Thrustmaster T1

Dear Group, I have a Thrustmaster Formula T1L with a broken pedal spring. The official reply from Thrustmaster is that they no longer carry the part. Been to the local do it yourself stores with the good spring, and the saleshelp just look at me and scratch their heads. Anyone know where to get another spring for this unit at this time, or do I just have to go get another wheel? Thanks... Michael

> I have a Thrustmaster Formula T1L with a broken pedal spring. The >official reply from Thrustmaster is that they no longer carry the part. >Been to the local do it yourself stores with the good spring, and the >saleshelp just look at me and scratch their heads. Anyone know where to get >another spring for this unit at this time, or do I just have to go get >another wheel? I went to the Thrustmaster site and told them I had a T2 and had them send a rebuild kit. They did, and the springs worked just fine in my T1. You shouldn't have to get a new wheel just because the springs in yours went kaput. My T1 is rapidly approaching its fourth birthday and it's never felt more solid since replacing the pots and springs. -- NASCAR Busch North Coverage: http://www.bgnn.com NASCAR Featherlite Modifieds Coverage: http://www.bgnn.com/mods

Same here, the T2 pedal springs worked just fine. They were a little different size, but when you swap all of the parts included in the kit they work great. Thrustmaster must've been doing something right when they built the T1 because my first set of springs lasted 3 years of hard use before replacement.

If it's the one I'm thinking about, just a thought here, but you might try an auto wrecker. Lots of cars use some pretty weird springs for door-pulls and glove compartment doors and other parts, you might find something that you could jury rig to fit. Like I said, just a thought. LOL. Zog

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> Dear Group, > I have a Thrustmaster Formula T1L with a broken pedal spring. The > official reply from Thrustmaster is that they no longer carry the part. > Been to the local do it yourself stores with the good spring, and the > saleshelp just look at me and scratch their heads. Anyone know where to get > another spring for this unit at this time, or do I just have to go get > another wheel? Thanks... > Michael

-- Don't let the bastards grind you down. Doug Schneider Bedford, Nova Scotia Canada

More of the same...new pots really help...my T1 is past 4 years old, and it came out of the now-defunct Incredible Universe's 'Black Hole' (Returns)...what a great wheel. If it only had seperate axis pedals, then it would be phenomenal.... -- Kirk Lane ICQ: 28171652 >Same here, the T2 pedal springs worked just fine. They were a little >different size, but when you swap all of the parts included in the kit >they work great. Thrustmaster must've been doing something right when >they built the T1 because my first set of springs lasted 3 years of >hard use before replacement. >>I went to the Thrustmaster site and told them I had a T2 and had them >>send a rebuild kit. They did, and the springs worked just fine in my >>T1. You shouldn't have to get a new wheel just because the springs in >>yours went kaput. >>My T1 is rapidly approaching its fourth birthday and it's never felt >>more solid since replacing the pots and springs.

On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 21:36:19 -0700 Kirk Lane <[email hidden]> wrote: % More of the same...new pots really help...my T1 is past 4 years old, and it % came out of the now-defunct Incredible Universe's 'Black Hole' % (Returns)...what a great wheel. If it only had seperate axis pedals, then % it would be phenomenal.... From an old post to r.a.s.: From: [email hidden] (LavaBoy) Newsgroups: rec.autos.simulators Subject: Re: Seperate axis on a T2? (long) Date: 7 Oct 1998 20:48:44 GMT In article <tMFS1.23486$[email hidden]>, <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>On Thu, 1 Oct 1998 13:37:51 -0500 Scott Moore <[email hidden]> wrote: >% After lots of practice with GPL, I think a seperate brake and throttle = >% axis would be a great help. Does anyone know of a way to accomplish this = >% with a T2? I'd certainly like a NASCAR Pro, but my money is going to = >% system upgrades(16 FPS in traffic ain't cutting it :-) ). Any help on = >% this issue is appreciated. >I have heard (haven't verified it) that the T2 doesn't have the >necessary wires in its cable. So you will need to get new cabling and >connectors to pull this off. But check out Lew's Wheels for a great >schematic <http://www.monmouth.com/~lw4750/electric.htm>

That is partly true, you end up having to add 1 wire that runs from your pedals to the joystick jack along the pedals joystick chord. I just dug into the connector to find what color wire at right pin, then spliced into it earlier in the cable. Not too terribly hard a project if you are familiar with soldering, I did it to my old style T2 (which uses the adaptor in Win95), thanks to the terrific info provided by another newsgroup reader to me when I asked this same question here sometime last year. Below is the e-mail he sent back to me which I used with great results, your mileage may vary. Big thanks to Grant Reeve again for providing me with the details on how to do this. I hope he doesn't mind me posting the info here for all to benefit, I tried to verify by mail but never reached him. I snipped the e-mail addresses to protect the innocent from SPAMBOTS. This is especially useful with GPL, and really improved my ability to trail brake! Hope this helps other T2 owners out there who are not too afraid to try this, but please do this at your own risk, we take no responsibility if this doesn't work for you and you end up messing up your wheel. My T2 was pretty old anyhow. <insert standard disclaimer> --John ---Cut here---- Email Message From: Grant Reeve Hi John :) At 14:25 16/04/98 -0700, you wrote: >I posted a response on the r.a.s. newsgroup but also sending you e-mail >in case you don't see it. Posting there would probably help people in >the future if they look up this info on Dejanews, but if you would like >to e-mail me the info instead that is fine also. I haven't looked at r.a.s yet today so i guess i haven't had a chance to see your message there as yet. I'll reply in email anyway. >I have a T2 with the old style (I have to use the adaptor) Joystick2 >pedal axis. same here, but all the difference really is is that pins 6 and 11 are swapped by the adapter, while the newer T2's have pins 6 and 11 wired the right way around in the first place. >I'm wondering how difficult it was just to split the pedal axis? as long as you're OK with soldering stuff it should be fine. Also it helps to have a multimeter or something to check which wires are connected to what and stuff. >Did you need to run any new wires into the pedals or just rewire the existing? >I have replaced both pedal pots in the past and my guess would be that instead >of the two pots being wired in series as they are by default you would >just wire them independent +5v to each pot? I run an extra wire from the pedals to the plug since there's no spare wires in the cable. You can use the same +5v. you split the wire connecting them in series to another joystick axis, and attach a second +5v to the other pot which didn't have a +5v wire. >Please pass on the details to the splitting process, I think splitting the >two pots would eliminate much of the jumpiness I see in my pedal axis. You'll probably find the jumpiness is still there. I do. ok, after this is a rather large set of details on what i did, whcih i wrote the other night to someone else but it's easier to just cut and paste because it applies in general:) He made a comment that my second ascii wiring diagrams should be labled "Friendly Pedal Guy" and "Friendly Pedal Guy with Strange Hat" :) --------------------- What I have done is used a double pole double positon switch to allow me to switch between both pedals on one axis (the normal one), and the pedals on two seperate axiis. It works very well. I've got one of the older T2's that requires an adapter, so the two normal axiis it uses are Joystick 1 axis 1 for steering, and Joystick 2 axis 1 for pedals. The adapter simply passes through all the pins, while swapping Joystick 2 axis 1 with Joystick 1 axis 2. So with all the wiring i did, i've used both pedals on J2-A1 (Joystick 2 axis 1 - will save me typing!), and when split, the gas on J2-A1 and brake on J1-A2, knowing that the adapter swaps them over. If you have a newer T2 you'll be wanting to swap all wiring to the right pins from the start. I see you're referring to axis 0 instead of axis 1 like i am:) so when i say axis 1 i guess i'm meaning your axis 0. The switch i made, when it has the two pedals on one axis, also connects the +5v pin directly over to J1-A2 so that there is some kind of reading on this third axis, which means i can flick the switch and recalibrate, just like that, voiding any need to fiddle around with removing the 3 axis joystick from the Win95 control panel and adding a 2 axis one and back again all the time. I am not entirely sure if it's healthy to connect the +5V directly to a joystick axis like that - but this is the equivalent of no resistance, so i would expect it to be fine. Maybe we should wire a 36 KOhm resister instead of just a direct +5V connect. You will have to hack'n'slash into the plug at the computer end of the T2 cable, it's molded plastic that has probably melted slightly and fused with the black outer casing of the two cables going into the plug. But that's the only part that's fused so I was able to cut open the molded casing of the plug relatively cleanly at that end to cut it away from the cables, then i was able to slide it off revealing the gory horror of the innards of the plug. Gory, because they've encased all the wiring and stuff in a soft plastic, which makes it bloody painful to get access to wires and things! More on this later in the email. I've cut a nice little notch in the side of my pedal base about 5cm from the cable out, where i will mount the switch properly, but I don't have small enough screws for the switch as yet so i just have the switch dangling loose. OK I suppose you're wondering where all the wiring diagrams are and stufF:) well, i've been writing all the other bits first because i was being lazy. I based all this on some info i found at some guy's web page, i think it might have been called "wally's world of sims" or something, but i ended up using my own wiring and stuff, because he had a lot of unneccesary crap, and felt like improving it to suit myself. First i'll give a pin-out of the joystick port, for your usual soundcard: Pin | Description 1 +5 V 2 Joystick 1 Button 1 3 Joystick 1 Axis 1 4 common ground for buttons 5 common ground for buttons 6 Joystick 1 Axis 2 7 Joystick 1 Button 2 8 +5 V 9 +5 V 10 Joystick 2 Button 1 11 Joystick 2 Axis 1 12 MIDI TXD 13 Joystick 2 Axis 2 14 Joystick 2 Button 2 15 MIDI RXD Naturally we're ignoring the MIDI pins. If you're T2 is a newer one without the adapter, please swap all my references to pins 11 and 6. OK, here is a really corny ascii diagram of how the wiring currently is configured in your T2 pedal base. I hope you've got a fixed-width font in your email program:) btw - all references to pin 8 here actually only mean "+5V". Since there's 3 +5V pins it could really be any one of them, it doesn't matter. ______________ / \ | ___ | ___ X-/ \ X-/ \ gas | G | | B | brake X-\___/ X-\___/ | | | \_ | \ / | / |8 / | / ----------------|-- | 1 \ o o o o o o o X / 8 | 9 \ o o X o o o o / 15 | -----|--------- | | \__________/11 And now here's the wiring with the double position double pole switch wired in. When the switch is in the Left position, the axiis will be on one axis going to pin 11, with a fixed resistance going to pin 6. When the switch is in the Right position, the axiis are split, gas on pin 11, brake on pin 6. If you trace all the wiring you should understand how the wiring is all done. Let me know if it's confusing or the diagram is a mess or something. The wires don't actually connect where they are crossing over each other, btw. /--------------\ | _______|___________ | / | \ | /-|-------|-\ /+\ | | X X X | | | 36 KOhm resistor or thereabouts | | \ | \+/ \------X X \ X-----------/ \-|---|-|-|-/ switch | | | | \___|_|_|__ _______/ | | \ / | | | | ___ | | | ___ X-/ \ | | X-/ \ gas | G | | | | B | brake X-\___/ | \--X-\___/ | | | | | \_ | | \ / | | / \__6 |8 / \ | / ------------|---|-- | 1 \ o o o o o X o X / 8 | 9 \ o o X o o o o / 15 | -----|--------- | | \__________/11 The switch basically is inserted into the wire that currently connects the two pots ... read more »