New driver version 200 and CSW firmware 53 - UPDATE

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Comments


  • I don't see a design flaw here, it needs to be limited, because people are using it wrong. Wheel is designed to work with everything at 100 and it should be capable of that that every day of the week. Overclocking was for weak signals, but of course it depends on the person. If you are a Schwarzenegger, you'd probably play every game at 400 and clearly it is not what it was designed for. It had to be reduced, because there are persons who think that if 400 is the maximum, they can use that all the time no matter whether signal actually was too weak to feel or not.

    What games are you playing anyway? I have never used it above 100, because I have not seen a need for it and I have had my CSW about two years now. What racing game is so bad that you'll have to amplify it 3-4 times?


    I totally disagree with your opinion. John Lomax is right. I'm also very annoyed about the new limit for the FOR-Setting

    I play most of the time ASSETTO CORSA (in my opinion the best and most realistic racing sim on the Planet) Depending on the driven car I have set the FOR to 100 up to 180 to get the most realistic feeling of driving. I can't raise the in-game-FF-seetting because I then get clipping. By raising the FOR-Seeting on the wheel I can avoid clipping and get a realistic driving feeling.

    When the FOR-Setting is now limited to 150 this is an unacceptable limitation. I never used FOR-Seetings above 250. But the new limit of 150 is by far to low. 

    I don't now if I boughtCSW if I would have been informed about this limitation. As John Lomax said the product is promoted with the possibilty to amplfiy the FOR up to 400. That is now no more true. I'm really annoyed because that was as for now an product feature is now called "overclocking" already for FOR-Settings more than 150.

    two questions:
    1.) Is there a possibilty to install the new driver without the new firmware?

    2.) Have anyone who installed the new firmware already experiences with the following feature: "Center bump issue" has been improved significantly




  • Very good job with these changes, before it was perfect in Assetto Corsa, now it is a dream to use the CSW with this game. Continue like that, your work is perfect.
  • The FW just screwed up my wheel base. No I am not happy at this second The wheel no longer centers at boot up and the rotation seems to be screwed up as well.
    Did you re-calibrate the centre as you were told?
  • 1.) Is there a possibilty to install the new driver without the new firmware?

     If you don't care about the changes in new firmware and don't have this universal hub, I don't see a problem in using older firmware with new driver.

  •  



    Yes I recalibrated the wheel so yes the FW is fine in that respects however now the v200 driver does not recognize my CS usb adapter and when I go to update it I get a message that the device is not in boot loader mode. How are we suppose to set the USB adapter into boot loader mode. However while going through this whole ordeal I reverted back to v144 FW37 and the USB adapter on the device page listed it as Shifter Mode. So could it be I could roll back v200 to v144 and have my shifter work and my Uni hub with the new FW

  • John LomaxJohn Lomax Member
    edited July 2014


    I don't see a design flaw here, it needs to be limited, because people are using it wrong. Wheel is designed to work with everything at 100 and it should be capable of that that every day of the week. Overclocking was for weak signals, but of course it depends on the person. If you are a Schwarzenegger, you'd probably play every game at 400 and clearly it is not what it was designed for. It had to be reduced, because there are persons who think that if 400 is the maximum, they can use that all the time no matter whether signal actually was too weak to feel or not.

    What games are you playing anyway? I have never used it above 100, because I have not seen a need for it and I have had my CSW about two years now. What racing game is so bad that you'll have to amplify it 3-4 times?

    They should implement better quoting system here, because current sucks.
    Who then could say what is the right way to use it and what is the wrong one, where is the limit where you can state you'd be going too far and are exposed to motors failure. Where is the warning in the manual. Where is it said or written the goal of the feature is to raise only weak signal, and how the user can determine when a signal
    can be considered weak or not.

    If you think a little you quickly see this is a non-sense as inapplicable. There is no way to give the user a way to determine when he'd be going too far. And with little sense nobody would imagine a company letting in a dangerous feature because "they'd rely on the average user to have a wise use of it". So anyone can only assume that if the feature is there and set to 400 max, the wheel was designed to handle it.

    To me it's clear the new limitation is there to limit RMA, and on top of this I could say for a wheel that is promoted to have a "large fan, providing ample cooling"  (see product page), and despite this "ample cooling" still even has a power-limiting system to reduce power when overheating, and STILL this is not enough to prevent motors death when using a built-in feature...

    BTW I was beta tester for this wheelbase and FOR never was limited to 100. I clearly remember using it on my 1st tries with pCars for the review (IIRC it was 250 during beta testing).

    As for Marc Wendling, this feature is also one of the top feature for me and it played a lot in my decision to buy this wheel. So no, no , no, seing it being reduced to almost nothing (+50% instead of +300%, this is HUGE downgrade) is not acceptable to me.

    And seeing how Fanatec is trying to dodge their responsabilities on this by trying to imply this was an unsupported feature by now calling this "overclocking", when it was clearly used as a selling feature for advertising the wheel, makes me even less likely to accept this. Shall Courts had to tell who is wrong there, I have no doubt they would say the product is "not as advertised anymore".

    About games, as Marc I'm currently focusing on Assetto corsa, and I have similar feedback than his. I remember I've used a bit above 200 FOR on some cars because as he says AC FFB has to be lowered to prevent clipping.

    This means this is nowhere near using the FOR feature to get an ultra-strong ffb, but just something I consider "normal strength" where "normal" mean "decent" but still within the specs for this wheel. The goal is to use lower ffb for the ingame setting to avoid clipping then bring back the signal strength to an decent value using the FOR signal amplification. And has he says, 150 is way too low.

  • Marek LaulMarek Laul Member
    edited July 2014
    And seeing how Fanatec is trying to dodge their responsabilities on this by trying to imply this was an unsupported feature by now calling this "overclocking", when it was clearly used as a selling feature for advertising the wheel, makes me even less likely to accept this. Shall Courts had to tell who is wrong there, I have no doubt they would say the product is "not as advertised anymore".
    Interesting that you see a manual as a selling advertisment. People usually see what features are given on a homepage, not go look for a manual and see what is shown there.
    Notebook sellers should stop selling notebooks with different configurations then, because if you buy a laptop without 3G module, but it is in the manual, then this is a false advertisment in your view, even though on a page it is sold, there's no talk about 3G.
  • And seeing how Fanatec is trying to dodge their responsabilities on this by trying to imply this was an unsupported feature by now calling this "overclocking", when it was clearly used as a selling feature for advertising the wheel, makes me even less likely to accept this. Shall Courts had to tell who is wrong there, I have no doubt they would say the product is "not as advertised anymore".
    Interesting that you see a manual as a selling advertisment. People usually see what features are given on a homepage, not go look for a manual and see what is shown there.
    Notebook sellers should stop selling notebooks with different configurations then, because if you buy a laptop without 3G module, but it is in the manual, then this is a false advertisment in your view, even though on a page it is sold, there's no talk about 3G.
    I'm one of the people who look in the manual before buying a product, at least when - as in case of the CSW - the "manual" is a video and also an advertisement. Product features can also be told in a manual, as it is here. 

    I don't know where your problem is. I und John Lomax have expessed that the FOR-Amplifing is very important for us and we bought the product with the former description that the force can be amplified signifcantly (up to 400 %). With the new firmware this is no longer the case.

    If you don't use this feature or it is not of interest for you, why do you blame other people - who have another opinion - that they drive always with 400 % FOR-Seeting. As you see, your assumption was wrong.

    I'm also a fan of the CSW. But is it undisputabale that the new limitation changes the product features in a significant point and way (from 400 % to 150%). This is far too much. The limit should be raised  at 250 %.
  • I don't know where your problem is. I und John Lomax have expessed that the FOR-Amplifing is very important for us and we bought the product with the former description that the force can be amplified signifcantly (up to 400 %). With the new firmware this is no longer the case.
    Well, here's a tip for Fanatec for the future. With next products, show only picture and tell absolutely nothing about it, so noone could get upset, because absolutely nothing was advertised or put disclaimers absolutely everywhere that features are subject to change without notice.
  • Thomas JackermeierThomas Jackermeier Member, Administrator
    John,
    Marc,

    let me give you some examples:

    Last week with the latest system update, my ANdroid phone lost the capability to view flash on websites.
    Can I now go to HTC and claim my money back?

    If you buy a new car you can expect that the brakes last for many thounsand kilometers. If you go on a race track and heat them up too much you can burn them within an afternoon.
    The car makers fault?

    We could have just made the overall FF weaker and keep the 400 setting as we never advertised how strong the wheel is.
    Would you be happy now?

    The FOR settong can be overclocked but this feature was not meant to be a permanent setting and it is a potential threat for the reliability of the wheel. Many customers are already out of the warranty period and we also protect those customers.

    The overclocking of the force settings is an artificial amplification and should only be used to amplify very weak signals to a reasonable level so that you can enjoy a game with weak force effects as much as a perfectly tuned game like Assetto Corsa at 100%.



  • Marek LaulMarek Laul Member
    edited July 2014
    Yeah Thomas, you should demand your money back from HTC and also demand millions as reprisal, because your whole world collapsed, because you know very well you bought this phone for this reason only :))
  • > Marek Laul  Interesting that you see a manual as a selling advertisment.
    Lol have you looked at this video ? It is as an adv as a quick manual.
    It's even hosted on youtube and is the 3th result returned when searching for "fanatec csw".
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMP-CDJVock

    Or maybe you prefer the CSW introduction video at E3 promoting the FOR setting that let you increase the ffb signal from the game:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgnxlWXs_CY

    After seeing this feature promoted you will want to know more about it if you are interested by it, and will check for reliable public informations on it. We are talking about a 800€ wheel here (and that's entry price. Base + gt rim + csr pedals).

    > Marc Wendling > The limit should be raised  at 250 %.
    Agree with you on the figure you propose.

  • The overclocking of the force settings is an artificial amplification and should only be used to amplify very weak signals to a reasonable level so that you can enjoy a game with weak force effects as much as a perfectly tuned game like Assetto Corsa at 100%.



    @John Lomak
    Like Thomas said, the FOR setting is an amplification of the FFB, it has nothing to do with FF setting which just limits the FFB from the game to a plateau. So yes, I know how my product works!
    And, "normal usage", as one would expect from the context, is understood as 100% of force... It might not have been the right expression to use, but that is another matter 
  • Andrew ClarkAndrew Clark Member
    edited July 2014

    Okay I was able to load the FW53 and driver 200 CS usb device not detected in v200 driver Roll back Driver to v144 CS usb device is detected. With Wheel booted with a FW53 Dr v144 combo GTR2 crashes, GTL Crashes, Assetto Corsa Loads but no FFB and that is as far as I have gotten. I turn the wheel off GTR2 loads up no problem so it would seem FW53 has compatibility issues with games and Driver 200 is no good as well. I have no choice but to fully roll back and hope my universal hubs work with a FW37 Dr v144 combo. 

     

    I am also not too happy with having to pay $5.00 to arrange that my first hub be delivered in between 5-8pm due to the fact your US webshop is requiring direct signature delivery requirements. I may have to do the same exact thing when my 2nd one is delivered on Saturday or Monday as well.

  • John LomaxJohn Lomax Member
    edited July 2014
    > Thomas Jackermeier > John, Marc, let me give you some examples: Last week with the latest system update, my ANdroid phone lost the capability to view flash on websites. Can I now go to HTC and claim my money back?

    If HTC advertised this phone on its capability to read flash then a court will be your side because of false advertising. Even if not in a "true" advertisement, if the court estimates it can be assimilated to an adv, like publicly released informations any potential customer have fair chance to base his decision on to decide to buy or not, then the court could state you intentionnaly tried to abuse the customers by spreading false informations or nature of mislead him.

    > Thomas Jackermeier If you buy a new car you can expect that the brakes last for many thounsand kilometers. If you go on a race track and heat them up too much you can burn them within an afternoon. The car makers fault?

    Come on Thomas, you cannot compare using a road car every customer will understand is not made for racing on track (and court will certainly state the same), with a feature designed to make a 4x signal amplification (and only signal, max power output remains unaffected) that the company would hope the customers will understand by themsleves (not a single warning from Fanatec) that it's not meant to be used at designed full potential.

    And we are not even talking about using it to its full designed potential, but at least a decent one, one that would correspond to the use meant for this feature and not make it almost inexistant.


    250 seems a fair value to me too. 150 is removing a feature that you promoted the wheelbase with.


    See, when I tested the wheelbase I first expected a lot at the first glance at it, based on the quality feel when looking at it and touching it.

    Then it did not took long to realize the ffb fading due to the heating protection system, pointing at the fact that the motors were not as strong as I'd have expected regarding the overall built quality.

    That was a first little disappointment (among some others, in particular significant wheel play due to the QR system, or unadjustable shifter paddles throw due a design flaw). But, weighting the pros & cons, it was not perfect but still a good value for money.

    Then after a few monthes I read on forums people have ffb motors dying. I'm not very pleased to see this but mine is still working. Until the day mine die too. So you change them at your charge, nothing to say about that, but now after that I wonder how long the new ones will last, and what will happen if they die again when I'm out of warranty.

    You spreaded the info you found a design flaw on those engines and that it was now fixed, but that's just an info we have no way to verify, so I cannot say I'm confident again my 800€ wheel will last (my 2 microsoft wheels are still working, the older being 15 or 20 years old now).

    And now there is this update where you significantly reduced a feature that is susceptible to stress the motors (but you promoted the wheelbase on).

    So how to still be happy and confident when various events that happened during my 1st year of use (ffb fading, other users' dead motors (sometimes twice), my own motors death, your fw limitation) just pointed toward the motors as really being not robust enough for that wheelbase.

    I really wish you decided to offer a motors upgrade kit for the most enthusiasts CSW customers, that you would offer at decent price for early adopters like you did earlier with the GT3RS upgrade kit to v2. Better motors ? Or a watercooling kit for the mabushi ones ?


    > Thomas Jackermeier should only be used to amplify very weak signals to a reasonable level so that you can enjoy a game with weak force effects as much as a perfectly tuned game like Assetto Corsa at 100%.

    How your customers are meant to determine was is "reasonnable level" ? I felt I was using reasonnable level when using FOR with assetto. Not stronger ffb than what I could have with other games without using FOR. Still my motors died.

    About AC, it is a really good sim. But I won't go as far as saying it'd be "perfectly tuned". Not yet at least, but I don't think the ffb will significantly change by the time we reach the final product. I feel it will continue to be as now, which means best ffb is obtained by using 150 to 250 FOR, depending on car (with lowered ingame ffb setting, like 20-60 depending on car).

    edit: I've just checked my current AC setting is 20 for ingame ffb gain and 180 for CSW FOR. And this is for competitive racing, I may go a bit higher if I'm more toward playing for fun, or with some specific cars.
  • I've just updated, the firmware installed fine but the driver hasn't
    installed. I click on CSW properties and it's the generic Windows
    calibration, No one has mentioned it so am I doing something wrong,
    though I can't see how?
  • edit: I've just checked my current AC setting is 20 for ingame ffb gain and 180 for CSW FOR. And this is for competitive racing, I may go a bit higher if I'm more toward playing for fun, or with some specific cars.
    You have very interesting settings. Totally different what most probably uses. Even AC team suggests similar what probably most use and they should know the best,
  • John LomaxJohn Lomax Member
    edited July 2014
    You know, majority isn't always right xD Esp. since talking about matters of taste (lot of people watch crap blockbusters, doesn't make them good in my eyes).

    As for devs, that's neither a warranty to know better than others. Didn't AC devs implement insane booking system for MP ? Something making you cannot freely join a practice session, and that modding community had to fix itself ;)

    Now not talking about the ending result in feel, let see the user compliance side: using a lower ingame ffb gain and having a wide range for FOR to compensate means you can tweak your ffb strength to your liking on track, during play.

    So no need to quit session, go through menus, make blind gain changes. Instead I do it on the fly for every car and with a direct feel for the result. This is a huge benefit, and what the on the fly settings on fanatec wheels are designed for (and a significant reason why I buy Fanatec wheels).


  • John LomaxJohn Lomax Member
    edited July 2014
    Also Thomas, maybe we are only 2 here (yet) to complain about the CSW downgrade, but you may want also to look at what is said about it on various forums.

    I have not checked the english ones yet but I can already tell you the first reactions on 2 french forums (both being very popular forums):

    - one the 1st one (dedicated to racing sim / games, most popular french one) someone is upset by the limitation and wonders if this is to prevent motors failures.

    Another user answers him that's probably the truth and point at the coincidence that the FOR limitation is made at the time you are releasing new 350mm diameter rims.

    Then the 1st user dig back the question of why you have used the cheap mabuchi for such a high end wheel, comparing with the more robust Bühler equipping the T500.


    - On the 2nd one (more popular pc hardware french forum) someone says this limitation should have happened since the beginning and not appear after 2 years selling the wheel. And as above he wonders why that motor was used for such a quality wheelbase, and as I did here he wishes that there was a csw v2 with more reliable motors.


    So it's obvious that FOR limitation will have some negative influence on the image of the product and company. I'm curious to see what other csw owners will think about it once the info spreads more. Maybe it will be a wise decision for your image if you manage to limit the csw motors failures doing this, but as far as I'm concerned as a customer I will still have in mind I've been removed one of the top feature on my 800€ wheel, and this because of the use of inadequate motors for such a quality wheelbase.
  • Armin HabermannArmin Habermann Member, Administrator
    I've just updated, the firmware installed fine but the driver hasn't
    installed. I click on CSW properties and it's the generic Windows
    calibration, No one has mentioned it so am I doing something wrong,
    though I can't see how?
    Hi Denis,

    please re-install the driver with the wheel powered on. Does that help?

    THX!
  • Armin HabermannArmin Habermann Member, Administrator

    Okay I was able to load the FW53 and driver 200 CS usb device not detected in v200 driver Roll back Driver to v144 CS usb device is detected. With Wheel booted with a FW53 Dr v144 combo GTR2 crashes, GTL Crashes, Assetto Corsa Loads but no FFB and that is as far as I have gotten. I turn the wheel off GTR2 loads up no problem so it would seem FW53 has compatibility issues with games and Driver 200 is no good as well. I have no choice but to fully roll back and hope my universal hubs work with a FW37 Dr v144 combo. 

    Hi Andrew,

    please also re-install the v200 driver with all devices connected (and powered on - wheel) and check if the problem is resolved. If not, please send us a support inquiry from the support section of the website including all information you might have at hands. Problem description, screenshots, error messages and so on. We will look into it asap.

    THX!
  • I just updated everything but i cant get my handbrake to show up or connect. I do have it connected to my v2 pedals.
  • Test off another pc.
    Having problem posting.
  • Seems to work now.

    There are 3 HEX files in the folder.
    2 of them are large enough, but only one of them should be correct for the CSW base, and I'm thinking the others are for some other wheels that use the same driver package.

    Would you tell me which one is for the CSW base, so I can keep track of it and just use the bootloader. I'm guessing it has the same number in the file viewed with notepad, that is displayed on the wheel ?
    This will be for possible driver/firmware combo testing, for iRacing.
    Trying to keep the flashing to a minimum.

  • Andrew ClarkAndrew Clark Member
    edited July 2014

    Okay I was able to load the FW53 and driver 200 CS usb device not detected in v200 driver Roll back Driver to v144 CS usb device is detected. With Wheel booted with a FW53 Dr v144 combo GTR2 crashes, GTL Crashes, Assetto Corsa Loads but no FFB and that is as far as I have gotten. I turn the wheel off GTR2 loads up no problem so it would seem FW53 has compatibility issues with games and Driver 200 is no good as well. I have no choice but to fully roll back and hope my universal hubs work with a FW37 Dr v144 combo. 

    Hi Andrew,

    please also re-install the v200 driver with all devices connected (and powered on - wheel) and check if the problem is resolved. If not, please send us a support inquiry from the support section of the website including all information you might have at hands. Problem description, screenshots, error messages and so on. We will look into it asap.

    THX!



    No help doing this and same result. I am at the moment trying this operation on my backup PC and I will get back with you as to my success.


    Edit: Update Results on Backup PC. Still Issues Probably with driver unless new firmware is not allowing wheel to be properly recognized because in wheel properties the device lists as Club Sport Wheel but when I open the configuration page I get a generic Joystick calibration and setup page. However beyond that everything else seems to be right the CS usb adapter is recognized and Shifter maps in game. Except I have zero FFB in game

    Edit#2:Dr/FW combo on backup PC- 177/53 works fine ffb is good also 144/53 works fine as well on my backup PC which I think I will stay with unless you can come up with reasons why I shouldn't? Oh by the way after FW update while working on my secondary PC there was a bad Spr issue that created a zero rotation until Spr was shut off. Which I have done for quite some time. Hopefully all this helps I will see if I can get everything corrected on my Primary system and let you know.

  • Denis CecconiDenis Cecconi Member
    edited July 2014
    I've just updated, the firmware installed fine but the driver hasn't
    installed. I click on CSW properties and it's the generic Windows
    calibration, No one has mentioned it so am I doing something wrong,
    though I can't see how?
    Hi Denis,

    please re-install the driver with the wheel powered on. Does that help?

    THX!
    I solved doing this:
    1) uninstall previous drivers
    2) Changed the destination folder, in my case 64-bit, I changed and put into programs, and not in program files (x86)
    3) When asked to launch panel for me view, I removed the flag, and I did it manually.
     
    Now at last I see the control panel of the steering wheel
    I did a test on the track.
    everything works perfectly

    Denis

  • The new drivers work great,turning down the damper in the drivers makes the bumps feel clear,the wheel feels like a whole new wheel great work fanatec.
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