Locking up brakes, tips for load cell?

I just drove the Formula V10 and the Formula Ultimate. I'm locking up like crazy with only about 30% pedal travel at 50% sensitivity in-game. When I turn down in-game sens to 1% I'm still getting lock-ups at about 60% travel. I know it's lock-up and not a sound issue because I can see the tire lock up as they're both open wheelers.

I'm using G29 pedals with a Leo Bodnar adapter cable that's been properly calibrated. In-game calibration shows it calibrated fine as well, everything starts at 0 and goes to 100 as expected. I don't have this problem at all in AMS1. Reiza please fix!

EDIT:
Just had to re-calibrate pedals in-game once and now not getting lock-up on that car until at least 80% pedal travel which is what I would expect. Not sure why this is the case. Even after a restart of the game the sensitivity seems appropriate so it's not as if an in-game calibration is required after every restart of the game. I calibrated the pedals just yesterday using the same calibration technique but I don't remember if I had this lock-up problem as bad yesterday or not. Anyone have an answer?

 

It's been mentioned that re-calibration may be needed initially and Reiza are aware of the issue.

 

Well, I have managed to solve two problems at once in several cars: premature lock-ups and exaggerated skid sounds. How? Better set-ups.

Turns out the exaggerated skid sounds were not exaggerated--the car was actually skidding or near-skidding and when smoke was pouring out the back during hard braking it was because at least one tire was locked.

Adjusting brake BALANCE resolved most of both issues simultaneously. Only then did I have to back off the brake PRESSURE a bit, but less than I imagined. These are mid-rear engined cars, so not sure if that matters. I know Reiza had to fix some things in certain cars, but it wasn't working for me in the F-Trainer for example.

This all makes sense for load cell brakes. We paid a lot extra to have a superior braking system, so it should work. I will report back here if I encounter either of these problems that CANNOT be resolved with very simple set-up changes. I hope I do not find any.

 

Do you have any examples of car/track and what balance you changed to? It would be great to align and experience what you're seeing.

There's a few issues overlapping here so it's good to figure it out - I know a lot of people are running into the calibration problem, and it can feel like it's fixed once you re-calibrate as it feels so much better. But after a while I found I was still getting frustrated, at the Ultima GTR in particular. I'm still not sure whether it is 100% the car or partially AI, as my main issue is not having the same braking points as similar paced AI cars.

 

Best example is F-Trainer at Goiainia Short (with the inconvenient hairpin at the end of the shortened straight).

Use default set-up for a while to gauge screeching sounds and what happens when you try to brake anywhere near where the AI do coming in to the hairpin. Notice braking at other spots, too, especially the second heaviest zone into the last corner.

For me, it is a disaster. If i drive anything close to the style of the AI (at 100%/50%), I am spending most of my time in the field off the end of the hairpin or the pavement off-track at the last corner. Lots of smoke trails from locked-up wheels and an annoying amount of squealing that made me think this car had very fragile tires or a sound setting that was wonky.

The standard rules for set-up changes apply--do one thing at a time, and don't even bother doing any unless you can run consistent (however bad) times with the car/track combo first. Usually, change one notch at a time, unless you know something is way off. I know you want to get to the punchline, and I will tell you, but unless you have the same pedals as me and unless you really know how the car behaves with the default set-up, you/others won't be able to provide any real feedback (which is OK, but it would be nice because we really need to figure-out if this is a controller issue or not).

I pushed the brake balance back by 2% (mid/rear-engined car). I lowered the brake pressure by two or three percent. (Yes, that's it.) Let us know how much of a difference that makes on your end to the heavy braking behaviour and tire squealing all around the track

 

I guess the problem is that an authentic tyre sound is of squealing tyres, especially when the tyres are treaded. Go to any Formula Ford (Trainer Advanced) race meeting and the tyres squeal under braking, not because they are locked up, but because different areas of the tyres carcass lose grip at different times. If you don't hear a tyre squeal (without smoke) those are the slower cars. An inside tyre may lift and loose traction under cornering loads, but it doesn't mean the ALL the wheels have locked up, the car is simply going as fast as possible. So far I've interpreted the braking in two ways in AMS2, you either go straight on and the squeal is to say you are totally locked up, or you brake and turn in and the squeal is an authentic representation of the real sound. The thing is, in real life the sound is the same for both situations other than volume, smoke and loss of steering, and with a helmet on the sound distinction is muted anyway.

 

For those having brake issues, can you check your brake dead zone settings in-game and see if it’s set to 0? Mine was set to 7 and by changing it to 0 it helped a little...

Now i know this doesn’t change max force but by losing almost 10% one may be stomping on the brakes more quickly causing lockup’s....

 

i don't stomp like most GT3 drivers and i have no problem with locked brakes.

 

You likely have a deadzone already set through your pedal calibration then. A small deadzone is needed otherwise it is too sensitive to accidental touches. I use DXTweak to setup my pedals with custom deadzones at min and max so I can use 0 deadzones in all sims.

 

The brake balance in AMS2 for most cars seems to be set too far forwards. I think I heard it mentioned that this was done after complaints of over sensitive braking and too easily spinning when getting on the brakes. It turned out this was due to other issues which were fixed in the recent patches but it looks like the brake balance was not reset.

For example the BB on the sprint car is set to 63 which leads to easily locking the front wheels, earlier braking points, and much higher wear on the fronts. Simply changing the BB to 58 led to much improved braking, closer to the braking points of the AI, no lockups, and more balanced tyre wear. Helps keep brake temps under control too. Just changing the BB I can now go from last to first on a 10 lap race against 100% AI with 60% aggression at Interlagos.

 

I do have deadzone setup in my own pedal calibration tool (fanatec).

As for brake balance, not sure i totally agree with this. Cars with front engines will require more front end brake balance as the rears are extremely light. Locking up the fronts isn't the problem here, it's that your not getting the most of your braking distance which should be minimal by shifting it back some until the rears and fronts match before locking up...

 

Poor choice of words, but what i meant is with a 10% deadzone, as one starts pushing on the brakes and gets no braking force they will tend to panic and push harder faster....hence "stomping" from panic

 

That's why it's better for you to have no deadzone set in AMS, however some cheaper systems may not have that ability so the option is provided within AMS. It's not as simple as saying to set the deadzone to 0 as it depends on what other settings someone has.

I may not be understanding very well what you have written but it sounds like you are agreeing with me. My point was that Reiza have set the brake balance too far forwards because having it set like that improves stability under heavy braking at the expense of peak braking capability. If you have the balance too far back then the rears have a higher chance of locking and the rear stepping out / spinning. With the default settings the fronts will lockup way before the rears for most cars so the braking is not as efficient as it could be because just before locking up the fronts are braking at their max capability but the rears will only be at say 70% of their capability. Moving the brake balance back will increase that percentage so your overall braking capability will increase meaning you can brake later and a bit harder. This balance is obviously on a car by car basis but most cars are set too far forwards IMHO.

 

The F-Trainer is another vehicle that can be dramatically transformed with a simple bias adjustment rearward a couple of %.

What is your recommendation for the Ultima GTR? I am finding it trickier to resolve the premature lock-ups.

 

You're right about the Ultima being a bit trickier. I found 58 or 59 best but also reduced brake pressure to 80%. Didn't try any other pressure settings though so a bit more may work better...

 

@Marc Collins I just checked again and had a play, 54/46 and 75% brake pressure seems to be the sweet spot for me for the GTR.

 

Thanks--I was going in the right direction, but not far enough. Your settings are much better.

 

Ricmotech on a G920 Load cell action on the Ultima GTR for me is best at 56/44, and 71 force. Main Config setting is at 45% for brake sensitivity also. Steer Sens 55, and Throttle Sens 35. (This was after the 807 update) This is likely to be different for each user.

UPDATE: 10-26-22 I purchased Heusinkveld Ultimate Plus pedals, configured them, installed them, assigned the axis's, and everything works fine on all default in-game settings. In most cases, even the default Brake Pressure in the car set up works fine also.

 

But you should be able to brake hard from high speed in a high-downforce car without locking the brakes. For me, other than setting unrealistic brake sensitivities and pressures, I can’t do that. I have no deadzones.

 

Except pretty much all drivers stomp their brakes.