Does anybody repair sim race hardware in the U.S.?

[Andrew Nagy]

I know this isn't an RF2 related issue, but this forum contains so many helpful and knowledgeable people that I was wondering if anybody here has any leads on someone (U.S. based) who repairs sim hardware components. My Fanatec Clubsport V3's pedal assembly's brake pedal isn't working - it doesn't respond on the calibration page of Fanatec's Control Panel, and (of course) nothing happens when I press the brake pedal while playing RF2. The throttle and clutch pedals both work normally. It's probably something simple, but I took it out of my cockpit and checked for loose wires, and am not seeing anything obvious. I did a google search for sim rig component repair, and surprisingly, nothing came up, which is very strange - surely issues with complex gear like sim racing components are very common. My pedal assembly is out of warrantee, and when I fill out Fanatec's customer support form, I get an eternally spinning status wheel after hitting Submit, so I have a feeling their system is down, and their reputation for customer service is anything but stellar. Thanks.

 

[DJCruicky]

I wonder if it's the magnetic hall sensor that has stopped working in your brake pedal.
I don't own Fanatec Clubsport pedals to know, but are the parts inside the brake the same as the other two pedal?
If so you could try taking sensor from a working pedal and try it in the brake pedal for testing.
Hope someone that owns the same pedals can help you better.

 

[Bjørn]

I too, have a V1 pedal set where the load-sensor is dead. I got a new sensor, but I can't be arsed to try and change it. Fanatec gear is not great when it comes to durability. I got a friend of mines V2 set as well... There, the throttle spikes so much it's useless... Again, can't be arsed. Best of luck.

 

[Lazza]

@Andrew Nagy the sim racing world is too niche to support a dedicated repair industry, but any electronics tech will be familiar with load cells and the associated circuitry. I found you again when searching quickly for V3 issues, and I see last year you had 20-50% fluctuations on your brake input. This seems unlikely to have been the load cell itself, so perhaps some IC connection or solder joint issues (I'm not familiar with the pedal assembly). Someone responding to you on the fanatec forum (?) also asked about a performance kit and how much preload you had, so you may also want to consider changing the way you've set the load cell part up to ensure it has no resting load on it and see if that changes anything (in case the initial reading is too high and is confusing the software).

If I were 17 miles away from you instead of 7000+ I'd come around and take a look out of curiosity. I'm not sure how easily another load cell could be put in there as they talk about having a 'custom' load cell so packaging might be an issue, and buying a new load cell from them might be your only physical option - but if you can find a fairly cheap option to have the electronics checked out that might be a better option. Comes down to cost I guess. And try to get some specific advice on how you've set up the preload etc in case you can fix it with a simple configuration change.

You don't know any 15 year old budding electronics nerds with a multimeter do you?

 

[Andrew Nagy]

After several failed attempts, I was able to submit a ticket, including a video demonstrating the problem, to Fanatec Customer Support, and I already received an email with a case number, so maybe I will hear back from them soon with a recommendation for how to proceed.