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Help with folding steering wheel project please!

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Cretster:

Just picked up this force feedback set of controls (suitable for PS2/PS3/PC - via USB) from ebay for a fantastic £0.99 after making a cheeky bid on it.


I've received it today and tested that it all works fine by playing GT Prologue on the PS3 so I'm happy with how it is, but the actual plan with buying it was to adapt it for my cabinet build.

I haven't the faintest whether these sort of controls can be used with Mame or not (ie without loads of aggro) and if they can't then it's no biggie as I'll use it with my consoles, but I wanted to find out if anyone else has any info/experience of using something like this for playing driving games?

I have a theoretical plan that the steering wheel itself can be integrated into the front of the control panel, but folded down out of the way when not needed, without actually being detached.  We'll reserve judgement on whether that actually happens since I'm sure many people have ideas like this, but I don't want to start hacking things around without finding out if I can use the thing or not obviously!!

Appreciate any relevant info, thanks!

I'm going to try hooking it up to my basic test cabinet to try and suss it out but it would save time if people know about this kind of setup. :)

BadMouth:

Yes, it will work.

Have you searched the forum for info?
(or possibly looked at the other post on the front page entitled "Steering Wheel" ?)





Cretster:

Yeah I did have a look - sorry as it sounds like I've obviously missed something pretty in my face obvious.

Apologies if that's the case, I'll hang my head in shame and go take another look. :-[ :dizzy:

BadMouth:

You got me feeling guilty now....  :-\

You will be able to map it like any other mame control.
Go into the controls menu, select a control (i.e. dial), then move the wheel and viola...the steering wheel works.

There is also an analogue menu in the same place.  Play with the sensitivity until the games seems to play better.
No real formula there.  I have grand notions of making a database of perfect settings (hoping all logitech wheels would be the same), but
I've been too busy setting up other emulators and pc games to fine tune my own,  so that hasn't gotten very far.  You will also have to reverse the input of the pedals on some games,
(i.e. the gas registers as all the way down when it is all the way up)

Other helpful stuff: go into the mame.ini file and change the joystick deadzone to .1 or lower (mine is at .05).
The default is .3 which means the wheel won't even begin to respond until you've turned it fairly far.

Forget about games like pole position.  The game resets the center point when you crash.  Fine for a wheel that spins 360 degrees.  Not good for one that doesn't.

Keep an eye out.  I'd like to get a driving knowledge base organized somehow in the next month.
I'm still a newb myself and am by no means an authority.

Cretster:

Heh heh - sorry mate - didn't mean to.  ;D

I've found one or two useful threads now and done a little experimentation.

I had to first quickly rebuild my test cab to hook it up and try stuff out.  I already have the basic steering working in Outrun although the pedals wouldn't work.
Think I got them setup wrong.

But yeah it obviously all looks doable.  I'm contemplating fitting my old PS2 in the cab, or perhaps a ps2 emulator so it'd be nice for gran turismo etc too.
One thread that's giving me a bit of interesting reading is this one:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97544.msg1029028;topicseen#msg1029028

Not quite what I had in mind but it's certainly one relatively easy means of mounting a wheel as & when required.

My plan was to allow the wheel to fold out from the cab indo a gap/flap on the underside of the control panel but I'm not sure yet how doable that is.  I'm well aware there good potential for creating something that looks hideous like that, although if I'm honest I'd prefer the convenience and functionality of that above prettiness....

Already have left a nice gap at the bottom/front of my cab build (see pic below) ready for a pedal set, so I can work on that now I have a set.


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