I give up - Hard Drivin Cockpit with 2 spare RD Boards

ronniep

New member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
119
Reaction score
0
Location
Elwood, Indiana
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I give up - Hard Drivin Cockpit with 2 spare RD Boards

I have a Hard Drivin cockpit with everything included. It comes with MANY extra boards and 2 spare working Race Drivin mother boards. The machine has random stuff unplugged as I have been trying to diagnose a pots issue. I have seriously lost all interest in the game as I am not an electronics wizard and it is just irritating me at this point. I will not part anything out and and also will not take any less than $350 for it all as I have a lot more than that in it

Message me as I will not be babysitting this ad...
 
LOL. You sound pissed, man. Let me know if you get interested in fixing it again. I'm pretty good at it now, I've been through mine and replaced...well...everything, and I know certain parts of the schematics by heart.

PM sent.
 
replace all your fuses, all of them. does not matter what they look like.

On mine i chased all kinds of weired krap, only to find out more than one fuse was dropping several volts across it even though it rang out good with a meter and looked ok..
 
Pissed is an understatement. I have wanted this game ever since it came out and I shorted out a cable when my kids came in screaming about something when I was helping someone diagnose their machine. I have not been able to look at it for a couple of months now still being upset.

I have replaced all of the fuses as we talked about before. I have also bought a new pot for the steering, but it still seems to be out of wack.

I seriously do not know where to start on the thing. I thought I had it pinned down to a steering pot and bad board that controls the brake and clutch, but was wrong obviously as I have replaced both.

I can unplug every cable but the power and steering plug and it just scrolls "Drive"..."Drive"... "Drive"... (as shown in the youtube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiDFbXzBd-Y
 
Last edited:
OK first that's not a steering issue. You're not getting past the point where the machine fully boots the main board, or you're getting stuck during boot.

Unplug the:

- Shifter board
- Steering Potentiometer
- Steering motor
- Brake PCB
- Steering amplifier board

...all from the main PCB, including the ribbon cables that go to the shifter and steering amp board.

Those are NOT necessary to fully boot the machine. It will boot and run fine without them.

When you boot the main board with all those disconnected, are your results the same? If so, replace the APU board to the right of the power supply. Results the same? Put the old APU back in, replace the power supply. Results the same? If so, put the old power supply back in and replace the main board, results the same? With the new main board, replace the APU and Power supply.

It's one of those boards. It's not a steering or shift potentiometer, it's not the shifter, it's not the brake PCB.

Also, check that you have 5V coming from the power supply, and that you have 5v at the test points on the main board. If you look toward the center of the main board, you'll notice tabs that are labeled with the voltages that should be present, i.e. 22v, 17v, and more. Test voltages at those points to make sure they are correct.
 
If I remember correctly I have unplugged every single cable and ribbon from the main board and it boots up. As soon as I plug in the steering at the top of the main PCB it starts to reboot. That steering goes to the apu to the right of the main board as well as to the shifter and brake pcb. I have done the following:

* Disconnected everything: boots up
* Replaced the apu and connected steering: keeps rebooting
* Replaced the brake pcb and connected steering: keeps rebooting
* Replaced the main board: keeps rebooting
* Replaced the power supply and all fuses: keeps rebooting
* Verified proper voltages from power supply


I will go home tonight and grab a beer and see if I can walk over these steps again, but I am not very optimistic at this point. I sure would love to get this game back up and running, but I am not sure my nerves can handle it.

-Ronnie
 
Ok cool. Tell me on that plug which wires go into which holes on the plug. Should be a red, black, clear and one more if I remember correctly.

Or post a pic. That'll work even better.
 
Ok... I have been home diagnosing this for hours. I have been bouncing back and forth between a HD and RD pcb. I cannot get sound at all. If I unplug the two cables running to the very small brake pedal pcb in the rear behind the brake pedals and the shifter pcb on the far left (shifter side) I can get the machine to fully boot. The shifter board has a red led that used to light up. It now does not light up.

Once I get the machine to boot it always steers to the right. I can go in and try to calibrate it up, but it always shows 4095 for the max and minimum when trying to calibrate it. If I go in and test the controls you can see the steering pots seems to be working though. I have swapped the pcb, apu, brake pedal pcb and the large (dangerous) steering / power motor board.

I may not be a electronics / wiring / schematics guru, but I work as a network engineer and have spent a lot of time inside computers so I am comfortable inside machines such as this. I have verified all of the connections are connected in the right direction and all serial (IDE style) cables have the red on pinn number one.


I have also went through all of the advanced diagnostics on both boards and they seem to check out.
 
Last edited:
Ok first get me a pic of the plug you were referring to earlier, the one where the steering pot wires go into the board.

I think we are going to find a problem there.
 
Ok... Reading J11 on the PCB fron left to right they are as follows:

pin 3 - clear wire
pin 6 - yellow to connector going to brake
pin 7 - black to pots
pin 8 - black w/ white stripe to connector going to brake
pin 10 - bare wire
 
Last edited:
As a followup to that, you can test the pot, too to make sure it is doing its job by reading the voltage at that plug with it plugged in, and have someone turn the wheel clockwise/counterclockwise. The voltage should go from roughly 0 to 5 vdc.
 
What is the voltage at the 3 wire plug going.g from th board to the steering pot? Unplug it and test at the white 3 wire plug.

To test the voltage am I just unplugging it and checking the voltage inline on each wire? Sorry.. I am not much of an electronics testing guru..
 
Last edited:
To test the voltage am I just unplugging it and checking the voltage inline on each wire? Sorry.. I am not much of an electronics testing guru..

Do both. If you unplug, test the plug coming from the board by reading voltage at the white 3 prong harness plug. You should have 5 volts across two of the wires. When plugged in, stick your meter leads into the white 3 prong harness plug, either side, from the back (same wires) and have someone spin the wheel left and right. You should see voltage go from roughly 0 to 5 and back.
 
Do you guys have any idea what the difference is between the 8 b pots and 12 b pots?

Here is a video of the 8 b pots working, but the 12 b flakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cNm03pq2_I

I know there is only 1 potentiometer (pot) for steering, so I have to assume the 8bit and 12bit "pots" refers to two separate circuits. My guess is that your 12b circuit is not getting correct voltage.

I have yet to figure out the actual 8bit/12bit difference, and it is not marked on the schematic like it says in the owners manual :(
 
Back
Top Bottom