Direct drive/servo wheels

[Turk]

I'm thinking of upgrading my wheel again. At the moment I have a fanatec CSR but I'm beginning to find its limits.

I was looking at the fanatec wheel base, I've seen in places that it's basically a servo wheel?? It's probably the next step up for me and to get a working wheel it looks like it's going to cost me around €1000.

I have a fanatec wheel, pedals (CSR elite) and CSR H-shifter. I've had varying problems with all of them, the wheel has become loose and I can see that it's the way the wheel is connected to the base, essentially one screw stopping it from moving in place. I've had a load cell fail on the brakes and the replacement didn't entirely fix the problem. The gear stick has an intermittent clicking noise that sounds like somethings loose, but doesn't affect the operation of the gears. All these things make me a bit apprehensive about buying a more expensive fanatec product, but the fanatec wheel base seems like it's in another level of build quality and fanatecs support was pretty good when I contacted them.

The other wheel I'm looking at is the accuforce wheel from simexperience. This seems to be coming in around €1800 but the package looks very good, as far as I can see you essentially get the base, two wheels and software. But it's a big step up in price and I don't know that it's worth the extra money for someone who doesn't get to play as much as they like. I'm wondering is the Fanatec wheel more than enough for me? Would I appreciate the difference? Would the accuforce be overkill for my needs.

I know there's an open servo wheel project as well but the only one I could find was horribly expensive at almost twice the price of the accuforce and still requiring assembly.

Is there any chance racedepartment could do some sort of roundup of wheels? To give some idea of what the difference is, what gains there are in spending more money and what wheel is enough for different types of player.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

+ manhours, but who am I trying to kid, DIY is hella fun! xD

 

[Pär Öqvist]

With the surge of OSW builders, does it even make sense to buy AF with stepper motor?

To get out of the DIY bit.... God I almost wish I done that. Or not bought a DD at all. But when I get it all together hopefully it´s worth it.

 

[Michael Dao]

I have the AF (stepper) and a real DD motor (AMK) and it's not even comparable. the AF have cogniness/notchiness and chattiness that the AMK do not have, granted it's not the same price range

 

[Deleted member 197115]

To get out of the DIY bit.... God I almost wish I done that. Or not bought a DD at all. But when I get it all together hopefully it´s worth it.

At a steeper price you can one build for you. Dennis Reimer is one, there are some guys on iracing forum selling some.
Than there is Ollie Alina (just DIY kit)
Great time for sim racing.

 

[Turk]

I got this link on the Assetto Corsa forum. http://sim-pli.city/collections/all/products/pre-tested-direct-drive-wheel-kit

It looks like it's straight forward enough and a decent price. WOuld this be free of the notchiness of the accuforce?

It doesn't come with a wheel as far as I can tell and I'd guess it doesn't have any way of doing buttons on the wheel. I don't know how much a suitable wheel would ad to the price.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Wow, Ollie finally finished his web site. Don't see SIM-Ple option though.

 

[Keith_G]

My two cents. I have csw v2 and thoroughly enjoy it with several different wheels. Simple to install, no problems whatsoever, much better than v1 (which I still have), certainly strong enough. Spent my extra money on the HE Ultimate pedals to replace the Club Sport Pedals and it was well worth it and improved my driving experience greatly. My point is that the CSW v2 works very well and should last a long time. I also enjoy the convenience of plug and play with the SQ shifter and plenty of wheel choices to choose from. Not sure the upgrade to an AccuForce would make my experience that much better, but then I never regretted getting something I "really wanted" instead of something less expensive. Good luck on that decision

 

[Turk]

I feel like I've gone full circle and am now looking at the CSW as a real possibility again. While the Simplicity wheel is cheaper it's not a complete kit and would require buying separate paddle shifters and button boxes, which puts me back at accuforce money. With the CSW I could get two wheels as well as the base and still have change left over.

 

[Stefan Sparco]

Accuforce Black Friday sale plus a new version of the AF without the hub and button box:-

http://www.simxperience.com/store/blackfriday2015@simxperience.aspx

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I feel like I've gone full circle and am now looking at the CSW as a real possibility again. While the Simplicity wheel is cheaper it's not a complete kit and would require buying separate paddle shifters and button boxes, which puts me back at accuforce money. With the CSW I could get two wheels as well as the base and still have change left over.

This is true, but from my gatherings DD wheels is a completely different world, huge jump in FFB quality and immersion. Still in process though, can't report off first hand experience.

 

[Turk]

The DD wheels seem quite new too, they may come down in price as time goes on, I could be paying a premium as an early adopter. I think I might chicken out of getting a DD wheel and get the fanatec with the BMW and the formula wheel. It's still a crazy amount of money to be spending on sim gear. I've been watching a lot of reviews and they all seem positive. The only negative comment that stuck out was the simpit review saying it's probably not going to last as long as a DD wheel, which is sort of expected I guess. Other than that he was nitpicking, and the negatives weren't really anything to complain about.

 

[Moxley6969]

Guaranteed at some point the CSW V2 motor will be found and be available as a replacement if something were to go wrong. Also The Fanatec PCB's are ROCK solid as Proven by Ekretz and dumping 2X the voltage and amperage of stock.

 

[Michael Dao]

CSW vs DD is compare apple to orange. I have a CSW both V1 and V2. CSW is a really good round product with a comprehensive accessory that come with it.

The problem with DD is you need a wheel/button plate, it's just more work and long delay. To me CSW is more plug and play. It's takes me a long time to get my hand on a momo wheel and button plate that goes with the DD wheel (sine it's custom made). The waiting is just killing me.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

CSW vs DD is compare apple to orange. I have a CSW both V1 and V2. CSW is a really good round product with a comprehensive accessory that come with it.

The problem with DD is you need a wheel/button plate, it's just more work and long delay. To me CSW is more plug and play. It's takes me a long time to get my hand on a momo wheel and button plate that goes with the DD wheel (sine it's custom made). The waiting is just killing me.

Since you also have DD wheel, is DD really a huge step up from CSW v2.

 

[Michael Dao]

Since you also have DD wheel, is DD really a huge step up from CSW v2.

It's depend on your preference, I like to feel the steering column when it's unwind (when you let steering wheel go) it's really sharp and look like a kart steering, that what I like.

The others things is the subtle force is amplified and you can feel the small things that the car/wheel does than the CSW. You can have 1:1 mapping which is a real bonus and easier to catch slide. Speedwise it does not change anythings for me about the same.

Huge step or not? I would say big but not huge

Hope that help

 

[Turk]

So from what I can tell the accuforce is the best overall package, it includes everything a person would need to get a top end steering system.

The likes of the sim-plicity is probably the best system, giving the best driving experience, but is very modular and requires some research and purchases from a handful of people/companies to get the complete working system. As in shifter paddles/buttons being a separate purchase. While it's possible to get on the ladder for a decent price once you count in buying separate shifters it is by far and away the more expensive system.

The Fanatec CSW seems to be the top rung of the consumer market and the bottom rung of the high end market. The CSW has many comparisons to other consumer wheels in which it fairs very favourably but not to many comparisons to DD wheels. The information I got here is about the only time I've heard comparison to DD wheels.

But it seems that if the CSW is the bottom rung of the high end ladder there aren't to many rungs between it and the high end DD wheels. The DD wheels have added detail, detail I've never experienced, so I won't miss it in the CSW. So I guess it's back to @Richlevy point, is that extra detail worth the €700 extra it's going to cost?

At the moment it's looking like no, I'm just not hardcore enough.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

There are builders that sell complete packages, they are more expensive than kit from Ollie, which is a steal but not many people had theirs delivered, I'd guess the waiting list is huge.
AF while is a nice turn key package, has the worst "stepper" motor, the least powerful and included wheel is just generic $50 ebay kind.They have pretty neat button box perhaps not as nice as something from Sam Maxwell but very decent.
To me it sound that if you already have semi decent wheel, going CSW route is probably not a smart move, low return for investment. I am on T300RS, and from people owning both, the difference is really marginal, but you get better looking metal base and selection of nice rims.

 

[Turk]

To me it sound that if you already have semi decent wheel, going CSW route is probably not a smart move, low return for investment. I am on T300RS, and from people owning both, the difference is really marginal, but you get better looking metal base and selection of nice rims.

I currently have the Fanatec CSR wheelbase, and while it's been pretty good up to now, the way the wheel is joined to the wheelbase seems poor to me. It's now broken, I tried to fix it myself but the screw lock they use has made reassembly difficult. Plus, I think even if it's fixed it looks like the kind of flaw that will break again.

I wanted something more robust, I looked at the DD options because of the problem with the fanatec but it looks like the construction is of a much higher standard on the CSW.

 

[Moxley6969]

the CSW is on a whole different level as opposed to the CSR.

here's a good look at the internals of a V2.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/the-ekretz-csw-v1-v2-comparo-review.316381/

 

[Michael Dao]

yes AF have the best package bit you can get really nice result with OSW along with Sam Maxwell custom. It come with a cost in price, a few times more. The Bodnar wheel + Sam work it's like 3 to 4 times more than AF, does it worth it? I'm not sure. But it's better no doubt about it. As saying before the problem with AF is the stepper motor

Here sam made for me, it's just a piece of art. I cannot recommend Sam enough, I bough from him countless time (I think over 5K), he's a man of his word, transparent communication, and being flexible for what you want. He's a fabricator for anything you want/need.