CSR Elite owners or potential buyers look inside

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Fri, 07/06/2012 - 13:25 (Reply to #61)
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KnightofRedemption wrote:

I see the site is still down...Pretty poor showing, I fail to see how such a niche company can get enough hits at once to crash a site and why it should take so long to reset

 

Isn't it common for new web sites to have some bugs to be worked out?  Look at how long it took before the new 2Old2Play was functional???

 

Just sayin....wink

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 13:45 (Reply to #62)
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Zero7159 wrote:

KnightofRedemption wrote:

I see the site is still down...Pretty poor showing, I fail to see how such a niche company can get enough hits at once to crash a site and why it should take so long to reset

 

Isn't it common for new web sites to have some bugs to be worked out?  Look at how long it took before the new 2Old2Play was functional???

 

Just sayin....wink

 

Craig, it is very common, especially when you've never done it before.

That being said, it was a day late which is understandable, then it was promised (bad idea) that it would be up at 12 German time. (why it matters so much to folks I'm not sure, but it does apparently) Then their webserver crashes from being overburdened.

It's not 2002 anymore... Webservers at huge hosting companies like the one Fanatec is using (1and1) have countermeasures in place for these situations. If the site crashes due to excess traffic, move it to another server with less load, assign it more processor and ram, etc. These are simple fixes that can be handled in under and hour.

However, they've now found another bug apparently... Interesting timing. Again they promise it will be up today. (and it probably will)

I think what bothers people underneath it all is that the "event" seems to mirror what they have come to be known for so closely.

 

Anyhow, like usual, we'll never know so I guess I shouldn't speculate so much. The wording on his blog and on the error page is very telling, at least that's what I see. It's on purpose to make the demand look even greater for their product.  Do you really think even 20,000 people are excitedly waiting for the site to launch so they can purchase the CSW or CSP v2 pedals? I could be wrong, but I find it unlikely. 20,000 visitors to the site would hardly put a dent in a hosted server anyhow.

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 13:10
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Yeah it smelled of kidoligy to me...

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 13:33
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Someone needs to post on his blog asking him for a graph of their website traffic. Though I doubt he'd post it.

Pretty sad. Oh well lol, I aint buying one :)

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 16:03
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Im on the new site now... its slow as shit but it is a fair bit improved from before. Also the CSR-E is now 499.99. kinda nice for those who havent purchesed yet.

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 16:10 (Reply to #66)
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mavictb wrote:

Im on the new site now... its slow as shit but it is a fair bit improved from before. Also the CSR-E is now 499.99. kinda nice for those who havent purchesed yet.

I still cannot access it, but I am sure it will be better later tonight, once the Europeans and east coast USA and Canada folks have hit the sack. 

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 18:14
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I'll wait till Sunday to get me some V2 CS pedals. Bastards better be in stock.

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 18:34 (Reply to #68)
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Parcells2 wrote:

I'll wait till Sunday to get me some V2 CS pedals. Bastards better be in stock.

You sure love your pedals, almost as much as I love my wheels!!!  wink

Sat, 07/07/2012 - 08:04 (Reply to #69)
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Zero7159 wrote:

Parcells2 wrote:

I'll wait till Sunday to get me some V2 CS pedals. Bastards better be in stock.

You sure love your pedals, almost as much as I love my wheels!!!  wink

Thanks Zero!!!laughlaughlaugh

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 19:54
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I'm sure glad I'm getting into the business of sim hardware... I tell yeah. You guys spend money like its goin outta style lol
Fri, 07/06/2012 - 21:22 (Reply to #71)
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mrbasherman wrote:
I'm sure glad I'm getting into the business of sim hardware... I tell yeah. You guys spend money like its goin outta style lol

 

Electronics is my only hobby.  I don't regularly golf, ski or kayak anymore, and I have no interest in fishing.  I need to do something for fun, and at least sim racing and gaming keeps me at home sweet home!

Sat, 07/07/2012 - 16:05 (Reply to #72)
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Zero7159 wrote:

mrbasherman wrote:
I'm sure glad I'm getting into the business of sim hardware... I tell yeah. You guys spend money like its goin outta style lol

 

Electronics is my only hobby.  I don't regularly golf, ski or kayak anymore, and I have no interest in fishing.  I need to do something for fun, and at least sim racing and gaming keeps me at home sweet home!

I'm not judging :) Just an observation :)
Fri, 07/06/2012 - 22:12
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I was on the Fanatec website earlier... It looks LOADS better. They also have an equipment configurer that you can use to make your own sim package. The CSPs are 249.99 as expected. Im not interested in the CSW but the CSR-E is now 499.99. My total (when Im ready to pull the trigger) was 809.98 for the wheel peddles and shifters. an unexpected bill (of over 6000) came up recently causing my purchase to be puched back till winter. Maybe by then the prices will go down or they will offer a package price lol. (dreaming) lol

Sun, 07/08/2012 - 10:31
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Well, I guess we already know they are the same wheel underneath so the point I was trying to make isn't so interesting now. However, if anyone is interested...

These images I posted earlier are as follows

CSR Elite: (photoshopped grey sides, the red center hub was used on the beta models... Somewhat telling about the "process" I think)

[img]http://www.rootmethod.com/wheel1.jpg[/img]

 

CSW: (Photoshopped orange sides)

[img]http://www.rootmethod.com/wheel2.jpg[/img]

Fri, 07/27/2012 - 20:53
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mrbasherman wrote:

I've promised some people I would post this up and I finally found the time to do so.

I've heard on countless occasions, people complaining about the quality of sound both incoming and outgoing when using either the MS or Fanatec Wheels. I ran into the same problem when I hooked up my wheel and it seems to be hit or miss... I decided very quickly a solution was needed, pronto. Thus the "wireless headset adapter thingy" was invented. Smile

One great side effect of this is that afterwards you can hear yourself talking in the headset! (yes I know, some of the turtle beach headsets do this already)

The mod is fairly simple despite possibly not seeming so... It takes 20-30 minutes and the skill required is fairly low. Mostly it just takes patience.

You will need the following:

used Microsoft wireless headset
soldering iron and solder (silver bearing solder is the least messy)
xacto knife or similar razor blade device
a flathead screwdriver and a steak knife Smile seriously
A 2.5mm (3/32") headphone STEREO jack. This would work: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103450
Some extra wire, an old headphone cord would be ideal...
Small shrink tubing ideally.. if not, electrical tape.


Here's what we are doing... We are going to take apart a MS wireless headset (carefully) and connect a 2.5mm jack to it's speaker output and mic input connections. When done, you can turn it on and connect any headset that will connect to a 360 controller to it... You'll end up with better sound than using just the normal controller or wheel.

Lets get started

A word of advice... Buy a used wireless from gamestop. If you break it somehow in the process of doing this, just glue it back shut and go exchange it for another one. Don't tell them anything other than, "it won't work." I think they are like, $25 or something used. Also, make sure it works before you bother trying to take it apart, etc. Lastly, be as careful as possible doing this! I take no responsibility for you ruining it, cutting your finger off, or burning your house down... Got it? Smile

Here is the headset:


The earpiece thing just pulls off with a bit of effort. Under it are little plastic deals that are screwed on using a "tri-wing" screw... Unscrew these with the pointy end of the steak knife, don't let the wife see you.

Seperating the halves:


In the photo where it says "pry here" use knife to start separating the halves far enough that you can fit a small flathead screwdriver in... Try not to muck up the body of it too much in case you have to exchange it or something. This part comes apart fairly easily. But will not lift completely off... Which leads us to...

The other end-
You will break something, trust me... Just try to break as little as possible. Wink


The circled areas are the "break points" I took two of these apart and both ended up with one of these broken. It's not the end of the world. Just work on them slowly. Or just break them, whatever you want really.

Wires:


Cut the wires that attach the ear speaker to the circuit board... Cut them fairly close to the speaker so that you leave yourself as much wire as you can attached to the circuit board.

(ignore the masking tape here... I couldn't find my electrical tape)


If you look close in the photo you will see a grey wire that runs from the circuit board up in the the "mouthpiece." Cut that close to where it goes into the mouthpiece.

Now, the wires are freaking thin so don't yank on them when doing the following unless you want to try to re-solder them to the circuit board. (you don't) Using a razor blade very carefully strip the red (speaker) wire back a little bit. Do the same to the grey (mic) wire, which reveals another small wire surrounded by a bare wire. Twist the bare wire (ground) so it's nice and uniform, then strip a little of the other wire back using the razor blade. Leave the black wire that goes to the speaker alone for now.

You should now have 3 wire ends. Red speaker, White mic and bare ground. Heat up the soldering iron and "tin" the wire ends with solder. If you don't know how to do this, well... look it up. It's just heating the wire and putting a little solder on it.

We need to make the wires longer now... Cut yourself 3 pieces of wire, preferably different colors, strip them and put some solder on the ends. Then solder those wires to the wires on the headset. At this point it would be a good idea to insulate those connections using the shrink tubing. I really recommend this method since electrical tape is just a pain in the ASS for small stuff. You can't do it after we solder on the jack either so do it meow, ok? Smile

The jack:
Here is the pinout for the jack on the wheel and controller -


So, grab your little radioshack package and look on the back to see what connects to what and match that up to your wires. Solder the wires on correctly.

Now, connect your headset, turn the xbox. Turn on the wireless headset and it should connect. Test it out. whee!

Last step, and something I still need to do. Cut a small hole on the edge of the half of headset which the speaker is in. Make it big enough that the wires will fit through there. Then put the halves back together and glue them.

Good luck and if someone really really really wants this and can't possibly do it themselves... I might think about doing it for you.

EDIT: I just realized... if you had the foresight, which I didn't.. but you do now... You could run your extension wires out the little hole that's left by the earpiece attachment. Might have to widen it some.

 

 

 

I've decided to tackle this little project and thought I'd post the instructions

 

again thanks for posting

 

 

Fri, 07/27/2012 - 22:11
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Sweet thank you for posting... I couldnt see them before lol.

Sat, 07/28/2012 - 12:25 (Reply to #77)
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I did mrbasherman's MS wireless mic conversion about a year ago to use with my Trittons since my Fanatec wheel's mic support is so crappy. But since the last MS dashboard update the wirless mic will freeze the console randomly in on-line races for 4-5 seconds thus making a mess of my race or others when this happens. So I don't use a mic anymore. So fucking pissed at MS and their 'fuck over wheel users' update.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 04:13 (Reply to #78)
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FatnSlo wrote:

I did mrbasherman's MS wireless mic conversion about a year ago to use with my Trittons since my Fanatec wheel's mic support is so crappy. But since the last MS dashboard update the wirless mic will freeze the console randomly in on-line races for 4-5 seconds thus making a mess of my race or others when this happens. So I don't use a mic anymore. So fucking pissed at MS and their 'fuck over wheel users' update.

Are you sure this is the reason for the freezes? Does it not happen with it off? I've been getting the freezes, couple of seconds and then the rest of the field shoots ahead. If I'm lucky I don't wipe someone out, but it costs me ground and position. If you can confirm the ms mic as the reason, that stinks. Well pissed off in that case.
Sun, 07/29/2012 - 08:40 (Reply to #79)
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POIDSLY wrote:

I've been getting the freezes, couple of seconds and then the rest of the field shoots ahead. If I'm lucky I don't wipe someone out, but it costs me ground and position.

 

That's happened to me about three times in the past month and I don't recall it occurring in the past. My car freezes and I prepare for the inevitable "I'm about to die/crash" but then control comes back and I carry on counting my blessings. In all three cases my freeze up occurred near mid-turn and I'm not afraid to admit I was very very scared about the prospects of regaining control "mid-turn".

 

For the record, using elite wheel with standard MS wireless.

 

My vote goes towards shitty MS lag.

 

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 09:21 (Reply to #80)
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For me the freezes are caused by the wireless mic. If I don't use the mic I don't have the freezes. Here is a Xbox forum discussion about it: http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/7/p/292801/1529551.aspx#1529551

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 11:08 (Reply to #81)
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Going to try without the ms wireless mic tonight. Why the hell we have to put up with such hardware BS is beyond me. What a bunch of arsehats ms etc are.
Mon, 07/30/2012 - 02:34
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So ran some practice before the race. I was away from home and on a wireless set up and had earlier set up the xbox. During the practice my elite repeatedly locked left a bit and only powering the wheel off and on solved it ......for 5 minutes or so, then same thing. Thought it might be wifi connection. But, another thing occurred to me. I realised I had plugged my x31 receiver in the left USB port. It's normally in the right. Strangely, once swapped no issues in 1 1/2 hours of racing. Oh, and raced without the wireless mic. No freeze issues at all.
Mon, 07/30/2012 - 02:47
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have you raced with the wireless mic to do a elimination troubleshoot?

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 03:16 (Reply to #84)
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That's been my default set up since getting the Elite back in November/December, with the wireless mic as the fanatec hook up is shite. Now pretty convinced the freezes are caused by a wireless mic clash. No issues before the update. All started the evening the "fixed" update was rolled out. The elite hanging left is nothing to do with the mic. That is new to me, and disappeared when I swapped the wireless receiver to a different USB slot. Going to swap it back later to see if the problem reoccurs. This latter issue seems very odd and am not currently convinced. Am really annoyed about the wireless mic issue. What's to say the new trittons won't cause similar issues. After all they almost certainly use the same technology. I eagerly await someone else testing them.
Mon, 07/30/2012 - 03:38
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yeah Im thinking the trittons would cause the same issue also... have you contaced MS with your issue? The more people who contact them the more chances of something getting done about it.

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