Thrustmaster TX Wheel - great update including auto clutch

Hi Forza friends,

I couldn’t see a thread on this so thought I’d post this to let others know about the Firmware (47.B9) update that now includes a switchable auto clutch option for Xbox One.

If you have a TX Wheel you need to do this update now, it is just superb. The feedback effects are vastly improved as is the accuracy of turn in, the weight of the wheel feels much better all round. The auto clutch is a great addition too - no more thumb reaching for the A button. The fact they made it so easily switchable so that you can still use menus easily with the paddles is also a bonus (the was always a pain on the Fanatec).

Immediately after the update, using the auto clutch I was able to take more than a second out of one of my reference times but more than that the TX wheel now just feels more realistic than ever.

Enjoy!

1 Like

I am now running this firmware and I have to say its good. The problem I am having is I cannot seem to get cars to launch off the line. Have I installed this correctly? Definately says my firmware is 47:b9 but I was confused with the instructions as it mentioned something about bootlogger mode at installation. Once I’m up and running it seems fine and my times have improved. Any advice is very welcome,

Many thanks baz

some cars as stock and even if tuned without the gear ratios changed will not start off the line when clutch assist is removed, such as the E-Tron. I use a pad and it happens on this too, so for some cars i’ll purposely not run it with clutch so this doesnt happen.

You’ll need to change gear ratios to stop that from happening if you want to use the clutch for some cars. So its not a fault with your wheel/firmware its just the car being awkward :slight_smile:

Thank you. Once the car was on the move it felt quicker and I shaved half a second off my rival time in p class around silverstone.

Hi guys, sorry to resurrect an older topic but I had a quick questions about the auto-clutch. Does anyone know if the Thrustmaster achieves the clutch press by faking a press of the “a” button (like the old Fanatec CSR in Forza 4), or does it fake an actual clutch pedal input?

In Forza 4 to use the auto-clutch with the Fanatec you had to select a specific wheel control layout in the game because you had to have it set up so that the “a” button was the clutch or it wouldn’t work.

It’s the “a” button!

This ^^^^^^^^^^^

Damn I was hoping you’d say the other one! Oh well.

Thanks for letting me know :slight_smile:

Hey guys, sorry to dig up an old thread but I figured it was better than starting a new one.

I just upgraded my firmware so that I could use the auto clutch feature. The firmware upgrade took quite a while to get done because the installation didn’t correctly install the drivers. After a lot of back and forth with Thrustmaster Tech Support I finally got it to work by manually installing the drivers. And it’s a lot better when it works but it doesn’t work for long. What happens is that while driving the car, it will suddenly behave as though the clutch is in (disengaged). The car will rev if I press the throttle but it doesn’t go anywhere. No power to the wheels. Also if I press the pause button, I cannot select any of the menu options with the A button. I’m using auto clutch on the wheel (MODE + A), I’m using Manual w/ Clutch in the game and I’ve got the A button mapped to the clutch.

I was wondering if anybody else has had this issue and if so what the resolution was. I’ve submitted a ticket to TM Tech Support but the turnaround is 2-3 days typically and I was hoping for a quicker resolution. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I assume you only see this issue when auto clutch is active and your wheel was working fine prior to this fw upgrade?

Its quite a strange behaviour, i personally never seen that on my wheel. First question would be: Is it a hardware or a software issue? In this case i doubt that its hardware related as the clutch button doesnt get physically engaged in auto cluth mode. I suggest to use the TM control panel, which is part of the driver package, to check if theres any strange behaviour of the A button command when using the paddles while auto clutch is active.

You also mentioned issues during the firmware upgrade. Where these issues during the actual flash process (uploading the firmware to the wheel) or where they related to the driver installation on your PC? If you had issues when flashing, i suggest to re-flash the firmware, using the recovery procedure described on the TM support page.

I knew someone was going to ask that. I need to verify that it still works when not in auto clutch mode (and manual in the game) but I think the answer is probably yes. I’ll double check to be sure. There were no unusual symptoms prior to the upgrade.

I would tend to think software also. If I power down the wheel and power it back up, it works fine for a while and then it will happen again. Also there are 3 A buttons on the wheel and none of them work when it does this. Good suggestion on the control panel. I’ll have a look at that. It is definitely an odd one. I googled quite a bit and wasn’t able to find another example of this problem.

It was during the installation. The install program didn’t install the wheel driver and the bulk driver on my PC for whatever reason. The firmware updater program wouldn’t flash the firmware without those drivers. TM walked me through a manual installation of those drivers and then the firmware update proceeded without error.

Not sure about your first problem, but you do need to toggle auto clutch off for menus. From Thrustmaster’s support page:

I think there’s only one problem and both things I mentioned are symptoms of that problem. You don’t use the paddle shifters in the Pause menu so it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, I can’t get out of Auto Clutch mode if the A button isn’t working.

I did go back and verify that it still works without Auto Clutch turned on. I played a few hours yesterday with no issues. TM also suggested bringing up the control panel but mine doesn’t look like the one in this PDF: http://ts.thrustmaster.com/faqs/eng/thr_eng_00144.pdf.

So I guess it’s in TM’s hands to resolve.

I think I sussed out what was going on. The switch in the left paddle shifter is a little hinky and every once in a while doesn’t “un-switch”. It’s a momentary action switch so it’s supposed to stay off until you pull the paddle and then it switches on. When you release the paddle it’s supposed to switch back off. Sometimes mine doesn’t switch back off. I had noticed this behavior before but it wasn’t a major problem. Now though, with auto clutch on, the clutch is automatically disengaged when either of the paddle shifter switches is on. So what’s happening is that when that switch hangs in the on position, the clutch is disengaged. This is of course fatal to a lap time if it happens even once in a lap.

The question is now what to do about it. I have reported this to TM and I assume that they will offer to replace it. If I’m going to do that, now is the time before Project CARS comes out. On the other hand, I think I like using the shift buttons on the back of the wheel better than the paddles. I think I get faster shifts with them. So I may just keep the wheel and learn to use the buttons instead of the paddles. Also I’ll probably upgrade the wheel itself at some point with something like the Ferrari F1 wheel.