RDTV: Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 Direct Drive Wheel Review

[Paul Jeffrey]

We get some time behind the wheel of the Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 direct drive wheel.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had plenty of experience with direct drive wheels in my time, in fact I’ve got the SimCube OSW device attached to my rig right now, but I’ve never had the opportunity to spend much quality time with the Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 wheel... until now.

Having taken hold of the most current in the range of direct drive wheels from Leo Bodnar just prior to Christmas, I was excited to get it bolted to my rig and put it through its paces in a number of both old and new racing sims. From golden oldies like Race07 by SimBin, right the way though to the latest and greatest on offer from Kunos Simulazioni, the benefits of the DD really did shine through right from the very start.

Immediately before one even spends any serious time within your sim of choice, you are struck by the simplicity of setting up the wheel software. Unlike the OSW devices of which I’m more familiar, the SimSteering2 presents the user with a relatively sparse amount of customization opportunities within its own software. Initially this caused me some concern, as I understandably feared that lack of options would equate to minimal opportunity to tweak the wheel to my liking within my sim of choice - however these fears would prove to be unfounded once I took to the virtual circuit, and very quickly the minimal amount of tweaking and editing required would become one of the strongest features of the wheel. Without having to spend hours making adjustments and researching on the internet, I found a very solid and satisfying experience almost straight out of the box. Anyone reading this who’s gone down the rabbit hole of wheel adjustment testing with other manufacturers, will no doubt share my beliefs that driving is far more fun than near endless tweaking and testing...

With setup now quickly and easily taken care of, it was time for the fun to start. As I said earlier, I’ve given this a good test in many of the key sims, and in each and every one the improvements were noticeable and impressive, none more so than with rFactor 2, where using a DD wheel like this lifts the simulation into a brand new range of greatness... pretty much reason enough to go out and join the DD bandwagon all on its own...

Now I’m not going to spend time here discussing the wheel in more detail, you can check the video out at the head of the article for that, but what I will end on is this:

The Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 is very expensive, but cash is all relative to your own situation and expectations. After all, what price can you put on love at first sight?


Find out more about Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 Direct Drive wheel HERE.

For anyone who is interested, you can find my personal in game and on wheel settings for a bunch of sims HERE (as of Nov 2019)​

 

[rikirk]

Sticking with ACC, if I understand correctly, LordKunos suggests go with Max Gain and set FFB in the hardware driver accordingly with soft clipping allowed.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

Sticking with ACC, if I understand correctly, LordKunos suggests go with Max Gain and set FFB in the hardware driver accordingly with soft clipping allowed.

For the sake of convenience as I bounce around several titles, I prefer setting the FFB in the game rather than the other way around. The FFB in ACC feels great to me with my current settings.

 

[rikirk]

@Paul Jeffrey - do you have any insight to share for ACC? Do you use 100% All Effect Scale as well, or you went LordKunos with highest in game Gain?

 

[Furnace Inferno]

He said to do the same thing in AC, I would not do that! It had so much soft clipping with 100% gain that I really don’t understand why he is suggesting it, it makes no sense at all, for DD wheels at least.

 

[rikirk]

Took me a while, and I went back full circle.

75% all effect scale
55% Acc Gain
135% Dynamic damping (can't do lower)
12% Road effects (willing to go to 0 depending on track)

With these settings I'm driving the car and not viceversa. Using carbon fiber rim of 34 cm.

@Paul Jeffrey too busy to share your thoughts?

 

[lynch96]

We get some time behind the wheel of the Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 direct drive wheel.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had plenty of experience with direct drive wheels in my time, in fact I’ve got the SimCube OSW device attached to my rig right now, but I’ve never had the opportunity to spend much quality time with the Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 wheel... until now.

Having taken hold of the most current in the range of direct drive wheels from Leo Bodnar just prior to Christmas, I was excited to get it bolted to my rig and put it through its paces in a number of both old and new racing sims. From golden oldies like Race07 by SimBin, right the way though to the latest and greatest on offer from Kunos Simulazioni, the benefits of the DD really did shine through right from the very start.

Immediately before one even spends any serious time within your sim of choice, you are struck by the simplicity of setting up the wheel software. Unlike the OSW devices of which I’m more familiar, the SimSteering2 presents the user with a relatively sparse amount of customization opportunities within its own software. Initially this caused me some concern, as I understandably feared that lack of options would equate to minimal opportunity to tweak the wheel to my liking within my sim of choice - however these fears would prove to be unfounded once I took to the virtual circuit, and very quickly the minimal amount of tweaking and editing required would become one of the strongest features of the wheel. Without having to spend hours making adjustments and researching on the internet, I found a very solid and satisfying experience almost straight out of the box. Anyone reading this who’s gone down the rabbit hole of wheel adjustment testing with other manufacturers, will no doubt share my beliefs that driving is far more fun than near endless tweaking and testing...

With setup now quickly and easily taken care of, it was time for the fun to start. As I said earlier, I’ve given this a good test in many of the key sims, and in each and every one the improvements were noticeable and impressive, none more so than with rFactor 2, where using a DD wheel like this lifts the simulation into a brand new range of greatness... pretty much reason enough to go out and join the DD bandwagon all on its own...

Now I’m not going to spend time here discussing the wheel in more detail, you can check the video out at the head of the article for that, but what I will end on is this:

The Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 is very expensive, but cash is all relative to your own situation and expectations. After all, what price can you put on love at first sight?


Find out more about Leo Bodnar SimSteering2 Direct Drive wheel HERE.

Like what we do here at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!


 

Anyone have some good settings for RF2?
Running the Simsteering v2 54 - but should be close enough with any other version. i just run 80% all effects

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Anyone have some good settings for RF2?
Running the Simsteering v2 54 - but should be close enough with any other version. i just run 80% all effects

Drop me a PM (to remind me) and when i get on the rig this evening I'll post my settings in here.

Happy (very, very happy) with how it feels, but I'm certain that better ones are achievable with more tweaking

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

@Paul Jeffrey - do you have any insight to share for ACC? Do you use 100% All Effect Scale as well, or you went LordKunos with highest in game Gain?

Apologies - get literally hundreds of alerts per day so I've pretty much given up checking them! Best way to get my attention is to PM.

As per my above message, once I'm on the PC later tonight I'll happily post my settings in this thread. Give me an hour or so and I'll come back to you

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Ok chaps.

ACC

rF2

R3E

AC1

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

WRECKFEST

AMS

(SEE ATTACHED PDF)

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

NOTE: I saved these images a while ago so they might have been adjusted since then, but it should give you a solid reference base

 

[rikirk]

@Paul Jeffrey
Thank you a lot for the follow up!
Hope you dont mind if I post here instead of a PM for the benefit of the whole community.

1. Did you discuss those setting for ACC with the developers? @kunos mentioned that softclipping is desirable, which requires in game Gain no less that ~75%.

In fact, you might notice the pro-sim drivers that are using Thrustmaster have the FFB at much higher level than yours with lots of red coming from the FFB app. Being our wheel 26Nm, it requires much less All Effect Scale in simsteering (around 40%).

Try yourself and you will find much more FFB coming from the game, instead of raw power from the wheel.

2. Also, Kunos (@Gergo Panker) does not recommend any Road Effect for direct drive wheels because it's simply a multiplier for less powered wheel (even when reducing the output). If you follow my indication in point 1. you will notice that.

3. Do you use 0% for Dynamic Damping for a a specific reason? Adding gyro does makes a difference in how the car handles and the Simucube community recommends 100% as standard.

Your answers to the above will be very appreciated and hopefully will get some attention from the developer as well (without the usual comment "as per customer preference" vs. as the game has been designed/tuned/developed).

This is specific to ACC.

PS: BTW how did you get the 3.17 firmware since the download page is still at 3.9?

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Hope you dont mind if I post here instead of a PM for the benefit of the whole community.

NP - please do prompt me via PM tho - I'm not too great at keeping track of the various things I'm supposed to be involved in

1. Did you discuss those setting for ACC with the developers? @kunos mentioned that softclipping is desirable, which requires in game Gain no less that ~75%.

In fact, you might notice the pro-sim drivers that are using Thrustmaster have the FFB at much higher level than yours with lots of red coming from the FFB app. Being our wheel 26Nm, it requires much less All Effect Scale in simsteering (around 40%).

Yes discussed it with Kunos, however much of the setting decisions are based on some little tweaks and stuff I've adjusted myself rather than specific advice. I'll freely admit better settings are almost certainly available, setting up FFB isn't my strong point, and time is oh so very limited in order to invest is tweaking! Feels reasonably decent at present, although I'm worried if I start tweaking again, I'll head down that rabbit hole and be lost for months

2. Also, Kunos (@Gergo Panker) does not recommend any Road Effect for direct drive wheels because it's simply a multiplier for less powered wheel (even when reducing the output). If you follow my indication in point 1. you will notice that.

Oh man... I'm feeling another case of digging back into settings again... cheers for the tip, will take a look

3. Do you use 0% for Dynamic Damping for a a specific reason? Adding gyro does makes a difference in how the car handles and the Simucube community recommends 100% as standard.

IIRC I picked that advice up from a developer of another sim, and also read it somewhere in a forum about DD wheels. Will try 100% and see what happens!

PS: BTW how did you get the 3.17 firmware since the download page is still at 3.9?

Hmmm good question... maybe it was uploaded and removed at some stage in the past? Not sure tbh


Cheers

 

[rikirk]

I'm actually trying your settings right now so I can compare and pm you with feedback. Plenty of oscillation so far, but I like 0 dynamic damping.

 

[lynch96]

I'm actually trying your settings right now so I can compare and pm you with feedback. Plenty of oscillation so far, but I like 0 dynamic damping.

Would be great if you can share your perfect ACC settings after testing

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Well chaps...

RaceRoom Racing Experience has been significantly updated in the FFB department.. rendering any previous settings obsolete! lol.

Soooooo, how we all getting along with regards to configuring the wonderful SSv2 to the new build of the sim? Anyone got any goodies to share that might help out?

Only tried the new update yesterday (12.12.19) for an hour or so, it feels exceptional so far, but I'm certain much, much more can be found from this wheel.


Cheers!

 

[rikirk]

@lynch96 I even talked to the manufacturer and agreed that like for audio, it's better to get the highest Gain from the source (ACC) and time the output of the motor according to the hardware (size and weight of the wheel). So, I found 85% a good value to avoid saturation (soft clipping) in the totality of the current tracks.
And I now use zero for dynamic damping (thanks @Paul Jeffrey) and road feeling. Maybe placebo, but I feel a more linear response using the same steering lock of the car I drive, like it was with AC.

If I have time will try R3E as well during the holidays and share some thoughts.

Forgot to add that simsteering is going to make available an update of their software in the near future.

 

[gaston rossi]

hola chicos buenas noches, tengo un problema y de urgencia. no me toma el leo bdnar en assetto corsa competizione. no lo detecta. tienen idea cual puede ser el problema o la solucion?

 

[GuitarTech]

hola chicos buenas noches, tengo un problema y de urgencia. no me toma el leo bdnar en assetto corsa competizione. no lo detecta. tienen idea cual puede ser el problema o la solucion?

Here on Race Department the language is English. I understand that ACC doesn't recognise your Bodner wheel, but if you want help here, you'll have to use English to communicate

 

[Jeremy Ford]

hola chicos buenas noches, tengo un problema y de urgencia. no me toma el leo bdnar en assetto corsa competizione. no lo detecta. tienen idea cual puede ser el problema o la solucion?

Translation "hello guys good night, I have a problem and urgent. I do not take the leo bdnar in assetto corsa competizione. it does not detect it. Do you have any idea what the problem or the solution could be?"

I may have the answer. Make sure you have the wheel set at 900 degrees of rotation in the SimSteering settings. Now try and map the wheel in ACC.