Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake
Heusinkveld is a name that no longer needs an introduction. For many sim racers, Heusinkveld is probably one of the first brands they heard about when outgrowing entry-level steering wheels and pedals. Heusinkveld is best known for their Sprint and Ultimate+ pedal sets, which have long been the benchmark for high-end sim racing pedals. However, Heusinkveld develops more than pedals. They also offer a GT simrig, a sequential shifter and a handbrake. We received the Sim Handbrake from Heusinkveld to give us our opinion, which of course we are happy to do!
The Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake is a USB handbrake that has only been developed for use on a PC. At the time of writing, the Sim Handbrake has a retail price of €289.00 including VAT and excluding shipping costs.
Packaging & Contents
Within 2 days after shipment, the package was delivered to us by UPS. We received a long, standard brown shipping box containing the Heusinkveld box with recognizable Heusinkveld branding. The packaging is a bit smaller than we expected, so we are very curious about the contents. When opening the box we first see the manual and three Heusinkveld stickers in the colors red, white and blue, which are the colors of the flag of the Netherlands where Heusinkveld is located. We also see a small box containing the accessories for the Sim Handbrake. This includes the USB cable, a large amount of different mounting materials, two extra elastomers and rings to adjust the handbrake harder or softer and a wrench to assist you doing this. Finally, we of course find the handbrake itself in the box, together with a small extra baseplate on which you can mount the handbrake which makes it easy to mount the handbrake in an angle on your simrig and which makes mounting on aluminum profiles a breeze .
Engineering & Quality
Fundamentally, the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake consists of CNC laser-cut steel with a bead blasted and powder-coated finish. This makes the handbrake feel extremely stiff and sturdy, which immediately gives the impression that it has been developed for intensive use. The finish is very neat, as we are used to from Heusinkveld, and it is clearly visible that this handbrake has been designed with great detail and precision. The Sim Handbrake is equipped with a 120 kg load cell sensor which, according to Heusinkveld, can detect an actual load of 22 kg. In order to generate the resistance on the handbrake with which you can actually exert this force, Heusinkveld has equipped the Sim Handbrake with a 2 stage spring system. A spring simulates both the distance from the brake pads to the brake discs and the slack on the handbrake cable, and an interchangeable elastomer which provides progressive resistance when the handbrake is applied. The handbrake is equipped with the medium hardness elastomer out of the box. If desired, this can be exchanged with a softer elastomer for a lighter handbrake, and a harder one for even more resistance. Last but not least, the position of the lever is very easy to adjust from horizontal to vertical and vice versa, which is ideal for use in rally driving or drifting, for example.
Software
The Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake is plug and play. This means that it is immediately recognized on the PC and that it is functional without using the Heusinkveld SmartControl software. However, the Heusinkveld software is so lightweight and easy to use that it is recommendable, as it gives you much more control over the adjustment and output of the handbrake. With the SmartControl software you can easily calibrate the handbrake and define how much force you want to exert on the handbrake for 100% input. What’s nice about this is that this ‘max force’ is expressed in kilograms, which makes the setting very tangible and offers more reference of which direction you are going with your adjustment. You can also see in real time how much force you exert when operating the handbrake, even when it exceeds the maximum set values. This way you don’t have to actually adjust the setting infinitely to determine what you want to set as 100% input. You can also set a deadzone to prevent the handbrake from registering an input when you touch it.
Finally, you can adjust the output signal of the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake in the SmartControl software and thus influence the sensitivity of the handbrake. For example, you can choose to keep the output linear or to make a curve of it. A number of presets have been built in for this purpose, with which you can easily try and fine-tune different settings. For example, you can choose to have very little effect on the first few centimeters of pulling the handbrake, and then make the last few centimeters very sensitive, or vice versa. In principle, these are of course settings that we are already used to seeing in pedal sets. The fact that we see this on the Sim Handbrake from Heusinkveld gives us a good sense of freedom and certainty that we can use this handbrake exactly as we personally like it.
Usage
We are going to use the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake on our Trak Racer TR8 Pro simrig. The handbrake fits easily on the shifter plate of the TR8 Pro, but because we also use our unbranded H-Shifter, we mount it together on the TR8 Pro using the FormulaSimRigs Pista Shifter plate. With the supplied mounting materials, mounting on a shifter plate is a breeze, but direct mounting on an aluminum profile will also be very easy to do in combination with the supplied base plate. Changing the orientation of the lever from horizontal to vertical and vice versa is a breeze; by loosening the bolts that hold the lever in place, and turning the lever itself, you have transformed the handbrake from horizontal to vertical within a few minutes. In the vertical position, the angle of the handbrake can be adjusted within a range of 26 degrees and in steps of 6.5 degrees. In the landscape position, this available range is 19.5 degrees.
To start with, we use the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake as a plug-and-play device by just plugging in the cable and configuring the handbrake directly in Assetto Corsa Content Manager. The handbrake is indeed recognized immediately and can therefore be used without Heusinkveld software. However ,the possibilities for adjustment are virtually absent when using it like this, but with the use of a large end-deadzone we managed to adjust the handbrake somewhat as desired and use it in Assetto Corsa. To get the most out of the handbrake, we quickly turn to the Heusinkveld SmartControl software where we adjust the sensitivity and output curve of the handbrake. In Assetto Corsa we mainly use the Sim Handbrake for drifting, so we set the handbrake with a very steep curve that causes the rear wheels to lock immediately with light operation. For use in Dirt Rally 2.0 we choose one of the less sensitive output curve presets from Heusinkveld themselves.
During use, we initially notice how solid the Sim Handbrake feels thanks to the very strong building materials. With the medium hardness of the elastomer quite a bit of force can be exerted on the handbrake without a sweat. The grip on the lever feels very good and ensures that we don’t just miss or lose grip on the lever. At the same time, the grip is not so rough that moving the hand is no longer possible once you grip the lever.
Changing the elastomer and the spring of the handbrake is a piece of cake. By loosening the nut at the end and the ring which determines the preload, the elastomer and the spring are already released and you can replace them to personal preference. The options for this are very diverse with all the supplied elastomers and spacers, so you can determine the amount of play in detail with the supplied spring and extra spacers or even reduce or eliminate this play. The hardness of the handbrake can be determined by switching out the elastomers and a preload can be determined as well. Consulting the manual can be wise here, it contains several suggestions with adjustments depending on the use and the surface on which you are driving. At first glance, the amount of options could seem excessive for a handbrake and for the casual drivers that will probably be the case in practice. However, for the serious enthusiast or the (semi) professional virtual drifter or rally driver who wants to adjust the handbrake to their own preference in detail, or replicate the feel of a real life car, these options are very welcome and adequate. The number of possible adjustments is more than sufficient and an absolute plus for the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake.
Conclusion
The Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake is a very strong handbrake with numerous adjustment options for the enthusiastic sim racer. The handbrake is extremely solidly built with high quality materials as we are used to from Heusinkveld. Thanks to all the included mounting materials, mounting the handbrake on both a shifter plate and an aluminum profile is a breeze, and adjusting the lever in a horizontal or vertical position is also a piece of cake. The adjustment options using elastomers, the spring and the possible use of extra spacers are very extensive. This makes it very easy to determine the hardness of the lever, to create a preload, to reduce the stroke on the lever and to simulate the play of a handbrake cable or the distance from brake pads to brake disc. The Heusinkveld SmartControl software also offers a lot of possibilities to adjust the handbrake as desired and we are pleased to see that, just like with the pedal sets from Heusinkveld, the necessary attention has been paid to this.
We cannot discover any disadvantages of the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake. The only thing we could possibly think of is that the Sim Handbrake is not necessarily a cheap handbrake and addition to your rig and that it is therefore less accessible for the starting sim racer or the sim racer who has less room to invest in their setup. In that respect, the Sim Handbrake is not for everyone. On the other hand, we do think that the price is justifiable when we look at the real Heusinkveld build quality, the materials used, the finish and the options for adjusting the handbrake feel and output signal. Because the handbrake is so extensive but easy to adjust, we can even imagine that even the less serious or experienced sim racer can quickly be stimulated to get started and get more pleasure out of adjusting their setup.
All in all, we are very enthusiastic about the Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake and we think that this is a product that really deserves to bear the Heusinkveld name. The Sim Handbrake has surprised and stimulated us sufficiently and defeinitely helps us plan to get into the virtual drift and rally cars more often!
The Heusinkveld Sim Handbrake is available at Heusinkveld for €289.00 incl. VAT and excluding shipping costs.
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