lower forces are now higher forces, and higher forces are now closer to lower forces. It might feel like you're losing something by lowering it in the short term, but you are actually gaining in the long term.

...but go with what feels best for you, it won't damage your wheel.

(also, it looks like you enjoy the challenge with the wheel. Get yourself a copy of Richard Burns Rally )

 

[Niels_at_home]

Say the G25 has a range of forces it can deliver from 0 .. 2. So no matter if the game demands 3 or 10, the wheel can't deliver more than 2. All forces greater than 2 not be felt through the wheel.

Its not uncommon for cars in games, when you set the game to 100% force strength, to have a range of steering forces going from 0 .. 20. The logitech wheel will only respond to the first 2, the other 18 you won't feel. Therefor in this example you'd want to match the wheel 0...2 range with the game force output range. For the 20 to get 2, the forces need to be 1/10th of what the where, so you'd need an ingame setting of 10%

When you've done that, the range of forces being sent out to the wheel matches what the wheel can actually deliver. The problem is that like I said there is no 'limit' to what the game can *TRY* to make the wheel do; but the wheel can only deliver a fixed amount.

In this example if you leave the game setting at 100%, you're missing out on 90% of the force feedback; anything above 2 will simply be 2. So if 2 is a shallow bend, a hard corner won't be able to make the wheel any firmer.

When I create mods for rFactor and RealFeel I tend to include the force feedback values that make the game and wheel match their force range. It also means I can let go of the wheel on the straights and it won't wobble or shake; the forces very near the center of steering are pretty low.


Thats how it works anyway!

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

Say the G25 has a range of forces it can deliver from 0 .. 2. So no matter if the game demands 3 or 10, the wheel can't deliver more than 2. All forces greater than 2 not be felt through the wheel.

Its not uncommon for cars in games, when you set the game to 100% force strength, to have a range of steering forces going from 0 .. 20. The logitech wheel will only respond to the first 2, the other 18 you won't feel. Therefor in this example you'd want to match the wheel 0...2 range with the game force output range. For the 20 to get 2, the forces need to be 1/10th of what the where, so you'd need an ingame setting of 10%

When you've done that, the range of forces being sent out to the wheel matches what the wheel can actually deliver. The problem is that like I said there is no 'limit' to what the game can *TRY* to make the wheel do; but the wheel can only deliver a fixed amount.

In this example if you leave the game setting at 100%, you're missing out on 90% of the force feedback; anything above 2 will simply be 2. So if 2 is a shallow bend, a hard corner won't be able to make the wheel any firmer.

When I create mods for rFactor and RealFeel I tend to include the force feedback values that make the game and wheel match their force range. It also means I can let go of the wheel on the straights and it won't wobble or shake; the forces very near the center of steering are pretty low.


Thats how it works anyway!

Thanks, I now understand what you mean much better. Only thing is though I don't play PC games with the wheel - it's not practical, my family has to use the desk too - I just use it for my PS3.

(also, it looks like you enjoy the challenge with the wheel. Get yourself a copy of Richard Burns Rally )

Haha, if you could get it for PS3 (I don't have a PS2 backwards compatible model unfortunately) then I would.

 

[d3uc3_dropp3r]

About a week ago I was playing with my G25 and it worked 100% fine then a few days ago I had a friend playing with it fine then all of a sudden the feedback in the wheel just died and the pedals stopped working. I unplugged everything and tried again, the pedals worked fine however the shifter failed! After awhile I was just trying to play without shifting then the wheel just stops working and the acceleration stays on. Everything seems to work fine in the menu but during actual gameplay nothing seems to be right. Anyone have any ideas how to fix it? I owned it for almsot 2 years now.