The Thrustmaster T500RS Thread

  • Thread starter TomN
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???
About pedals accuracy, on the other side CSP use Hall Effects sensor and not potentiometers like on T500. It's mean that lifetime should be better on CSP pedals.
 
Topyn,
I actually like a lot on your products as well. The wheel is very fast and it is a nice idea to have an option to invert the pedals.

You have a good product and should be proud of it.

Edit: I did not think of Option D) ;)
 
I am sorry to hear that fan issue. Do you mind looking at the bottom of your unit to see which version your T500RS is? For instance, when I look at the bottom of my unit it says 'V2'.

Before purchasing my T500RS unit I tried reading this entire thread as best as I could and noticed multiple users suspects that the T500RS V2 models have corrected the fan issue. for instance, my unit has a perfectly silent fan so far.

Good luck with your issue. This does not bode well for Thrustmaster if they have a defective fan unit in their 1st generation models. I hope I am dead wrong!!
My version is v3,please forgive my Recording quality:sly:the noise does not come from fan uints,what i am really trying to say is when i turn the wheel left,
It started making strange noises(0:05~0:15),turn right is fine,i wonder is this normal?
 
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Just a quick update on this issue with the fan being very noisy during startup.

I just got an answer back from Tech support saying



just FYI

I got the same answer. I'm still a bit skeptical, but on the other hand I want to believe. The noise some times lasts for a 40 seconds and other times it lasts for about two minutes. The reason I'm a bit skeptical is that a person on a facebook discussion said that he also had the sound and he was dealing with it by tapping the wheel cover. I did the same thing and it seems to help. I don't really know if there is a correlation or not. Still observing.
 
i found a solution to the noisy fan issue. or rather i think it is more of a maintenance procedure we need to do every once in a while depending on your environment.

my fan had been making the startup noise for the past month. prior to that I had been using the wheel almost daily for at least a month.

yesterday while i was blowing the dust out of my computer fans i realized that perhaps it was dust accumulation that was causing the blades to be unbalanced and rattle at startup. I don't believe thrustmasters "oil theory" since the fans wouldn't make the noise when the wheel was new and this issue creeps up over time. so unless oil is leaking or somehow from heat/use the oil properties change drastically I don't see why it would cause the noise.

so to clean out the fans in the wheel you have to use something with really a great amount of air pressure. much more pressure than the compressed nitrogen can sprays i believe. what i used was a high powered hand held air blower which was basically a big electrical motor with a handle on it forcing air into a narrow opening. the blower has some attachments such various sized nozzles for blowing crap out of your computer.

I knew that I couldn't take apart the wheel so pretty much this was my only option at cleaning the fans. I didn't think it would work but there was really nothing else i could try other than smacking the wheel around or contacting thrustmaster lol.

i spent probably a good couple minutes just blowing a ton of air into the fan through the tiny holes at the top opening and when the fans came on by themselves after the wheel warmed up, they just had the same low gradual hum as when the wheel was new. I've only cleaned out the fans once so we'll see how long it'll take before the noise comes back.

Thanks Overdoser. I keep my wheel covered for most of the time, except for when I play. But I will try your suggestion and see what happens.
 
My version is v3,please forgive my Recording quality:sly:the noise does not come from fan uints,what i am really trying to say is when i turn the wheel left,
It started making strange noises(0:05~0:15),turn right is fine,i wonder is this normal?

Version 3? :embarrassed:OO
First here with version 3? Mhm.. TM makes really fast newer versions of their wheel and in v3 they still have problems?...
Mhmmm..
My wheel now works ok (v2). Sometimes there is a clonk knocking sound but I can live with that yet.. I did not had the fan issue yet (it occured on my v1....)
 
My version is v3,please forgive my Recording quality:sly:the noise does not come from fan uints,what i am really trying to say is when i turn the wheel left,
It started making strange noises(0:05~0:15),turn right is fine,i wonder is this normal?

I have exactly the same problem, when the shooting to the left the steering wheel seems to sound like a creaky old wooden stairs. This is a V2 and I have it for over a month. In the early going was a bit of toothed belts sound, after a while I stopped to hear it and feel under my fingers.In addition, the steering works perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrLrd7tFrSs
 
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Topyn
let me give you some advice about viral marketing. It is an unwritten but golden rule that you should not write comments anonymous or pretend that you are giving a user opinion about your product. It is even worse if you talk bad about a competitiors product under a false name.

This will just result in lost confidence of your target customers and people will be more sceptical about whatever you are announcing. You are making pretty bold marketing statements but that is still in an acceptable area. People can easily find out for themselves that the wheel rim is as detachable as the steering axis has a 16bit resolution.

So basically you have 3 choices now.

A) Invest a lot of time and energy to "proof" that you are just a normal guy and not related to TM at all

B) Stop posting under this nickname and leave the forum or just get a new nickname and continue.

C) Admit who you really are and repeat your statements as official company statements

I would choose C) but fortunatly I was never in such a situation to decide about those options.

Best regards

Thomas Jackermeier
CEO
Endor AG / Fanatec

This is quite a shock for me!
I bought your stand around 2 years ago, it just broke, i emailed you but never got any reply about my issue!

Now, you are giving some lessons in a rather rude way?!?!

Check your house before throwing stones at others Thomas, as other user pu it. Apart from buying poor quality stand, you never replied to me!
Actually I am pleased that you are here cos I can speak with you and your company but now it would be too late for fixing things.
 
My version is v3,please forgive my Recording quality:sly:the noise does not come from fan uints,what i am really trying to say is when i turn the wheel left,
It started making strange noises(0:05~0:15),turn right is fine,i wonder is this normal?

Oh I see, yeah the sound clearly doesn't start until you turned the wheel. When I get home I'll have to try that. I don't think it makes any noises
 
Hi Jimmyhu, my T500RS is V3 as well. Mine doesn't make that grinding/clicking noise when I turn the wheel. The noise from your wheel doesn't sound like the usual fan noise at all. It sounds like something were lose or broke.

Anyway, my T500RS fan inside does sound a bit loud. The fan usually comes on after a min or so when I go into a race on GT5. And it will just stay on for very long time even after I finished the race and went back to the main menu on GT5. I think the fan noise on my T500RS is normal...it's just a bit loud to my taste. It's definitely the loudest fan noise out of all the wheelsI have(G25, G27, GT2). I would say the noise level is comparable to the fan noise of my Buttkicker Gamer version 1 amp.

I wonder why TM use such a loud fan. I have built many PC myself over the years and using low noise fans inside the PC is always something I pay attention to. Has anyone opened up their T500RS to see if it's possible to replace the fan inside?
 
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Hey so has any other t500rs owner thought about whats going to happen after the 2yr warranty expires? Since we cant buy the wheel or pedals by itself.... Seems like we will be screwed? Did anyone get a chance to ask tech support about this or something....

I hate to bring this up but it is a concern of mine.
 
Check your house before throwing stones at others Thomas, as other user pu it. Apart from buying poor quality stand, you never replied to me!
Actually I am pleased that you are here cos I can speak with you and your company but now it would be too late for fixing things.

Not sure what went wrong when you tried to contact me but you can send me a PM if you like to tell me what happened and how I can help you.

About "throwing stones while sitting in a glasshouse":

I think that you are mixing up apples and oranges. My dispute with Topyn was not about product or service quality. It was about a company writing biased and wrong "user reviews" under a an anonymous user name.

So if you are saying I threw a stone than this means I would do the same. But this is not my style. You will not find me sneaking around in user forums and provide false information to manipulate somebody. I always write under my real name or under the company name so it is clear that this is biased corporate information.

Think about it. If companies are doing things like that and spam forums with hidden PR it will be a danger to the basis of the social networks. If it is just one guy you might spot him but there are cases in other forums and blogs where companies are acting under hundreds of different user pseudonyms to influence the public opinion. Ever wondered why you can read Amazon reviews before the product has been shipped to customers?

This is unfair and desparate behaviour and you can accuse us of a lot of things, complain about product quality , service, shipping etc., but you can not accuse me or anybody else in my company of doing such things. There are several community testers on this forum which have received a product for testing and writing a review. Ask them if I ever told them what to write or offered them any payment in order to write a favourable review.

BTW, if a company is making hidden PR it also clearly violates against the rules in this forum.

I think Topyn understood and his last post settled the case for me. I hope that this is also in the interest of the whole community. You need to be able to trust what you are reading.
 
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My fan sounds like this:



Im already in contact with TM about this noise and if its normal or not.


Mhm and what exactly now is not normal with the fan sound? That is the normal sound of the fan.. Absolute no issue.. You can replace your wheel 1000 times and you will always get this fan noise ;)
 
I'm new to gt5 and racing games in general and the T500 is the first ffb steering wheel I've owned. If I turn the steering wheel I either what i can only describe as a high pitched electrical noise and the steering wheel movement doesnt feel smooth like it states in most reviews, also the fan comes on after 20 minutes playing and never turns off. Is this normal for the T500 and FFB steering wheels in general?

I was expecting it to be a bit better than this and I'm kind of regreting not buying a fanatec wheel istead.
 
Mhm and what exactly now is not normal with the fan sound? That is the normal sound of the fan.. Absolute no issue.. You can replace your wheel 1000 times and you will always get this fan noise ;)

It´s that whir sound you can hear better in the vid when the cam goes near to the fan.
The air sounds are quite loud, but understnadable for such a small fan that rotates always on full speed. But this whir sound its really annoying. No other fan i have here in my other devices do such a sound and you´ll hear it more in reality then in the vid.
 
Not sure what went wrong when you tried to contact me but you can send me a PM if you like to tell me what happened and how I can help you.

About "throwing stones while sitting in a glasshouse":

I think that you are mixing up apples and oranges. My dispute with Topyn was not about product or service quality. It was about a company writing biased and wrong "user reviews" under a an anonymous user name.

So if you are saying I threw a stone than this means I would do the same. But this is not my style. You will not find me sneaking around in user forums and provide false information to manipulate somebody. I always write under my real name or under the company name so it is clear that this is biased corporate information.

Think about it. If companies are doing things like that and spam forums with hidden PR it will be a danger to the basis of the social networks. If it is just one guy you might spot him but there are cases in other forums and blogs where companies are acting under hundreds of different user pseudonyms to influence the public opinion. Ever wondered why you can read Amazon reviews before the product has been shipped to customers?

This is unfair and desparate behaviour and you can accuse us of a lot of things, complain about product quality , service, shipping etc., but you can not accuse me or anybody else in my company of doing such things. There are several community testers on this forum which have received a product for testing and writing a review. Ask them if I ever told them what to write or offered them any payment in order to write a favourable review.

BTW, if a company is making hidden PR it also clearly violates against the rules in this forum.

I think Topyn understood and his last post settled the case for me. I hope that this is also in the interest of the whole community. You need to be able to trust what you are reading.

What a crock.

The customer that PAYS money needs to be able to TRUST your product, your word and timely delivery.

Trust what you read has nothing to do with it.
 
Is their any proof regards who/what "Topyn" is to accuse him of such?

Even if he/she is some level of "TM" staff, this thread clearly covers any issues the product has shown and also the good things about it. I dont see one persons comments having a massive swaying influence like some covert product promotion happening on the forums. Thomas, come on we are all a bit wise to such things happening anyways and often "card holder" placed "customer comments".

From the general comments already made on this thread the average reader can determine if the product is a good purchase for them or not. It doesnt seem right however for a CEO of one company to publically challenge someone in a forum even one thats possibly from another company. Sure we all disagree sometimes and have different opinions but we dont question a persons identity or accuse them of an alterative motive? Oh, unless of course their behaviour clearly is out of the ordinary.

I feel if Thomas had any "personal suspicisions" then it could of been done over PM.
Maybe its an issue for the mods and it shouldnt really go any further.

Anyone that wants to talk to me about my own comments do it via PM, lets keep this thread going in the right direction.
Maybe its time for a "T500 Modification/Discussion Thread" if thats becoming a common/popular thing to do.
 
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I bought the T500 a couple of days ago with only playing on a friends microsoft FFB wheel (bit daft i know). I wasnt expecting it to be sooo noisy.
If i move the steering wheel I get what I can only describe as a high pitched electrical hum and the wheel doesnt feel very smooth when i turn it. in-game after 20 mins or so the loud fan kicks in which I believe is normal by reading some posts on here but it doesnt turn off, seem to stay on all the time and the FFB feel eratic in-game and doesnt seem to match whats happens on-screen. Kinda regretting purchasing it now, maybe i were better off buying a Fanatec or G27 instead :(

Is all this normal for a high priced FFB steering wheel or do i have a dud one?
 
Hi all, yesterday i received my new T500 wheel. I love it but have some problems. In some games i didnt have a powerfull FFB. For example, in Rfactor i have an excelent FFB, i can feel all track, bumps, corners.. Same on Shift2, excellent feelings of the track and car.

But i have problems with Iracing (FFB works, but it seems too weak, even set in 100% streght). I cant feel the corner and track, wich is the problem? Wich settings do you use to have a heavy FFB on Iracing?

Please help, best regards grom Spain
 
Mhm and what exactly now is not normal with the fan sound? That is the normal sound of the fan.. Absolute no issue.. You can replace your wheel 1000 times and you will always get this fan noise ;)

Sim racer, My fan sounds very similar at start up and then it quiets down. The sound becomes smoother after a minute. The first couple of minutes the fan sounds as though if it is slipping on the shaft or as if it were off center.
 
Hi sofad, my fan sounded just like yours. It's loud in my book.

zacharyPL, thanks for that link. It looks like replacing that fan is not that difficult. But the article claimed that it took an hour and a half to open up the case. That sounds like a very very long time just to open up the casing.

Anyway, is anyone from TM reading this? I would like to get some info on the fan T500RS has.
1) What size of fan is it? 6cm? 8cm?
2) What fan speed is it? 1200RPM? 2000RPM? or anything higher?
3) What air flow does it produce? 25CFM? or anything higher?
4) Is the fan a PWM fan with 4 pins molex connector?

It would be nice if someone from TM reply on this fan issue. I'm sure a lot of people out there would like to know about replacing T500RS fan with a lower noise fan.
 
Hi sofad, my fan sounded just like yours. It's loud in my book.

zacharyPL, thanks for that link. It looks like replacing that fan is not that difficult. But the article claimed that it took an hour and a half to open up the case. That sounds like a very very long time just to open up the casing.

Anyway, is anyone from TM reading this? I would like to get some info on the fan T500RS has.
1) What size of fan is it? 6cm? 8cm?
2) What fan speed is it? 1200RPM? 2000RPM? or anything higher?
3) What air flow does it produce? 25CFM? or anything higher?
4) Is the fan a PWM fan?

It would be nice if someone from TM reply on this fan issue. I'm sure a lot of people out there would like to know about replacing T500RS fan with a lower noise fan.

Yeah, or one that is not about to break.
 
I wouldnt recommend opening a wheel to change the fan.
Your going to invalidate your warrenty guys.

Not had any issues so far, luckily even though the fan is rather loud but not that I hear it much with all the ingame audio.
You have a 2 Year warrenty guys, use it and demand a replacement or fix if you feel you have a faulty unit.


My CSP pedals were growling at my T500 earlier, whats going on :)
(topyn 41 posts / All T500RS with 1 also T500RS Vs G27 Related = Alarm - Phasers set to stun)
 
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I should be getting my T500 this Friday. You guyz have me nervous now about the fan. I hope I didn't make a $561 mistake.:scared:


I have not had the fan problem. I am into 100+ hours of heavy use at high FFB settings. I have raced for sessions as long as 3 hours. I admit I feel lucky.
 
I have not had the fan problem. I am into 100+ hours of heavy use at high FFB settings. I have raced for sessions as long as 3 hours. I admit I feel lucky.


I had lot's of hours on my T500RS V1 and I could hear the fan speed up, but it was just a smooth airflow volume increase sound, not noisy like that of bad bearings or unbalanced vibration like I have seen with some PC case fans.

When I first tried the wheel it was perfectly smooth in both directions, however I did start to feel / hear the belt grind a bit when turning the wheel left as others had noted at idle. When under power and racing it was barely noticeable and did not negatively impact my experience.

I really liked the wheel, but the lack of support for PS3 titles (Shift 2 for example) and customization of settings is what was the deal breaker for me - it's a shame that TM didn't include a mode to emulate Logitech wheels, so at least all PS3 titles that didn't have direct support would have worked properly with FFB (similar to how Fanatec wheels work on PS3). If there is more support in the future for PS3 titles I would re-consider another purchase ;)
 
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