Loosing ffb, ffb is not Consistent, does not want to turn, steering all loose feels like its out of calibration and possible overheating after 45mins of use

Simucube 2 Simucube 2 Questions
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Hi i am using the Simicube 2 sport and it is less than 3 weeks old bought from Track racer… the wheel has been great and consistent up untill now…

i am now constantly loosing ffb, the ffb is not consistent either and its not down to it clipping i dont think " No audio clipping noise coming from the base " . Also the steering now feels really loose and not sharp like it was… The base is also running extremely hot to touch and feels like i loose all feedback and sensitivity as the car wont turn sharply/response like it used to. The steering is not consistent.

I have tried all the recommendations i have found on this forum. Set back to a default profile and start again, re installed true drive software, unplugged everything and plugged it back in. went through setting back up my profile to how i want it when i first bought it and it still feels loose. Tried different USB ports and still the same issue.

( I have not tried Ctrl E yet as awaiting response from GD and to be instructed to do so by GD )

I have not had any Windows updates to do since ive bought the base so it cant be a Windows update issues.

I have also used another PC and still have the same issues

The game i am playing is ACC.

Below i will attach photos of the settings i am currently running in the TD software. I will aslo attach the settings i am running in ACC

What is the normal operating temperature for the simucube 2 sport please ?

Many thanks,

Jonathan Chick.

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I used to check the temperature from my Sport, and it never felt hot, not even really warm. After hours of constant working it felt warm. So that is maybe not a good sign, when you experience extensive heat. But I’m just responding to make you chill down a bit, as noone from Granite seems to be around.

Number 2, your settings:
Steering range 420 and bumpstop at 410 are very strange settings, and in-game 417?
Especially GT cars have much more steering range. Check out here:

Forgive me, but the sliders are looking more “setted up in style”, rather than based on their functions. I don’t drive ACC, but recon 5 with 2200 Hertz bandwidth limitation is taking away a lot of details from the incoming FFB signal. Then you use whatever is around (I do understand it from my job: when people have to fill out Fe a visa application, then they ask me: and here, I leave it empty? Unless you are married…yes. It’s kind of “there is a field, so it has to be filled with something” thinking).
I would turn them down, use the full potential at the start. Try to find a good in-game setting first. Adjust the force in TD. It doesn’t make sense to drive a 10Nm race car at 17Nm. Turn off those dynamic filters. You can gradually add them afterwards. In some titles they work like constant filters, it’s a little bit of a Pandora’s box.

When I have TD open, without a game, my wheels start to oscillate with 30 percent friction. You either have a very light wheel, or inertia is too much then. I learned a lot from this video, which is from Granite:

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Thank you for the reply @CLAYREGAZZONI

My wheel base seems to get pretty hot within 30-45 mins race on LFM… but i am aware these wheel bases can get hot, even says this on the sticker. But surely not after 30-45 mins of use ? Would this be my TD setting causing this ?

So my steering range setting is actually set 450 and bumpstop at 450 along with the in game setting set to 450 ( will update the thread ) thank you for the link to the cda steering ranges i have used that and i took 30° off when i first started my ACC journey… i follow jardier and George boothby and they both suggested running the mclaren 720s gt3 evo at 450° also dalking too.

recon 5 with 2200 Hertz bandwidth limitation is taking away a lot of details from the incoming FFB signal. Then you use whatever is around (I do understand it from my job: when people have to fill out Fe a visa application, then they ask me: and here, I leave it empty? Unless you are married…yes. It’s kind of “there is a field, so it has to be filled with something” thinking).
I would turn them down, use the full potential at the start. -

Please could you explain that a little more ? Do you mean turning down the simucube force reconstruction filter ? And Torque bandwidth limit ? Could you also possiblly suggest something ?

Try to find a good in-game setting first - this is my setting ive been using for about a year on ACC -

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Turn off those dynamic filters, is that dynamic damping in ACC set to 0% ?

I have it turned it up to 17nm in TD and the game outputs 66% of 17Nm i have done this to not get any clipping. “If i understand clipping correctly”

Again thank you for your response its really appreciated.

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If these are the same setting you successfully used before, the problem is with wheelbase. Open support ticket and SC staff will take care of this.

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@Andrew_WOT - Thank you for your response, i will look into opening a support ticket with simucube, hoping someone from granite can responsd.

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Update to the thread - i have now changed the dynamic damping in ACC settings to 0%

I have also changed the Simicube force reconstruction filter to (1 fast )

I have also changed the torque bandwidth limit to 140hz

I have also changed the Frequency in ACC settings to 133hz

It now feels responsive again but i have noticed that when the wheel base gets hot, very hot this issue comes back.

I am thinking, is this now a heat related issue and the heat is causing something to reduce/stop outputs within the wheel base. So when the wheelbase overheats the the electronics will automatically derate amps to the servo, thus reducing torque, if certain internal temp thresholds are exceeded

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From what I remember there is heat protection, but it should be very hot to start dropping torque.
In any case, looks like the issue with the motor, hopefully it gets resolved quickly.

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The heating is sure an issue you should address/discuss with Granite.
There is a bit of confusion regarding clipping. Clipping is from in-game settings. The FFB signal exceeds the motors capabilities, so you will then suffer from clipping at any settings in TD. Means, if your in-game settings are too high you will have clipping at 0.1Nm of torque up to 17Nm of torque with a Sport, 25Nm with a Pro. You can’t prevent clipping with adding more Nm in True Drive.
What I try to do is: when I want to drive a certain car, I then look for information about the torque at the steering wheel the car has in real world. Has it power steering, what is the correct steering angle?
One of the problems, or the major problem is that in simracing we get the information only from the steering wheel. But a steering wheel can’t tell you when wheels start spinning/blocking as good as a throttle or brake. Since I use rumble motors for pedals, and a bass shaker for my popometer, I stopped always scurrying about at the setting of the Simucube.
My approach: Before I decrease FFB refresh rate, limit bandwidth, use very high reconstruction filter, add a lot of constant filters, cut the dynamity of torque changes I myself prefer to lower the overall force. I prefer a detailed, dynamic FFB covering the whole bandwidth over a strong one with less information. But who am I?

In the video, Aris from Kunos (head developer of vehicles&handling) propose to use maximum between 30 to 40 percent from in-game gain.

The link is about a very interesting comparison on FFB in real life and in simulation

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As a starting point, I would use recon 1 because these filters predict torque behaviour and smooth out the signal. The higher the filter the more smoothing, the more prediction. To get a feeling you can also try to drive one time without a recon filter, just to get an idea of the raw signal.
Limiting the bandwidth will sort out all signals above the filter. Think about music, where you say all sounds above the Hertz number “xy” I don’t hear anymore.
About the constant filters: Damping will fight fast torque changes by adding resistance, kind of a counter force. The faster the changing the more resistance force.
Friction will limit the freedom of the wheel to rotate/spin. The more friction the slower the wheel can travel up to the point it’s actually unmovable.
Inertia will add weight to a wheel which makes it difficult for the wheel to change the speed it’s changing position. At some point inertia will stop the wheel from moving at all (at least in theory, I didn’t try with the Simucube 2).
Static force reduction helps to maintain the overall strength, while in fast and long turns the constant force will be lowered. A 2 hours race will be easier when you want to have a good overall force, but not getting fatigued.
Slew rate off means that rapid changes will be delivered at full capability, Fe 4Nm/ms. Hitting a wall with this rate will hurt much more than with 1Nm/ms. Or strong curbs can be dangerous at unlimited setting.
Dynamic filters: they fully depend on whether the game supports them, which of them and how it’s doing it. Kind of try and error situation

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@Jonathan_Chick Like I have asked from the discord comments, please post screenshots of your other settings in true drive. We can go from there.

Nothing wrong with your settings in true drive, from what I can see posted above, at least, we all have different tastes on how ffb should feel. Depending on your in-sim gain, the wheel can be very hot to touch after 30-45min, like you are seeing, with those settings.

I suspect the wheel is too light for you and what you are seeing is torque-deration due to it getting too hot. This is standard protection mechanism. Have you tried directing a strong pedestal house-fan directly onto the servo? Just as a test…this will answer many of your questions, I suspect.

In early days of SC2 testing, I could easily drive the Sport servo to overheat, but then again, I was running max torque all the time. Hence me selecting biggest servo I could find. This will be very dependant person to person and settings, so it doesn’t help when guys say theirs are not running hot, for example.

Let me know if it helps when you are directing a strong fan directly onto the servo, if the 30-45min, for example, turns into 60-75min, etc….then we can at least easily eliminate 1 possible item…you can also retain same settings in true drive, but lower the in-sim gain, wheel will feel lighter, but should take longer to exhibit same symptoms, provided your ambient temperature remains the same.

I also commented about usb hubs, usb cables and bandwidth, on your question in discord, check it out.

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@phillip.vanrensburg - Many thanks for your reply its really appreciated.

The wheel i am using is the Ascher racing f28-sc.

I dont not use USB hubs they are all plugged directly into the PC/Motherboard.

I have tried directing a strong fan directly onto the servo/wheelbase and we have the same issue again after 10 laps on Hungaroring and base temperature from copy device id to clipboard was 43°C.

I have also tried lowering the in game gain to 60% then down to 50% and the issues is still there.

I am using the usb cable thats provided with the wheel base

The wheel is going all light, no force/friction/resistance to the wheel, the responsiveness is completely gone and it then becomes completely inconsistent lap after lap.

Thanks again for reaching out to me, its really appreciated felt like i was loosing my mind after what ive just spent.

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Just to note I am not an employee of Granite Devices, (but I have worked as a tester for their direct drive wheels for many years) but I am sure this is something to do with derating of torque as the device heats up.

Again, just a hypothesis from my side, without thorough testing, I cannot say if it 100% is the case….if you’re taking the gain down, to say 50% in True Drive, you should see a significant extension of the period the wheel should run without any ‘heat fade’ - notice I use the term loosely, just for the sake of this discussion, as the electronics will protect themselves by derating torque once certain temp parameters exceed certain limits, so it is not heat-fad4 as such, but a controlled deration.

Have a go at such a test still, but if the symptoms persist, might be worthwhile contacting your reseller and /or opening a support ticket with the Team there in Finland. They are exceptionally skilled engineers and will get you sorted.

Just as a bit of added info, I am running a large custom servo off the Ultimate controller, and overdriving it by 25% - so my max torque is over 45NM, and I am mostly running it at the 25-30NM level. Both servo and electronics stay cool at these levels, so in your case, I suspect something might be up with the motor itself, driving the electronics to heat up.

But simply observations from my years if testing these devices at the limits, best to open a ticket of you are sure here is something amiss. But anyway, the Guys at GD will get you sorted, there are no better support from any DD supplier available anywhere.