Podium F1 - Wheel freezes
Hi!
I own a Podium F1 (DD1 + Formula V2 Wheel + Advanced Paddle Module, PS4-Edition) since one month.
Almost every day I have the following problem:
At a crash or sometimes even just when driving the wheel freezes. The buttons are not longer working, the lights and display freeze. Everything else is working normal (FF, steering, pedals, ...)
Sometimes it goes back to normal after a few seconds. More often I have to either switch the base off an on again or take off the wheel and put it back on. Resetting to the pits or closing iRacing does not help. Since restarting the base helps, I don't think it is a physical connection problem between the wheel and the base. I use a low to moderate FF-Strength and it can even happen in the lightest crashes.
I have only noticed it in iRacing, but I don't spend much time in other sims. I use the newest drivers (beta, but it happend on the stable drivers too).
Today was the worst ever, I had the problem four times then stopped driving. It is really annoying, since I can't even reset to the pit (driving in VR without a keyboard nearby), or say sorry in voice chat. I lost some places in the official races last week, because I was suddenly unable to change gears.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks
Martin
Comments
What driver and firmware are you running?
Do you also use a specific screen on the Base? Or just the first screen with the fanatec logo?
Hi Martin,
It looks like you are already in contact with support, who will resolve this for you as quickly as possible.
I only used the first screen with the fanatec logo so far.
I'm using PC Driver 352, Base FW 669, Motor FW 38 and Wheel FW 28.
I got some instructions from fanatec support that I will try later. It is basically cleaning my pc from all fanatec drivers and install 347. I will tell you the results.
Really? I would NOT install driver 347 as that’s NOT an official DD driver because a lot of users reported very bad feedback in regards to bad FFB noise etc. If you want to downgrade, then take driver 346 and the included firmwares but not 347...
Yes, they sent me the link to 347. I haven't tried it yet...
As said, better use 346 as 347 is broken for DD.
I got exact the same issue as op. My left shoulder got injured in a bike accident a couple of weeks ago, and I had to tune down FF below 10 in my dd1 settings otherwise it hurt too much to play. I found the problem first with driver 356, and then rolled back to multiple beta versions with no luck, all the way back to official release driver 335 still the same. Then I figured that it must be the low FF setting because it never happened before, so I re-installed the latest beta driver and fanalab and kept FF setting above 10, and the problem hadn't happened since then.
I went to 346 and had no issues since march 10 and I was really happy. Today I hit the wall in Montreal and it happened again...
I noticed one thing: In the rare cases, that the problem disappears after about 10 seconds, there is absolutely no FF for a few seconds. Then everything is back to normal. But this only happens sometimes.
I think it is somehow track related: It happened almost every day on Nürburgring GP, most of the times in the apex of T1 (if not in a crash). It never happened in Zandvoort, even in the hardest crashes. Now in Montreal it happens again.
Another thing is, that I only had this issue when racing online. I could not reproduce it in an offline session so far. And most of the times it only happens at the end of a race, never in the first lap.
It is really frustrating :(
@Alex Li: What sim, tracks and cars are you driving?
I ran into this with ACC and PC2, in VR. Recently driving in PC2 formula rookie and formula C, it got worse these days, happened in almost all tracks. I found that some car setups could make it more easily to freeze. Made a few videos for Marcel to help finding the root of the issue.
I have the DD1 with Formula V2 and had it freeze twice now (all LEDs frozen on at what they were at time of freeze, no button works etc except steering and FFB from base) exactly as you describe.
Removing and replacing the steering wheel in game solved everything perfectly.
Also for me I keep hearing this clicking or creaking noise every so often. Increasing or decreasing FFB strength doesn't change anything. At first I thought some plastic housing was cracked but it seems solid. Maybe like electrical arcing. I once had the LEDs flicker incorrectly as well.
Using the latest firmware as well.
I put a set screw (M6*16mm) in the bolt hole on the quick release to further secure the rim and the freezing's gone. Marcel Pfister suggested that it probably is a hardware issue. So I adjusted the connector pins a tiny bit. Now I don't need the extra set screw, the freezing didn't happen again.
Alex Li, can you explain me, how you did adjust the connector pins? I noticed that one of the pins is about 2mm shorter than the others.
I already got the offer to send the wheel to Fanatec, but I really don't want to do this in a time, where iRacing is the only thing, that fills my evenings right now ;-)
That one pin is shorter than the otherss is normal.
Can you please clarify what the final fix was to stop the freezing? Its driving me mad
I loosened the 5 screws in the connector and then fastened them loosely just to hold the position, and then attached the wheel to the base carefully. Then I detached the wheel slowly, and tightened all 5 screws evenly.
Read that from a post in this forum but I don't remember which one it is. It's been almost 3 weeks since then, freezing only happened 2 times, much less than before.
Found the post mentioned above. https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/comment/38746/#Comment_38746
Putting in the set screw (that came with the wheel btw) solved it for me. At least until I get a second wheel ;-)
I'll try the solution with the connector screws in week 13...
I have had the PS4 F1 wheel for about 8 months before it started freezing up and rebooting the unit or taking the wheel off helped but it started to happen more frequently. I completely disassembled the my wheel and plugged and unplugged each connection about 5 times. This cleaned the contacts and I have not had an issue in over a month and at least 30-40 hours of playing. I have fixed many Mercedes Benz doing this trick as i work in a dealer. Figured I would share and hope it helps someone else out.
Thank you to Alex Li and to all who posted the infor
Just found this thread searching for a solution to the DD2 disconnect/freeze issue (DD2 freeze until power plug pulled). Thank you Alex for posting this, and for everyone else who chimed in. It's now a few months later -- it would be great to get an update to see if this continued to fix the Podium wheelbase issue.
I'm hoping this will be the solution for my DD2 freeze issues. I have the Podium Porsche wheel rather than Formula wheel, but seems like it would be prone to the same connection problem.
I've got a Podium Wheel, use it on PC, I'm having freezes every time I play, in different titles.
Usually while cornering, the wheel goes dead, the V3 pedals connected to the wheel also go dead.
I have to restart the PC in order for it to work again. Sometimes I get some hours without a freeze, some others it freezes every 20mins.
Have tried different drivers to no avail.
I've read the posts on the forum, it seems there are currently 2 fixes:
A) use a screw in the bolt hole on the quick release
B) adjust the connector pins
Can you confirm if these fixes really work now that some time has passed since the time of writing?
The A) option doesn't damage the quick release sleeve on the wheel?
Can you post pictures of the B) procedure?
Thanks,
Edgar.
I think your issue is quite different from mine, when it happened the buttons and shifter paddles on the wheel were frozen, everything else still working. The new beta driver 372/373 fixed the freezing problem.
Thank you for your quick answer.
In my case, everything stops working. Do you know a possible fix for my problem?
Where can I get the beta drivers you mentioned in case I wanna give them a try?
Thanks.
https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/15204/
Hi, 373 still hangs.
I installed 373 on DD1 PS4 and updated all associated connected Podium hub, BME, APM, etc.
It still hangs on corners where wheel dies and no directional controls, no pedals and crashes off track.
It still hangs with APM unable to up/down shift.
Sometime I can press PS or Options buttons to pause and reset wheel. Sometimes those buttons are not responding and have to turn off wheel. With PC2, you cannot reconnect controller until PC2 is restarted.
Multitudes of similar issues occurred in AC (original), ACC (new), PC2 and GT6. I assume it will also happen in PC3 on Friday.
These issues do not happen as often in shorter races. Usually 15-20 laps or better.
I understand people are working on the problem but are there not coding test programs that can replicate these issues vs. having people spend good $$$$/€€€€/££££ and possibly brick their system with little or no possibility to race again before the end of the year?.... /s
I have the exact same symptoms. During a corner it hangs, no controls, no pedals, crashes off track.
Tried everything I could remember.
Hi Edgar,
I have a PS4 and the problems seems to be across various platforms.
I have my issue somewhat isolated to BME. I lose all buttons including APM paddle shifter. Most of the time, pedals still function.
In my case, I don't think it is a driver issue as I can turn off the wheel and wait for reinitialize and resume race (albeit with much time lost).
As an old time programmer, I see this as a simple buffer overflow in the wheel firmware that locks ups BME/APM or the new USB C data transfer. Probably related to their modification from 8 bit to 16 bit accuracy in feedback as this was not a much of continually occurring issue prior to the latest FW upgrades.
One race at Panorama and BME hung after ~2000 yards. Reset wheel and same issue 2 laps later. Very frustrating for the amount of money required to purchase.
I just find it unfortunate that Beta 373 is being reported as a fix to these problems. It only exasperates my continued annoyed experience with the DD1 PS4....
It should not be this difficult to fix.
Take care.