The Thrustmaster T500RS Thread

  • Thread starter TomN
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With any of those choices you lose buttons on your wheel. I'd rather keep the wheel buttons than have a new rim just for the sake of getting a new rim. That's what keeps me from getting the Ferrari GT rim.

Yes, but as Matrixi posted, i can get a convenient button box. Reason I want a new rim is simply becuse I want a bigger one and I can´t stand the rubber feel.
 
A static button box is a much better alternative for moving wheel buttons though.

I'm going to get a Momo mod 78 in leather for my T500 at some point, had one in my Skyline and it was lovely. Already have a DSD adapter waiting for it.

I beg to differ buttons on wheel is way superior look at how they do in f1. You could get a srw s1 wheel remove the handles and buttons and you get Rev lights and more buttons then on the stock rims including the f1 rim.

Won't work on consoles but gt5 or such dont really need much.

Suede wear out really fast so leather may be better from an endurance standpoint. But you do get crazy grip.
 
The difference is, F1 wheels have their buttons easily at your fingertips. T500 wheel buttons require letting go with one hand and reaching for them, unless your thumbs are 10cm long. Might aswell reach for a button box where the buttons are always where you expect them to be.
 
The difference is, F1 wheels have their buttons easily at your fingertips. T500 wheel buttons require letting go with one hand and reaching for them, unless your thumbs are 10cm long. Might aswell reach for a button box where the buttons are always where you expect them to be.

I see I never tried the stock T500RS 300 mm rim. But the SRW S1 wheel works even on a 365 mm rim. I need my eyes on the road I am so tuned in to driving where I am looking so it´s dangerous having button boxes that is hard to operate on the side. I think it´s easier to learn to find the buttons holding the wheel so you get a reference even if you could not instantenously reach them instead of trying to find it with your peripheral vision in the heat of a battle.
 
Won't work on consoles but gt5 or such dont really need much.

Aftermarket wheels with button plates do work on consoles. I have a Sam Maxwell-built Sparco P310, and I use it for GT6 on PS3 all the time. You just have to re-map the buttons.

My Sim Rig 2.jpg
 
I have one of the first T500s to hit the store shelves -- it's over 2 years old, and it's as strong and sturdy as ever, and once it had a chance to get "broken-in," I haven't noticed any lack of smoothness. I've tried other people's Clubsport wheels, and the T500 is every bit as smooth, IMO, and I can't imagine the TX being noticeably smoother.

You made a good choice with the T500 -- now all you need is a load cell.

;)
 
Strange my fanatec wheels was smoother then my T500rs. I used the GT3RS and Turbo S before. With smoothness don´t mean ffb but the sawmill feel as you turn the wheel ffb enabled or not. That is one thing that is great with my bigger rims on the 365 mm there is like 300 % less sawmill effect then on the f1 wheel. 380 mm rim and it might disappear entirely lol
 
Strange my fanatec wheels was smoother then my T500rs. I used the GT3RS and Turbo S before. With smoothness don´t mean ffb but the sawmill feel as you turn the wheel ffb enabled or not. That is one thing that is great with my bigger rims on the 365 mm there is like 300 % less sawmill effect then on the f1 wheel. 380 mm rim and it might disappear entirely lol

I never really compare wheels in their unpowered state -- I'm only really concerned about how smooth they feel under actual racing conditions with the forces tweaked in properly.

That said, I can believe that the Fanatec wheels may feel smoother with FFB disabled, given the larger motor on the TM wheel.
 
I didn´t say unpowered it´s when it´s powered it get unsmooth. The feel when you turn left or right when you are racing and aren´t driving on kerbs or something so ffb can distract from it :) I really got interested in the TX due to it hopefully would get rid of the sawmill effect the big ffb motor in the T500RS brings but there is so few that have both :(
 
Do the TX have the same hard mounting option as the T500RS. I find it strange that I need to use the clamp even when using the bolts to get a really solid mount. Though maybe it´s intentional as a safety mechanism for those that hangs on their wheels to not be able to mount it 100 % solid.

It´s not a real issue though with the clamp it don´t budge to bad.
 
Did I make a mistake by buying the T500 instead of the TX? I heard the TX moves smother.

Honestly, I don't think you did. You get a really nice set of pedals (that are easily modified into something that's very good). Plus, going through the TX threads, there's a disturbing number of people who've had their TX wheel die with a loud pop (I'm assuming it's the low quality power supply inside it). For all the T500's issues, they're all relatively minor and the major things like motor and power supply are best in class for this market (Fanatec, Logitech, and Thrustmaster).
 
For racing, the only thing that matters is the quality of the pedals. All the rest is fluff.

I'd imagine the thing that sits in front of you is pretty important too.
 
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It´s mostly the thing that sits in top of your head :). It´s very hard to buy speed. Every time I read people saying they gain seconds with new pedals or wheel I recon it´s a placebo effect. They have more fun and is immersed more so make it easier to focus and they do faster laptimes.

Some things do absolutely help though. Having brake pedal with progressive resistance that let you use your muscle memory to understand how hard you brake. You don´t need a loadcell or pressure transducer for that since it´s the rubber that create the resistance unless you brake on a plank. You can get very far with just some rubber. I say this at the same time I ordered a set of HE Sim Ultimate pedals ;)

As for wheel as long as it working properly and give linear readings and it don´t have to much internal resistance it don´t really matter much. Look at how many fast G27 drivers there is despite the poor ffb and feel of that wheel. For me rim size do matter a bit but it´s not much as long as you can adjust the lock and steer ratio you can often compensate so a F1 rim and a 365 mm rim is a bit as fast. But neither of these is perfectly suitable for rallying that´s for sure so that does matter a bit.

As for monitors we have input lag. A monitor with a lot of input lag will just hurt your reactions to much you just can´t drive as fast when you can´t trust what you see.

In general you would get better gear to increase the immersion, have more fun and thus being able to keep focus longer rather then expect they would make you faster. As much as I feel the G27 is an awful loud cheap toy with some kind of rumble effects and no ffb I can´t say I am faster with the T500RS. It´s hard to do a 1 to 1 though since the G27 has a 270 mm rim and I use F1 or 320mm and upwards on the T500RS.

As for pedals nixim modded G27 I didn´t see any big difference from that and Frex GP pedals, CST pedals, Club sports and my current T500RS pedals.
 
When I went from the stock G25 pedals to the CSP (this was a few years ago)I saw an immediate drop in lap times. No placebo effect, it was the brake. It is all about the brake. On he same tracks with the same cars my lap times were lower and my consistency was better. Those CSP lasted all of 2 months before they developed all kinds of issues. POS's

I went with the T500 after that and with the stock pedals (I use the TM rubber mod) I didn't gain or lose any time- the brake with these is every bit as good as the CSP brake.

An poor driver won't see any difference between an unmodded G25 pedal set and a load cell or a T500 pedal set- they just don't know what to do with it. A good driver will be better with better equipment. So you can buy performance, but you have to be good in the first place. If you don't have a lot of sim racing experience (or if you just aren't very good) save your money and use cheap pedals. In that case you can't buy performance.

I'd imagine the thing that sits in front of you is pretty important too.

It really isn't. As long as you have enough rotation in the wheel and a bunch of buttons, it's not very important.
 
Hello there Guys .. I just wanted to ask about something .. I've been playing with my T500RS for about a year and half and a couple of days ago I've faced a really weird problem .. when I was playing Gran Turismo as usual I always put the FFB from 8 to 10 sometimes depending on how much i feel that the wheel got exhausted .. but anyways .. the problem is that while driving there is some kind of an angle when i steer that forces the wheel to push the PS button and sometimes the head lights are on and then off randomly all alone .. and my head lights button is R2 on the wheel .. today i had this problem several times simultaneously after a long drift day with my friends online .. I just thought about why not try and see if there is a new firmware update rather than V40 .. and yes .. i found the V41 .. i updated the wheels firmware and then i played again .. guess what ?!! same problem different Firmware version .. so it didn't fix my problem .. I then got into testing my wheel's FFB from the thrustmaster control panel on my PC .. everything looked normal .. but when i race or drift in granturismo at some steering angle + juming on Apex forces the wheel to press the PS or R2 Button .. did anyone face this problem before ?!! and what could be the reason that this issue is happening .. and how to fix it ?!! :(
 
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This is what the switch assembly and the spring/foam looks like:

shifter-trigger.jpg
As you've reached that part .. can u tell me how to reassemble the whole device (T500RS) I disassembled my wheel to clean every single bit inside .. and obviously I ended up with dozens of screws where it is slightly possible that I forget what came from where or which step was before the other .. :D sounds stupid but I ended up with a table full of scattered parts .. and I also wanted to have the advantage to mount extra fans as I wont disassemble the whole wheel again .. thanks
 
Can anyone tell me if there is a large change to the feeling and sound of the wheel while turning it when the FFB is on vs when the FFB is off?

I am one of the few who prefer to play without FFB and sound and smoothness is important for me.
 
Can anyone tell me if there is a large change to the feeling and sound of the wheel while turning it when the FFB is on vs when the FFB is off?

I am one of the few who prefer to play without FFB and sound and smoothness is important for me.
Of course it's not as tough to turn the wheel with FFB off as with it on. But I find the smoothness and sound the same to be honest. 👍
 
27105-65e2e28a-709b-44ba-b4c2-1bbd6fbca1c6.jpg

Noctua NF-6x25 FLX

Just fitted this fan in my T500, together with a 3-pin to 2-pin fan adapter.
It's really a nice upgrade. I placed it the way TM recommends placing the latest fans they send. So snipping of the screw holes from the old top mounted fan and placing it with some dual sided tape of 1mm thick. 1mm because of vibration absorption from the wheel to the fan and the other way around.

I must say I am pleased with this purchase. The fan has a higher airflow, with less noise and consumes less wattage.
So as it will consume less power it won't be as much of a burden on the electronics. Meaning they will get less hot too.
The old Chiefly fan was 60x60x10, Noctua is 60x60x25.
The old Chiefly fan had just 'sleeve bearing', and Noctua has their own 'SSO2 bearing' which is a "self-stabilising oil-pressure bearing" (should last longer with all the vibrations in the wheel).
The old Chiefly fan was 12v @ 0.20A, Noctua is 12v @ 0.12A.
The old Chiefly fan only pushed 25.74 m3/h (15.15 CFM), Noctua 29.2 m3/h (17.19 CFM).
The old Chiefly fan made 27.9 dB(A) of noise, the Noctua only whispers at 19.2 dB(A).

So much better specs in more ways than one. I didn't even hear the fan switch on while racing and had to check with a flash light, as it is just 19.2 dB(A).
More notably is that the fan stopped spinning much sooner (as in it ran for just a few minutes), and thus should be able to cool the motor a lot better during operation as well.

Besides all that Noctua fans are high quality stuff with 6 years of warranty (on this particular fan), and since it's inside the enclosed wheel... who cares about the color? ;)

Anyways, a recommendation from my side this fan and am glad that I don't have a rattling/grinding fan anymore.
Be sure not to forget buying a "3-pin to 2-pin fan adapter" as this is not included.

So something like these...
The left one is the "Noctua NA-AC2" (only included with the 40mm fan), the right is generic one (which I bought).
review-accesorios-noctua-NA-AC2.jpg
2IN-3PIN-VGADAP.jpg
 
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Thanks for posting that Logi. I've been meaning to do something very similar forever. I suppose the only reason I haven't is because it doesn't bug me much. Why? Because I never have time to race anymore! :( :( :( :(
 
Yes the fan upgrade was such a relief. Before I did that the wheel could be on for close to an hour after a race but then the stock fan really don´t pull any air whatsoever it´s just for show.
 
Thanks for posting that Logi. I've been meaning to do something very similar forever. I suppose the only reason I haven't is because it doesn't bug me much. Why? Because I never have time to race anymore! :( :( :( :(

As said we appreciate it a whole lot. Also thanks for sending me my next present (which transport was quicker!).

In any case, veel free to take some time to race in my opinion. We all love your products, but also know what it is to love sim racing and I doubt anyone of us want to keep you away from it.
So see if you can manage to put in some time for yourself, even if it's just for an hour orso. Our fun shouldn't ruin your fun after all. ;)
 

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