Generic Amazon USB PC Handbrake - Is It Worth It?

[Scaff]

Amazon has a load of generic USB handbrakes for PC, most under the £100 mark, but are they worth it, or are you just buying poorly built tat? I buy one to find out.



TL/DW

Plus Points

• Metal construction apart from a few minor areas
• Seems solid and robust
• Analog and reads as an axis by PC
• Braided USB Cable
• Reasonable range of adjustment
• Approx six inches of travel
• Works with all the titles I've tested so far, if it has the ability to map a handbrake it works

Negative Points

• USB Cable a little short (but does work with a USB extension cable)
• PC Only
• No software so adjustability of deadzone, travel, etc dependent on the game title itself
• Long term reliability a question, it's a no-brand generic product

 

[Whitestar]

I was actually eyeing that one for a while. Might buy one now. Thanks for being a guinea pig.
Btw, could you possibly make a tiny video demonstrating the throw? Or a gif or images? Anything really.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Looks like it's the same handbrake at least. That's quite a good throw.

 

[Scaff]

I was actually eyeing that one for a while. Might buy one now. Thanks for being a guinea pig.
Btw, could you possibly make a tiny video demonstrating the throw? Or a gif or images? Anything really.

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Looks like it's the same handbrake at least. That's quite a good throw.

Yep, that looks to be the exact same one, the throw range on it is more than enough, which is why I actually used the mapping in DR2.0 and WRC9 to reduce it down, as pulling it all the way back was actually a pain on my rig, so I reduced it in both to around 50% travel = 100% output, and it still works great.

 

[dlshearon]

Do you know if something like a Drive hub could make it work for console?

Nice review!

 

[AngryGinger81]

FYI, you may be able to set deadzones and calibration using DIView. You can get it from Heusinkveld's site here:
https://heusinkveld.com/download-diview/?q=/download-diview/&v=7516fd43adaa

 

[Scaff]

FYI, you may be able to set deadzones and calibration using DIView. You can get it from Heusinkveld's site here:
https://heusinkveld.com/download-diview/?q=/download-diview/&v=7516fd43adaa

Excellent - I will give that a go, many thanks

 

[Scaff]

FYI, you may be able to set deadzones and calibration using DIView. You can get it from Heusinkveld's site here:
https://heusinkveld.com/download-diview/?q=/download-diview/&v=7516fd43adaa

You are a genius, it does the job perfectly.

Do you know if something like a Drive hub could make it work for console?

Nice review!

Unfortunately I don't know if it would do the job.

 

[MxFiver]

Hi Scaff thanks for this review.

I have purchased a ‘generic’ usb handbrakes too (I liked what I saw in your review)... I hasten to add not exactly the same one/ seller you purchased from but I expect it’s identical really.

So I have a question, how did you get it to work correctly with WRC9 please?

I have tried to map/ bind the device (adding it into my thrustmaster RS300 profile wheel settings in option/ controller settings in WRC 9) and I am seeing the bar correctly move from left to right when I pull on the handbrake, so I can see that it is detected on and is registering an input ok...

It is showing in the binding panel as an ‘R’ on a grey circle with an arrow above it pointing up? (Looks like a keyboard key input to me rather than any axis?)

And i’m getting some weird results, firstly whilst in the options/ controller menus if I pull the handbrake whilst doing the key binding thing, it does bind as I have said above but then the bindings panel (on the left) scrolls up and down too as I pull and release the handbrake?

And whilst driving, if I pull the handbrake, yes it does apply handbrake/ lock the rear wheels as it should... but I do find it is changing the view to ‘look back’ some for example when viewing the car in chase mode... if I pull the handbrake it brakes ok, but I find myself looking at the front of the car now as each time pull the brake?

I can see in my devices on the PC, that I have two Arduino Leonardo devices shown... the Arduino Leonardo game controller... and also an Arduino Leonardo keyboard too, do you see/ have the same too?

How did you set your usb handbrake up to work OK in WRC 9 please Scaff... any ideas/ tips of your process to do so would be really helpful indeed.

I must be missing something here I reckon...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Scaff]

Hi Scaff thanks for this review.

I have purchased a ‘generic’ usb handbrakes too (I liked what I saw in your review)... I hasten to add not exactly the same one/ seller you purchased from but I expect it’s identical really.

So I have a question, how did you get it to work correctly with WRC9 please?

I have tried to map/ bind the device (adding it into my thrustmaster RS300 profile wheel settings in option/ controller settings in WRC 9) and I am seeing the bar correctly move from left to right when I pull on the handbrake, so I can see that it is detected on and is registering an input ok...

It is showing in the binding panel as an ‘R’ on a grey circle with an arrow above it pointing up? (Looks like a keyboard key input to me rather than any axis?)

And i’m getting some weird results, firstly whilst in the options/ controller menus if I pull the handbrake whilst doing the key binding thing, it does bind as I have said above but then the bindings panel (on the left) scrolls up and down too as I pull and release the handbrake?

And whilst driving, if I pull the handbrake, yes it does apply handbrake/ lock the rear wheels as it should... but I do find it is changing the view to ‘look back’ some for example when viewing the car in chase mode... if I pull the handbrake it brakes ok, but I find myself looking at the front of the car now as each time pull the brake?

I can see in my devices on the PC, that I have two Arduino Leonardo devices shown... the Arduino Leonardo game controller... and also an Arduino Leonardo keyboard too, do you see/ have the same too?

How did you set your usb handbrake up to work OK in WRC 9 please Scaff... any ideas/ tips of your process to do so would be really helpful indeed.

I must be missing something here I reckon...

Thanks in advance.

I didn't have to do anything extra one I had mapped it to WRC9 apart from tweaking the sensitivity on it.

Mine only shows as one device, an Arduino Leonardo Controller.

It sounds like yours may be outputting two signals, one for the axis and one for a keyboard binding, check to see what you have bound to look back in WRC9, unbind whatever that is and give it a go then.

It may also be worth downloading the diview tool linked above, as that will show you if it is outputting two signals and may allow you to disable one of them.

It may also be outputting as just a keyboard output (the diview tool will confirm that), in which case I would ask for a refund, as that's not going to offer the same degree of control as one outputting as an axis.

 

[MxFiver]

I didn't have to do anything extra one I had mapped it to WRC9 apart from tweaking the sensitivity on it.

Mine only shows as one device, an Arduino Leonardo Controller.

It sounds like yours may be outputting two signals, one for the axis and one for a keyboard binding, check to see what you have bound to look back in WRC9, unbind whatever that is and give it a go then.

It may also be worth downloading the diview tool linked above, as that will show you if it is outputting two signals and may allow you to disable one of them.

It may also be outputting as just a keyboard output (the diview tool will confirm that), in which case I would ask for a refund, as that's not going to offer the same degree of control as one outputting as an axis.

Hi Scaff thanks for coming back to me.

So as an update today... and so my original post also puts nobody off buying a Generic USB handbrake for themselves (as they are really good...so far)

I do have a part confession to make... today with further testing etc I have found out my Button box is also running a Arduino Leonardo board to and it is THAT device (the button box) that is showing as the keyboard (and not the game controller also showing as a keyboard as well)

So further testing and set up in a number of games this morning (with the handbrake that IS correctly showing as a game controller) and this seems to have gone well..,

But there is only one that is not playing ball and I think it’s more an example of poor controller support rather than the fault of the Arduino board which appears to be working fine.

My other rally games are fine, Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0 work great as does assetto corsa too...

But there is only one sims not playing well and this is WRC 9... for the life of me I cannot get it to work cleanly...

in DIVIEW it appears as an axis correctly (as it should) it appears as an axis (axis 6) in Assetto Corsa... and in Windows it appears as the Rudder Axis too (so all analogue)

However in WRC 9... if I bind the handbrake it shows as R with vertical analogue arrows...

However the generic ‘controller’ profile (that I cannot delete) also uses the same binding

I have added another custom profile for a controller and tried to bind other keys instead as the look up/ down....

Update 2:

Just restarted WRC 9 and it’s now working fine? Go figure... me thinks some WRC controller code may be a little bit ‘jangly’... the restart seems to have cleared out multiple default controller/ wheel bindings from conflicting...

All ‘weird science’ as it were?

Anyway all’s good now... the handbrake is working great... thanks Scaff fir your recommendation.., I don’t think I would have pressed the trigger without your excellent video mate (just one of your many excellent videos...)

 

[MxFiver]

Yep definitely something jangly going on with the controller settings in WRC 9... it keeps resetting my max wheel angle to 40o less than ideal... and won’t save settings correctly sometimes...

sometimes it saves setting... next time it doesn’t...

Is there a controller config txt file somewhere that I can edit for wrc 9

 

[Scaff]

Yep definitely something jangly going on with the controller settings in WRC 9... it keeps resetting my max wheel angle to 40o less than ideal... and won’t save settings correctly sometimes...

sometimes it saves setting... next time it doesn’t...

Is there a controller config txt file somewhere that I can edit for wrc 9

Glad it helped out, and yes WRC9 binding can be odd at times (as well as having a poor UI for button mapping), it also messes about with my wheels (T300) rotation setting, changing it from its default 1080 to 540 whenever I play WRC9. I have to manually put it back to 1080 whenever I come out of it, and if I forget it drives me nuts when I move to another title and wonder why I'm messing up corners constantly.

 

[Scaff]

Thanks to @AngryGinger81 we now have a working universal set-up tool for the Generic USB PC Handbrake (really do need a better name for it), which allows you to set Saturation, Dead-zones, and Calibration globally across all titles. In the video below I look at how you can use it, and also look at the set-up options in WRC 9, Dirt Rally 2.0, Assetto Corsa, BeamNG, and Project Cars 2; including a quick look at what each title allows you to tweak on top of the global set-up.

 

[MxFiver]

Great video @Scaff... very helpful indeed and many thanks to @AngryGinger81 for pointing us in the direction of DIView.

 

[snowcrash741]

I got one of these, (they all look identical but have a dozen different vendor names on amazon) but it's only outputting 2 bit (4 values) in the range from 0 to 255. I've tried calibrating in windows, using DiView and while both will allow you to change the operating range or center the thing only ever outputs 4 values. So even though advertised as 14 bit it's functioning as 2 bit. Being as these things are just Arduinos does anyone have a functioning arduino sketch to upload to it to get it to be in 11bit or 14bit mode?

I've tried to message the seller via Amazon but haven't yet gotten a response.