Fanatec CSW/CSR Elite Modders Thread *UPDATE February 2014*

  • Thread starter eKretz
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Oh, I want to add to RReed's comment about the difficulty of removing the belt from the stock motors/pulleys. You actually can get that belt off without removing the pulleys - all you need to do is remove the center screw/nut holding the heat sink stack and remove the screws fastening the motors to the motor mount. This will allow the motors to slide back far enough to slip the belt over the pulleys, allowing you to remove the motor block, motors and pulleys all still assembled if you can't get the pulleys off.
 
Thought you all might like to see my latest candidate for a different take on a replacement motor. You can see the armature next to the Bühler armature and stock armature. The entire motor is at top, with mounted heatsink/fan combo. These are a little less powerful than the Bühler motors but are almost a drop-in. They are straight rather than spiral armatures, but they are also 8-pole. Very nice quality motors, hopefully going to throw a set in soon and start testing. I'm going to try out these little heat sinks with mounted fans also to see if these paired with dual base fans will be sufficient for cooling.

 
I can hardly wait to know the features of this new motor set and your latest solutions as well...
It seems this time will be a challenge to fit the whole thing inside.
 
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That heatsink/fan combo looks interesting, I am guessing it could be installed even on stock motors once the existing heatsink is removed.
 
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eKretz
Thought you all might like to see my latest candidate for a different take on a replacement motor. You can see the armature next to the Bühler armature and stock armature. The entire motor is at top, with mounted heatsink/fan combo. These are a little less powerful than the Bühler motors but are almost a drop-in. They are straight rather than spiral armatures, but they are also 8-pole. Very nice quality motors, hopefully going to throw a set in soon and start testing. I'm going to try out these little heat sinks with mounted fans also to see if these paired with dual base fans will be sufficient for cooling.
Click to expand...

If I understand, it will become a one motor MOD am I correct? Really looking forward to see it in action
 
eKretz
@Derickh : what FF are you running BTW? Aren't you at FF100? @geg1020 how about you? @Jump_Ace you're around FF40-70 right?
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Now that I'm fully acclimated to the wheel, I'm rarely at 50FFB. I'll use 50FFB if a car is really oversteery to help discourage me from over-steering. But for most cars it's 30FFB or 40FFB. I used to be 60FFB or 70FFB with the original motors.


Jerome
 
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Hi guys,

While I have my wheel apart would there be any benefit to removing material from the tensioning pulley to reduce weight? Or would this be overkill?
 
There will always be some benefit to removing weight where you can. Whether it will make a hugely noticeable difference is another matter entirely. So far there's one way to find out - try it! I haven't yet but I think I'm going to. What the heck, right? Just be careful not to weaken it too much.
 
This new motor will definitely not be better than the Bühler motors, so hold the phone, lol. This is more for the guys who don't want to spend a large amount on cooling and having a pump around, etc. These will still need to be used in dual motor configuration but stall at a bit less amperage so will make less heat but also be weaker. Probably won't be quite as smooth as the Bühler motors either since they are straight pole.

The problem with switching to a larger single motor is the linearity - it takes a lot more to get a bigger motor moving. This would be no big deal if we could write our own firmware but that is beyond my ability at this point, though I have been looking into it.
 
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Cote Dazur
That heatsink/fan combo looks interesting, I am guessing it could be installed even on stock motors once the existing heatsink is removed.
Click to expand...

No, it won't fit the stock motors. The heat sink is made to fit the new motor at 42mm can diameter. Stockers are more like 36mm at the can, ~38mm at the flux ring IIRC. Bühler motors are only 40mm.
 
If I could do it (write firmware), I'd be making me a mini Leo Bodnar wheel. Small servo and attach a wheel, add servo driver and joystick controller.

Unfortunately it is not that simple I think.
 
eKretz
This new motor will definitely not be better than the Bühler motors, so hold the phone, lol. This is more for the guys who don't want to spend a large amount on cooling and having a pump around, etc. These will still need to be used in dual motor configuration but stall at a bit less amperage so will make less heat but also be weaker. Probably won't be quite as smooth as the Bühler motors either since they are straight pole.

The problem with switching to a larger single motor is the linearity - it takes a lot more to get a bigger motor moving. This would be no big deal if we could write our own firmware but that is beyond my ability at this point, though I have been looking into it.
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Despite being an expensive wheel itself, the CSW is the missing link between pro and amateur gamers.
I have seen many people with "ninja" setups but also a lot with compact playseats or stands (like the fanatec CSL stand) to be used "on the go". For example, I use a playseat, moving it in front of the television when needed and mobility is a crucial point for me.
For these reasons I'm very interested in a reliable and compact solution like, maybe, these new motors.
Even if I don't drive long races and also use 70FFB and 70For, the stock motors can't even handle this for 20 minutes without cutting down the ffb power.
At this point I can't really imagine which kind of use the CSW is intended for in Fanatec opinion... :confused:


image.jpg
 
Yes, I'm with you on that. Personally I prefer stronger feedback and that is why I put it the way I did in that post. To me, the Bühler motors are perfect, lol. Some have been asking about ways to ditch the pump so I'm seeing what I can do with respect to that - but those people will have to settle for weaker forces. Which to many is fine and some people don't like the FFB strong at all, which is also fine. In any case, I would never even offer something that fades the way the stock stuff does. So if these end up working well after testing then there may be another option for the guys who might want that.
 
Cote Dazur
Piumaz, your seat looks very nice. Is there different play seat model?
Click to expand...

There are several playseats here in EU, the one I have is the "Alcantara" one. I choose it because it is very foldable and reasonably stable as well the only problem is the central wheel support bar that could be uncomfortable at times.
Anyway avoid the Alcantara one as it builds up a massive amount of static energy, at the point that if you move a little on it, it disconnects the wheel and any usb device in range.
 
Ekretz, i tried again, what do you mean by soft stop on the wheel?
with my current settings (SEN 330, 100 FFB, SPR 70 rest OFF, 50 FFB in game)
like i said earlier in this thread, right turn seemed to be locked, it isn't so true, i eventually went over the soft stop and reached the end of wheel which you feel hard cogging right? (but needed more strength to do such movement)
on the left turn, soft end is softer to go over
Noticed there is a slight slack between F1 rim and base
 
The soft stop is the software coded stop. That's what you're adjusting when you adjust the SEN setting. Set it to 90 then turn the wheel past the stop. I can't make it any plainer or simpler than I did in my earlier post.

The rest of your post I'm not quite understanding.
 
sorry but i figured it out. finally its quite simple.
wheel isnt centered correctly, however i have checked Fanatec profile page, centered position is about between 1 and 3.
So when i was talking about right steering being locked its actually the end of stop
somehow i got 3/4 rotation on the left and 1/4 on the right.
 
Piumaz
Anyway avoid the Alcantara one as it builds up a massive amount of static energy, at the point that if you move a little on it, it disconnects the wheel and any usb device in range.
Click to expand...

Ha, same here. I run a grounding wire clipped to the heat register to prevent my pedals disconnecting when I get up. :D
 
eKretz,

I was just surfing the web and I noticed the 'Happ Steering Wheel' from an arcade. Than I found this link to a dude who used a amplifier (for brushed DC motors) to amplify the signal coming off of his Logitech wheel's circuit board and drive a bigger motor.

Would something like this be possible with a Fanatec wheel as well? It won't look pretty, but I was just wondering if we could use bigger and meaner looking motors.
Of course the problem is more that of space inside the wheel's enclosure than anything else. Which is a pretty enclosure.

The bigger the motor, the sooner we can go below its maximum output. If we go below its maximum output it won't get that hot. etc etc

Maybe nothing can be learned of this though. Just wanted to share anyways as it seemed interesting.

Here's the link: http://home.comcast.net/~mshaker/marks_arcade_006.htm


Edit:
Here's another guy who 'remodeled' an initial D cabinet. (shame the pics are dead)

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=105186.0
 
Yup definitely possible. I have had plenty of thought exercises along those lines - in fact was just discussing it with someone through PM. My main reason I don't want to do that really is because it would add quite a lot of cost to the wheel. At that point it might just make more sense to go with one of the newer direct drive servo wheels. I have had a lot of ideas but being cursed with not a lot of $$ (can't work full time, etc.) I usually stick to pretty conservative stuff that I am sure will work and be of benefit.
 
MickF
Inspired by eKretz to lighten the main pulley, here's some of my handy work with the drill.

View attachment 134070

I used 10mm and 6mm drill bits. Just be careful not to damage the v-belt grooves on the small tensioning pulley as the holes can get close.
Click to expand...

Awesome job Mick, that looks great! I can't wait to hear how much of a benefit you get from it. Your pattern on the reduction pulley is very similar to the one I devised for mine. Congrats on a job well done buddy!
 
OK fellas, I took a couple shots of my latest spectacular board catastrophe that I mentioned a few pages back. This will give you an idea of what can happen if you have a bad short due to careless insulating. Check THIS shizzle out:

IMG_20140329_004232.jpg~original


:scared: Now this is seriously unlikely to ever happen with a stock board, but I had paralleled MOSFETs on the H-bridge as well as an additional heatsink covering the area you see in the photo, so there was much more capability for current flow, and the opportunity for a short. Here's what the stock board looked like in the same area:

IMG_20140329_004254.jpg~original


Anyways, the via (what appears to be 4 little dots in a square pattern - this is what connects the copper trace from one side of the board to the other) was apparently getting too warm at elevated voltage and amperage (~36V and ~14A) and it ended up melting through my insulation which resulted in a dead short from the motor '+' trace straight to ground (the heatsink is grounded with its center screw). So long story short the current spiked over 20A and turned the fiberglass inside the board under the copper to charcoal (carbon) which conducts electricity. :eek: So this was very bad, mmmkay? Upon investigation I found that all the traces in the vicinity of the via were shorted together, so I started peeling back traces and scraping out the carbon. Finally got it all out and had the gaping hole you see in the photo, along with several traces that no longer had continuity where they were supposed to (had to cut and remove them to get at the conductive carbon beneath). So it was time for a 'what the hell' effort just to see if I could fix it. Also I emailed Fanatec about buying a spare board and they didn't even deign to reply. Nice guys. :rolleyes:

So anywho, I went through the entire board and found about 10 toasted components. Replaced all those and then it was time to reconnect the severed traces. I soldered in a short piece of solid core AWG18 wire to act as the new via and then another longer piece to reconnect the other severed trace. This is the repair before I reinsulated everything:

IMG_20140329_004315.jpg~original


Then I did a quickie assembly with a spare Buhler motor, hand held it, hit the power switch, and this happened:



VICTORY!! :cheers: :cool:
 
This is a lot of work to do, I'm Happy you recovered that board!
I have seen in yr. video the boot calibration sequence of yr csw and it seems to act differently than mine. Is it a different fw than 037?
My calibration ends a little further clockwise due to the mass of the gt wheel as the motors doesn't recall it to the center at last, like yr. wheel does. My wheel calibrates like the one of the video below, even if mine does it faster (it seems the guy in the video have damaged motors or too tensioned belts).


Fanatec CSW Base defekt
 

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