[DeanHart]

It's time we consolidate the experiences on the software side of the full DSC Controller / Tractive shocks installs.

Share your thoughts, maps etc!

Ground rules:

1 - Full setup only, no stock dampers, no KW DDC.
2 - Accept that my perfect suspension may not be yours, and vice versa
3 - Hopefully ride height, swaybars, wheels / tires, alignment, and other mods are sorted before tuning the shocks
4 - Please share your goals and suspension mods

 

[phillofoc]

@DeanHart you should have started us off with your details!

Other than the DSC+Tractive, I'm pretty close to the stock suspension specs. I did raise the front about 1/2 inch to level out the car. Primary goals were to make the car comfortable to drive as a daily and on road trips. I raised the front to stop scraping on driveways.

After some fiddling I've settled with modifying the shock calibration on Normal/Touring only from what was put out in Feb 2020. Currently the fronts vary 1750 to 200, and the rears 1550-600 mAh.

I'm still fighting the full stiff gremlins. I suppose that this is just a fact of life for DSC+Tractive users in the US.

 

[DeanHart]

I think I had the fourth controller in NA, and the third full install.

Goals - street, daily driver, track. Maximize performance with some comfort.
Mods - front eccentric camber bushings, increased caster with lower control arm bushings, whiteline 22mm rear sway bar on soft, lowered 1 inch maintaining rake, stiffer rear springs, -2.5 front camber, increased caster, zero toe all around.

What I like:

Track mode for the track, sport mode on the street. However, my default mode is track with the option of switching to normal dampers with the stalk. Magic.

General strategy
Flat ride for the RS requires stiffer rear springs. Get the motion ratio right and all else should work out.

Compliance is fast.

DSC Shock calibration table is most important.
DSC gForce Table determines the dynamics of the chassis.
DSC gForce Comfort Parameters should be left conservative.
Brake table and access table must not interfere with other tables

Have a 'test track' for repeatable assessment of changes

More soon!

 

[DeanHart]

Here is a thread from user @misterchonger copied here:

He has looked at the Golf R and Nissan GTR maps and explored

" . . Have you played around much with the GForce map in the controller? Ever since I've had the kit and autocrossed the car, I've felt it has more body roll than it should. I think I discovered why this is and it's due to how DSC mapped the GForce table for this car. Specifically, how they stiffen one front shock and soften the opposite front shock during corner loading. I think this is causing the weight transfer.

I remapped The GForce table in one of the modes so the front shocks are always changing in the same manner, all else the same between the two modes being tested. I tested the differences between maps and the car feels like it corners flatter with my own changes . . ."

And

". . . The more I get familiar with the FORS calibration, the more questions I have on why DSC set up the calibration the way they did. For example, I took a look at the GForce maps for a Golf R and GTR and neither of those GForce maps are like the Focus RS. The weight transfer does keep some playfulness in the car so I may leave that in one of the other modes . . ."

These changes are actually very profound and completely jibe with reading I had been doing on the Porsche forums!

 

[DeanHart]

I have tested @misterchongers changes and incorporated the new gForce tables as follows:

Normal
gForce table has expanded the 'no load' central values, and maintained the soft inside front settings

Sport
Here is the significant change - all four shock values change with gForce.
When testing this I was amazed at the sharp turn in and support through a turn!

Furthermore . . .

 

[DeanHart]

So, I went for a drive. And then another change, then another drive. Repeat until happy. For a week . . .

But I'm quite happy with the result (posted below)


Normal
Modified gForce table as above. Shock calibration tweaked for extra plush 1850ma from
0 to 20% and then to 'out of range' values at 100%. So extra soft but quickly firms up
F 1850 0 to 20% then to 300
R 1800 0 to 20% then 200

Sport
MrChongers excellent gForce table. Shocks conservative at F 1700 - 600 R 1600 - 400


Track
I used the original DSC gForce table - I found with stiffer shock calibration and aggressive driving the new gForce table caused mid corner unsettling and skipped over bumps. I feared curbs would bounce the car off line. Oh well - it's still brilliant.
Shocks at F 1600 - 600 R 1500 - 600

I had unpredictable outcomes when 'stretching' the gForce comfort parameters. I took DSC's Tom Chan's advice from the Porsche forums and left these conservative for all modes.

So, here's the PDTS file. You'll have to rename the file extension back to .pdts





Play safe share your thoughts

 

[DeanHart]

@DeanHart you should have started us off with your details!

Other than the DSC+Tractive, I'm pretty close to the stock suspension specs. I did raise the front about 1/2 inch to level out the car. Primary goals were to make the car comfortable to drive as a daily and on road trips. I raised the front to stop scraping on driveways.

After some fiddling I've settled with modifying the shock calibration on Normal/Touring only from what was put out in Feb 2020. Currently the fronts vary 1750 to 200, and the rears 1550-600 mAh.

I'm still fighting the full stiff gremlins. I suppose that this is just a fact of life for DSC+Tractive users in the US.

Darn, still?

Is it the LR open error?

Grrrr

 

[White-RS2]

@DeanHart
Brilliant idea I’m up for this. 👍

I’m still using the second revision map from DSC 2018. Life unfortunately has got in the way of looking at the calibration tables and having a play. This is something I’m really quite interested in knowing more about.

Ive fitted all the mechanical aids the suspension is getting; they are Eibach F&R arb’s, Steeda rear arb alloy mounts, Steeda USA F&R drop links set to factory length, wheels 19” x 8.5 OZ. Add to this the Tractive Rev 2 or 3 rear springs. This spec isn’t going to change. So that’s my starting point mechanically.

From this point on it’ll be electronic tweeking and I really look forward to people posting on this subject as I’d like to learn more on the subject 👍

 

[phillofoc]

Darn, still?

Is it the LR open error?

Grrrr

I had 2 within the last week. I was able to reset it by pushing the start/stop button while still moving and it started to behave again. Perhaps I need to use some contact conditioner at the plugs for the dampers (especially the fronts).

In other news, I emailed Tractive and asked if they had the same full stiff issues. They don't, but they don't tie into the stock harness at all either...

Don't forget that the VWs use stock dampers, so depending on the speed of the valving the dampers may not be able to catch up to the driver in time. Perhaps that's why they needed to stiffen up the inside-front wheel? There is a Tractive package for the GTR, but if the controller-only guys are complaining then maybe the stock valves can't keep up.

I think I will snag your normal and sport maps though, those look like they could be set up better for our cars.

 

[DeanHart]

Hopefully the more we all experiment, the more we'll come up with better maps!

And get to stop driving around with laptops.

 

[phillofoc]

As I've found that resetting the DSC controller by pulling the fuse, I wired up a switch inspired by this page:

Technical - Fuse Switch

RVing Information, Heavy Duty Truck Information, Retama Village Information

www.dmbruss.com

I wasn't going to buy a $60+ fuse switch kit, so I channeled my inner @Shimmer and made/installed it in about 20 minutes.

 

[phillofoc]

@DeanHart, I see that you modified the Accel table. Are you feeling any difference when launching? The DSC manual says that you have to hold the clutch pedal and do a quick 100% press of the accelerator pedal to go into launch mode. I emailed DSC about the stock settings, but the guys said that it helps with weight transfer (which doesn't make a lot of sense with a FWD-based car).

 

[RoughRoadDD]

Great idea Dean. For those interested, I wrote quite a bit on some of the stuff I discovered, some theory and also a discussion about tuning the brake table for gravel and autocross. The link below goes direct to it but ignore the 5ext 8n the link, it's not my posts

DSC Sport: Tractive Active Dampers Available!

I also found it to be a huge, absolutely huge improvement over the stock OEM ride. I'm still using the released map from mid-late 2018 and find it sublime on both track and road.

www.focusrs.org

 

[misterchonger]

Big thanks to @DeanHart for getting this started as it's probably been a bit overdue. I'm glad to hear your positive feedback for the GForce table remap. I had more or less the same experience. Immediately noticed the change in sharp turn in, reduced body roll, quick rate of weight transfer. If this sounds familiar, its because this simulates having a really big front sway bar. However during aggressive driving where you get into higher G loads, there just wasn't enough compliance.

I've asked Harry at DSC about their strategy for laying out the GForce tables but never got a response. Though digging through interwebz and testing, I have a good idea now why they soften the inside shock and it has a lot to do with compliance over track curbing. This makes sense as I think the maps were developed by Mike Levitas on an actual track.

I think you have the right approach in keeping the DSC track tables for track events. I plan to do that as well but continue to develop a configuration for AutoX, where you need quick weight transfer but also need compliance to deal with different site surfaces as well as corner entry/exit.

A little info about my setup:

Full Tractive Setup (no issues with full stiff)
Front and rear ~1/2" lower than stock
Whiteline Front Sway bar at middle setting, Whiteline Rear Sway bar at stiff setting

 

[misterchonger]

Great idea Dean. For those interested, I wrote quite a bit on some of the stuff I discovered, some theory and also a discussion about tuning the brake table for gravel and autocross. The link below goes direct to it but ignore the 5ext 8n the link, it's not my posts

DSC Sport: Tractive Active Dampers Available!

I also found it to be a huge, absolutely huge improvement over the stock OEM ride. I'm still using the released map from mid-late 2018 and find it sublime on both track and road.

www.focusrs.org

I did some very quick testing last weekend in between errands and I think we need to lengthen the decay time and also soften both front and rear shocks together to really get the front to load up. I plan to do more testing and actually log some data so more to come.

 

[Northish]

I've been spending some time with the Tractive dampers on the as-shipped controller map from DSC - update 3/16/20. Trying to develop my feel for the car with this config. as the baseline before I start tweaking.

Looking into the tuning now and have a question that perhaps those of you more experienced can answer.

Why does the 3/16/20 file have the rear shocks calibrated from 1500ma to 400ma when the help section states that the operating range of the Tractive dampers is "1900mA is full soft and 500mA is full stiff?" Why have the calibration setting at 400ma when the lowest stated is 500ma?

I'll ask DSC directly, but thought one of you may have had this question already.

 

[misterchonger]

@Northish , The range is as stated in the help file. When you configure the range beyond the stiffest or softest you are then changing the ramp. For example, when DSC configures the shock calibration to 400, it will just reach the max stiffness of 500mA sooner.

 

[Northish]

Thanks @misterchonger , I understand that approach now. Could you do essentially the same thing in the G-force table by setting the shocks to 100% at lower loads (reaching 100% sooner)?

 

[misterchonger]

Thanks @misterchonger , I understand that approach now. Could you do essentially the same thing in the G-force table by setting the shocks to 100% at lower loads (reaching 100% sooner)?

Yep, you could do that also. The GForce table is just harder/more cumbersome to work with than rescaling the shock calibration.

 

[DeanHart]

@DeanHart, I see that you modified the Accel table. Are you feeling any difference when launching? The DSC manual says that you have to hold the clutch pedal and do a quick 100% press of the accelerator pedal to go into launch mode. I emailed DSC about the stock settings, but the guys said that it helps with weight transfer (which doesn't make a lot of sense with a FWD-based car).

I don't notice any difference . . .

My tune activates LC, so I don't notice the DSC affecting it

I also never had a problem with stock brake dive