GPL & Digital Edge Wheel

I have been a proud owner of the Digital Edge Steering wheel and pedal setup for about 18 months now. A great wheel, I have never had any problems until now. When I am playing GPL the car twitches ever so slightly to the right on occasion. You can see the wheel on the screen twitch just for a fraction of a second and at times it is enough to pull the car clean off the track. It wasn't bad at first but now it is nearly undrivable. I am assuming the problem is hardware and not the software. I think I logged to many miles on those stupid ovals and ended up wearing out the meter inside. If would like to fix it myself but it looks like a pretty complicated procedure. if anybody has one of these wheels and it performed similiar surgery or has had similiar problems please talk to me!! Is 18 months about normal for the meter to last on any type of wheel? Thanks in Advance. -ROB

You may want to try cleaning the pot with some electronic tuner/switch cleaner. Here is an old post for the Thrustmaster products: To clean the pots on Thrustmaster products, get some Tuner/Switch Cleaner and Lubricant from an electronics supply store. Open up the housing on the unit and spray the insides of the pot (short for potentiometer). I usually direct the spray (via the tube extenstion for the spray nozzle) into the openings of the pot where the solder lugs are. Then move the wheel or pedal through its full range 4-6 times to work the cleaner over all the contacts. If the unit was acting up quite a bit, you may want to give it a second "cleaning" before sealing up the unit and heading back out to the track. [For the non-electronics or non-mechanical racers out there, the pot is the "silver" cylinder that the is directly behind the wheel inside the housing. It should have some wires connected to it and the wheel is connected its plastic shaft. There should be a "shaft" coming out of one end of the cylinder.] % I have been a proud owner of the Digital Edge Steering wheel and pedal setup % for about 18 months now. A great wheel, I have never had any problems until % now. % When I am playing GPL the car twitches ever so slightly to the right on % occasion. You can see the wheel on the screen twitch just for a fraction of a % second and at times it is enough to pull the car clean off the track. It % wasn't bad at first but now it is nearly undrivable. I am assuming the problem % is hardware and not the software. I think I logged to many miles on those % stupid ovals and ended up wearing out the meter inside. % If would like to fix it myself but it looks like a pretty complicated % procedure. if anybody has one of these wheels and it performed similiar % surgery or has had similiar problems please talk to me!! Is 18 months about % normal for the meter to last on any type of wheel? Thanks in Advance. % -ROB -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Last week exactly that happend to my wheel eventually it was just stuck turning right all the time . Mine was only 7months old and got a full refund. I am waiting for the new Thrustmaster GT and if that is no good i am buying a Microsoft Sidewinder Wheel.

Quoted text (16 lines)

> I have been a proud owner of the Digital Edge Steering wheel and pedal setup > for about 18 months now. A great wheel, I have never had any problems until > now. > When I am playing GPL the car twitches ever so slightly to the right on > occasion. You can see the wheel on the screen twitch just for a fraction of a > second and at times it is enough to pull the car clean off the track. It > wasn't bad at first but now it is nearly undrivable. I am assuming the problem > is hardware and not the software. I think I logged to many miles on those > stupid ovals and ended up wearing out the meter inside. > If would like to fix it myself but it looks like a pretty complicated > procedure. if anybody has one of these wheels and it performed similiar > surgery or has had similiar problems please talk to me!! Is 18 months about > normal for the meter to last on any type of wheel? Thanks in Advance. > -ROB

What kind of wheel did you have? Was it the Digital Edge wheel? I don't know to many people with this wheel so i am interested in finding out other opinions on the wheel. I tried cleaning mine as best I could without dissasembling the unit, but it did little good.

I had the Digital Edge F1 Sim, not the compact, well actually I had two. The first one I had the calibration used to get stuck to the right. To clear it I had to pause the game and move the wheel full left and right several times and that would fix it for a while. Eventually I returned it and got a replacement thinking I had maybe just got a faulty one. I got the same problem with the replacement though, I e-mailed tech support and the told me to use a cable tie to tighten the *** sleeve around the pot spindle. I did this and it fixed the calibration problem but I still got the twitching in GPL. I ended up returning it and getting an MS-FF wheel. I get no twitching at all now and perfect control, which is great apart from the pedals being a bit light so they can move very slightly, which is more of a little niggle than a full blown problem. The only downside now is I can't blame the wheel for my slow times any more ;-) -- Sean Black

I decided to go ahead and order another Digital Edge wheel. I just love the thing. I mean the pedals and wheel are just perfect. But your problems along with mine really have me worried. Maybe the wheel doesn't care for GPL. But I never had any problems with the Demo and was fine in GPL for about a month. I am hoping mine just wore out and the new wheel will be fine. I am very curious about the MS-FF wheel. Everybody seems to say it is a good wheel. If I have any problems with the Digital Edge wheel I will return it and try the MS-FF wheel. Just curious, how do you shift with the MS-FF wheel. Does it have paddle shifters like the DE? And are the pedals as good as the DE? Thanks -ROB

There are two buttons, not paddles as such, behind the wheel which I use for changing gear. The pedals are a lot lighter and may move around slightly but they have got a large base which helps to keep them in place and they have a lot less resistance than the DE pedals. It has also got six buttons on the front of the wheel rather than the two on the DE, also all buttons (including the ones behind the wheel) are programmable. -- Sean Black

pedals aren't as good as the DE in my opinion, wheel is probably abit better. Has gears inside to provide the FFB which are a little noisy - but once you are concentrating enough on the game you don't notice. Logitech has a FFb wheel out that uses a cable system that presumably gets round the noisy gears - sounds ok, hope the cables stay where they're supposed to be.

Rob I have one of these and have had same prob You need to change the pot in the steering unit it is a 100k Conductive Plastic type, I get spare ones from Farnell's in Leeds, RS would have them don't think Maplins do that type (well they didn't used to. Of course if you're stateside then you'll have to ask around........ No Make on them , but they are blue and made in mexico..... I'm on me 3rd now, they will last a year with low use, but I go thru them every few months. If you can't get one from a supplier, then the techie guy at the firm who make them is helpful and may send you one. Getting the unit to bits requires care as when the top pulls off you may pull the wires out! Gettin it back together is even more interesting........ Good Luck Matt.