Review: ActLabs RS Wheel

I have just got one of the new RS Altec Labs wheels and must say im quite impressed,im haveing some trouble though with it using the win95 calibration set up asthe RS wheel and with the button on the wheel in the out pos set for win95 heres what happens. Ok followed all the instructions in the read me set the pushbutton on the wheel to the win95 pos and went to the Win95 joystick screen and picked the Altec RS config for the joystick, it comes up fine and says its connected, ok off to calibrate it and start the calibration L & R ok, Up & Down not ok,pressing the throttle goes fine but when I press the brake the cross goes all the way down to the bottom and then shoots to the top of the box by the time i get my foot depressed all the way down, this happens everytime. Anyway I go to GPL with it like that as I figure it might be ok, I recalibrate in GPL using the Direct Imput driver, well the throttle cali ok but once again the brake goeas all the way left than just shoots all the way right, this means in GPL as i touch the brake as i get near the bottom it start to act as a accelerator. Ok I go back to Win95 Joystic set up and remove the RS config, this time I set it as a 4 button 2 axis joystick with the button on the wheel set to DOS mode, guess what calibration is fine and the wheel works just great in GPL and the action on the brake & throttle is very smooth. OK now I try and set it as a 4 button 2 axis Joy with the button on the wheel set to Win95 mode, I cant calibrate it though a the buttons are jumping all over the place and it flicks me through the screens. Rhight this to me suggests its 1 of 2 things 1) the RS .inf file for the joystick has something screwy in it 2) the joystick VXD file for DX6 is screwd Anyone else got this wheel and had this promblem, I have no promblems with my TM flight stuff FLCS.TQS.RCS and the calibrate fine Would anyone have the JoystickVXD file form DX5 or 5.2 I could try ?? Other than tah im impressed with the wheel & peddles Hotdog RNZAF SQUAD WB page http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/8158/Index.htm ICQ Number 258861 Remove the ** from my email address to use it

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> ActLabs is finally shipping (after how many delays?) their RS wheels and the > Force RS supposedly isn't far behind (I ordered one of each). The RS, for the > price, is a nice wheel. It works very well with F1RS and the other sims I've > tried. No dead zone, no spiking, very solid mount to the desk, nice building > tension off center, decent bearing assembly, functional F1 shifter paddles and > lots of programmable buttons. So far, it has required calibration only once. > On the downside, the "flywheel" desk clamps require lots of turns to work. > Still, once it's adjusted, taking it on and off isn't a big deal.

I _love_ the wheel - it's really good. I've also gotten used to the flywheel clamps now too. They require more turns to tighten compared to other wheels, but they work better. The pedals are very comfortable and don't move around. I don't think the face of the wheel was ever supposed to be metal. The dash board on the base of the wheel is metal and is referred to on the ACT web site. Maybe this is what you were thinkin of? The padded wheel feels better than any other wheel I've tried! For $69 this thing is unbelievable. Same here. -- Pat Dotson IMPACT Motorsports http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

>I _love_ the wheel - it's really good. I've also gotten used >to the flywheel clamps now too. They require more turns to >tighten compared to other wheels, but they work better. Recently I helped a lot of the major joystick manufacturers with Windows NT 5.0 device driver support. ACT Labs was there and they told me a funny story. The threads on their clamps had to be changed from fine thread to coarse thread. Reason - with the fine threads you could get enough pressure to actually crush your desktop. -Paul

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> I have just got one of the new RS Altec Labs wheels and must say > im quite impressed,im haveing some trouble though with it using the > win95 calibration set up asthe RS wheel and with the button on the > wheel in the out pos set for win95 heres what happens. > Ok followed all the instructions in the read me set the pushbutton on > the wheel to the win95 pos and went to the Win95 joystick screen and > picked the Altec RS config for the joystick, it comes up fine and says > its connected, ok off to calibrate it and start the calibration L & R > ok, Up & Down not ok,pressing the throttle goes fine but when I press > the brake the cross goes all the way down to the bottom and then > shoots to the top of the box by the time i get my foot depressed all > the way down, this happens everytime.

There is an updated driver for the wheel on the ACT Lab web site. I haven't tried it yet, but it's supposed to fix the problem: www.actlab.com -- Pat Dotson IMPACT Motorsports http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

I really impressed this thread reviews. especially the wheel's stableness. I'm using CH Racing System now, and It's becoming bramble. =( Dose Actlabs RS wheel have separate accele and brake support? I cannot run without it in GPL. Tnanks.

LOL The threads on their clamps had to be changed from fine thread to