Servus Fred,
many thanks for all Your efforts - imho You are getting very close to a perfect firmware.
I just did a short test of Your 2nd exp-firmware, results are amazing!
Regarding Your questions:
There are no modification on the motors or bearings of my stick, the only thing i did is to glue 2 tiny magnets inside the grip above and below the light-sensor so I can easily cover it with a small metal strip. Weight of the 2 magnets and the metal strip is aprox. less than 15 gr.
In the profiler I use the default settings (100% all ffb-effects, centering off).
Ingame I use 70% trim force and 30% shake, but still playing around with those values.
Kind regards!