Since its inception, the Fanatec brand has been slowly but surely conquering the world of sim-racing with high-performance, premium peripherals and attention to detail. If you’ve ever held a Fanatec product in your hands, such as a steering wheel, base or even a shifter, you’ll know just how well made it is, with sim-racers’ satisfaction in mind. Everything is designed and manufactured with the rider and the sensations at the center of the equation.

With over 20 years’ experience, Fanatec is more or less at the top of its game. Only a few other competitors can boast resistance to the German giant, and these brands are even more premium to be frank with you. The most concrete example is Simucube, and this brand mainly targets racing drivers who want to fine-tune their simulator reflexes, and sim-racing fans with more or less unlimited budgets.

Fanatec offers a wide catalog of products designed to satisfy all runners’ needs. You could think of this brand as Apple and its ecosystem: once you step inside, you’ll feel better than having all the manufacturer’s products. On the one hand, it’s a guarantee of optimum performance, because all the peripherals in the Fanatec ecosystem are designed to work perfectly with each other. But on the other hand, setups can easily cost an arm and a leg, even if Fanatec offers bundles that are rather inexpensive for the perceived quality.

But that’s not the point. Today we’re going to talk about calibrating a steering wheel, with its Fanatec base. Unlike products from other brands such as Logitech or Thrustmaster, the German manufacturer’s Direct Drive bases need to be calibrated in order to work perfectly. In this article, we’ll show you how.

Base and steering wheel installation

The first thing to do, and one that will contribute to the calibration of your Fanatec base/flight, is to install the peripheral on your setup. Whether you’re using a desk, table or cockpit, it’s vital to mount the base correctly, and above all securely, to the setup.

Of course, not all setups are identical, especially when it comes to attaching the bases to the cockpits/chassis. To avoid mounting errors and calibration problems later on, I strongly recommend that you follow the base and cockpit installation instructions. Some chassis use front mounting plates, others side ones. As a result, installation differs from one cockpit to another, and calibration will also be affected.

Once the base is securely in place, either on a table with the clamp or on a chassis with the screws, it’s time to attach the steering wheel. This step is pretty easy, and all you have to do is align the QR on the steering wheel with the axis of the base, insert the mechanism, taking care to place it firmly and apply enough pressure until you hear a “click”, and release the QR mechanism. Once the handwheel is in place, make sure it stops moving by giving it a gentle tug.

On Fanatec’s latest sim-racing peripherals, this step is simple and, above all, identical, whatever the model chosen. If you have an older flywheel/base, the operation may differ, and I suggest you reread the product manual to make sure you don’t make a mistake.

Installation of FANALAB and software/firmware updates

A sim-racing device is nothing without the software/firmware that controls it. The same is true of virtually every electronic product we use, whether it’s our computers, tablets, smartphones, TVs, and so on.

To make this step as easy as possible, you’ll need a computer. If you’re sim-racing on this platform, plug the base directly into the PC and follow the steps I’m about to describe. If you’re on a console, you’ll need to go through the computer to update everything, before returning to your console.

Updating the software/firmware is easy:

• Connect the base/flight to the computer via the USB socket.
• Go to the download section of the Fanatec website and select the product you wish to update.
• Once on the product page, simply click on “Download”.
• Start software installation as soon as download is complete

Now that the software for your base/flight is downloaded and installed on the computer, simply launch it using the icon on the desktop or in the start menu:

• On the interface that appears on the screen, find, once again, the product you have and click on the “Properties” button.
• A popup window should appear, inviting you to update the firmware if a more recent version is available.
• Simply launch the update and wait for it to finish.

Let’s move on to downloading FANALAB, Fanatec’s software for calibrating the brand’s peripherals. Once again, we’ll use the manufacturer’s website to find what we need. Once the software has been downloaded and installed on your computer, we’ll move on to centering the base/flywheel before returning to FANALAB.

Centering the base/steering wheel

Here, you’ll have to “calibrate” the base by centering the steering wheel as much as possible, just like on a real car when a parallelism operation is in progress.

To do so, attach your wheel to the base and press the button with the key icon. Of course, make sure the base is powered up before you do this, and preferably connected to your rig. Now you’ll need to turn the wheel until it’s in the center. Not a hair to the right, nor to the left. The steering wheel, or wheel if you prefer, must be exactly in the middle.

Once it’s centered, simultaneously press the menu button and the “A” button for Xbox steering wheels, or the “X” button for Playstation steering wheels. By doing so, you’ll be telling the base that the position it’s currently in is “zero”, so to speak. However, I invite you to run a game and check this out, because you never know. I’ve heard of a few sim-raceurs who have had to redo this step 1 or 2 times in order to properly calibrate the zero.

Calibrate base/steering wheel

The final step is to calibrate your Fanatec base using the settings available on FANALAB, the software from the German manufacturer of sim-racing peripherals.

First, launch the FANALAB software and make sure that your base/wheel is properly connected to the PC. With this software, you’ll be able to calibrate, or adjust if you like, several base parameters, such as the angle of rotation of the flywheel, the power of the force feedback, the intensity of vibration, etc.

On the FANALAB interface, you’ll find several parameters. If you wish to reduce the power of the force feedback, for example, you’ll need to change the ” FF ” value. By default, this value is 100%, but you can lower it if you have a 25 nm Podium DD2 base, for example. Some riders, especially beginners, will find the force feedback of this base (25 nm) rather powerful, even too powerful. As a result, you’ll be able to reduce the motor’s maximum power output and get a better driving experience when starting out in sim-racing. But if you’ve opted for a 5 or 8 nm CSL DD, you won’t have to reduce this value. At least, I didn’t.

You’ll find loads of other parameters on FANALAB, and all you have to do is run tests to calibrate your base as you see fit, and above all according to the titles you play. Don’t forget that sim-racing sensations are subjective, and what I find convincing may not be so for you.

Conclusion

Calibrating a Fanatec flywheel or base can be difficult at first, and I’ve even known some sim-racers to be apprehensive about it. But once it’s done, you’ll really feel the difference calibration makes, especially between a Direct Drive and a belt-driven flywheel.