T3PA Pro with Sim Racing Solutions Load Cell

[Jonny1000]

Hi, all
I'm very new to sim racing, so if I ask stupid questions, please bear in mind I'm still finding my feet, plus finding a lot of the terminology quite confusing!
I've got a Thrustmaster T300 and T3PA Pro pedal set. I'm using the pedal set without the conical brake mod, and have not yet tried that mod. I find the braking to be a bit vague, by which I mean when driving in real life, I can judge when I need to brake, and how much, very easily. But in sim racing I'm having trouble with that, in terms of when to brake, and how much. So I have a few questions, and would be really grateful if anybody could help out. In order to assist I would say that I'm not overly competitive, as I do this purely for fun and I want the set up to feel as realistic as possible. What I'm trying, clumsily, to say is that I'm not bothered about 10ths of second, or necesaarily coming first, but I want to feel as immersed as possible in the sim and be able to put up a good race and at least hold my own.

1 As a noob, should I persevere with the current pedal set up, and then try the conical mod and see which works best? Or would you recommend going straight to a load cell mod?
2 Would buying the Sim Racing Solutions 20kg load cell improve my experience, based upon the above?
3 If I were to buy a load cell, is 20kg enough, as I keep seeing so many different figures, going up to 90kg etc?

I understand that a pot measures distance, while load cell measures pressure/force. But surely if you suddenly brake hard using a load cell, doesn't that mean you've already pressed right down on the brake, thereby using its full travel anyway, so how are they different in feel? And when you're not braking hard, how do they differ in feel/immersion? Sorry, I said I might ask dumb questions, but I genuinly don't know, and if you don't ask you never learn as I see it.

Any advice would be greatfully accepted, as I cannot make up mind to drop another 90 odd quid on the load cell, or stick with the T3PA Pro in its original pot set up.

Cheers!
Max

 

[BrightCandle]

It is certainly worth trying the conical mod that comes in the box as it does convert the pedal to an extent to pressure based. You can get a somewhat better solution (with varying resistances) from BBJ sim racing, still conical mods but with more travel distance. None of these is obvious a load cell but they are also a lot cheaper and worth seeing if it helps with consistency before you drop 10-15x the amount on a loadcell.

 

[Jonny1000]

@BrightCandle, many thanks for taking the time to reply; I really appreciate that. I've done some research on the BBJ mods after reading your post, and have just ordered the green one, which seems to have had a lot of good reviews for people who sound like me in terms of wanting immersion and fun, but not necessarily scraping the last 100th of a second out of them.

Obviously this is all very subjective, but I've read some people saying that a good mod like BBJ is 80% similiar to a load cell. Having no experience of a load cell, I cannot comment on that but hopefully the BBJ will give me the feel and consistency I'm looking fear.#

Cheers!