AccuForce torque ripple developing after 30-45min

[Shovas]

This is about an extremely well used original AccuForce V1 that I've had and used continually since 2015. Don't worry if you're thinking about getting a new AccuForce. They're tanks and well supported by SimXperience (see Berney's snipe post right after my original post) for how well they support their product. They're great.

Solved: The encoder cap (and therefor the encoder board/sensor hard-mounted inside the cap) on the rear of the motor had tiny amounts of play and was likely getting knocked out of calibration by vibrations from ffb. My DIY solution was to secure the cap. My choice was a rather generous length of packing tape (because of its stickiness and robustness) that stretched along the sides of the motor and over the cap to hold it down (from moving in and out possible) and to prevent it from rotation and up/down/left/right movement. This solution will likely deteriorate over time and I will need to come up with a new solution. A possible option at that time would be a few dabs of hot glue. I hope this helps other AccuForce owners in the future.

[Solved] AccuForce V1 2015 - torque ripple develops

I've been experiencing progressively strong torque ripple (or cogging or bumps when rotating the wheel) that seems to occur simply with usage about 30-45min after powering on and using. The problem is actually strong enough that it affects the ability to input rotation accurately to drive cars.

Has anyone else experienced this and do you have a solution?

I originally thought it was due to in-game car crashes that sent the AF wheel flying around (I let go) causing some kind of miscalibration / out-of-alignment issue. Maybe due to the brushed motor design??

But the problem seems to be occurring within 30-45min of powering on and using the wheel regardless of how the wheel is used.

I was recommended by SimXperience support to power off the wheel for 30sec and power back on. I've tried longer periods (ie. over night) - no luck. I also found SimCommander's device "Reset and Calibrate" helped somewhat/sometimes. Neither of these fixed the issue completely.

I've tried restarting SC, updating SC, reapplying device defaults, power cycling the AF, power cycling the computer, etc. nothing has worked yet.

The problem is severe enough that I'm considering a new wheel and, I hate to say it, because SimXperience is a good company otherwise, but if I did have to do that it probably wouldn't be with SimXperience again.

If I can solve the problem myself I'd remain a happy SimXperience customer.

For background, it's an AF V1 I've had since 2015, so I have gotten my bang for buck out of it, but it is a shame it's developed this kind of issue. It feels like something that should be fixable.

Really appreciate if anyone can help me solve it.

Thanks

 

[Shovas]

The other possibilty I noticed with that cap was not simply rotation but (1) also in and out movement on the shaft, and (2) that broken clip may have been allowing a portion of the outer cap to move in and out. Both of those would change the distance from the encoder sensor to the shaft encoder plate. I'm not sure how bad that would be but given how sensitive it is I could understand if it would be a big problem.

 

[Shovas]

Update: No real problems after a number of further sessions. There's always about 0-5% torque ripple but this is very, very minimal, results in an enjoyable experience, and I imagine you wouldn't really pay attention to it unless you were looking for it, like me.

 

[Shovas]

Solved: The encoder cap (and therefor the encoder board/sensor hard-mounted inside the cap) on the rear of the motor had tiny amounts of play and was likely getting knocked out of calibration by vibrations from ffb. My DIY solution was to secure the cap. My choice was a rather generous length of packing tape (because of its stickiness and robustness) that stretched along the sides of the motor and over the cap to hold it down (from moving in and out possible) and to prevent it from rotation and up/down/left/right movement. This solution will likely deteriorate over time and I will need to come up with a new solution. A possible option at that time would be a few dabs of hot glue. I hope this helps other AccuForce owners in the future.

I'm considering this solved now. I've added the solution to the original post.

 

[HoiHman]

@Shovas Thank you for posting this, i think this maybe the solution to why my AccuForce (V1) was not calibrating and random loss of FFB.

I have secured the encoder cap at the back of the wheel and will do some further testing tonight

 

[Shovas]

@Shovas Thank you for posting this, i think this maybe the solution to why my AccuForce (V1) was not calibrating and random loss of FFB.

I have secured the encoder cap at the back of the wheel and will do some further testing tonight

Glad to hear this was helpful. If I were to do it today I'd probably go for some hot glue gun dabs around the encoder housing as that would probably prevent even more movement and last longer.

I played with that wheel long after the fix, though, and never had a problem.

But I moved on to the SimuCube 2 Pro in 2021 which is a nice upgrade if you can swing it.

Good luck!

 

[HoiHman]

Glad to hear this was helpful. If I were to do it today I'd probably go for some hot glue gun dabs around the encoder housing as that would probably prevent even more movement and last longer.

I played with that wheel long after the fix, though, and never had a problem.

But I moved on to the SimuCube 2 Pro in 2021 which is a nice upgrade if you can swing it.

Good luck!

Yes it absolutely fixed my AccuForce V1, which is already more than 8 years old now. Hotglued it

I was already looking into getting a SC2 pro, but.....my AccuForce is completely build into my custom dashboard and swapping wheelbases may not be that easy.

Beside that i'm still satisfied with the FFB from the AFv1, i don't want to lose the ability to use telemetry based FFB (steering FFB foundation) for FH4 FH5 and hopefully FM8.