Active H-shifters: where we've been and where we are going

BDH emailed again. Good news is that my active shifter order has finally made it to production as they work through a large number of orders. Bad news is it will spend about two weeks in production. Add another week for shipping to the USA and it will be Memorial Day weekend before I have it in my hands.
 
Schedule slippage affecting MVH's Bash HSX. New date of 30 May instead of 10 May.

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Well, one more brief delay in shipping the Active Shifter from BDH...

We wanted to provide you with a quick update regarding your BDH Active Shifter order.

Firstly, we would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in shipping. As many of you know, this is an entirely new product for BDH, and throughout the final stages of validation we have been focused on ensuring the product meets the highest standards possible before it reaches customers.

We're pleased to say that all primary development and compliance testing has gone extremely well, and the product has successfully passed the vast majority of its international certification requirements. During final assessment, one area was identified that requires a small amendment before the final re-test is completed next week.

As a result, we have made a minor improvement to the product and are now preparing the units for final reassessment. The good news is that the shifters themselves are effectively complete, with all production units now over 99% ready for dispatch.
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My BDH Active Shifter shipped today (yippee!). Dave Cam demonstrated his unit on YouTube on May 18, but I had the impression it was a pre-release unit. There's an English-language unboxing video from a Japan resident on YouTube that was posted on Sunday, so they've been shipping for at least a week.


***

Bash HSX is likely now shipping the pre-orders, but you can't currently order one.
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Here's a Bash HSX unit being demonstrated two weeks ago.
 
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I received mine today, absolutely love it. It gives the whole experience a new level of immersion. I'm not able to engage sixth gear though.
 
My BDH Active Shifter arrived from across the pond today after I paid Trump tariffs last week (Thursday, when I was traveling, as I recall... DHL handled that very smoothly). Unboxed it, but not sure when I'll have a chance to try it out. Rest assured it is near the top of "urgent things to do".
 
Side mounted (took a bit to sort out), reverse orientation (the physical 7th & Reverse gates, the ones you lift up the gearshift to access, are on the left). Have it working in rF2. I'll need to get creative for a mousepad as I had to remove the one secured to the top of the rail on which the Active Shifter is side mounted.

No, I'm not faster with this shifter. Yes, I'm enjoying the enhanced realism. I've already turned down/off RPM vibration as it just makes the whole rig vibrate. The gear lever may seem large in my pic (and other pics), but it's really about the same size as a vintage Mini with remote shifter or Fiat X-1/9 or Fiat 128 gear lever. Noise is about the same as most simracing shifters on the market, though it may differ in tone compared to the others.

Gear engagement, even with the tension adjusted lightly, is notchier than most production transmissions produced, particularly compared to cars with cable shift linkages. At my light tension setting, however, it is still a long way from how notchy a C6 Corvette is!

With the shift pattern shown on the display, I discovered that in real life I naturally lift up the gearshift when downshifting from 4th to 2nd... uhm, yeah, accidentally finding reverse in-game means I'm going to quickly break myself of that unintentional lifting habit! I could go back to the original orientation, but that would make the display and control knob difficult to see & reach.

Still have lots of adjustments to explore... if it currently emulates dog box transmissions, it is not obvious how to do that. Trucking sims are called out as unsupported.

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Damn, I´m in love with my Bash HSX but that BDH megabazooka is on another level. Anyway, the concept of gear shifting being something consequential and that has to be done properly adds a new dimension in terms of immersion. I´m enjoying every second of it.
 
Lazza said:
All you have to do now is put it on the correct side.
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Ideally I want the option to switch sides to whatever matches the sim-car. There's a mounting system for flight sim controllers that should work, uses a plate you attach the controller to and then camlocks in place, but I'll need to top-mount and figure out how an old man gets in & out of a rig with rails on both sides. Or maybe a way to swap the whole rail & rear post from one side to the other?
 
Emery said:
Ideally I want the option to switch sides to whatever matches the sim-car. There's a mounting system for flight sim controllers that should work, uses a plate you attach the controller to and then camlocks in place, but I'll need to top-mount and figure out how an old man gets in & out of a rig with rails on both sides. Or maybe a way to swap the whole rail & rear post from one side to the other?
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I’ve liked swapping in the past and based on flight simming wouldn’t be that bad to jump into the seat from above if required. Still not ideal!
(Plus I’d probably need more alu)
 
Checking with BDH about some questions I had, I found out that the shift patterns are not user editable, confirmed dogbox mode is still in the works, and was offered the info that sequential mode is still on the table(!).

Let BDH know that I think they made a mistake with this shift pattern (and the similar one which has Reverse in the forward slot)...
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OMG, dust has settled on that screen! Have put my gear grinding at 50% for a nice buzz without being overkill. Tried lighter, but it just didn't give me a good feeling. Hesitating to adjust gear retention, the force required to pull it out of gear without the clutch, until I confirm what BDH thinks is appropriate.

They are currently spending time working with the few customers who have damaged their units by not following directions and that is taking away from development time.
 
Emery said:
Technically it may not have been a Trump tariff as I think the value is above de minimis, but I'm very much cranky about his tariff ideas.
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They just announced the Euro tarrifs on USA goods have been reduced to Zero. I didn't read if there was a reciprocal reduction for Euro stuff coming to 'Merica!
 
davehenrie said:
They just announced the Euro tarrifs on USA goods have been reduced to Zero. I didn't read if there was a reciprocal reduction for Euro stuff coming to 'Merica!
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I think the US side came first, because of a ruling. I know some people who got some other sim equipment in the last ~6 months had tariffs refunded just recently.

@Emery dust-free photos are all AI, I'm pretty sure :D
 
Emery said:
Let BDH know that I think they made a mistake with this shift pattern (and the similar one which has Reverse in the forward slot)...
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BDH response:
"It's there for Oval racers to configure dry race and wet race setups as they only use 2 gears mostly. Basically two firsts and two seconds with straight downward shift."
 
BDH will be adding more shift patterns since I pointed out a few that were desired, mostly missing from the reverse orientation.

Lowered my gear retention to 25% as that better matches my real-life experience.

Japanese review (English audio for us foreigners) of the BDH Active Shifter. Interesting that their settings are close to mine.
 
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