as the title says, if for whatever reason in future i required or wanted a wheelbase change my wheels would be useless, a little usb wireless adapter would be a great accessory for simucube to sell
This has been asked in the past and the answer has always been… nope…
we are constantly evaluating options and the answer might change at some point.
How many people you know who have vent thought about changing to something else from SC… Even if there’s some, it’s still not difficult to sell everything and start again. In that sense I think the market for such dongle is very limited.
what if a wheelbase breaks out of warranty? someone might not want to buy another SC, or there may be no stock local or at a good price, and selling second wheels you get nowhere near the proper value for it, you know what you sign up for with a wireless wheel, it would just be nice to not get locked into an eco system like fanatec does, it also allows already users of other wheelbases to have decent wireless wheels
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How about stand alone steering wheels? granite could open a new market for non SC2-1 users
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Still, how many out of warranty wheelbases have broken?
Such a dongle would easily take 1-2 months of work, then all the work sourcing the parts, handling the manufacturing, warranties etc. for a very small part of their customers.Lets say they would only have to assign one engineer, and it took a month of his time. Lets say his salary is 6k/month how many dongles they had to sell just to cover the cost of that one month salary.
Instead of selling a dongle, they could just sell usb connected wheels in the first place. But then they would be shooting themselves to the feet if they sell stuff that benefits only/more their competitors.
How about PC SW driver to allow communicate with wheel wireless module via standard BlueTooth?
Is it even possible, my understanding that there is some non standard proprietary protocol in play.
that could actually probably be done as the system wheel side uses a self contained Bluetooth/Processing module… where the firmware is the contained and all it does is make itself available to the SC connect and then of course communicate its protocol…
Th.e main thing would be that the firmware would have to allow for connection to the PC and then TrueDrive would have to decode the protocol at the software level… that wouldn’t actually require any additional module but would require firmware development to connect to Windows and then be able to be linked…
My guess is the self contained linking they initially chose was because doing so means that you aren’t at the mercy of windows altering things and messing up your connections and as well having it self contained to the Base allows the Base firmware to handle the decoding of the system and running it through the Wheelbase USB connection so there are no programs that have to be run on the computer side to make it work properly.
Brion is talking right, the proprietary protocol is much better in this case. Also for the reason that the Windows bluetooth stack was much less stable back in 2018 when the system was developed. Not to say that Windows bluetooth is stable yet anyway, there are unexplained lags and sound issues when using just a simple mouse and headset using bluetooth.
It needs to.
I’m not happy about the SC2 wireless lock in - when I bought the wheelbase I assumed it would just be standard bluetooth as most of the wheels are 3rd party. But no, corporate greed strikes again.
Its the better quality option in this case, and allows for hot-swapping wheels also, which “standard” bluetooth does not allow.
There was no corporate greed involved in the design decision.
And, it should not say anywhere on out website that the connection would be anything bluetooth…
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Absolutely true. Just recently tried to use a Bluetooth headset (cheap one I have to admit, but should still work connection wise) and was confronted with abrupt sound failures. They were so bad and disturbing for the system to make AC crashing. I never had a frozen AC till then, only using Fe a track skin without proper CSP settings causes this. And that clearly is my fault then.
I think the decision Asetek made, to give a number of steering wheel manufacturers access to their QR, is an acceptable compromise. I see the lock-in effect as a very negative way of doing business. I don’t see the wireless system from Granite this way. It’s IMO a fundamental decision on how to connect, and as a result of this decision it’s necessary to protect IP created with a lot of costs.
All know that the decision to buy a wireless wheel is also a decision to sacrifice an integrated display, double clutches and that it can only be connected to a Simucube 2 DD.
I just really hope that Granite will grow through superior products, and not by establishing a full lock-in environment. I can’t imagine that they would feel good with such a business model. Going this way would only proof that greed won over passion, and the company transformed from exceptional to an average “I don’t care but cash” degeneration
Ascher although being a quality wheel, is for some reason in majority when it comes to connection problems (might be there’s a lot more of them too?). Maybe their “powerline”, use of battery or something makes it fail when the battery is not in its prime anymore. I have the impression that for example RBR is a lot more resilient to lower battery charge. At least I haven’t had any problems in over the 2 years I’ve had and used one.
But I think it’s unfair to blame SC for corporate lock in for their wireless module. You can connect whatever wheel to the base you like, use USB, BT or smoke signals if you like it better. I have an USB wheel too, but use 99% of the time an SC wireless one because it works flawlessly.
I don’t think you can use any of the other wheels from Fanatec, Simagic, Moza and Thrustmaster etc. outside of their bases, or you need an adapter at least. Each manufacturer have kind of their own ecosystem that their bases and wheels have. As far as I know it’s relatively easy to sell your SC and wheels second hand close to the price you paid yourself. maybe closer than the other mf’s
A dongle like that would open Simucube wireless wheels to users of other wheelbases.
I own 2 wireless wheels, a Tahko GT21 and a cube controls F-Pro.
If I ever want to sell the Tahko it will be a lot more difficult since only a Simucube owner can use it unlike the F-Pro. This is one of the reasons I went with the F-Pro instead of another simucube wireless compatible wheel.
The only one that I know of that has been confirmed somewhat is SimMagic can be connected and used through USB via the charge port but you do lose all the LED functionality of the wheel as of course that is done through a serial Protocol that they don’t have communication through USB with…
In all reality though SimuCUBE depending on what they may choose as future for bluetooth could possibly offer this sort of connectivity… I don’t think the current Bluetooth processing unit has the ability though for outbound usb in the firmware so it would be something future which would allow use of the Wireless wheels without compromising the bluetooth connection for those with an SC2 or SC1 with the Bluetooth Module.