...
Hi Joe,
I have the Logitech, and I would recommend it.
Understanding that the pedals are, easily, the biggest drawback, I
never thought they were as horrible as some say. The travel is short,
the resistance is light, but man, I've tried a lot of wheels out
there, and these pedals, off the shelf, felt as good as any to me.
Whoever reviewed them and used the term "almost digital," was
exaggerating, close to the point of a lie, IMHO. Also, the Logitech
control utility allows for sensitivity adjustment through software.
In GPL, I run the brake pedal somewhere near 50% sensitivity, with
very nice results. I can mash the brake to just a hint of locking and
release, and I do exactly this when driving, repeatedly. I think
spring tension could help me here, so I might go for a heavier brake
spring. (more below)
I really liked the distance of travel of the MS wheel's pedals, but
they slipped around on me, and the whole base felt a little "top
heavy," for lack of a better description. By this, I mean, if I were
to mash the accelerator "vigorously", the base would tip. Not
acceptable to me. The downward motion of the Logitech pedals allow me
to go ape on the accelerator if I so choose, with no problem.
I run decent lap times in GPL, and I feel I have very acceptable
control of the accel/brake with the Logitech pedals. In running
various Thrustmaster models, and the Saitek FF wheel(especially), it
seemed to me that the pedal travel was much shorter and harder to
control precisely. Maybe that's just me, everyone else in RAS seems
happy with their Thrustmasters, and I know TM makes a decent product,
and supports it.
The FF of the MS wheel was *much* stronger than the Logitech, but the
MS wheel itself - on the uncoated parts - felt too cheaply built;
reminiscent of my old Interact V3. (which I still think was a great
wheel for $60. :) So, for the price that they are asking for these
things, I was not ready to accept a cheap feel.
The Logitech is a keeper for me, mainly because the pedal travel is
the only complaint I have with it; everything else about the wheel I
really do like. The pedal travel was still good enough to not be a
deal breaker. The feel of the wheel itself has a heavy, quality feel,
the paddles are excellent, and the wheel performs flawlessly in
everything that I use it for, which is mainly GPL and Viper Racing.
It does not work with one of the Papy NASCAR sims that run in DOS
mode, but I don't run it. Be aware of it, though.
I am actually using the serial port in spite of the USB, purely for
the fact that I don't feel like patching Win95 OSR2 to support it, and
I really don't want Win98. I have run it on 98 with USB, and either
way, I have absolutely no jitters in GPL. None.
The Act Labs RS I have not had the opportunity to try, but have heard
mostly good things about, with the exception of a lack of split axis.
Or has this been resolved, anyone?
Lastly (finally!), I have had no problem with the Logitech's stock
resistance, but lately, I've been entertaining the idea of heavier
springs, just to make sure I'm not missing something good. :) AFAIK,
no one has tried the tennis ball trick with these pedals (anyone?),
because the springs are easily replaceable with heavier springs.
And there's my entry for windbag of the week.
Good Luck!
Brett
