Direct Drive Wheels and necessary power outputs

Direct drive wheels such as the opensimwheel or Simxperience's accuforce wheel have some ridiculous torque outputs. The Mige motors on the OSW have holding torques around 15Nm and peaks of about 20-30Nm(Depending on which servo motor is hooked up). Torque calculations from actual cars show peak torques of around 10Nm on 'rough cars' with average peak torques at around 5-6Nm. This got me thinking about whether such high torques are really needed or if it's just a marketing thing. Now, a holding torque around 10Nm would seem reasonable to me with a peak torque not much higher than that. I don't know much about servo motors so I don't know if this is even possible nor have I used a wheel more powerful than my ever trustworthy G27 so I might be completely wrong about torque values and their application. It just seems to me that direct drive wheels are overpriced and I might aswell go and race for real rather than buy/build one. Anyone with a direct drive wheel care to comment?

Hi I'm in the middle of building one. Torque aside, DD wheels provide ultimate fidelity of FFB even at low torque outputs. You should watch the simracing garage YouTube channel specifically the DD wheel comparison.

I love my OSW coming from g27 to t300 then this there is no comparison

Don't forget that those torque value aren't transmitting other details such as road bumps etc as far as I know. There is a lot of detail transmitted through the OSW wheel and when I drive my second rig with the t300 hooked up I often find myself wondering if feedback is working.

Not sure about others but mine was well worth the investment. Smile factor: 11

Not going to give too much detail.
If you use Granitedevices VSD-E or ioni controllers, divide all power & torque ratings by ~4.
Why? the motors rated voltage is 220v but granite products are only providing 48V.

I'm using "only" IONI on 48V, I'm not able to turn the wheel (big mige) at maximum forces.

I am not disputing the level of detail that DD wheels provide nor their cost, there have been too many good reviews and comparisons for that. Rather, I am wondering whether the cost could be brought down using smaller servo motors without lowering the level of detail(based on real life steering torque values) or if the high torque values are indeed justified for our simulators as exactly matching real life values does not always give the most realistic experience.

MonicaMary,

I see where you are coming from. My OSW is being delivered Wednesday, so I can't comment on the force, but I do think a lot of people are getting caught up in the bigger is better syndrome. I went with the small Mige, because like you said, It can exceed real car forces. A lot of people choosing the big mige are loosing out on the small and quick responses the small mige offers. I would bet there is a budget friendly, happy middle ground servo out there somewhere.

Honestly If I could go back I would buy the small mige in combination with the provided standard hardware components. On the other hand I will upgrade to IONI PRO HC and a stronger PSU, not to get even stronger "forces", but to get a better resolution due to the high current demand of the motor. At the moment I am in contact with Ollie from Sim-Plicity. I asked him if there is a way to optimize the big mige or not. He responded immediately and asked for sharing my settings etc.

No, sorry
- Torque is current intensity related
- Speed is voltage related

18,5Nm are output permanently with VSD and 48V/12,5A PSU





@monicamary : torque is one thing (some historical car torques were higher than the values of DD)
and inertia is another (bigger Mige has more inertia so it smoothes the small details...)

Yes you are right, power & speed are reduced by 3/4.
Same stall torque @ 18.5Nm.
However being that you have shifted the torque curve aswell so have 0 torque at a lower rpm.
Do you know what kind of max rpm a steering wheel generates during driving/crashing?