Race Sim Tech & Tips

[Sarsippius]

Looks nice but yeah pricing on sim gear can be a bit crazy.

[Duke]

Well there is a bit more to it than 2 switches lol.
But I get what you mean as from a functional perspective that's all it is.

[Sarsippius]

There's a video update on the Fanatec Facebook page, it doesn't show anything but does have the release date for the Podium wheel range being 13th of July. It's taken then quite a bit longer than they thought, if the pricing is ok I'll most likely upgrade the ol CSW v1 base

[Duke]

https://podium.fanatec.com/



Fanatec Will Sell You Its First Direct Drive Wheel Base For 1€ (But There’s a Catch)

[DarrenM]

Instead of a set price like the DD2 (which will retail for $1500 USD/Euro), the DD1 will go up for weekly auction, starting July 30.

There will be no limit to how many times a hopeful owner can bid. When the auction goes live, Fanatec will attach a countdown timer to it. Every time someone bids, the clock will reset to a minute. Whomever’s last bid when the counter hits zero will lock in their Podium pre-order at that price.

Really don't like this auction idea for a retail product. Lets them artificially limit stock and use auctions to drive prices up.

[Sarsippius]

Yeah I'm not sure anyone likes the auction idea but come December, once they are released there will be a standard price for the DD1.

I think they've found themselves in a difficult spot, both bases will cost them almost exactly the same to manufacture but people won't want to pay the same price for a lower power base. If you look at OSW kits you pay ~100 euro for the big motor so you may as well pay the bit extra for the more powerful one.

$2,500 for the DD2 is pretty expensive but OSW kits are close to $2,000 for us before shipping so it doesn't seem overpriced considering the extra features and it being an all in one package. A DD1 would be enough for me but it might be too much to justify, I might try the auctions on the very minute chance that it might be possible to get one around the $2,000 mark. Depending on how it works it might be a decent option for us, 1,500 euro less VAT is 1,200 euro which is about $1,900, depending on how it all works it might be possible to get one a bit cheaper than retail. Say no one is willing to pay more than 1,000 euro, that's about $1,600 or $1,800 including GST.

[Duke]

[Sarsippius]

Yep USD 1k for the DD1 and the first batch will have the same motor as the DD2. I've just spent the last week pricing up putting together my own OSW but if the AUD pricing is in line with the Euro/USD DD2 vs DD1 pricing then the DD1 should be around the $1,700 mark and I'll get one of those instead.

[Sarsippius]

So it turns out to be a little better than I thought, $1,599.90 for the DD1 incl. 2 years warranty, an extra $160 for 3 years or $480 for 5 years.

Edit: $89 for shipping, I might regret not trying for an auction but I've put in my pre-order

[Duke]

Nice one Sars, can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. Did you bother with an extended warranty?

Price is OK if you're already in the FANATEC eco-system & have one or more of their higher end steering wheels. Otherwise add another $400 - $700 to get you a working system...

Wonder what the Podium Racing Wheel - officially licensed for PS4™ AUS is going to cost???

[Cursed]

I wonder how these pay-for-extra-warranty-periods stack up against the ACL and its disregard for stated warranty periods.

Fanatec is aware of their obligations under the Australian Consumer Law when I spoke to them a couple of years ago about a part that failed just out of warranty.

[ysu]

I wonder how these pay-for-extra-warranty-periods stack up against the ACL and its disregard for stated warranty periods.

Fanatec is aware of their obligations under the Australian Consumer Law when I spoke to them a couple of years ago about a part that failed just out of warranty.

I reckon if you press them they'll honour the Oz laws. Maybe. But the bigger problem is that their gear *fails*. I've had 2 fanatec wheels, 3 problems- one was fixed within warranty, albeit a rather shoddy fix.
Of course 2 of the problems were well out of warranty, but still; spending big bucks with these guys may not be the smartest idea.

[Sarsippius]

No I didn't go for the extended warranty, two years is pretty good and like you say Cursed under the ACL you could consider that something like this should last for more than two years. The motors should literally never fail, the electronics might be a different story but that should all still last many years as well.

The price for the DD1 is pretty competitive, one local mob who make OSW kits sell them for about $2,500, that's for the 20Nm Mige motor but they're more of a premium offering with custom made controller boxes, motor mount, wheel clamps and adapters etc. Another guy gets 30Nm Augury kits and sells them for $2,149 (on the iRacing Aus/NZ trading area).

I actually priced up going the diy option for a 20Nm Mige and was virtually about to start buying stuff when this second announcement came out. I was looking at ~$1,700 (everything shipped) + about $150 for a Fanatec wheel conversion kit. The two kits above would have required this as well plus about $140 for a quick release. So some of the cost is in using a Fanatec rim but if not you're still looking at a custom rim or rim plus button box.

So the DD1 is going to work out cheaper, while it is a bit of an unknown the other advantages are no external button box, no potential EMI issues, no USB cable hanging off the rim and works with the Fanatec rim/quick release out of the box.

Edit: Yeah it is taking a bit of a punt, like you say Ysu they have a bit of a reputation for issues although I'm not sure if they're as prevalent as what you hear. In my experience I had a set of V2 pedals and my V1 base and BMW rim are now 5 years old and never a problem with any of it.

[ysu]

I was talking of my personal experience, but hopefully you'll have better luck! I do not know of their actual fault rate, but with their prices in mind, (and in my experience) it's way too high.

[StanDaam]

Can someone pleases post me a HTC Vive and a DD1!!

[Duke]

The top video covers aspects of the other two videos below it;

[KNAPPO]

Nice!

Kinda funny how it has wheels and tyres but needs castors because said wheels and tyres are useless lol.

[Sarsippius]

Yeah nothing quite says overkill on a sim rig like spending a couple grand on real tyres and rims, I haven't had a chance to watch but are they discs and calipers in there as well? You could build a kick arse cockpit for the cost of all that alone.

[Sarsippius]

Any thoughts on steering wheel positioning in your rigs? I've had my CSW in the same position in my Obutto Ozone for a long time but will have to adjust things a bit for the DD1 as the base is longer and won't simply bolt onto the CSW angled mount. The mount holes are the same but the length is the issue so I will have to raise the mount, probably using a couple pieces of square aluminium or steel extrusion.

Anyway this got me thinking about whether this will mess up the wheel position, maybe making it a bit too high or close to me but looking into it a bit it seems the recommended positioning is quite high. For example on the Obutto site they say the centre of the wheel should be near the base of your neck.

http://obutto.com/information/proper-ra ... -position/

I've extended the Ozone's wheel mount now to get something like this, much higher than I've had it previously, it seems like it could work although I haven't had a chance to test drive it yet. Anyone messed around with this much, any thoughts?

[Cursed]

After spending the last few years in VR on racing sims, it seems obvious to me that racing position varies pretty widely depending on the class and age of the car (or truck or bus) you're driving. Think of the wheel position changes between modern open-cockpits where you need to sit low to stay out of the air flow vs. a road class vs. a LMP vs a truck. some cars don't even have the wheel centered in front of the driver. I've pained over the idea of making some sort of articulated mount that you could set the position right depending on what you're doing, but the fact is that the complexity of implementing the solution outweighs any benefit.

My answer is to simply pick a position that's comfortable (the default Fanatec angle mount works for me), then alter the height/distance of the office chair in respect to the wheel position to replicate things as best I can, and swap the wheel rim to a similar size and shape. If money, time and materials were not issues then this would be quite a project.

[Sarsippius]

Yeah with VR you can jump into numerous cars and actually see how they are set up so I might take a bit more notice now and see what I think. I don't really care so much about it being right for each car but finding an optimal position. This is the bit on the Obutto site that kinda got me thinking specifically about finding a good height:

Steering Wheel Height: The height of the center of the steering wheel should be near the base of your neck. This is obviously much higher than our street cars, but it is imperative to engage the larger muscles of the upper arms, shoulders & back to have better control of your car.

I've always been comfortable with the height I had things but if it provides better control, I guess it's worth trying. Most pictures I can find of proper GT race cars seem to bare this out but it does put the wheel quite high with the top of the wheel about eye level.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=raci ... =1#imgrc=_

One issue which might see me go back to the old position is extending the wheel deck far enough introduces a lot of play due to flex but I will likely have to brace this in any event to handle the DD1 wheel.

[KNAPPO]

Most pictures I can find of proper GT race cars seem to bare this out but it does put the wheel quite high with the top of the wheel about eye level.

EDIT: There be some gold in thar linky

Had to laugh at this pic from the image search.
LOL What could possibly go wrong!

Wait, are those side pods fuel tanks?

[Cursed]

Formula Man-spread

[Sarsippius]

I didn't go far enough to see those pics but yeah the side pods definitely look like fuel tanks, I guess they're keeping low for COG but you'd have to get a sore neck after a while.

After all the talk I actually did some practice with the new wheel position and I think I like it, I don't know if I have more control but it certainly helps for tight corners where you cross your arms. Just having my arms a bit more elevated and away from my body means they've got a bit more room to manoeuvre. Sitting in the Audi R8 GT3 my wheel is higher than the in car one but not by a lot.

[StanDaam]

Find inspiration for new sim cockpit build... tick!!
Looks so comfy!!