SIMAGIC P-HPR – Everything You Need to Know about this Haptic Pedal Device

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Featured Image: SIMAGIC P-HPR Haptic Pedal Reactor

Today I’m taking a look at SIMAGIC’s P-HPR Haptic Pedal Reactor kit, reviewing the depth of settings available to configure them and critically, comparing them to the SIM3D pedal rumble kit, which I updated last year.

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This SIMAGIC P-HPR haptic pedal add-on kit arrived quite some time ago, and I must admit, it’s been sat on the desk waiting for my attention since I bought them from Raceanywhere.

Originally intended for the SIMAGIC P1000/P1000i Modular Pedals, these linear motor-based haptic reactors are very different to the more typical, rumble-style motors I’ve used since the SIM3D pedal rumble kit appeared a few years ago.

For quite a while I hadn’t considered that they might be different – as it happens they’re mechanically very different.

How are the P-HRP Haptic Reactors different to typical pedal rumble kits?

The motors in the P-HPRs are “linear”. As the name suggests, a linear motor produces motion in a straight line (linear) rather than rotation. My SIM3D pedal rumble kit uses motors with “rumble” weights mounted on the shaft. When the rotor spins, a vibration is created because of the imbalance of the rumble weight. A linear motor relies on a linearly travelling magnetic field to produce the rapid, backwards and forward motion we rely on for haptic feedback.

Here’s how a linear motor works in more detail:

P-HRP Haptic Reactor Fitting

Each haptic unit is a separate item (of course). with an anodised aluminium case the haptic reactors look hard-wearing and industrial. They come with a round mounting plate that screws to the back of the SIMAGIC pedals from behind the pedal plate (you have to remove the pedal plate to mount the haptic reactor).

Mounting to non-Simagic pedals (such as Heusinkveld Sprints, Ultimates, and so on) is a different affair, and we rely on an enthusiast’s 3D printed design, depending on your particular pedal.

There’s a little Etsy store called AT3D that seems to support pretty much every brand of sim racing pedal including:

• Simagic P-HPR Haptic Motor Mount for Asetek Invicta and Forte Pedals (view here)
• Simagic P-HPR Haptic Motor Mount for VRS Pedals (view here)
• Simagic P-HPR Haptic Motor Mount for HE Heusinkveld Sprint Pedals (view here)

Fanatec and Heusinkveld are supported which, according to the review counts, appear to be the most popular pedals in the list. Sadly, Conspit CPP Lite support is less forthcoming leaving me to use tightly applied tie wraps to test my P-HPR’s out! Not ideal, but they worked all the same. I’m going to need to find someone who can design some adapters for me…

If you don’t own SIMAGIC pedals, you’ll need the control box:

This is a straightforward little device, with a separate PSU, a USB port and sockets for the haptic reactors. Everything after installing the reactors themselves is highly self-explanatory: connect the reactors to the control box, connect to your PC via USB and power it up.

When you’ve connected and powered the controller, Windows will not recognise the USB device, although it does acknowledge that a USB device has been plugged in. To actually setup the reactors, we’ll need to install Sim Pro Manager 2.

Once you’ve opened Sim Pro Manager 2, here are the settings for the P-HPR:

Sim Pro Manager 2 allows you to assign an effect to each channel (I’m using the P-HPR 1 channel for the throttle and the P-HPR 2 channel for the brake). It makes sense to assign TC to the throttle, as TC kicking in implies there’s a loss of traction and likewise, ABS for the brake. If you must use Sim Pro Manager, I recommend using close to 50 Hz for the TC and 40 Hz for the ABS settings.

At this point, I’ll just say that the Haptic reactors are very powerful, like being punched at a high speed! The maximum frequency in Sim Pro Manager is only 50Hz, though (edit: 50 Hz is the hard limit in Sim Hub too). This limit makes conveying detail via the Haptics quite difficult. At these frequencies, we’re talking track detail and kerb impact only. 50Hz is not really subtle enough. As an an early warning system for very fine lap time improvements, the P-HPR’s only go so far. Still, it’s information and all information is useful.

Sim Hub support is better than Sim Pro Manager 2. I’ve written extensively about getting started with SimHub and, I’ve covered the settings I use for my SIM3d pedal rumble kit in the review.

How to setup Simagic haptic motors in SimHub

First, open Simhub and head to “Shakeit Motors” – much the same way you would with SIM3D’s Arduino based pedal rumble kit. Click “Enable Output” – highlighted below:

From here, you can open up the full range of effects including gear shifts, road impacts / track surface effects, kerb rumble, RPM and many more.

I think SimHub is the better way to run the SIMAGIC P-HPR pedal reactors, although the maximum available frequency is still 50Hz. This, in my opinion, is an important limiting factor in comparison to more typical, brush motor-based rumble kits.

So, if you own SIMAGIC pedals with this kit, I recommend using SIMhub to set up a wider range of effects. If you’re considering whether to add these Haptic reactors to your setup – my view is that the SIM3D pedals beat them on frequency, and therefore detail.

While the amplitude of the effects is arguably higher with the P-HPR set, the SIM3D set offers more control over the effect delivery and more, resolution on the effects themselves.

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