Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint Interview and First Impressions

[Paul Jeffrey]

We talk to Niels Heusinkveld and try out the soon to be released Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint.

Catching up with Niels Heusinkveld at the recent very busy Sim Racing Expo over in Germany, we took the opportunity to quiz the man behind Heusinkveld Engineering about his newly announced Sim Pedals Sprint set of high end sim racing pedals. With Niels in a buoyant mood following what appeared to be a largely very positive reception to the new hardware, we took the opportunity to question him about the features and improvements of the new gear, learning plenty about how some dramatic software features and production improvements have moved the product range on from the already very impressive offerings of HE Engineering.

Not content with merely taking Niels at his word, we also couldn't quite resist the chance to get strapped into the cockpit and have a go ourselves, recording a short but sweet talk and drive segment as we give our first impressions based on the limited time we had with these brand new set of pedals.

Frankly, I was very impressed, although it is exceptionally hard to gather any serious kind of feel with something like a high end set of pedals with such a short period of time behind the wheel... not helped any by a crowd of people watching on, and a camera and microphone in my face!

However, with that said I'm going to be lucky enough to take receipt of a review set of these pedals in the very near future, so please consider this more of a taster video, with a much more in depth and detailed look at the HE Sim Pedals Sprint set to appear on our various social media channels in the near future. So stay tuned, get subscribed and watch out for some new footage in the (hopefully) coming weeks...

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[bgil66]

I'm actually thinking of getting the Sprints but I would contact Niels and the guys over there at the company, I'm sure they can help ya out.

 

[Fujiwara tofu shop]

Just received my 3 pedal set today. I have to say, what a beautiful piece of engineering they are. The built quality exceeded my expectations. Sadly i won't be able to try them out for a while, i'm waiting patiently to see if sim-lab will have a black Friday sale, and then i will pick up a GT1 Evo from them.

I wanted to ask a question about the GT1 Evo + sprint combo, since it seems several people in this thread runs that setup. I've already read about the pedal tray not being stiff enough to mount the pedals individually, so i've come up with a DIY solution that i hope will work.
The idea is that i will purchase a 40x120 aluminum profile, which i will set under (or over) the pedal tray. I will then mount the pedals into the profile. This should create a larger surface area for the load coming from the brake to spread out over, and minimize the flex. I was wondering if anyone has tried something similar. The thing is, i'm not sure if the HE Sprint mounting holes on the pedal tray line up with 40x120 profile, i just know that the Sprints mounting point lines up with 40x120 profile. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could confirm whether or not it would be possible. I also would like to know how long the cutouts in the GT1 Evo pedal tray for the HE Sprint pedals are, so i know how long of a profile that i need to buy. I would be very thankful if anyone could help my out with this.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Yes, the Sprint Pedals holes line up with 40x120 profile. I had them mounted directly to the 40x120mm profile on my pedal deck with 5mm T-nuts originally. Since then I put them on 1/4" aluminum plates with larger 8mm bolts to make it easier to slide the brake and clutch to the side together when I'm only using the brake and Throttle and want a little more space between them. Now there are bevel head 5mm bolts fitting counter bored holes underneath with 5mm wide flange locknuts on top. I really didn't need a plate under my throttle pedal since I don't move it, but I wanted it to match the other side.

 

[Fujiwara tofu shop]

Yes, the Sprint Pedals holes line up with 40x120 profile. I had them mounted directly to the 40x120mm profile on my pedal deck with 5mm T-nuts originally. Since then I put them on 1/4" aluminum plates with larger 8mm bolts to make it easier to slide the brake and clutch to the side together when I'm only using the brake and Throttle and want a little more space between them. Now there are bevel head 5mm bolts fitting counter bored holes underneath with 5mm wide flange locknuts on top. I really didn't need a plate under my throttle pedal since I don't move it, but I wanted it to match the other side.

View attachment 333453

Dang that's a nice looking setup. What are those motor looking things on the sides of your heel rest?
Thanks for the info. Now i know that i can mount the pedals to 40x120 profile. Last piece of the puzzle is figuring out whether or not 40x120 will fit on the GT1 Evo pedal tray, because if it doesn't then i don't know how i'm gonna be able to mount them without flex.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Dang that's a nice looking setup. What are those motor looking things on the sides of your heel rest?
Thanks for the info. Now i know that i can mount the pedals to 40x120 profile. Last piece of the puzzle is figuring out whether or not 40x120 will fit on the GT1 Evo pedal tray, because if it doesn't then i don't know how i'm gonna be able to mount them without flex.

Those are transducers for tactile feedback. I have 4 mounted. One under the seat, One on the wheel/shifter mount and one on each side of the pedals. There is normally speaker cable connected to them, but I'm in the middle of moving things around, again.

Odds are that you will be able to mount the 40x120 directly to the pedal tray. If not you can always add a few holes.

 

[ShinyAndy]

How often are you guys having to recalibrate?

I was in a race last weekend and noticed that my top speed compared to everyone else was about 7-10kph down (same cars). Was scratching my head for ages, then thought to recalibrate the pedals through the HE panel and suddenly I was back on the same pace again (and able to brake later). Just wondering if this is something I should be doing regularly or not?

 

[White Hawk]

How often are you guys having to recalibrate?

I was in a race last weekend and noticed that my top speed compared to everyone else was about 7-10kph down (same cars). Was scratching my head for ages, then thought to recalibrate the pedals through the HE panel and suddenly I was back on the same pace again (and able to brake later). Just wondering if this is something I should be doing regularly or not?

No you shouldn’t be needing to do that, I haven’t and I’ve had them for quite a few months now, just make sure you calibrate the end of travel so it’s barely touching the end stop and put in some dead zone. I had an issue with the soft end stop at first but I’ve not had any problems with it going to 100% since taking that into account.

 

[ShinyAndy]

I'm using the default Profile which I'm pretty sure has some dead zone in it anyway.

I can't say that I've noticed a soft end stop though, I need to go check that out, but either way if I've always pressed the pedal to the same point it shouldn't matter as that would be 100% deflection when in the game from the calibration I did a few weeks ago.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I haven't had any issues with recalibration. You do need to recalibrate after making any adjustments to the pedals, but that's about it.

 

[EsxPaul]

Same here. Haven't had to make any adjustments to the throttle or clutch. The only thing I recalibrate is the brake pedal, depending on whether I'm wearing just socks or different types of footwear.

 

[ShinyAndy]

Hmmm.. strange

I guess you'd never know you weren't getting 100% unless you noticed your top speed was down though. I'll keep an eye on things over the next week or so

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

Hmmm.. strange

I guess you'd never know you weren't getting 100% unless you noticed your top speed was down though. I'll keep an eye on things over the next week or so

Yep, please check if the problem stays when you increase the top deadzone a little bit.

 

[ShinyAndy]

What should it ideally be set to?

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

What should it ideally be set to?

When calibrating the way White Hawk mentioned, 5% should be plenty.

 

[Jack Dulmage]

Hi Guys,

I am having a huge issue and I have not found a solution anywhere.. hoping someone has seen this before...

I recently upgraded my CPU and MBU:
Ryzen 7 2700X
TUF Gaming X470 Plus
MSI 1070 Ti
Corsair LPX DDR4 3000 mhz
650W PSU Modular

After the upgrade, the PC was great EXCEPT for the HE Sprint software, which was very slow, had massive input delay and made the pedals unusable. I couldn't find any solutions so I reinstalled windows, reinstalled all the latest drivers, etc. and redownloaded and installed the Smart control software... to no avail.

The software is still very laggy; when I first turn the PC on the software is great, but then as soon as I boot up a sim it becomes extremely laggy and unusable, but it's only the HE software. My SC2 software is fine, as are all my other background apps and 3rd party apps.

Any help is appreciated I am pulling my hair out!

 

[metalnwood]

I just put an osw on my kids rig and had the same issue.. I hoped I would get away without proper grounding but had to do that and things were good again. So make sure the SC2 and rig is properly grounded.

 

[Jack Dulmage]

Update: Finally... after 5 days of avoiding it, I did a BIOS update (newest update was updated 2 days ago) and everything seems to be working well now...

 

[Elaphe]

Do you know if any manufacturer has tried designing pedals with big neodimium magnets, I mean facing each other for repulsive and progresive force?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Do you know if any manufacturer has tried designing pedals with big neodimium magnets, I mean facing each other for repulsive and progresive force?

That sounds like a bad use case for magnets! They are used with paddle shifters so there is a sudden break of contact and a very solid engagement feeling.

The issue with electromagnetic repulsion is that it would be expensive to measure. So you would end up having to measure the change in angle which is not ideal and not related to the force being overcome.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

There are some pedals out there that use hall sensors, but your idea would only really work for a clutch and throttle pedal, due to the reason mentioned above.