This is a 12Nm direct drive wheel base, but without the base… instead, it’s all integrated into one unit, with some mixed results.
Images taken by OverTake
The entry-level Cammus C5 and its unique integrated direct drive steering wheel design has already won over many sim racers. Now, however, the uber-competitive mid-level market has a new competitor.
With the C12, the Chinese manufacturer goes one step further, revising the design, offering a much more versatile product and, above all, a whopping 12Nm of torque.
The distinctive concept of these Cammus C-Series wheels is to offer the direct drive motor and wheel as a single unit, eliminating the need for a quick release or a (sometimes) large base unit
In theory, this could make things a bit more beginner-friendly as you are not overwhelmed with an ecosystem of interchangeable wheels. That said, this time it is possible to change your wheel, but more on that later…
Cammus calls this the ‘external rotor design’ and the potential advantages are obvious – not only does it take up less space and allow you to mount it much closer to your screen, but it also adds rigidity and, on paper, eliminates any flex.
It is therefore not surprising that there are many options on the market that compete directly with this new device.
Cammus is offering the C12 for pre-order now with a $50 deposit, with a total sticker price of $699, or down to $499 for those who order early, while an optional desk clamp retails for $39. This is a highly competitive offer, before any local taxes and shipping, mind you. At the time of publication, it is out of stock, unfortunately.
In this region, there are the rivals from Asetek with the La Prima, the ClubSport DD from Fanatec, the Moza R12 or the Thrustmaster T818 – if you take the list price, the gap is not very big, but all of them come without a wheel. So, you’re usually looking at another 200-300 dollars or euros on top of that.
The Logitech Pro Racing Wheel is also a good example, but it also scratches the $1000 mark. This should make the C12 interesting for many people who set a certain limit for themselves but want a powerful force feedback experience.
The extra desk clamp is recommended, as it also contains an extra fan, which should help maintain lower temperatures and thus less power loss, especially on hot summer days. We didn’t receive one for this test, although the existing setup for the C5 works here too.
You can control this temperature management to some extent in the software. It still has a pattern that allows mounting on a rig, but you would need some lock nuts. We just clamped it onto our plate to see how rigid it is. Mercifully, It did not move a millimetre, even with stronger forces.
The wheel itself is more of a button box with a 6x70mm pattern that provides many options for customisation. I was immediately hooked and wanted to screw my Porsche Alcantara wheel onto it.
Unfortunately, one bolt sticks out right in the middle, so I couldn’t get any further without spacers – a design flaw, but doable.
The standard wheel is 300mm in diameter and is solid, wrapped in synthetic leather with stitching. The round shape seems to be a response to drifters and rally drivers criticizing the D-shape of the C5. It generally looks and feels high quality, with the pressure points of the buttons and encoders being nothing to sneeze at compared to the competition, such as Moza.
On the front, there are 10 backlit push buttons and two 12-position switches. On the left is a hat switch, that can also be used as a mouse substitute, and on the right is a seven-way funky switch.
Next to them are two rotary encoders and on top two thumb encoders. The upper knobs can be set to “direction” via software, so they work two-way, left and right. There is also a diminutive display for information such as speed or gear selected and an LED strip to showcase revs. What looks like flag LEDs or TC/ABS indicators are sadly not functional presently.
The rear magnetic shift paddles, meanwhile, are a huge step up from the C5, where they were super tiny. Dual-clutch paddles would have been the icing on the cake in terms of button layout.
Also on the back are the all-important inputs for PC sim racing, including the fan input, USB data port, power, reset button, power button, and USB Type-C for optional pedals, handbrakes, or shifters. This may hint at more additions to the Cammus ecosystem in the future…
Like many Chinese suppliers, is not certified for Windows. But, after installing, updating and checking the firmware, the wheel is easily recognised. The software is on the simple side, allowing for basic settings such as wheel rotation up to 2520 degrees, force, damping, friction, inertia and spring settings.
Under the ‘assistance’ tab, we could also monitor the temperature. Under ‘devices’ we also found the dashboard settings, which allow us to change the backlight of our 10 buttons. The RPM lights are also customisable and offer different presets. You can also save your settings and assign them to game profiles.
After some tweaking and setup, the C12 threw a good punch into our hands. But, if you are used to devices such as the Moza R9 or Fanatec ClubSport DD+, the overall detail and feel of what the car and my tyres are doing can be a bit underwhelming.
Also, the shift lights in iRacing do not match very well and the speedometer freezes sometimes. In general, we would say that everything related to force and road feel is perfectly okay, just everything the car does is not quite there in terms of communication. Fanatec and Moza have some secret sauce to their FFB tuning that is missing here.
The next stop was Le Mans Ultimate, where the LED elements and speedometer did not work yet and we had to invert the FFB. The feel is strong and very lively, but the criticism I had with iRacing remains. At least the road effects, especially at Sebring, are good.
The downside is that the motor makes significant mechanical noises, but only in this simulation so far. This is a bit disturbing and doesn’t really feel healthy, so I personally would stay away from longer LMU sessions with this wheel until there is an update. We also asked Cammus about this, once we have an update, but didn’t receive an answer as of yet.
Moving to Assetto Corsa Competizione, the shift lights match much better than in iRacing and we didn’t experience any freezes. It is very similar in terms of feel to the previous two titles. We did have to tone down the feedback slightly, but once enacted, we experienced no problems with clipping, which was an issue with the Moza R9.
This was very frustrating because we have seen other people supposedly driving AMS2 with this exact wheel, but after several attempts, we had to concede. A shame.
Rally titles are also very important to us here at OverTake, so EA Sports WRC was next. Following an easy set-up process, the force feedback was way too strong by default, so we lowered all the bars in the game to about 50% and turned off the centre spring.
That helped, but even then, there was a weird FFB pulsing after about 90° steering angle that killed the experience for us. What a shame, because then we tried DiRT Rally 2.0 to see if it’s the same story, it turns out we had by far the best experience with the C12 overall.
There were even some pre-defined button mappings and the profile for the first time really made sense. It had a strong, detailed and natural feel, something missing when testing some of the other platforms.
This provided some hope that the manufacturer can go back and refine the delivery for some of the new sim racing titles where right now it doesn’t quite live up to expectations.
The force feedback system has not really convinced us yet, but that is always a question of what you are used to. BUT this wheel has a lot of potential, with a significant level of power and a quiet operation (except with Le Mans Ultimate).
Cammus still has some work to do on the software and tweaking for individual sim titles. For some, delivery and customer support could also be a deciding factor. If it delivers improvements as expected, however, we could recommend the product because the quality is there, and the idea is a good one.
Do you have experience with Cammus sim racing equipment? Let us know in the comments below!
Images taken by OverTake
The entry-level Cammus C5 and its unique integrated direct drive steering wheel design has already won over many sim racers. Now, however, the uber-competitive mid-level market has a new competitor.
With the C12, the Chinese manufacturer goes one step further, revising the design, offering a much more versatile product and, above all, a whopping 12Nm of torque.
The distinctive concept of these Cammus C-Series wheels is to offer the direct drive motor and wheel as a single unit, eliminating the need for a quick release or a (sometimes) large base unit
In theory, this could make things a bit more beginner-friendly as you are not overwhelmed with an ecosystem of interchangeable wheels. That said, this time it is possible to change your wheel, but more on that later…
Cammus calls this the ‘external rotor design’ and the potential advantages are obvious – not only does it take up less space and allow you to mount it much closer to your screen, but it also adds rigidity and, on paper, eliminates any flex.
Diminutive Direct Drive
The C12 is the most compact of all 12Nm wheels or wheel bases and a recent survey in our YouTube community tab showed that most of our audience uses a wheel in the 6-12Nm range.It is therefore not surprising that there are many options on the market that compete directly with this new device.
Cammus is offering the C12 for pre-order now with a $50 deposit, with a total sticker price of $699, or down to $499 for those who order early, while an optional desk clamp retails for $39. This is a highly competitive offer, before any local taxes and shipping, mind you. At the time of publication, it is out of stock, unfortunately.
In this region, there are the rivals from Asetek with the La Prima, the ClubSport DD from Fanatec, the Moza R12 or the Thrustmaster T818 – if you take the list price, the gap is not very big, but all of them come without a wheel. So, you’re usually looking at another 200-300 dollars or euros on top of that.
The Logitech Pro Racing Wheel is also a good example, but it also scratches the $1000 mark. This should make the C12 interesting for many people who set a certain limit for themselves but want a powerful force feedback experience.
What’s In The Box?
In addition to the C12, the package includes a small tool kit, power supply cable, USB cable, instruction manual and a T-bracket for rig or wheel stand.The extra desk clamp is recommended, as it also contains an extra fan, which should help maintain lower temperatures and thus less power loss, especially on hot summer days. We didn’t receive one for this test, although the existing setup for the C5 works here too.
You can control this temperature management to some extent in the software. It still has a pattern that allows mounting on a rig, but you would need some lock nuts. We just clamped it onto our plate to see how rigid it is. Mercifully, It did not move a millimetre, even with stronger forces.
The wheel itself is more of a button box with a 6x70mm pattern that provides many options for customisation. I was immediately hooked and wanted to screw my Porsche Alcantara wheel onto it.
Unfortunately, one bolt sticks out right in the middle, so I couldn’t get any further without spacers – a design flaw, but doable.
The standard wheel is 300mm in diameter and is solid, wrapped in synthetic leather with stitching. The round shape seems to be a response to drifters and rally drivers criticizing the D-shape of the C5. It generally looks and feels high quality, with the pressure points of the buttons and encoders being nothing to sneeze at compared to the competition, such as Moza.
On the front, there are 10 backlit push buttons and two 12-position switches. On the left is a hat switch, that can also be used as a mouse substitute, and on the right is a seven-way funky switch.
Next to them are two rotary encoders and on top two thumb encoders. The upper knobs can be set to “direction” via software, so they work two-way, left and right. There is also a diminutive display for information such as speed or gear selected and an LED strip to showcase revs. What looks like flag LEDs or TC/ABS indicators are sadly not functional presently.
The rear magnetic shift paddles, meanwhile, are a huge step up from the C5, where they were super tiny. Dual-clutch paddles would have been the icing on the cake in terms of button layout.
Also on the back are the all-important inputs for PC sim racing, including the fan input, USB data port, power, reset button, power button, and USB Type-C for optional pedals, handbrakes, or shifters. This may hint at more additions to the Cammus ecosystem in the future…
Installation
After looking at the manual, which is very easy to understand and straightforward, we downloaded the “CAMMUS RACING DRIVE” software from its website.Like many Chinese suppliers, is not certified for Windows. But, after installing, updating and checking the firmware, the wheel is easily recognised. The software is on the simple side, allowing for basic settings such as wheel rotation up to 2520 degrees, force, damping, friction, inertia and spring settings.
Under the ‘assistance’ tab, we could also monitor the temperature. Under ‘devices’ we also found the dashboard settings, which allow us to change the backlight of our 10 buttons. The RPM lights are also customisable and offer different presets. You can also save your settings and assign them to game profiles.
On Track
Our first test was with iRacing, jumping into the Caddilac in Daytona to do some practice for the POTAYTONA event we are participating in this Saturday.After some tweaking and setup, the C12 threw a good punch into our hands. But, if you are used to devices such as the Moza R9 or Fanatec ClubSport DD+, the overall detail and feel of what the car and my tyres are doing can be a bit underwhelming.
Also, the shift lights in iRacing do not match very well and the speedometer freezes sometimes. In general, we would say that everything related to force and road feel is perfectly okay, just everything the car does is not quite there in terms of communication. Fanatec and Moza have some secret sauce to their FFB tuning that is missing here.
The next stop was Le Mans Ultimate, where the LED elements and speedometer did not work yet and we had to invert the FFB. The feel is strong and very lively, but the criticism I had with iRacing remains. At least the road effects, especially at Sebring, are good.
The downside is that the motor makes significant mechanical noises, but only in this simulation so far. This is a bit disturbing and doesn’t really feel healthy, so I personally would stay away from longer LMU sessions with this wheel until there is an update. We also asked Cammus about this, once we have an update, but didn’t receive an answer as of yet.
Moving to Assetto Corsa Competizione, the shift lights match much better than in iRacing and we didn’t experience any freezes. It is very similar in terms of feel to the previous two titles. We did have to tone down the feedback slightly, but once enacted, we experienced no problems with clipping, which was an issue with the Moza R9.
Off Track
Then we tested Automobilista 2 and we just couldn’t get the steering to work…This was very frustrating because we have seen other people supposedly driving AMS2 with this exact wheel, but after several attempts, we had to concede. A shame.
Rally titles are also very important to us here at OverTake, so EA Sports WRC was next. Following an easy set-up process, the force feedback was way too strong by default, so we lowered all the bars in the game to about 50% and turned off the centre spring.
That helped, but even then, there was a weird FFB pulsing after about 90° steering angle that killed the experience for us. What a shame, because then we tried DiRT Rally 2.0 to see if it’s the same story, it turns out we had by far the best experience with the C12 overall.
There were even some pre-defined button mappings and the profile for the first time really made sense. It had a strong, detailed and natural feel, something missing when testing some of the other platforms.
This provided some hope that the manufacturer can go back and refine the delivery for some of the new sim racing titles where right now it doesn’t quite live up to expectations.
There’s Potential
Were the value pricing and the first impressions too good to be true?The force feedback system has not really convinced us yet, but that is always a question of what you are used to. BUT this wheel has a lot of potential, with a significant level of power and a quiet operation (except with Le Mans Ultimate).
Cammus still has some work to do on the software and tweaking for individual sim titles. For some, delivery and customer support could also be a deciding factor. If it delivers improvements as expected, however, we could recommend the product because the quality is there, and the idea is a good one.
Do you have experience with Cammus sim racing equipment? Let us know in the comments below!
