Hello again, I just wanted to give everyone an update on my csr elite wheel. Since receiving the wheel last Monday I have spent some time here and there fixing it up and would like to share the experience. I work two jobs and I also make/sell my shift knob kits for the TH8 so I am usually pretty busy during the week. Fortunately I was able to get most everything done before the weekend. So, from the beginning. I purchased the wheel knowing that it had issues, I knew that the wheel hub adapter would need attention as it was wobbling and I was told that the wheel did function (power on etc) however there were no guarantees (as to be expected at the price I paid). Once the wheel arrived at my house I quickly tapped the upper adapter thread to M6 and this helped quite a bit. The lower was not stripped. I found that it would be tight initially after the screw were tightened but there was a small gap that would allow the wheel to still wobble a small amount. I remedied this with a .4mm thick price of paper/cardboard type material. It was actually a band aid box that I used the lid off of. This cost me nothing as the band aids are still good (and I found them in my bathroom lol). Once this was fixed it was time to introduce power to the base and see what happens. The first thing I realized was the lack of a power button on this very early version of the elite base. The base powers up at plugin. I powered up the base, it did a sort of calibration, stopped far from center and the --- in the led screen disappeared within a second after if appeared fallowing calibration. I power cycled again but this time I hit the back button as soon as --- appeared. This got the wheel into PC mode. The center position was almost 180* off so I set the center (I mentioned this previously and it didn't work because I wasn't in PC mode). When in PC mode the wheel centered properly, which is good because until this point I thought it would never go into PC mode or allow center to reset. It was not all good news though, when I would rotate the wheel back and forth the center position wold be lost. Upon closer diagnosis I found that the axle play (in/out sliding movement of axle inside bearings) was causing the loss of center. When the wheel axle was slid inwards the position sensor could not read the encoder wheel. This would only happen when the axle was all the way toward the inward position. So the next step was to remove that slack. In order to do this I went to the hardware store and started looking for thin shim/washer like hardware with an inner diameter of 30mm (the size of the axle O.D.). I could not find anything like this so I landed on a couple of snap rings with an I.D. that was very close to 30mm, within .3mm ($.50 cents each, only used one). The snap rings in their stock state were too thick, I used my small bench grinder to thin out the snap rings until I got the desired thickness. I could find out the final thicknesses but this will vary wheel to wheel. I plan on changing to shims anyways, I have to order them. After installing my home made shims there was zero in/out movement of the axle, if you push or pull with enough force and look at the bearings you can see how the shim fits perfectly. It does not out force on the hearing race or original snap ring under neutral conditions, and when pulling/pushing you can see the bearing race take on pressure and go back to a relaxed position. The snap ring fits perfectly snug, removing all unwanted movement without undue force being applied. Now I had a solid hub, solid axle, but because the new position was actually all the way inward the position sensor would not read at all. No biggie, I removed the side panel to access the mounting screw for the sensor. I adjusted the position of the sensor so it is perfectly centered around the optical wheel. Once I had everything positioned properly I powered up again and entered driver. This is when I started to get excited. The wheel position finally read perfectly, and the soft locks hit in the same spot in each direction (just before hard lock hits). I rotated the wheel back and forth and performed a bunch of ffb tests and all went well, no loss of center and exactly 450* of rotation detected in each direction without missing a step. The next step was to fire up my favorite means of testing a wheels power, the rally tracks in GT6, and FIA WRC (3 in this case). The off road tracks in these games give crazy amounts of ffb and are a great way to feel the power. I have to say I was impressed, this wheel provides much smoother, more refined and detailed ffb feel compared to my T500. This is the first wheel I have used that can accurately simulate vibration feel through the motors (not the vibration motors). With tye T500 driving off road sort of punches really hard back and forth but it seems like the force will be applied for too long. This means the wheel cant vibrate or shiver but more shake. The elite is way different. It I still plenty powerful but can also provide a very detailed, precise feeling. Not to mention how much smoother it is. I dont when need drift mode at all (older fanatec wheels I have to set at 1-3). I put the wheel through its paces for about an hour and it performed well with no issues
I will say there are still some weird little kinks. For one thing, the wheel creates power when completely unplugged if you rotate the wheel left or right fast enough. The LEDs will light up as a result. The other issue is the at startup. The wheel will not perform the final stage of calibration. It will turn right, left, that's it. It should have a third motion that brings it close to center. Instead it stays at about 180* after calibration. Also, the --- symbol on the led screen disappears about one second after it comes on following calibration. I have found that I can enter PC /PS3 mode by pressing the back button quickly before the --- symbol. Overall I am quite happy with the purchase. Now that I know how much I like the feel of the wheel I will consider future mods and I hope to keep this base going as long as possible. Fortunately the parts I'm buying from blue should help with that
The only weak spot was the rim, luckily I remembered I had an adapter machined for my older fanatec wheels a while back. The adapter was actually a G27 adapter that was machines again to fit the four bolt pattern that is found on the older fanatec axles. Fortunately the elite adapter hub has the same pattern of you take the stock rim off the male side of the hub. I will use my regular CSR rim/wiring harness so I cam leave the elite wires in the axle for easy reinstallation of the stock rim. Anyways this is getting really long lol, I will include some pics. Let me know what you think
Blue, I added cash onto my PayPal yesterday. I know we don't have the exact shipping price yet but I think I loaded up enough to cover it. I was thinking about it and I am pretty sure the weight will be within the 2kg limit to get the 30-40 price, but that's just an educated guess. I know 2kg is over 4lbs which is a decent amount of weight. Never the less just let me know the weight/price whenever you get a chance. Like I said before no rush at all. I just wanted to let you know the money is there when your ready
Here are some pics: