God I go away for a few days to actually play some racing sims and look what happens! Again!! You guys are really quite impressive. 👍
To those that asked: The only thing Fanatec has done so far is email me new firmware. That's all.
First off to Fanatec/Thomas: I did get the firmware, flashed it, and it fixed a few of the issues. The settings save correctly now, and the wheel doesn't vibrate as much when idle (but it still does). It removed the high pitched electronic whine, but the mechanical whine remains (possibly a design consideration, and actually how all of the wheels sound). I can live with it. I believe the issue with the device losing FFB was related to grounding, because while I couldn't find a way to ground a wheel with all-plastic housing, I did raise the relative humidity in my house to decrease static electricity in the air, and the rate of FFB loss (requiring a reboot) went down sharply. It could be related, but it could be random. I'll know more in the coming months. I will keep the wheel because the firmware fix has made racing possible once again, I actually like the FFB quality, the aftermarket gel cork griptape has negated the bad feel of the plastic rim, and I can't afford the transit time required for replacing it as I use the wheel for many hours daily (I did say I was a hardcore simmer). I expect if the wheel fails completely you will replace it under warranty as stated on your webshop. 24 months is a reasonable warranty for an enthusiast product from a small company at your price point, and though I'd personally expect such a product to last longer than 24 months, I wouldn't expect a guarantee of it, considering all the crazy things people do with their sim gear and the insane usage patterns some people put their gear through. As I said, I'm not unreasonable. Overall I just want things to work properly. I'm patient, and flexible, but when I pay a lot of money I have expectations for "performance as advertised". As a simmer (and a customer) that is my expectation, and its amusing that so many people here find that hard to grasp.
I am in the process of returning the CSR shifter to your factory, as it is poorly designed and somewhat cheaply constructed (again, metal on plastic... why?). Seriously, why the cheap plastic housing? Why no way to hard mount it? Why the loud clicking action? Why the inaccurate action moving between 3/5 and 4/6? Why connect it via aforementioned rods to the wheel, which, even if hard mounted as mine is (bolted) will still be shaken and moved by shifting action during play, as it is also plastic and not terribly sturdy. All extremely significant issues in my book, so I'm sending it back.
I also disagree about the plastic pieces on the pedals not being cheap, I've almost hit them twice with an adjustable socket wrench (while modifying pedal placement), and would probably have broken them had I hit them. They're right in the way, and very flexible, cheap plastic! They'd be fine if they weren't in the line of fire for pedals that are incredibly difficult to modify, but they are, so there we are. I would return the pedals, but moving the placement (and in fact using them normally under sim cockpit situations) has damaged the soft plastic used to hold the bolts in place (it deforms under load, with either tight bolts or mildly tight bolts, doesn't matter), and I would not try to return a product I consider damaged, even if the damage was due to bad design. That's my personal ethics. Plus, except for the difficult modifying and poor design/material of the support for the metal pedals, the quality of the unit is excellent. The pedals themselves? Top notch. The ergonomics of usage? Perfect! The load cell? Love it! It's the support base unit that houses the pedals that is no good. You can't marry simulator grade aluminum with cheap plastic via steel bolts and expect longevity in a load bearing environment. It just doesn't work.
Next, to whomever was being lazy and questioning that I was a low post count discord sowing seeder... I already told you to Google this nickname. Youtube this nickname. Then kindly return here and post excuses and explanations of how you failed to take 8 seconds to invalidate your own argument. Good job. Always room for plenty of lazy bias on a public forum filled with the kinds of people who turn a technical rant thread about a steering wheel into a flame war involving brand loyalty and personal attacks. Thomas wants it to stop because he doesn't like Fanatec being dragged through the mud (especially in an unmoderated flamefest trollery like this forum) but Fanatec did recruit these people to review Fanatec hardware, and now we have results like this thread with the frothing faithful attacking any and all voices of sanity. To someone like me who has little use for forums like this one in the larger scheme of things I've gotten plenty of unexpected laughs out of this thread.
I posted what I posted here before I knew what this forum was like. I just saw it was an active sim hardware forum and went for it. In hindsight something of a mistake, because the voices of sanity here are totally outnumbered by the barking dogs of madness, but meh. It was still funny, I got plenty of PMs with actual good advice (thanks Energizerrr, HKS, etc), and Fanatec coincidentally took notice and helped me soon after I posted this thread. The sideshow was just a bonus.
Flame on boys! I eagerly await the next 9 pages. 👍👍👍
