rec.autos.simulators

one review says the momo (the red one) is the best and that the act-labs is
even outperformed by the Micro***wheel
-which i own right now but with no xp support - it sucks even more than it
already did-
the other says act-labs is still #1 and all the rest are just trying
that's a hell of a lot of difference to me ...

can i get some experiences from you guys

btw, i want to buy the shifter as well, any thoughts on that?
good, great, so-so?

cheers

3dO

Some Call Me Tim

HTH
Ken

I used to have the red Logitech wheel and although it was very good in its
time, the Momo leather is better.

Good luck

I have the original Logi (red - cable driven), an Act-Labs, and just
bought a Logi Momo Force Racing (black).

The orig Logi and the Act-Labs both have rewired CH pedals.

I'd rate the orig Logi as the best of the three. The new Logi Momo comes
in second.

And try as I did, I never ever liked the Act-Labs. The notchiness (that
everyone says goes away with time, yet never has, even  after doing a
bit of a lube job on the gears and all) was HORRIBLE. Add to that the
cumbersome size, and all the wires and shit you have to haul up onto
your desk... ugh. The pedals that came with the unit where the worst I
had ever used, even after trying to mod and lube them. This is all just
my personal experience. Others have different levels of tolerance.

--
MRSisson

LOAD "GPL",8,1
RUN

The Momo is the best FF wheel currently available.  Its as simple as
that.  And it isn't as if its the most expensive of the bunch, either.

Achim

While I greatly admire the intent of the ACT people, and appreciate the
heavy and sturdy construction of the cases, using the wheel has been
less than a joy.  

The leatherette covering started to peel off the wheel rim, and it
bends alarmingly if you put any torque on the spokes at all.  It
occasionally emits a distressing 'CRACK' as though it's going to snap
off in my hands.  The clamp is very good and holds the wheel firmly to
any flat surface, but it's HUGE and takes up a lot of space.  The FF
motor is excellent and the belt drive is clearly better than any gear
system I've tried.  Unfortunately, I get the notchy feeling when
turning the wheel too.  I should try the lube option, but can't work up
enough enthusiasm.

The standard pedals are simply junk.  Well-constructed and solid, but
badly designed.  They bind and have virtually no travel.  But they're
made of metal and very rugged, so performing SlotTweak's rather
thorough mod on them makes the difference between something I wanted to
toss out the window and a fairly nice responsive pedal set.  No clutch
on these, though.  And they desperately need the squash ball mod.

The sleeve-connected shifter (not a USB model) has a pretty good feel
to it, and selects gears positively and accurately as long as you're in
the shifter utility.  Go to a game, though, and it appears to select
gears randomly.  It does this in GPL, NH, F1-200X, and SCGT.  My
machine is 2.1 GHz with 512MB of fast RAM, so maybe XP is the problem.
I've installed no utilities that weren't needed to run the games; it's
not even set up for Internet use.  I've tweaked the shifter utilities
until my fingers ached, but to no avail.

On the flip side, I installed my MOMO, grabbed the wheel rim, and was
very shocked to find myself enjoying the games more and driving faster.
I really only picked up a MOMO because I got it for $100 and planned to
make it a spare.  It's now my primary wheel and I have few
complaints...

A word to the wise: if you like NR003, don't bother with the MS Sidewinder
wheel: the FF with this wheel is wildly inconsistent.  And with MS
abandoning the Sidewinder line (including the excellent joysticks), their
already iffy customer support will become nonexistent.

The ECCI pedals are so far compatible with the MS Sidewinder (and excellent
in most games...just not my current fav, NR003), the Logi GP Force (black
rim, not the red-*** Formula Force), and one of the console wheels (the
TM unit for the Xbox, I think), with more to follow.  TM is releasing a
wheel & pedal set for the PS2 when Gran Turismo 4 is released (for the Xmas
season); I've been trying to talk ECCI into supporting this unit.  You can't
believe how much better console games are with a wheel and pedals than those
ridiculous midget joysticks!

I know how to connected the E-3000 pedals to the LWFF.
Send me an email if you seriously want to know :-)

Achim

...

You can't go wrong with the Momo Racing wheel.

SkykingUSA

Mitch

Agree on all points here.  If you don't get the perf pedals, then
definitely you will want to do SlotTweak's mods.  Or use some other
pedals.  The stock (non perf) pedals are practically worthless.

Another user posted that the resolution was better on the older Act
Labs wheels.  I would generally agree.  I went from Win98SE and the
serial port engine to WinXP and the USB version.  Something definitely
got lost in there somewhere.  It just isn't the same at all, and I
think it is worse, and not necessarily just me not being used to the
differences yet.  I am really ecstatic about my XP experiences thus
far except that it forced me down this road.

Good luck whatever way you decide.

<snip>

Next time you are in gpl/N4/N2xxx or DXTweak2 check the calibration numbers on
the wheel axis. Mine gives a range from 0 to 4096 but the smallest jump when
turning the wheel slowly is 40.  Heard one guy with an older wheel/cartridge say
he gets 1-1024 in steps of 1 which would be great!

The notchy feel is partly the drag as the armature rotates past the magnets in
the motor. Lubing the gears and cutting the belts in half (reduced thickness)
helped but the only way to get rid of it completely is to disconnect the belt to
the motor (this of course also eliminates FF ;-) )  I really wanted to like it
but the low resolution just kills it.

The pedals that come with the ForceRS  wheel are crap, but the high
performance pedals are awesome!  The shifter is fun with GPL, but I
don't use it for F1 2002 or any of the mods.  I use the paddle
shifters on the wheel.

As far as FF, I don't feel the notchiness others report on the
ForceRS, but I do get the squeak that I've read about in other
reviews.  It has something to do with the brushes rubbing against the
armature or some technical gobbly-gook like that.

Anyway, I would never trade the ForceRS back to a Logitech.  I love
the way it drives, it's very, very strong, and parts are available if
I need them.  I recommend the ForceRS if and only if you can also
afford the good pedals.