Thrustmaster T500rs problem

SinnerMcSaint

Hi, I have a problem with the feel of my t500rs, and I've searched around the web but couldn't find anything about this problem, so I hope the friendly community here maybe could help me out.

Here it goes; when the wheel is powered off and I turn the wheel, I of course feel the restistance of the motor, but also a very sublte "notchy" feeling, kinda like when you spin the axle of an electrical motor.
I guess this is normal, because it's after all is a powerful motor in the t500.
And now the big but; when the wheel is powered up, this "notchy" sensation is really noticable, and it's is very distracting when driving in any sim.
If I just plug it in and let it calibrate, then turn the wheel 180 degrees to any side, I feel a centering force, this is normal I presume, but if I the slowly start to center the wheel, it almost jumps in small steps, no smooth movement at all.
In sims (I've tested it in rF2, AC, GSCE, GTR2 and R3E, and its all the same more or less) it's most noticable during long sweeping turns, like T3 at Monza, which makes it very hard to make small adjurtments during the turn and overall killing the FFB-feeling of many games.

The only thing I've found during my searches is that it might be caused by the belt in the wheel being "stiff" but that thread was almost 3 years old and very cold..

I hope anyone out there can bring some light on this for me, because it's very frustrating and I find it hard to enjoy simracing when I know that the FFB I'm getting might be very wrong...
Basically I want to ask another T500-owner if this is normal, or if there might be some fault with my wheel.
 
I'm using the default settings, but I really don't think this has anything with software-settings, because I can feel these notches or grooves even when the wheel is turned off so it's definitely something mechanical inside the wheel.
Can I ask you a favour and test something for me? When you have your t500 plugged in and computer up and running, but not in a sim, just with the TM panel on default settings. If you then turn your wheel one full revolution to the left you would feel the wheel pulling slightly to the right, towards centre. If you the move the wheel slowly about 10-15 degrees back and forth, is that resistance from the motor and belt inside the wheel completely smooth or do you feel some sort of notches or grooves so to speak?

Edit; it doesn't have to be one full revolution, it can be any degree turn. This is not the same thing some people have had when the wheel have been still for long times and you can feel the central position notch for a while before the belt is softened up again.
 
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The T500 does feel notchy because of the electric motors, looks you have a nack for feeling that sort of stuff :)
It's because they aren't brushless motors.

It's a known thing with the T500 wheels, the TX and T300 for instance doesn't have that problem because it uses brushless motors.
 
Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me 😊
I hade a feeling it was something like that, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue before I made any further decisions.
Guess I'm swapping it for a T300 and some fanatec pedals ☺️
 
SinnerMcSaint said:
Hi, I have a problem with the feel of my t500rs, and I've searched around the web but couldn't find anything about this problem, so I hope the friendly community here maybe could help me out.

Here it goes; when the wheel is powered off and I turn the wheel, I of course feel the restistance of the motor, but also a very sublte "notchy" feeling, kinda like when you spin the axle of an electrical motor.
I guess this is normal, because it's after all is a powerful motor in the t500.
And now the big but; when the wheel is powered up, this "notchy" sensation is really noticable, and it's is very distracting when driving in any sim.
If I just plug it in and let it calibrate, then turn the wheel 180 degrees to any side, I feel a centering force, this is normal I presume, but if I the slowly start to center the wheel, it almost jumps in small steps, no smooth movement at all.
In sims (I've tested it in rF2, AC, GSCE, GTR2 and R3E, and its all the same more or less) it's most noticable during long sweeping turns, like T3 at Monza, which makes it very hard to make small adjurtments during the turn and overall killing the FFB-feeling of many games.

The only thing I've found during my searches is that it might be caused by the belt in the wheel being "stiff" but that thread was almost 3 years old and very cold..

I hope anyone out there can bring some light on this for me, because it's very frustrating and I find it hard to enjoy simracing when I know that the FFB I'm getting might be very wrong...
Basically I want to ask another T500-owner if this is normal, or if there might be some fault with my wheel.
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound quite normal to me. I can make small adjustments, no problem. And it turns smooth too, not silk smooth but smooth. Either it's somehow broken or then you might have inverted ffb. Or then we just feel things very differently.
 
Your issue sounds normal to me. At first I thought this was due to each individual rib/tooth/gap-section of the belts, but I'm pretty sure the belts are actually just flat and smooth ones so it's therefore the brushes of the motor.

Each notch/step is so small - regardless of how much it can be felt -that I just can't see it affecting steering accuracy. Physically feeling the tiny notches? Yes. Actually affecting the precision of your steering? I can't see this being possible as I can sometimes feel a notch while almost not even being able to visually see the tiny amount the wheel was turned. Each notch is such a teeny, tiny amount of wheel movement, I jus can't see it affecting a human and his/her driving.
 
Well, the notches are pretty distinct, but I will run some long stints this weekend and really warm up the wheel and se if that helps, and also lower the gain a bit. I am using tools to make sure I'm not clipping the ffb in different sims but I admit I'm pretty close to the limit tho..

And if it affects my precision while driving.. I really don't know, it might just be that I'm thinking about it while driving and looses focus because of that. But now when I realise that it's probably normal, I might ignore that and relax more while racing.. I'll report back after this weekend 😉
 
Sometimes I drive with quite a bit of clipping, this won't affect anything you're talking about regarding your issue.

And yes, I've heard from many that the T500RS needs some good hard use for the first while to "break-in". Maybe 10 - 20 hours? No idea.
 
Anybody ever consider modding the T500 with a good industrial brushless motor?
How are the circuit board components vs those of the TX and T300?
I purposely stayed 'far' from the TX, due to it high failure rate.
They were guys on Amazon.com who'd had multiple failures (read reviews there).
Hopefully that bit is sorted now.
 
The T500RS seemed to have quite a high failure rate when it was first released as well. Thrustmaster were sending new PCBs left, right, and centre for customers to solder (they had the option to get their wheel sent in for repair as well).
 
Are T500 owners still experiencing problems with the cooling fan? I remember someone said something about the newer fans not being faulty.
 
I have mine now for half a year and still no problems.....gladly :eek:

Someday i would like to have a Servo wheel (don't we all) but for now i'm happy with the setup i have, only thing i'm missing is the oculus cv1 but that's a whole other topic :cool:
 
hexagramme said:
Are T500 owners still experiencing problems with the cooling fan? I remember someone said something about the newer fans not being faulty.
Click to expand...

Mine is a much, much later model with the original looking box, but not the very last model with the blue GranTiridmo box...

Other than the fan being loud (only loud if you have no audio from headphones or speakers playing), I haven't had an issue in about 1.5 years. I run my FFB pretty high.
 
I ran a 4h stint yesterday and the nothches was a bit less noticable after a while, so that's good. The fan makes some noise, but as Spinelli said, as long as you have some speakers or headphones it's not heard at all.
I was a bit worried when i first plugged in my T500, because of the mentioned "issue" with the FFB, but now when I know it's pretty normal and will probably get even smoother over time I car relax and start focusing on hitting the apex instead of wondering "does this feel right, or are my hardware broken"

Thanks for the help everyone.
 
I've heard the fan exactly once in my T500... and that was back in July (hot month here in NC).
It was so low, I'd probably not have heard it if the computer was on.
Are you guys running really high force settings in the TM panel?
I run 40,100,100,0,0,0 and the wheel feels great at those settings.
 
Saabjock said:
I've heard the fan exactly once in my T500... and that was back in July (hot month here in NC).
It was so low, I'd probably not have heard it if the computer was on.
Are you guys running really high force settings in the TM panel?
I run 40,100,100,0,0,0 and the wheel feels great at those settings.
Click to expand...
I run mine at 40% too, the fan does kick in on every use, I have the gt model. It's not annoyingly loud but I definitely know when its on. I don't notice any "notchiness" mind...
 
Spinelli said:
Mine is a much, much later model with the original looking box, but not the very last model with the blue GranTiridmo box...

Other than the fan being loud (only loud if you have no audio from headphones or speakers playing), I haven't had an issue in about 1.5 years. I run my FFB pretty high.
Click to expand...

Yeah I remember someone saying that the blue box was the one to go after, to be sure that the new and better fan was installed.

I am actually thinking about getting the complete set, with the base, the pedals and the Ferrari wheel. 'Integral' or what ever it's called. I wonder if the fan is okay in that version?

Sorry for hijacking. Glad to hear OP is now having a better experience with the wheel. :)
 
Have the blue box version. Fan is hear able but in no way disturbing for me. GT rim
 
Eddy said:
Have the blue box version. Fan is hear able but in no way disturbing for me. GT rim
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I live in a pretty cramped apartment with our bedroom next to the office where I race late at night. I wonder if the fan at it loudest would be audible in the next room?
 
My house isn't that good isolated if we talk about sounds. My raceroom :eek: is next to my youngest sons bedroom (he is 15) and when I ask him. He says he doesn't hear me racing at night. He only hears me talking when i talk on team speak every now and then.
 
Eddy said:
My house isn't that good isolated if we talk about sounds. My raceroom :eek: is next to my youngest sons bedroom (he is 15) and when I ask him. He says he doesn't hear me racing at night. He only hears me talking when i talk on team speak every now and then.
Click to expand...

Sweet stuff, that's what I wanted to hear. Now I feel a bit more confident in choosing that wheel. My girlfriend sleeps very lightly so the G27 isn't exactly popular at night. :D
 
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