Experience with Aliexpress racing wheels - Cheaper options ?

[ankur1211]

Since branded Racing wheel setups are quite costly, and the experience with Keyboards for racing games, and even with controllers suck to be honest.
So, I was curious if there are people who have firsthand experience with the Racing wheels from Aliexpress, as there are lots of cheaper options advertised there, or they are way too crappy to give any feels of a racing wheel game ?

 

[ChairmanSaab]

Have you tried using your phone as a steering wheel? This app let's do this plus you can create custom layouts for every game. I've been playing Assetto Corsa with this setup. It's nowhere near the force feedback steering wheels but way better than keyboard or controller.

The steering wheels degrade as you put hours onto them, unless you're buying a direct drive wheel from aliexpress (which are just industral servo motors and don't degrade as quick as commercial gear, I would advise against investing on a regular belt or gear driven wheel, just buy them locally so you can claim warranty.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Have you tried using your phone as a steering wheel? This app let's do this plus you can create custom layouts for every game. I've been playing Assetto Corsa with this setup. It's nowhere near the force feedback steering wheels but way better than keyboard or controller.

How do you control throttle/brake?

 

[ChairmanSaab]

How do you control throttle/brake?

There are several methods, first three in the app itself, buttons (for instant throttle and brake, no modulation) Sliders (move up and down for precise throttle) and the motion sensors (pull forward and backward for throttle/brake).

I piggy back on the first method but have made it better for faster hotlaps. I use this autohotkey based app called the "Universal control remapper" where I've set it up as such that it gradually increases the throttle instead of instantly (like a button would do), it kind of simulates an actual accelerator and helps remove wheel spin on fast cars, the brake is left as it is since the ABS takes care of it and the fact that there's only one certain axis which you can use to achieve this in UCR, so you can apply this to either throttle or brake not both.

 

[ankur1211]

Have you tried using your phone as a steering wheel? This app let's do this plus you can create custom layouts for every game. I've been playing Assetto Corsa with this setup. It's nowhere near the force feedback steering wheels but way better than keyboard or controller.

The steering wheels degrade as you put hours onto them, unless you're buying a direct drive wheel from aliexpress (which are just industral servo motors and don't degrade as quick as commercial gear, I would advise against investing on a regular belt or gear driven wheel, just buy them locally so you can claim warranty.

Oh my goodness, I have been using Monect remote control for mouse and keyboard purposes when watching a movie laying back or something, and never went on to explore that controller feature. I thought it would be a buggy thing and won't be fun at all. Definitely worth trying however !