I've been using a CH Products Eclipse yoke as a wheel in LFS, and I am very pleased with it. It was designed to be used with flight simulators, but with a simple modification it makes an excellent wheel for LFS. For the steering I, of course, use the aileron-input control. This provides very smooth steering input. I use the rudder input for the combined Throttle/brake axes input of LFS. There are convenient switches which I use for shifting gears up and down. It uses plug-and-play installation with 7' USB cord.

I wanted to be able to control the throttle/brake with one thumb. Therefore, I modified the rudder input for the combined throttle/brake as follows. First, I removed two coil springs which center the rudder input. This rudder-input control is mounted in a box attached to the yoke by four screws. By removing these screws it was easy to remove the two coil springs. Next, I put a small sheet-metal screw in the back of this box, and mounted a small rubber band between this screw and one side of the rudder input. I set it up so that the default position of this input applies the brakes. A photo of the modified control is attached.

I use my right thumb for the throttle/brake control. I use the red button on the left side of the yoke for shifting up and one side of the rocker switch on that side for shifting down. It's not fancy, but it's cheap and beats a joystick.

Hello,

I have been using the LFS Replay Analyzer a lot, and I think it is a fantastic tool for seeing where my problems lie. I hesitate to suggest changes lest that be interpreted as a criticism of a wonderful program. There is, however, one modification which I think would be easy to make and be very useful, at least to me. I would like to be able to zoom the Driving Line so that I could take a closer look at my line than is currently the case.

Thank you,

Ted

Thank you for your responses.

I selected "combined" for the throttle/brake on the slider, axis 3, and I get 100% throttle OK! I can also get 100% throttle on the stick's elevator axis if I select "combined". However, if I select "separate" I can only get about half throttle. I prefer not to use the elevator axis for the throttle since I run at 100% throttle all the time once I get the car moving and find it inconvenient to have to press the stick forward to maintain full throttle . I've played with "Thr / brk centre reduction" and am still confused about what it does.

Regards,

Ted

Thank you Beano. I set the thr/brk centre reduction to 0 and put the car in 1'st. I slowly advanced the throttle and the car started moving. It got up to about 10 MPH and all of a sudden the car rolled to a stop as the engine red lined. Thereafter it behaved like the transmission was broken.

I'm shifting manually usually. I have no clutch. I just tried auto and the car ran better but the performance was terrible; the car shifts back and forth from 6'th to 7'th whereas it should be kept in 7'th at full throttle.

What does the thr/brk centre reduction do?

Thank you.

Ted

I am new to LFS (S2 license). I love it. However, I have a BIG problem calibrating my throttle.

I am using a flight-controller joystick that I have used successfully with MS Flight Simulator. I have checked it out in the MS Windows XP Control Panel/Game Controllers and it checks out OK.

In LFS Options I used the Options-Controls display to select "wheel/joystick" and "separate" Throttle/brake axes. I'm using axes 0/3/1 for Steer/Throttle/Brake. Moving these controls moves the appropriate bar through its entire range OK.

Everything works OK except the throttle. I don't get more than approximately half throttle when I advance the throttle control fully. I don't seem to get any throttle response at all in the car until I advance the throttle about 80%, even though the bars in the Controls setup display move proportionally to the movements of the controls.

I've tried to calibrate things. I clicked on "recalibrate axes" and "lock" turns white. I clicked on "unlock" and that turns white. For each of the axes I click on "c" and move the respective control through its entire range of motion. After doing this for all the axes I click on "lock" and "lock" turns white. Then I click on OK in the lower left corner which takes me back to the main screen.

I'm running the BMW Sauber F1.06 on the Koyoto Oval. The engine revs up OK to its shift point in gears 1 through 5. In 6'th gear I can't get the car to go faster than 180 MPH; the engine is nowhere near its shift point. In 7'th gear the car dies, probably because there is too little throttle. I go back to the Garage in case there is some damage, but that does not change things.

Can anybody help me sort this out?

Thank you.

Ted

Quote from Tomba(FIN) :

You can just hit the new setup button as much as you like and name them. Have a trillion setups if you like.

I don't get how you do not understand this.

I'm just a little dense. Thank you all for your helpful comments and suggestions. LFS really is a fabulous program; I wouldn't call it a game. This Forum is great too.

Regards,

Ted

I want to be able to have more than one setup-file for each car. It would be very useful to be possible to save a number of setups for each car,with user-specified names for each setup file, and also possible to load a previously saved setup file from a list of previously saved setups for the car currently in use. This capability would be very useful in the car-development process.

Ted

Gener_AL (UK), How did you get that?

It is possible to make a "New setup". This defines a new car for each new setup. It is then possible to use Windows Explorer then to save the setup-file for that car with a new name. Then, later it would be possible, again using Windows Explorer, to rename that file again to make it useable by a car.

However, this is very awkward. What I would like to see is the ability to save and recall setups for a specific car. The procedure would be similar to that currently available for saving laps as raf files.

I hope people won't interpret what I am suggesting as a criticism of LFS. I think it is a fantastic program. I am just suggesting what I think would be a very significant improvement.

Thank you for your comments.

Ted

The automatic saving feature does not solve my problem. While developing a specific car I would like to be able to save individual setups for that car. I realize that I could define a different car for each setup. That would soon swamp the list of cars in the Garage. When developing a car I would like to be able to test a sequence of, for example, roll-bar stiffnesses, to determine the optimum. I want to save a series of setups for each car, just like can be done for physical cars. The current capability is possible, just more awkward than necessary.

Thank you.

Ted

Is there a command for saving a Setup? If not, it would be really nice to have one. For example, when in the Garage, have a command that will allow one to save the current setup with a specified name. It is always possible to keep all this info in a notebook, but in this computer age it should be possible to save this info in a file.

Of course, it would then also be nice to be able to load a saved setup into a car in the Garage.

Thank you.

Ted

Thank you for your helpful response. I tried Firefox and the file downloaded and unzipped OK. I've tried your Analyzer. Fantastic! Very user friendly. Congratulations for developing such a wonderful program.

Regards,

Ted

When I download this file I get a file only 119 KB long that won't unzip. My Windows XP Professional Firewall is disabled and I am using the Norton Security Suite security system. I don't ordinarily have this sort of problem. I downloaded LFS OK for example. I also downloaded and extracted F1perfview OK.

Has anyone any thoughts on what is wrong?

Thank you.

Ted

I resolved the problem by going to the garage, as suggested by SparkyDave, and thus getting a new car. As I raw newbie I had not yet learned about damage and how to fix it. I think I must have accumulated a lot of damage in my misadventures on the track, without getting damage fixed. All is going great now. Lots of fun. Fantastic simulation. Documentation could stand a bit of work, but I am gradually learning to find my way around. Maybe I'll try to add something to the Wiki someday.

The Forum is a fantastic source!

Thanks again for the help.

Ted

I want to thank you all for your helpful comments. I am now again turning laps at under 34 sec.

Ted

I just got my LFS S2 license yesterday. I had a neat Indy 500 simulater years ago, so I've had some experience controllling the cars. I tried LFS with the Kyoto Oval and the BMW Sauber F1.06. I succeeded in turning in some decent lap times, around 34 sec. I was faster than the AI car. However, then things went sour. My car became very slow. After looking around on this forum I wonder if my car has damage. I have enabled the option to repair damage in the F12 screen, but that has not solved the problem. I'd like to be able to start over with a fresh car. Computer cars are inexpensive.

From the Forum it seems that is even possible to determine which specific parts are damaged. One person even posted pictures of their damaged car.

I am lost. I have read the LFS Manual, but did not find a solution there. Help would be much appreciated.

Ted