Jonathan Madden has left his impressions about Mige’s new encoder. It is supposed to be a killer combo along with SimuCube and new Granite firmware, so many people is thinking to get this upgrade. Let’s check it.
I had a Mige SinCos encoder delivered from Tomo today.
After doing some laps on the 10k to make sure the feeling was fresh, I quickly slapped the SinCos on my small Mige. I set it up using Tomo’s .drc, and did some laps in the SRF, and a quick race in the L79 using the same profile settings I had been using.
Based on some other people’s impressions, I was pretty cautious about what kind of difference I was going to feel. For every guy that thought it was a solid improvement, another didn’t see much change. I decided to buy it anyway, and told myself I’d sell it if I wasn’t entirely sold on the difference. I was prepared to call it out as snake oil if need be.
Thankfully I didn’t have to as I couldn’t be any happier.
I don’t want to oversell it, as it’s obviously not night and day, but to me the feeling is actually the fulfillment of what I always hoped OSW could be. It feels much more refined now. It feels more like a commercial product. Smoother rotation, greater feeling of range (the heaviness is familiar but smoother, the lightness feels much lighter now that it’s so smooth), much less harsh ffb. It just feels more realistic. It felt different enough for me to immediately ask myself “Uh oh, how long is this going to take for me to get used to?”. The lightness and smoothness at turn-in was making me over-drive the entry on the first couple laps.
As far as enhanced tire feeling goes, I’d say that was one of the few things that didn’t actually feel too differently to me. It feels better, sure, but it didn’t jump out at me like some of the other things. I had been running hardly any filtering and pretty high levels of ffb strength to get that tire feel I liked, so I’m not at all surprised that it stayed the same while the nastier side effects were cured.
Interestingly enough, it was things like curbs and grass that became more “3D” feeling. I’d heard that before in regards to direct drive, but it honestly never felt that way to me. They do now which is pretty neat. Serrated curbs that would shake the nails off your fingers in the L79, are so much less harsh.
I hadn’t seen enough people make detailed comments on their SinCos encoder, so I thought I’d toss in my two cents to take, or leave. I just did a few more laps now, and sadly I’ve quickly forgotten what it used to be like before. You really have to strike while the iron is hot on impressions, or else you’ll quickly get used to it.
I can’t say why everyone hasn’t had the same SinCos experience. The settings they use, the cars they drive, the ffb strength, the perception, the expectation…. I really don’t know. For me, it exceeded my hope. Is it “gotta have it”? It’s not inexpensive, so of course not. However, for me personally, it’s a surprising improvement to several of the things I haven’t cared for about the SimuCube/small Mige/iRacing combo. I wouldn’t have guessed that 20,000cpr, or 40,000cpr wouldn’t be enough. That 2 million, or further still nearly 4 million with the Simtronix encoder would be needed to make it feel like I think it should, but there you have it. I does.
gcamaram,
I just upgraded from 10,000 encoder to the Simracingbay SinCos. I must say that your analysis of the upgrade is spot on. The difference is subtle enough that I might think it was a let down if I had driven the two encoders a week apart. But back to back within the hour—there is a noticeable difference in subtlety and refinement. As you noted, it is most significant on the otherwise harsh effects, like curbs and grass. But general bumps are more realistic. I will add that the refinement of the feel on the road became most apparent to me when I latched on my 260mm formula rim and ran some V10 in AMS on Suzuka. High downforce, high speed corners the force buildup was a refined swell that felt truly analog, rather than a series of vector-style changes in strength. It just feels more natural and less digital.
This was definitely an unnecessary, but worthwhile upgrade, if a bit expensive ($180 shipped to US). But I have found that the incremental gains in immersion and enjoyment from a good experience to a great experience are rather expensive.