

This explained why it short circuited and disconnected the wheel after turning. After removing more insulation and the shielding it turned out that one of the cable wires was stripped as well.

The USB cable seemed suspicious as the insulation was broken in one place and some wires were sticking out.
Farming simulator steering wheel full size#
These two cables (thick black on the picture) were the parts that moved when the steering wheel turned.Ĭlick the picture for a full size version The USB cable goes through the hub that rotated and a similar cable comes back from the front side of the wheel (with the buttons). The wheel rotation is converted by a set of plastic gears and measured by a simple potentiometer. A small PCB connects the signals from the pedals, wheel, wheel buttons and thumbsticks.

The insides were modest, most of the parts held in place with screws and some flexible. I flipped the wheel upside down and unscrewed the 13 screws that held the bottom cover in place. This seemed weirdly specific for a complex hardware problem, so there was a possibility of this being a simple hardware problem :-) Steering wheel teardown Also, when I connected the steering wheel through a USB hub, the entire hub disconnected along with the wheel, which suggested a short circuit happening somewhere.
Farming simulator steering wheel trial#
The analog sticks and the buttons on the steering wheel also registered fine, but the steering wheel kept disconnecting after I turned it right.Īfter some trial and error I determined that it disconnected at a precise rotation angle - a little after being turned a full rotation. The pedals were squeaky, but I can fix this later as well. Windows includes a “Game Controllers” utility that visualizes the input state of the controller buttons and axes, Saitek controller actually consists of two separate devices: the steering wheel with pedals and the side panel.Īll 25 buttons on the side panel worked fine, the little joystick as well. Unpacking the big box was fun, I wiped the game controller with some ethanol (I don’t like grimy or sticky stuff) and plugged it in. I found a guy selling a used kit for 140 €, so I bought that one. The complete kit costs 249 € new and as usual, I tried to shop around and find one at lower cost. I’ve been playing truck, bus and farming simulator games recently and wanted a somewhat different wheel. As a fan of simulator games I’ve also tried a couple of steering wheel setups.
