Are pneumatic pedals as reliable as those based on elastomers? (NT)

[F1Aussie]

Pedals turned up yesterday, very impressed with the rigidity and build quality of them, is AAA. unfortunately the brake pedal pad had some scoring on it from transport, David has quickly jumped onto it and is going to send me a replacement one.
Will post some pics once setup.

 

[F1Aussie]

Spent the last two days on and of setting up the new pedals. Only had an hour to test it out tonight but I must say that the brake feels very different to the Sprint one, but in a good way. A lot easier to accurately modulate.

It feels much firmer and easier to control and it does not have the squish feeling that you get with elastomers. Brake pedal travel is quite short but I like that.

I have a few adjustments to make yet with the heel rest and height of throttle pedal and to tidy up some cabling.

David sent me an email with a link to a video about stopping the port scanning and I guess it has worked. My shakers and DDU worked flawlessly.

 

[Elaphe]

Last week I changed my Assetto Corsa from SteamVR to OpenXR. Now the VR monitor from the pedals app doesn't work. It seems it requires SteamVR to work. According to my tests, any game that is launched in OpenXR mode closes SteamVR when it loads. If you try to open SteamVR while it's working it crashes. That's what happenned to me when I ued my hotkey for the brake pressure (the adjustment is made but loading the VR monitor crashes the game). I have tried to set the VR monitor to work with Open Composite, but it reports and error (I suppose it's not compatible). Same happens when I ovewrite openvr_api.dll in its folder. If this monitor overlay doesn't work in OpenXR mode that will be a problem because most users are abandoning SteamVR and all new games will work with OpenXR. I have already reported this issue to David. Alternative solution: an app for Assetto Corsa which displays the current brake pressure value, but for that it has to be able to read that value (no idea where).

EDIT:

David has already answered: his VR Monitor will support OpenXR in the future. That's great.

However, I have found a good alternative: my app for Assetto Corsa is already working. The information about the current brake pressure is side by side with the force feedback and the shakers volume. The script for my button box sends the hotkeys and the app changes the text on screen. The script also updates the value on a ini file on every change. The app reads the ini file when AC loads. The initial value of the ini is extracted by my script from a log file generated by the pedals program when it is closed.

 

[F1Aussie]

Forgot I had not uploaded any photos of setup pedals, here they are below.

 

[Elaphe]

F1Aussie, have you tried with and without the throttle rest accessory and can tell if it's worth or not?

 

[MuddyFox]

Nice pics of the new babies!

Two questions, if I may.
First, how much space is there from the baseplate to the top plate? What's your shoe size and how's the fit in there, with the heel up against the heel rest?

Second, how far apart are the pedals in your configuration? Any dimension will do, center piston to center piston, or middle of the pedalface to middle of the pedalface.

Looking really hard at these, but I worry about the sizing for the people with larger feet...

Thanks!

 

[gdjenks13]

View attachment 705379

The cylinder used on the throttle is pneumatic, you can see the bolts with the vents at top and bottom of the cylinder.
The cylinder on the brake has a vented bolt at the top of the cylinder and a sealed bolt at the bottom so I would assume the cylinder is now holding a fluid of some type.

Hi Bob, I purchased SimworX Pro GT 3.1 pedals used off of the iRacing forums back in December 2023. Original owner took great care of them and was very friendly. I did my due diligence too and watched all of SRG's review, researched "pneumatics", and came to the conclusion that there must be no liquid in them. Which was the biggest reason I bought them.

Well. I can confirm there is green liquid within the brake cylinder, and it is leaking from the top bolt right below the spring. Green liquid has splattered all over the pneumatic cylinder, and leaked into a puddle on top of the control box. I am not sure when the leak started, but I noticed it Thursday May 16. The last time I used the pedals was Tuesday May 14. Even today, when I pushed the brake, it felt the same as it always does to me.

I am very confused... and your comments are the only place on the internet that give me hope of a solution. Do you have any idea what I can do to replace the liquid / fix my pedals / whatever I need to do?

I have emailed SimworX, they were helpful with a software issue I had in February, but they have not yet responded to my questions.

 

[Bob73]

Sorry to read about the unfortunate situation with your set of SimworX pedals.
You are right about the use of a fluid in the brake cylinder being something that is not readily mentioned in any reviews or the instructions that come with the pedals. I watched three quite detailed reviews (two with English subtitles) and no mention was made.
I also choose the pedals for the same reasons that you did, but after receiving them I came across a unofficial Facebook group for SimworX products and a couple of guys on there had commented on the brake cylinder seals failing and releasing a green fluid. Unfortunately the Facebook group is now closed.

From the comments posted SimworX came to the rescue sent out replacement cylinders and that was all that was said.

Hopefully you will get some assistance from them and directions on how to dismantle replace the seals and fluid instead of having a new cylinder shipped over from Australia.

What was the software issue that you had? I noticed with the new v3.2 pedals they have released a proprietary piece of control/setup software and have been meaning to see if it’s compatible with the v3.1s and what functionality it offers. With the v3.1s I was advised to use DiView to help calibrate the pedals.