Force RS wheel rotation mod

For those interested, I've finally gotten around to changing the steering arc on the Force RS from 270� to about 210. No article yet, but there's a bit on it in the June 7 news on the site. For those who are new to this news group, I don't mention the articles on here as a plug for Tweaks & Reviews. I receive a lot of email and people often ask that I mention it here when something they are waiting for is added to the site. This way they don't have to check T&R every day (the exception to this is the recent belt mod). Let's face it, this news group is THE place to hang out if you want to know what's going on or just want some occasional good humor. -- Slot www.slottweak.com Tweaks & Reviews

What's the use of making the rotation angle smaller? Can't you just make the max steering lock in the game bigger? GTX_SlotCar <[email hidden]> schreef in berichtnieuws VUl%4.1590$[email hidden]...

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> For those interested, I've finally gotten around to changing the steering > arc on the Force RS from 270� to about 210. No article yet, but there's a > bit on it in the June 7 news on the site. > > For those who are new to this news group, I don't mention the articles on > here as a plug for Tweaks & Reviews. I receive a lot of email and people > often ask that I mention it here when something they are waiting for is > added to the site. This way they don't have to check T&R every day (the > exception to this is the recent belt mod). Let's face it, this news group

is > THE place to hang out if you want to know what's going on or just wantsome

Quoted text (11 lines)

> occasional good humor. > > -- > > Slot > www.slottweak.com > Tweaks & Reviews > > > >

> Can't you just make the max steering lock in the game bigger? Yes on some games, and no on others. Some titles (let's see if I remember correctly) like Nascar 3, Nascar Legends, Dirt Track Racing, MTM2 and several others, don't have adjustments for this. SCGT, GPL and NFS:PU (and others) do have steering adjustments but handle it in different ways. Mostly they make the steering quicker but it's not linear so it's more apt to be twitchy. It's kind of like going from non-linear to linear then beyond (non-linear the opposite way). They change the steering rate, but it's still over the entire sweep of the wheel. Limiting the wheel rotation leaves the steering linear. In GPL, for example, to get close to the effect I wanted I had to have a fast steering ratio (or is it wheel lock?) and then set the steering to a more non-linear position. That way it would react more quickly to slight wheel movements without over reacting to large movements. The problem is, I want linear steering. Another thing is steering resolution. Most of us really never use more than 150 to 180� of rotation while driving unless we're in trouble (then it's too late anyway). So let's assume the game gives us 1024 points of resolution. I want that resolution where I do most of my driving, where I need the accuracy. In game settings don't control this because they're based on the entire wheel sweep. I've compacted the points of resolution into a smaller space. Finally, there's the amount of input movement needed for a given result. Generally, I'm a proponent of larger steering arcs ( I increased the LWFF arc from 180 to 210�). But the Force RS has a large diameter wheel (which is nice) and a 270� arc, which to me (this is subjective) is too much of a good thing. Let's say I want to steer 15� to the left. On a small diameter wheel the rim might move 2". On a large diameter wheel it might move 3". To cover the movement in the same amount of time, I'll need to turn the wheel faster (more rim velocity) to keep the tangent velocity the same. Not too hard to do if there is no steering damping in my setup, but more damping makes the car feel more solid. I can see that I'm doing a terrible job explaining this, but you really can feel the difference. Although I enjoy driving with the Force RS, I was able to get faster lap times and be more consistent with the Ferrari wheel (same resolution, smaller arc). I've received a few emails from people that felt the Force RS didn't have good control (almost like a dead zone in the center) and just didn't feel confident when driving with it. Many of them returned the wheel, but only one that I know of actually told Act Labs the reason. If you are changing from a MSFF wheel to the Force RS, it probably would be easy to get used to, but changing from a LWFF to the RS would take quite a while to get used to the steering. All this is purely driver preference. If you're happy with the steering of the Force RS, there would be no reason to do the mod. But like I've said, I've heard from several people who feel the same way I do. I suppose I could have just given a quicker answer saying that yes, you can do it in some games, but it's not the same feel. I've reduced my lap times in a few games with this mod, especially when driving through traffic. So it's the right mod for me and some others. I'm sure it's not for everyone, although I doubt that it would hurt anyone's lap times. BTW, an interesting note. Usually the steering pot on most wheels is somewhere around 100K ohms. I've found that increasing or decreasing this changes the usable sweep of the pot (the values get out-of-spec). I thought I'd have to change the pot (or at least the value) in the RS to go along with the mod. My measurement on the RS pot was only about 8.6K ohms (unless my measurements are wrong). Changing the value by adding resistors did absolutely nothing to the sweep. I think the actual calibration is done elsewhere on the board and is auto-adjusted from the inputs received from the steering pot (like a trimmer). It made the mod very easy and with no loss of resolution. -- Slot Tweaks & Reviews www.slottweak.com