Rate your Clubsport pedals

[Terry Rock]

I've owned my original Clubsport pedals since 11/18/2011.
Ownership started out a bit 'rocky', with me receiving RMAed pedals...which appeared to be new but simply returned to Fanatec.
The original bill, including the RMA paperwork was still in the box.
Living in the U.S and not wanting to deal with exchanges, delays, etc... I agreed to hang on to them.
My first year of ownership was great and then it just went downhill after that..
I replaced the throttle sensor three times in five years.
There was a suggestion from Fanatec to also replace the main board...which was done as well.
The pedals are still in use but ever so often, the throttle or brake signal will simply fail to register.
Pressing the pedal will either yield no signal in the control panel or sometimes a partial signal.
Those were the symptoms used to justify replacement of those sensors initially.
The problem will usually arise if the PC has been in an extended sleep state. It can be rectified by simply unplugging and reconnecting the USB cable.
I may then not experience the issue for a few weeks or months.
I like the design of the floor support and the fact that they don't move on brake applications.
Is the reliability of the later versions better?
Mine has been a love-hate relationship with the pedals and I'd rather not do it again, if the later versions exhibit the same anomalies.
What are your experiences with the V2 and V3 pedals?

 

[miker]

Had my CS v3's about 18 months...and apart from the odd squeak when they need a lube....faultless so far

 

[dud]

Bought a used set of ClubSport v1. With the kit to change resistance.

Troublesome gear. Had to repeatedly adjust min and max (known problem with their hall sensors). When USB devices simply hang until a powercycle (reset doesn't work) it is either my totally beaten Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 or those pedals.

The force feedback vibration on the brake is not usefully strong.

Since then I bought more expensive wheel and pedals and the pedals moving away from Fanatec was a much bigger upgrade than the wheel.

 

[GEO147]

Ive had the V1s and now the V3s .The V1s are old teck and first consumer load cell pedals. They were great when released .The V3s are a major upgrade and just work better with more adjustability. V3s are great value for money in my opinion.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Had Fanatec CS V3's with the BPK and used them for about 18 months and never had an issue with them. They were very reliable.

I've moved to Heusinkveld Sprints which are much more adjustable and what I have recently come to appreciate is the software that comes with them allowing you to map curves to the pedals.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Had the V2’s for some years now.

Firstly I’ll point out I’m not a daily sim racer. Maybe one race a week, unless I’m doing a league and I’ll practise most nights. However I mainly do long endurance races, about 90 minutes +

They have been ok. The damper does slowly lose its oil over time, although I know of mods that people do on this.

I’ve had issues with the throttle, in that after a period of time I found that I was only getting 90% throttle. Cleaning the small magnet that feeds the signal to the hall sensor helped. However that didn’t last very long.

So I downloaded DView (I think that’s the name) and recalibrated the throttle pedal, setting the start and stop points manually on that.

I’ve had no throttle issues since.

I try not to be too critical of Fanatec. I’ve see the way some people treat their gear on YouTube, etc. and they are so aggressive I’m not surprised that some gear can break and then they moan like hell afterwards. I saw a video of someone complaining about a thrustmaster wheel but he almost tearing the wheel out of hub. Lol

However Fanatec do seem to learn and adapt designs over time (with these pedals anyway), the V3’s have a different damper arrangement for example and I think they also changed the design of the sensors too.

Should be noted though that like owning a car over ten years old, the parts become almost impossible to get hold of after while, Fanatec only make a certain amount it seems. The main board for the v2’s for example is no longer available.

I have considered going over to Heusinkveld, but stock supply is a real issue, and I’m happy so far with what I’ve got.

 

[Terry Rock]

I'm the 'Jenson Button' of sim-gear.
Inputs to all of my controllers are smooth....no hammering or abuse of the equipment.
My pedals still look exactly as they did when I took them out of the box, however my experience has been less than stellar after that first year.
I looked at the V2.5 wheel bundle a few times over the years...even put one in the shopping cart.
In the end my experience with these pedals always crept in and I simply removed it.
The dilemma is, there is nothing comparable at a similar price point from anybody else.
That said...I just can't commit to that kind of pain again.
It is weird how a bad product experience can set up such a level of distrust toward future purchases.

 

[GEO147]

That's a pity as the 2.5 and V3 really are extremely good pieces of equipment. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

 

[Andrew Harper]

I'm the 'Jenson Button' of sim-gear.
Inputs to all of my controllers are smooth....no hammering or abuse of the equipment.
My pedals still look exactly as they did when I took them out of the box, however my experience has been less than stellar after that first year.
I looked at the V2.5 wheel bundle a few times over the years...even put one in the shopping cart.
In the end my experience with these pedals always crept in and I simply removed it.
The dilemma is, there is nothing comparable at a similar price point from anybody else.
That said...I just can't commit to that kind of pain again.
It is weird how a bad product experience can set up such a level of distrust toward future purchases.

That's a pity as the 2.5 and V3 really are extremely good pieces of equipment. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

Yeah I agree, I think the V3's are pretty well sorted by now and like you mention there is nothing else around at this price point really. The next step up is probably the Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint but if you need the mounting base, etc. The overall cost starts to approach double the cost of the Fanatec's.

Then you have the issue of getting hold of them The other issue is the Sprint's really need to be bolted to a rig as they require quite a bit of force to use. The Fanatec's you can just about get around, although I built my own aluminium profile pedal base for my playseat challenge, after I pulled the playseat pedal base apart when I did an emergency stop once! haha.

You say you have the V1's? Those were I suppose like any first generation product, you may have issues of some sort, which is still not great of course but I don't think anyone before had created a set of pedals like this at that price point. Everything else at the time was all plastic and 50p sensors. I can understand your views entirely though.

We are seeing some of this with the new DD wheelbase. They did months of testing but some users are finding issues with them, but the problems are being solved quickly by the sounds of it which is good.

I've had my CSW2.5 wheelbase for quite some time now and I love it. Not a single issue I'm glad to say.

 

[RCHeliguy]

All very good points.
I didn't move to Sprint pedals until I had a Sim-Lab P1 chassis.

The Fanatec pedals come with a good base and are a lot less picky about how they are mounted.

 

[driver74]

I still have and use my V1’s as well as my GTR2 wheel that I bought back in 2009. I needed to adjust the spring pressure on the brake pedal (too weak) and occasionally unplug them to recalibrate the sensors, but they have been pretty reliable. Will upgrade eventually.

Not sure yet what I will replace them with.

 

[Warren Dawes]

I've also owned a set of V1 Pedals for many years. I quite like them but have also suffered the regular loss of full throttle when fully pressed. I used to have them connected by USB to the PC and reconnecting the USB often fixed it (for a while) but it kept coming back, which is annoying. I have since used the direct connection to my CSW 2.5 base and it seemed more reliable. However, recently it has returned again on a regular basis, but can be temporarily fixed by disconnecting and reconnecting the plug at the Pedal base.

So, like others, it has been a love hate relationship.
I suspect that this issue has now been corrected by better design or parts in the CSP V3's?? I'd appreciate feedback on this since I've been seriously considering upgrading to the V3's but edgy about this issue.
I assume the long travel of the Brake Pedal with the V1's is also improved too??

 

[GEO147]

I have been running V3s since last Christmas. Never one issue. Brake pedal is adjustable in all sorts of ways. Longer travel is stock format. Brake performance kit takes as much travel out and as stiff as you want. And then there is the brake damper upgrade which I haven't tried but would love to.
I highly recommend them and conning from V1s they really got rid of all the bad design elements and kept all the good ones.
How do they compare to Heusinkvelds I have no idea.

 

[Harpo]

I just purchased the Clubsport V3 inverted pedal set this month, and the clutch worked for less than two hours. Then it began to disengage in the first half of it's travel, then snap back to full engagement with the pedal full down. I calibrated through the device manager and the wheel base, with no improvement. Upon informing Fanatec, I was instructed to:

• "please send us a video of the issue "
• "swap the sensor connecors on the pedals main PCBA "
• "tell me how he pedals react when you connect them by USB cable directly to pc"
• "send another video of all of the above"

When I told them the videos were too large to email, they suggested I get a cloud server or Dropbox. I ended up using Youtube - which was a colossal waste of time, since the videos show nothing happening.

The clutch has since died completely along with both rumble motors, and the brake slowly creeps up until it is dragging. The above requests span the course of a week; every time I fill their requests they come up with something else.

In my opinion, Fanatec is a complete joke. Rather than show the slightest concern with satisfying me as a customer, they continue to put me off with ridiculous requests. I've spent $3000 with them this month; I also purchased the DD1 base, two wheels and their shifter.

I suggested they ship me a new set of pedals asap, and promised to return the originals instantly. They refused, and haven't even offered any repair or return options at all.

Now that they have my money and I have their junk, they have no further interest. But I guarantee I'll have the last laugh.

Don't buy Fanatec, you will be sorry!

 

[Gelly916]

I've owned Fanatec products for 10 years and I've never once had to RMA a piece of equipment. I'm sorry that you had bad luck with your V3s. I recently sold my V3s and CSW 2.5 to my dad when I upgraded to Heusinkveld Sprints and DD2.

I'm currently trying to sell my old CSR wheel and CSR elite pedals. Bought them back in 2009-2010 and they still work flawlessly after all those years.

My only piece of advice to potential Fanatec owners is - if you're thinking about buying the Fanatec V3 inverted pedals, save up just a tiny bit more and get the HE Sprints instead.

Hope you figure everything out.

 

[GEO147]

I just purchased the Clubsport V3 inverted pedal set this month, and the clutch worked for less than two hours. Then it began to disengage in the first half of it's travel, then snap back to full engagement with the pedal full down. I calibrated through the device manager and the wheel base, with no improvement. Upon informing Fanatec, I was instructed to:

• "please send us a video of the issue "
• "swap the sensor connecors on the pedals main PCBA "
• "tell me how he pedals react when you connect them by USB cable directly to pc"
• "send another video of all of the above"

When I told them the videos were too large to email, they suggested I get a cloud server or Dropbox. I ended up using Youtube - which was a colossal waste of time, since the videos show nothing happening.

The clutch has since died completely along with both rumble motors, and the brake slowly creeps up until it is dragging. The above requests span the course of a week; every time I fill their requests they come up with something else.

In my opinion, Fanatec is a complete joke. Rather than show the slightest concern with satisfying me as a customer, they continue to put me off with ridiculous requests. I've spent $3000 with them this month; I also purchased the DD1 base, two wheels and their shifter.

I suggested they ship me a new set of pedals asap, and promised to return the originals instantly. They refused, and haven't even offered any repair or return options at all.

Now that they have my money and I have their junk, they have no further interest. But I guarantee I'll have the last laugh.

Don't buy Fanatec, you will be sorry!

God the whole video thing is a complete farce. I would be just as pissed off.

 

[Andrew Harper]

For those of your you with "90%" throttle pedal issues (I had this with my V2's).

Here's a link on Leo Bodnar's page for the DIView utility.

http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=12

Here is the video HPP put up on how to use it. They have their own calibration software now so you can't get the DIView software on their page anymore but the video is still on YouTube.

Maybe watch it once or twice to understand fully, it took a couple of views for me to realise how this little piece of software worked.

What I did is push on the throttle to the end of it's travel (I think on mine I eased off a tiny bit), and then reprogrammed the settings using DIView to tell the PC to treat these new readings as 100% travel.

I didn't bother with the other pedals as I'd had no issues.

Once reprogrammed I've not once had a throttle issue again in over two years of use.

Not sure what the problem side is. My guess is that the tiny magnet that sends the signal to the hall sensors is too tiny and when it get's mucky from grease, fluff, and dust the signal gets blocked ever so slightly and that's enough to cause problems. I think on the V3's they've fitted much larger magnets and sensors now.

However I do perform a quick service on the my pedals maybe every six months, just give them a good clean down and clean the hall sensors, etc. No harm in doing that and I would imagine most of us do that sort of thing anyway on the more expensive gear.

I'll probably upgrade to a set of HPP Sprints at some point in the future but happy so far

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

I have considered going over to Heusinkveld, but stock supply is a real issue, and I’m happy so far with what I’ve got.

Sprints are in stock right now Andrew

Also HPP Sprint is in line with Halloween and Frankenstein's monster. HPP is a different company that makes pedals. We generally use HE as abbreviation.

 

[Warren Dawes]

For those of your you with "90%" throttle pedal issues (I had this with my V2's).

Here's a link on Leo Bodnar's page for the DIView utility.
.....
What I did is push on the throttle to the end of it's travel (I think on mine I eased off a tiny bit), and then reprogrammed the settings using DIView to tell the PC to treat these new readings as 100% travel.

Thanks Andrew, when I try DIView, my pedal readings go in the opposite (reversed) direction to the video shown. Am I correct to assume that I still set the same values as shown for my pedals ie. if full throttle indicates 0 and no throttle shows (say) 65500, then I should set my full throttle to (say) 1000 in the calibration?

 

[Andrew Harper]

Sprints are in stock right now Andrew

Also HPP Sprint is in line with Halloween and Frankenstein's monster. HPP is a different company that makes pedals. We generally use HE as abbreviation.

ooops. Sorry mate. Haha. I’ve never heard of those pedals honest. Lol