rec.autos.simulators

I'm *this* close to purchasing one of these beasties.  Checked one out at
a Best Buy, and loved the feel.  By comparison, the MS wheel felt a
little too small/cluttered, and the Logitech has fairly nice shifter
paddles.

Anyway - while I prefer the fact that the MS wheel uses an optical
encoder, I'm not at all crazy about their price, nor about the non-USB
nature of the beast.  So I'm opting out of my previous "I'm not buying a
wheel with a pot!" stance.  Particularly since the Logitech is so
inexpensive ($114 at buycomp.com), I can think of it as sort of a stopgap
measure until the *right* wheel is finally built.  (The right wheel would
be as solid as a TSW, but with force feedback, a USB connection, and an
optical encoder.)

But I digress - my question:  have any of you opened up your Logitech
wheel?  How is the pot attached?  Could I (eventually) replace the pot
with a high quality $15 milspec-type pot?  Is the pot connected to the
shaft via a *** tube?

I ask, because I'm a little bummed that I *can't* replace the pot in my
T2 with anything really good, because it requires a knurled plastic
shaft.  All the good pots have smooth stainess steel shafts, and I can't
see any reasonable way to retrofit one of those into the T2.

Thanks,

--John Bradley

Mine's not an FF, but I have had it down to bits.  The pot shaft has a
half-round end that fits into a plastic collar, which in turn mates to the
metal steerer shaft.  It's attached with a simple tab and stabilized with
several dabs of silicone.  The fit of the  pot shaft end-tab in the collar
wasn't so great on mine, causing a bit of imprecision, but a spot of epoxy
putty cleared that up. You could upgrade the pot with a little creativity, I
suspect.   One thing to consider is that the Logitech has an A/D converter that
eliminates a lot of the noise you usually get with pots.  You may have noticed
posts from users mentioning their jittery arm problem vanished when they got a
Logitech wheel.  That's why.  One thing they DO need is more than 190+/-
degrees of rotation.  I modified mine easily for about 270, and the FF uses the
same stops, but I can't say about the rest of the FF mechanism.  If you do get
one, be sure to download the latest software(ver.  3.12.197) from
http://www.wingmanteam.com, and keep an eye out for the next version, which is
coming soon.

Steve B.

remove "edy" from address for email

You don't mention the pedals. One look at the Logitech pedals made me
switch to the MS wheel...

l8er
ronny

--
How to get rid of censorship in German game releases
<http://www.gamesmania.com/german/maniac/freedom/freedom.htm>

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

Depending on how hateful they are (after the mandatory spring upgrade!)
I'm likely to retrofit the Logitech pedal electronics into my T2 pedal
hardware.  At least, that's the plan...

--John Bradley

That should prove very interesting. Keep us posted.

--

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cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

The MS pedals are very, very nice...

-Larry