rec.autos.simulators

I had seen the same wheel in the sales and decided to buy it, picking it
up on thurs 2nd Jan.  Got it home and, seeing as I still had my old
wheel, but no psu, plugged the new wheel's psu into my old wheel, which
was still attached to my desktop.   I then happily played GPL and N2002
to see how my skills had fallen.  Not too far, it seems.

Then it was on to Live For Speed.   After downloading the latest version
0.1N,  I started the game and configured my wheel without any problems,
making sure FF was turned off.   Despite this, when I went to race there
were some strange forces going through the wheel - funny vibrations when
driving along the straight for instance - but I thought I'd put up with
it, just as I had back in August when LFS was doing strange things with
my wheel.  What a big mistake!!  After playing for about an hour  I
exited back to the desktop and discovered that the wheel light was now
off and game controllers was saying it was no longer connected.  What
the F-?!!  So I went to unplug the PSU and found that it was almost too
hot to touch.

Well, that was about 5 hours ago, and since then the wheel won't work
with the new PSU and it now stays cold, just like the other one.  Was it
anything to do with LFS?  I'll let you decide.

Just to confirm it's not a wheel problem.  I had the idea of plugging an
old variable voltage adapter I had kicking around into the wheel just to
see.  The adapter only went up to 12volts and 300mA, but, to my
surprise, it was able to make the wheel work with it and, seeing as I'm
not bothered about FF anyway, I was able to go back to N2002 and play
for another couple of hours.  As for the new PSU?  Still dead and I've
only had it for less than 24 hours.

Guess who won't be touching Live For Speed again? :(
--
Peter Ives (AKA Pete Ivington)
Remove ALL_STRESS before replying via email
If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me :)
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -21.77

[snip]

Wow. That's wild.
I have many hours with LFS on both an original Wingman FF and Momo
Force (the older, expensive one). Haven't had problems with either
one. Personally, I'd stick with playing the game and ditch that wheel.
If it's that lame, it won't be long until something else comes along
capable of killing it. I wouldn't want my controller dictating what
games I could play.

The PSU is clearly underdimentioned. Even if there is bad code in LFS that
puts a lot of unnecessary stress on the wheel, it should not get damaged.
Have you told the LFS team about this? Even if it's not their fault, I'm
sure they don't want LFS to damage all TM/Ferrari wheels.

I assume it's a regular transformer, not a switch mode PSU.
It could be just a blown fuse inside the PSU, or it could be a heat fuse
inside the transformer itself, and it can be a bit difficult to replace. Do
not use the transformer unfused, I've seen what happen when they catch fire.
There's enough stored heat to boil a bucket of water if you short it's
output. If you are able to replace the fuse you should not play LFS again
without turning down the FF strength in some way.

Get a bigger PSU that has the same voltage rating as the original one but
gives more amps (or milliamps). You got to have the same voltage and check
if it's output is DC or AC before you get one. A PSU that gives more amps
will not breathe as hard as the underdimentioned original supply, and will
be able to give the wheel the power it needs. There is off course a slight
possibility that this new-PSU/LFS combo will make the wheel able to kill
it's FF motor or the power transistors that drives it. :)

BTW: A hard working transformer should be someware between "almost to hot to
touch" and "to hot to touch", but maybe not on the plastic case.

---
Jone Tytlandsvik
http://tytlandsvik.no

Achim

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There is another possibility: your original wheel may have some problem
that makes it draw more power from the transformere than it should. If I
read your post correctly, both transformer burned with the same wheel,
so maybe the problem is in the wheel. If it has too much internal
attrition on bearings, shafts and the like, the motor will pull higher
currents, and may overload the transformer...

DF

Not sure where those 'multiple choices' are.  This is all I could find
in the cfg.txt file:

FF Max 100.00
FF Strength 0.00

Equally odd that you posted this twice.

Jan.
=---

With you up to this point... DC motors that are used in this type of
application should be able to support short circuit currents (i.e. anchor
stopped) almost indefinately. Any manufacturer who uses an underdimentioned
motor or doesn't design his control electronics to match is a charlatan.

But with you all the way otherwise. Use a 3rd party power supply with a
higher current rating. 70W selectable output voltage SMPS units are commonly
available in electronics stores (as spares for notebook PSU's) and are
virtually indestructible (electrically speaking, don't back up your car over
one ;-)). Then test the wheels back to back to see if one loads it more than
the other (check temp after about an hour of track time).

Jan.
=---

I guess the only way I'm going to figure out whether the wheel is over-
stressing the PSU is to turn FF on in one of my other sims.  If it does
go again, I've seen a more powerful adapter (higher voltage and
amperage) with what looks like the appropriate connector that I can buy
separately.

I played NR2002 again today with FF off and the PSU was still cold after
an hour.  This is definitely something to do with FF.
--
Peter Ives (AKA Pete Ivington)
Remove ALL_STRESS before replying via email
If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me :)
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -21.77

I agree, that's why I said "slight possibility". But you never know. Unless
Peter's wheel has a production fault, TM has proven they are charlatans, by
designing a wheel that is able to kill it's power supply.

Jone.

<snipped my original post>

OK, I may have jumped the gun and, if so, apologies go to the Live For
Speed team, but there may be a problem with FF in my original wheel.  I
have now tried FF using NR2002 and as soon as I went to drive the wheel
turned full left, that is before I had even engaged first gear.  I then
had to pull *** the wheel to straighten it out.  Now this was the
original fault back in august of last year when I was playing LFS,
though it is a slight chicken and egg situation as to whether the fault
developed and then LFS compounded it, or LFS helped create the fault.
It was some time ago and the fault origianlly appeared whilst playing
LFS.

I have read of the left pull on the straights in NR2002, but this seems
way much more severe.  I didn't drive too long like this for fear of
damaging another PSU, which I imagine would be the logical outcome.  I
would say that the damage is being caused because the PSU is being over-
stressed by the wheel not behaving as it is supposed to.  2 further
tests are required:

1) Try the other wheel to see if it happens.  If it doesn't then its
obviously the original wheel that is at fault.  If it does happen with
the new wheel then:

2) Re-install the driver software for the wheel to see if that corrects
the problem.

--
Peter Ives (AKA Pete Ivington)
Remove ALL_STRESS before replying via email
If you know what's good for you, don't listen to me :)
GPLRank Joystick -50.63 Wheel -21.77