Also, just to update since my post quoted above regarding the wheel feeling over-damped:
It seems to be a non-issue, really. If a game is not running and I dial in my wheel settings using either Fanalab or the CP, the wheel feels way heavier and more damped than it does once I actually launch the game and start playing, where everything feels correct and as expected.
So... other than not being able to have Fanalab and the CP open at the same time without causing a system hang (annoying but liveable), currently I have no issues. Hoping everything stays that way! 🤞
Thanks , for the reply, I will have a detailed read through. I have a few questions I hope you might answer. For your issues , did it the wheel come back on, back or did you have to exit the game and turn the base off then on again? Mine becomes un responsive and works again after a few seconds.. It's weird I don't remember it happening when I was on xbox, but it may have. It seems to be happening more and more frequently , now , and the weird thing is it is the same rig, just pugged into a PC now. When I first went to Pc a few months ago , it wasn't happening very often if at all. Hmmmm , I see lots of troubleshooting ahead for me. I have a FGT Lite that is sitting on a wooden platform. All my amps for the shakers and power bricks are attached to the underneath of the platform that my FGT lite sits on. So I think the power bricks and everything is well isolated, but maybe not? I will ferrite bead everything with a few on each end. Those beads really only need to be on the USB that goes from the CSL D base to the PC right?
To answer your questions, when the open-throttle, crashing-into-a-wall issue occurred for me, it almost always required a full manual hard reboot of the system. A couple of times I was able to Alt+F4 out of the game (at which point I elected to restart both the computer and the wheelbase), but the vast majority of the time, all USB devices went unresponsive and a hard reset was the only option.
At one point, I did have an issue with some unresponsiveness from the buttons on the wheel, which was intermittent sort of like you describe. I would do the Control Panel test to see if all the buttons were reporting, and sometimes I'd press a few, they'd work fine, then I'd press other buttons or the same ones again and suddenly none of them would report. Wait a few minutes, reboot, things would appear fixed, then the same unresponsiveness all over again. I tried the troubleshooting method of loosening, re-seating, and re-tightening the base-side QR shaft, which didn't help. Ultimately an RMA got that particular issue sorted out.
However, even after the RMA, I still had the original, randomly occurring issue of not being able to steer, and crashing into a wall with the throttle stuck open. If your (metal) wheelbase is mounted directly to your cockpit/rig, I'm assuming that the plate it's mounted to is also metal? If so, this can introduce EMI/ESD issues that can only be properly avoided by either isolating the objects in question, or by grounding your rig by attaching some sort of grounding cable (both of which have been detailed very nicely earlier in this thread, thanks to some very helpful forum members here who helped get me sorted.) Things like switching USB ports, plugging directly into the PC rather than a USB hub, adding the ferrite beads, etc. may or may not help, it seems to vary from person to person. But I suspect that some combination of these things will solve your problems, it's just likely to be a bit of a pain getting to that point.
//edit//
Regarding the ferrite beads, I suppose in theory you should only need them on the USB cable. I had a bunch of them though, and figured what the heck, so I put at least two on every cable going into or coming out of the PC (one near each end), and on my USB cable to the wheelbase, I wound up with a total of 7 (the one from the factory plus 6 more that I added). A bit excessive I guess, but hey...it's working for me, so...🤷♂️
I had the same problem as Gregg with the CSL DD wheelbase, for which I had to restart the PC.
Later, however, the pedals turned off at an ever-increasing frequency for 2 or 3 seconds, then returned to work.
Fixed with a second grounding point on the pedals plate. The ground connection on the steering wheel plate had no effect on the pedals.
I believe that due to the insulating paint, our cockpits are not a single metal mass on which the induced eddy current circulates, but several separate and isolated masses. Your rig also has large plastic hubs that separate the metal parts.
So you need to ground the cockpit near the peripheral that is causing problems.
Or isolate everything like Gregg did.
Although wheelbase is the major suspect, pedals, when connected to wheelbase, could also be the cause.
Agree with everything you guys are saying , and appreciate the help. I think I will start by doing the isolating trick. Rubber washers between the CSL DD and the metal plate it is mounted on, and adding more ferrite beads to the usb from the CSL DD to the PC. I am plugged the usb directly to the PC without a hub. NOt sure if the base being plugged into the wall or a power strip matters, but that may have something to do with it?
The only thing that makes me a little worried that it may be something else is that for me the wheelbase/pedals becomes unresponsive for a few seconds and the returns. Seems like most everyone else has to exit the game or some sort of reboot off/on of the wheelbase. I don't use Fanalab, but have it installed. I think also I will un install Fanalab to remove it from the equation.
Wanted to say thanks to everyone that helped, and update my situation.....
As it turns out the new shaker and amp I ordered showed up , so I was doing some work on my rig anyways, prefect time to do some cable management etc. Turns out I was wrong and the base was going through a powered USB hub, so changed that, as well as added some ferrite beads, for a total of 5 or 6 . I have a button box and usb keypad, that I used to use often before going to VR, which was the reason for the hub. I also re-routed some cables so nothing is touching each other and lo and behold no issues last two sessions. Played for about 30 minutes last night and this morning and no problems. Not saying it is solved , but is a good start. Also updated drivers to beta 442.
TLDR;
1) Updated to beta driver 442
2) 6 Ferrite beads on CSL DD usb
3) Base routed directly yo PC , no USB hub
4) No cables are touching each other
5) No issue last two sessions of about 30 min each (ACC , VR)
Happened again 2x in the same session, so I re tightened the shaft and added some plastic washers between the csl DD and the mount plate , as well as on the undetside of the mount plate between the head of the bolt and the mount plate . Fanatec sent me pictures of the clamp, to show how tight it should be, and they show it nearly touching. I added the picture here. I had to tighten the hell out of mine , to get it close. If I try any tighter I'll snap the Allen wrench.
Fanatec suggested I try another wheel to rule out the QR1 lite, I tried my WRC wheel , it happened again , but overall it is much better since I made some changes.
Strangely enough, and it may be a coincidence. When it happened the last time , the cord from my wheel base to my PC had moved and was touching the metal part of my V3s.... I moved it away and didn't happen again that session... probably about an hour total game time.
I think I will RMA the CSL DD , because it can't hurt ( i don't think). And if it becomes a bother I will just switch to a SimuCube 2 sport.
Sounds like you're doing the right things to isolate your rig. One thing I didn't see you mention, which I would say to check is to make sure that you've taken the step that Alessandro outlines in the post I've quoted above, with regards to wrapping your mounting screws with a piece of electrical tape. This will ensure that the area where the screw passes through the mounting plate is shielded and that there is no metal touching metal there, which could be contributing to your problems.
Hi guys, i had the same problems and it seems that i found a solution with an usb powered hub..since than no more disconnections...i'll update you if i get any..
Glad you've found something that seems to be working for you. I'd be cautious with a USB hub though, as I don't think Fanatec recommend using them with their devices. I'm not sure the exact issue, but from reading on the forums, it seems that the hub can occasionally assign a different USB ID to whatever device is attached to it. This can cause games to not recognize your wheel, possibly with you needing to remap key bindings, etc.
You may be fine, but just keep this in mind if something like that does happen in the future.
I think it probably happened today, i hope is not going to happen so often...anyway it's not annoing as a disconnection during the last lap of a race...
Well I´m very disappointed, I get my new DD Pro 8nm Base with CLS pedals (with Load Cell) and Mclaren GT3 wheels last week. I updated all the hardware with my PC and assembled everything to my cockpit (metal made) everything was fine but after 10 minutes of playing I sudently crash without understanding what was the issue... after another few minutes same issue occurred, basically a some point my Fanatec informed my PS5 that I´m at full turn (when obviously I´m not).
To be fair I have plenty of thing connected, I play GT7 on PS5 and stream with a PC so I have very close to each other (Keyboard, mouse, mic, screens, pc, ps5, lights etc...) so the possibility of this being a Magnetic Interference issue sound possible, anyway 1000 USD for some tech products I was not expecting that... and as per the previous conversation it doesn´t look like anyone has found a final solution, root cause seams also not confirmed, so what to do?
I´m located in Mexico where Fanatec do not have any support so sending back the products to Fanatec USA will cost me a lot of shipping and duty and taxes cost, so really want to avoid that.
I ordered some ferrite beads and USB isolator to try this first but I kind of miss my old Logitech G29 that has been working perfectly for more than 10 years with no issue...
Let us know if you can solve with USB insulator and ferrite cores.
Otherwise you can try to isolate wheelbase from the metal cockpit. In the end the problem comes down to this, induced currents passing through the cockpit and closing up on the USB port.
Comments
Also, just to update since my post quoted above regarding the wheel feeling over-damped:
It seems to be a non-issue, really. If a game is not running and I dial in my wheel settings using either Fanalab or the CP, the wheel feels way heavier and more damped than it does once I actually launch the game and start playing, where everything feels correct and as expected.
So... other than not being able to have Fanalab and the CP open at the same time without causing a system hang (annoying but liveable), currently I have no issues. Hoping everything stays that way! 🤞
Thanks , for the reply, I will have a detailed read through. I have a few questions I hope you might answer. For your issues , did it the wheel come back on, back or did you have to exit the game and turn the base off then on again? Mine becomes un responsive and works again after a few seconds.. It's weird I don't remember it happening when I was on xbox, but it may have. It seems to be happening more and more frequently , now , and the weird thing is it is the same rig, just pugged into a PC now. When I first went to Pc a few months ago , it wasn't happening very often if at all. Hmmmm , I see lots of troubleshooting ahead for me. I have a FGT Lite that is sitting on a wooden platform. All my amps for the shakers and power bricks are attached to the underneath of the platform that my FGT lite sits on. So I think the power bricks and everything is well isolated, but maybe not? I will ferrite bead everything with a few on each end. Those beads really only need to be on the USB that goes from the CSL D base to the PC right?
To answer your questions, when the open-throttle, crashing-into-a-wall issue occurred for me, it almost always required a full manual hard reboot of the system. A couple of times I was able to Alt+F4 out of the game (at which point I elected to restart both the computer and the wheelbase), but the vast majority of the time, all USB devices went unresponsive and a hard reset was the only option.
At one point, I did have an issue with some unresponsiveness from the buttons on the wheel, which was intermittent sort of like you describe. I would do the Control Panel test to see if all the buttons were reporting, and sometimes I'd press a few, they'd work fine, then I'd press other buttons or the same ones again and suddenly none of them would report. Wait a few minutes, reboot, things would appear fixed, then the same unresponsiveness all over again. I tried the troubleshooting method of loosening, re-seating, and re-tightening the base-side QR shaft, which didn't help. Ultimately an RMA got that particular issue sorted out.
However, even after the RMA, I still had the original, randomly occurring issue of not being able to steer, and crashing into a wall with the throttle stuck open. If your (metal) wheelbase is mounted directly to your cockpit/rig, I'm assuming that the plate it's mounted to is also metal? If so, this can introduce EMI/ESD issues that can only be properly avoided by either isolating the objects in question, or by grounding your rig by attaching some sort of grounding cable (both of which have been detailed very nicely earlier in this thread, thanks to some very helpful forum members here who helped get me sorted.) Things like switching USB ports, plugging directly into the PC rather than a USB hub, adding the ferrite beads, etc. may or may not help, it seems to vary from person to person. But I suspect that some combination of these things will solve your problems, it's just likely to be a bit of a pain getting to that point.
//edit//
Regarding the ferrite beads, I suppose in theory you should only need them on the USB cable. I had a bunch of them though, and figured what the heck, so I put at least two on every cable going into or coming out of the PC (one near each end), and on my USB cable to the wheelbase, I wound up with a total of 7 (the one from the factory plus 6 more that I added). A bit excessive I guess, but hey...it's working for me, so...🤷♂️
It looks like the problem I had on CSL Pedals.
I had the same problem as Gregg with the CSL DD wheelbase, for which I had to restart the PC.
Later, however, the pedals turned off at an ever-increasing frequency for 2 or 3 seconds, then returned to work.
Fixed with a second grounding point on the pedals plate. The ground connection on the steering wheel plate had no effect on the pedals.
I believe that due to the insulating paint, our cockpits are not a single metal mass on which the induced eddy current circulates, but several separate and isolated masses. Your rig also has large plastic hubs that separate the metal parts.
So you need to ground the cockpit near the peripheral that is causing problems.
Or isolate everything like Gregg did.
Although wheelbase is the major suspect, pedals, when connected to wheelbase, could also be the cause.
Agree with everything you guys are saying , and appreciate the help. I think I will start by doing the isolating trick. Rubber washers between the CSL DD and the metal plate it is mounted on, and adding more ferrite beads to the usb from the CSL DD to the PC. I am plugged the usb directly to the PC without a hub. NOt sure if the base being plugged into the wall or a power strip matters, but that may have something to do with it?
The only thing that makes me a little worried that it may be something else is that for me the wheelbase/pedals becomes unresponsive for a few seconds and the returns. Seems like most everyone else has to exit the game or some sort of reboot off/on of the wheelbase. I don't use Fanalab, but have it installed. I think also I will un install Fanalab to remove it from the equation.
Off to the hardware store for me....
Wanted to say thanks to everyone that helped, and update my situation.....
As it turns out the new shaker and amp I ordered showed up , so I was doing some work on my rig anyways, prefect time to do some cable management etc. Turns out I was wrong and the base was going through a powered USB hub, so changed that, as well as added some ferrite beads, for a total of 5 or 6 . I have a button box and usb keypad, that I used to use often before going to VR, which was the reason for the hub. I also re-routed some cables so nothing is touching each other and lo and behold no issues last two sessions. Played for about 30 minutes last night and this morning and no problems. Not saying it is solved , but is a good start. Also updated drivers to beta 442.
TLDR;
1) Updated to beta driver 442
2) 6 Ferrite beads on CSL DD usb
3) Base routed directly yo PC , no USB hub
4) No cables are touching each other
5) No issue last two sessions of about 30 min each (ACC , VR)
That's good news. Fingers crossed things stay that way. But at least you've got some ideas to try if they don't. 👍
same here , fingers and toes crossed for me, lol
Happened again 2x in the same session, so I re tightened the shaft and added some plastic washers between the csl DD and the mount plate , as well as on the undetside of the mount plate between the head of the bolt and the mount plate . Fanatec sent me pictures of the clamp, to show how tight it should be, and they show it nearly touching. I added the picture here. I had to tighten the hell out of mine , to get it close. If I try any tighter I'll snap the Allen wrench.
Fanatec suggested I try another wheel to rule out the QR1 lite, I tried my WRC wheel , it happened again , but overall it is much better since I made some changes.
Strangely enough, and it may be a coincidence. When it happened the last time , the cord from my wheel base to my PC had moved and was touching the metal part of my V3s.... I moved it away and didn't happen again that session... probably about an hour total game time.
I think I will RMA the CSL DD , because it can't hurt ( i don't think). And if it becomes a bother I will just switch to a SimuCube 2 sport.
Sounds like you're doing the right things to isolate your rig. One thing I didn't see you mention, which I would say to check is to make sure that you've taken the step that Alessandro outlines in the post I've quoted above, with regards to wrapping your mounting screws with a piece of electrical tape. This will ensure that the area where the screw passes through the mounting plate is shielded and that there is no metal touching metal there, which could be contributing to your problems.
Hi guys, i had the same problems and it seems that i found a solution with an usb powered hub..since than no more disconnections...i'll update you if i get any..
Hi Stefano,
Glad you've found something that seems to be working for you. I'd be cautious with a USB hub though, as I don't think Fanatec recommend using them with their devices. I'm not sure the exact issue, but from reading on the forums, it seems that the hub can occasionally assign a different USB ID to whatever device is attached to it. This can cause games to not recognize your wheel, possibly with you needing to remap key bindings, etc.
You may be fine, but just keep this in mind if something like that does happen in the future.
I think it probably happened today, i hope is not going to happen so often...anyway it's not annoing as a disconnection during the last lap of a race...
I tried all the EMI mitigation steps suggested in this thread, but it didn't solve the problem unfortunately.
Hello everyone,
Well I´m very disappointed, I get my new DD Pro 8nm Base with CLS pedals (with Load Cell) and Mclaren GT3 wheels last week. I updated all the hardware with my PC and assembled everything to my cockpit (metal made) everything was fine but after 10 minutes of playing I sudently crash without understanding what was the issue... after another few minutes same issue occurred, basically a some point my Fanatec informed my PS5 that I´m at full turn (when obviously I´m not).
To be fair I have plenty of thing connected, I play GT7 on PS5 and stream with a PC so I have very close to each other (Keyboard, mouse, mic, screens, pc, ps5, lights etc...) so the possibility of this being a Magnetic Interference issue sound possible, anyway 1000 USD for some tech products I was not expecting that... and as per the previous conversation it doesn´t look like anyone has found a final solution, root cause seams also not confirmed, so what to do?
I´m located in Mexico where Fanatec do not have any support so sending back the products to Fanatec USA will cost me a lot of shipping and duty and taxes cost, so really want to avoid that.
I ordered some ferrite beads and USB isolator to try this first but I kind of miss my old Logitech G29 that has been working perfectly for more than 10 years with no issue...
Let us know if you can solve with USB insulator and ferrite cores.
Otherwise you can try to isolate wheelbase from the metal cockpit. In the end the problem comes down to this, induced currents passing through the cockpit and closing up on the USB port.