System doesn't seem to be recognizing my R300 wheel

Hello,


First, I'd like to emphasize that I am VERY new at this stuff, so my current problem is probably somehow self-inflicted, and I appreciate your patience with my complete lack of experience with sim setup. I have a DD1, Podium hub, and R300 wheel. I've loaded the 381 firmware package recently, and am going through the calibration procedures. I've (apparently successfully) done the motor sensor calibration, but based on the video from Will at Boosted Media that I'm following, when I attach my wheel, I'm supposed to get a message that says "This driver includes a new Podium hub firmware. Click OK to install now". But when I install my wheel, this message doesn't show up, and the Function Test page still shows a big red circle with a diagonal line through it in front of the picture of the wheel base. So it looks like the system isn't recognizing the presence of my steering wheel. Please advise. Thanks very much.

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Comments

  • Are you 100% sure you really fully pushed the wheel fully onto the base? ^^

  • Aha! That was it! I thought I pressed the wheel firmly onto the hub, and tried a few times to press it on harder, with no success. So, based on your input. I backed off on the tightening nut a little, and tried it again, and this time it worked. I'm thinking I may have compressed the rubber sleeve a little, causing it to bulge, making it difficult to fully seat the wheel, and that seems to have done the trick. Thanks for the quick response! I'm sure this isn't the last dumb question I ask 😉

  • As promised, I already have another question. Now that the steering wheel's firmware has been successfully installed, I went back to the Fanatec Wheel Property Page, selected my DD1 again, and a dialog box is supposed to pop up prompting me to install a new Podium Hub firmware. But I'm not getting this dialog box.

    By the way, once I loosened the tightening nut to allow my wheel to slip past the rubber sleeve, the bit of wobble I was noticing of the wheel against the hub is now completely gone. I've seen a lot of discussion about this wheel wobble with the DD1 and DD2 wheel bases, with lots of frustration and different "solutions", but based on my experience, it's simply a matter of not over-tightening the nut before slipping on the wheel. I hope others who may be experiencing wheel wobble find this helpful.

  • which firmware did the podium hub come with? If you're already on Fw V4, then you are on the latest fw.

  • Florian LichtFlorian Licht Member
    edited January 2021

    the metalring has to touch the black rubber just a little bit, very important to have no compression,

    then you can put the steering wheel easily on, afterwards you can tighten the nut.


    Maybe with the upcoming new Quickrelease this procedure will be a thing of the past :)

  • Then you most likely are already on the latest firmware which came pre installed already.

  • Hmm... Not sure. I just followed the procedure in the manual to update to the latest firmware, which was v381, and I didn't notice which version came with my wheel base as delivered. I don't even know how to check! 😯

  • Hi Maurice.

    Thanks - I'll ignore the steps in the video that discuss upgrading to the latest firmware.

    Hi Florian.

    Yes. clearly it's very important not to tighten the adjusting nut enough to compress the rubber sleeve in the slightest, as over-tightening it makes it very difficult to prpoerly seat the wheel, and it creates a "wobble" as well.

  • Florian LichtFlorian Licht Member
    edited January 2021

    There you can see which Firmware you have right now

    (just doubleclick on Fanatec DD1 and go to Update)

  • 381 is the driver, not the firmware Andrew, you can see the current firmwares under the Update tab, the screenshot of Florian shows exactly that :)

  • Hi Sascha,

    You exposed my supreme ignorance of all things computer/software related 🙄. So I'm sure this is going to be a great learning vehicle for me, as it will force me to learn about things I have always just considered a "black box". Thanks to you and Florian for the clarifications.

    Next dumb question. I'd like to check the firmware status of my Clubsport V3 pedals, and move on to calibrating the brake pedal, since I've intalled the performance kit, but the Clubsport Pedals don't show in the list of installed game controllers. I'm as sure as I can be that the USB connector is fully engaged in the pedal set, and I have it plugged into the correct port on the DD1 - all that shows up is two entries of the DD1 wheel base. What am I missing? Thanks as always - I can't thank you guys enough for helping guide me through this - I would be completely lost without the help of this forum!

  • Ehm.. Did you just wrote that you have connected the pedals via USB to the PC and via RJ12 to the Wheel Base...?

    To NEVER connect both at the same time - only once at a time! When you connect both at the same time you will pretty much for sure break your pedal PCB.

    There is (currently) no need to connect the CSP via USB to the PC because since they were release almost 6 years ago there simply was no new firmware for them - so not needed to connect via USB to check for an update because there simply is no update.


  • Two entries of the "controller" is for bypassing the button limitations per controller on Windows. So it's normal.

  • Sorry - I meant to say I have the pedal set connected to the wheel base using just the RJ12 cable. I don't know why I called it the USB cable in my post above - even I know the difference between the two! So I definitely don't have the pedal set connected to the PC via the USB cable. I noticed there are two RJ12 jacks in the pedal set. I had originally connected the RJ12 cable to the jack on the left, so I moved it to the jack on the right, but it made no difference - the pedals still aren't showing up in the game controller list. Shoud I try using the USB cable to connect the pedal set to the PC (of course removing the RJ12 cable first)? I thought the RJ12 connection to the wheel base was the preferred method, but I did some searching, and found others having trouble with the RJ12 cable to wheel base method. But I would like to use the preferred method if possible, unless it really doesn't make any difference. Thanks.

  • its normal that the pedals are not showing in the gamecontroller menu. Only USB devices are listed there. The pedals are connected to the base so they are shown as blue bars when you press them directly in the Wheel Base property page ;)

  • Thanks - I see it now. Of course, I didn't read the manual, and had the RJ12 cable plugged into the handbrake's (which I don't have) plug. But it's in the correct plug now, and the blue bars for the brake, throttle, and clutch all move when I press the respective pedals. I'll follow the instructions in the manual for the calibration procedures for all three pedals.

    Since the firmware can only be updated through the SUB connection to the PC, should I disconnect the RJ12 cable, connect the USB to the PC, and do a firmware update, or is it not worth the trouble? Where can I check which version of pedal firmware I currently have?

  • Duh - I know the answer to that last question - I guess I have to plug in the USB cable between the pedals and the PC.

  • If you didn't buy the pedals 10 years ago you don't need to check anything for the pedals, like Maurice said, there wasn't any new driver.

    So it's not needed.

  • Thanks, Florian. I bought the pedals late last year, so they should have an up-to-date driver.

    After going through the pedal calibration process, what's left to do before I can start using my sim? I know there are a ton of tuning opportunities with the DD1, but I would assume the default settings are probably a good starting point, correct? I've never driven a sim before, so I have to reference point, anyway.

    By the way, my goal for my sim is not to go sim racing, at least not in the near future. After years of driving my car on track sessions at local tracks, I'm planning to pursue a long-time goal of driving in an arrive-and-drive race series in Radical SR1's at Atlanta Motorsports Park starting this spring. I'm taking a 3-day class in late March which I have to complete to be eligible to drive in the series. I've never driven a Radical, nor have I ever been to AMP, so my plan is to use the upcoming 2.5 months becoming very familiar with AMP on my sim. AMP is only available in R-Factor2, so I of course need to purchase it, download AMP, in a car as close to a Radical SR1 as possible, and start practicing. Since the class will undoubtedly include spin recovery exercises, I'd also like to learn how to drift on my sim, since the skill sets are very similar. If anyone has any suggestions on things I should do software or tuning wise to optimize my class prep experience on the sim, I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

  • Assetto Corsa is pretty much the default sim everyone turns to for drifting. Grab a copy of Content Manager and start downloading cars and tracks from a very massive mod community.

  • Thanks, Austen - I'll take a look at Assetto Corsa. But my more immediate plan is to use my sim to learn Atlanta Motorsports Park, which is only available in R-Factor2.

    I've gone through the automatic pedal calibration process - according to the manual, this just consists of pressing the throttle, brake, and clutch pedals through their full range while on the Function Test page and watching the blue bars go through their ranges. Seems too simple - is that really all there is to it?

    Is there anything else I need to do as far as tuning, or anything else, before I download R-Factor 2 and download AMP and start driving? Thanks.

  • Austen ChenAusten Chen Member
    edited January 2021

    Here’s Atlanta Motorsports Park mod on Race Department for Assetto Corsa.

    https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/atlanta-motorsports-park-now-available.106473/

    For pedals, it’s best to manually calibrate them. There’s a checkbox in one of the tabs to activate that.

  • Thanks - do you feel that Assetto Corsa is better than R-Factor2? If so, how? Sorry, every step of this sim journey is a new one for me, thus all the dumb questions. Again, my immediate goal is to use the sim as a training tool to first learn the track, then work on optimizing my tecnhique until I'm achieving fast and consistent virtual lap times, including likely hiring a coach. Down the road, I'm sure I will want to get into sim racing, but not for a little while. Is Assetto Corsa well suiting to this sort of virtual training?

    As far as the manual calibration of the pedals, I saw that in the manual, but the instructions are very confusing, and I couldn't find a video that went through the procedure. Do you know of one, or any other reference that clarifies the procedure in the manual? Or could you quickly step me through it?

    Is there any other tuning you'd recommend before I get started? What about the force feedback settings? Are the defaults a decent starting point, or is there anything I should do with regard to the FFB to optimize the experience before downloading Assetto Corsa? I do have the torque key inserted (no idea what it is or what it does, though - I'll have to research that...)

  • Andrew NagyAndrew Nagy Member
    edited January 2021

    Austen,

    I went to the link you provided, and noticed it's for rFactor2, apparently not Assetto Corsa. But of course, I have no idea what the difference is between the two. Given that the track seems to be available in both sim softwares, what's the advantage, if any, of Assetto Corsa vs. rFactor2, esoecially for driver training purposes? Thanks.

  • Sorry about that. I did it on my phone and didn't pay attention to it. There are tons of stuff on Race Department for both games, but I guess no one has put the track on RD for AC. Here's a YouTube video of Atlanta Motorsports Park on AC and there's a link to download in the descriptions.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlQjV3NcD7A

    I don't have rF2 so I can't really comment on it. AC is no longer supported, which is a downside, but it's still alive due to the mass mod community.

    rF2 is still being supported and still developed so that's a plus for a lot of people. I've heard that rF2 is hard to navigate but again, I don't have the game so I don't know it first hand.

    I think I'm slightly pushing for AC because you mentioned about drifting. If you want some online racing later on, rF2 is definitely better out of the two. But iRacing takes the cake when it comes to online racing (a different topic altogether).

    As for the pedal calibration, it's pretty straight forward. Just set the min and max pedal travel. What I usually do is hit the Set Min for all three without having my foot on them. Then put my foot all the way down on throttle, then click Set Max. Same for the Brake pedal. As for clutch, I like to set the max at the half way -ish travel point, basically where the "catch point" would be on a real car.

    Here's a video on how to calibrate your brakes better via BRF through the tuning menu.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpI-vLtsvFs

  • Thanks, but for some reason, the Min and Max buttons aren't showing up around the bars for the three pedals on the Function Test page. Any idea why? Also, I'm not following the video at all - again, sorry for being so dense. I have the Clubsport button module, but I have no earthly clue how to use it - another thing I'm going to have to research...


  • In the fanatec driver application, if I remember correctly, on the second tab tick the box that says enable manual pedal calibration.

  • Andrew NagyAndrew Nagy Member
    edited January 2021

    Thanks, Alexandros! I would never have noticed that - the Min & Max buttons are now visible.

    Success! Pedals are now calibrated - one more thing to check off the list on my journey to turn my sim from a $6000 coat rack to a functioning driving simulator. Onto whatever I have to do to calibrate the Podium Advanced Paddle Module. I spent some time this morning looking for an online manual and didn't find anything, when I found a 55-minute review of the PAPM by Barry Rowland of Sim Racing Garage, so hopefully this will get me to my next milestone.

  • What you need to calibrate? the clutches from the APM?

  • Andrew NagyAndrew Nagy Member
    edited January 2021

    That's a great question. I'm just reading through the manuals, and if it describes a calibration procedure, I assume it's something I have to do to get up and running, so I do it. Again, I've never done anything remotely resembling this before (never built a computer, or even played a video game ever in my life), so I assume that if something is described in the manual, it's something I have to do. I haven't found a true step-by-step guide describing exactly what has to be done from the time one unboxes this set of very impressive, complex pieces of equipment, to get it to be a functioning system.

    But calibrating the pedals, particularly the brake pedal, actually makes some sense, because of the variation in the elastomer springs different people use (assuming most people get the performance kit), variations in users' leg strength, etc. The reason for calibrating the throttle and clutch pedals isn't as clear, though. As far as the APM, going through the Sim Racing Garage video that describes that is my project for tonight.

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