Hi All
It's been awhile since I've been poking around here.
Good to see a few people are continuing to have a crack at this.
I've simply documented what I did, hopefully saving others a bit of research.
This write-up isn't 100% finished - needs a few pics....but a couple of you out there have asked to see what I've come up with.
Happ Wheel / Logitech Force Feedback / Servo Amplifier Hack - BE CAREFUL - ELECTRICITY CAN KILL. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
I’m not taking any credit for this. I’m just collating the best bits of all the reading I did, and some learnings – just the info needed to get this thing working. It’s all thanks to a handful of guys that have really helped me out; namely Badmouth, Brad808, Gbeef, and the posts of Sharkfactor. Sharkfactor had a lovely Initial D cab that he told me he sold in late 2010 and he couldn’t recall too many of the finer details.
Taking this on might seem a little scary. From my experience it wasn’t that hard. If you can get the parts cheaply it’s really worth it. I didn’t solder a single wire thanks to the wonders of heatshrink (I’m in the middle of going back and tidying everything up).
I also gotta thank JohnBatley.com – Electrician and Guitar Picker extradonaire.
He gave my project the final once over before I dared turn it on, and was a keen Daytona tester!
Also I got to say that originally I was never planning on doing this hack of a Logitech wheel to a Servo Amplifier. All I wanted to do was jam my Logitech MOMO wheel behind a Daytona Dash, build a cab to house a decent monitor/TV and find a racing seat, so that I could play Model 2 racers with some feeling of authenticity.
As I was about to buy a Daytona dash I scored an empty Crusin USA cab nearby on eBay for the price I was going to have to pay for a Seat and the Daytona dash.
Long story short, the Crusin cab turned up with a HAPP wheel and motor. After reading as much as I could, across at least 6 forums, in 3 different languages, I decided I had to give it a shot.
At the last minute a guy over at Arcadeotaku nearly talked me out of having a go at this…telling me the hack isn’t usable (quoting the shakes issue – “why do you think Sharkfactor sold his so quickly?”). He suggested I save my money and invest in a Sega Wheel with a clutch, and build the PCB detailed on a French Forum.
Thankfully I didn’t listen to this guy; besides my servo was already on its way from the US!!!
WHAT I USED:
HAPP Wheel & Pedals
1. Mine turned up unexpectedly in a Crusin USA cabinet I bought on eBay.
Some people have bought new ones here
http://www.happcontrols.com/driving/50010200.htm Donor Wheel:
2. Logitech Driving Force Steering Wheel for the Playstation 2 also works for PC. Got mine on eBay for $40 delivered. It’s worth noting that the steering on this wheel uses a Potentiometer.
Newer Logitech wheels use an optical encoder. Pot based wheels are much easier to hack. Badmouth has made this work with a Logitech MOMO and an optical encoder.
If you’re a rookie like me go and get a pot based wheel!
3. 12v PSU for the Wheel. Most that have done this hack recommend not using the original Logitech 24v PSU. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, mine is from an old printer. Just make sure the polarity is the same. I’ve never tried the 24v PSU on my rig. Apparently the 12v PSU just softens everything up, and from memory the AMC Servo doesn’t like anything over 15v (pretty sure Sharkfactor gave me this advice).
Servo Amplifier:
4. Got my “Advanced Motion Control” 30A8T on eBay for $35 (US Seller: Dannony09) – cost me more for postage to Australia! This is the 10 dip switch version. It needs to have 1, 3 & 5 dips ON – more on the settings below. You need a Brush Servo, NOT BRUSHLESS. There are other brands that people have used, but most use an AMC.
PSU for the Servo Amplifier:
5. I used a a 24v 6.5A PSU to power the HAPP motor. I got mine at JAYCAR (an Australian Electronics Store). I’m sure the exact same thing is on eBay for half the price I paid, including delivery from China.
Potentimeters:
6. The donor Driving Force wheel uses:
o Two 50k linear pots for the Pedals, and
o One 100k linear pot for the Steering Wheel
Misc Bits & Pieces:
While you’re grabbing the pots pick up:
o Heat shrink – I didn’t solder anything, and the heat shrink works a treat. One day I’ll go back and solder everything up nicely.
o Some wire – a couple of meters of a few colours.
o A pack of terminal connectors – I think I used 9 from memory, so a 12 pack should do (for wiring up the PSU).
o Wire stripper / Terminal Crimper – I used my old faithful $5 one.
WIRING EVERYTHING UP:
1. Wiring the POTS.
I started by installing the 3 pots and getting them interfaced with the Logitech PCB, and working properly in the Logitech profiler before I started messing with hooking up the Servo and PSU etc. This is all pretty straight forward – just take note of the colours coming from the original pots in the Logitech wheel.
Start with the pedals. Get them wired up and working with the Logitech software.
I initially wired my steering wheel pot backwards. At the time I didn’t worry about it too much – I simply reversed the settings in the Model 2 configuration. However I eventually had to go back and fix this as it caused problems with Sega Rally, and most likely PC games etc.
2. Wiring the Servo Amplifier
Need to add pics
Pics in previous post - LINK
3. Wiring the 24v 6.5A PSU
Need to add pics
About an hour later I had the arcade wheel and pedals interfaced with the guts of the donor wheel and pedals.
Here is a picture of the wiring of the PSU – ie from the Wall Socket to the PSU, and the 24v out to the AMC Servo Amplifier.
TUNING THE SERVO AMP
Basically after everything is wired up correctly you have to set DIP Switches and Fine Tune Trim Pots.
Dip Switches:
The AMC 30A8T Servo Amp I have has 10 dip switches.
This model needs 1, 3 and 5 on; the rest off.
Trim Pots:
There are 4 trim pots to fine tune. They have no end, ie. when they are fully in or out they will keep spinning. Here’s the settings that everyone seems to recommend.
1. Fully CCW - Off
2. Fully CW. This determines the power going to the motor.
3. CW 4 to 6 turns. Start out all the way CCW and adjust this to taste.
4. Adjust to bring balance to the wheel. It controls the bias. Adjust to eliminate drifting left or right, or if it is easier to turn one way than another.
TROUBLE SHOOTING
o Be sure to enable FFB in the Model 2 ini file. The FFB value needs to be changed from 0 to 1.
o Early on when I wired up my steering pot I had it wired backwards. This presented no problem (I simply inverted the controls in the Model 2 controller configuration) until I hooked up the Servo Amp. Daytona played excellently, but Sega Rally had the shakes, and was pulling full left and right (some have called this uncentering) as soon as I inserted a credit. I simply had to re-wire the steering pot so that the controls weren’t inverted.
o The uncentering problem usually means that you’ll need to reverse the polarity of the power going to the HAPP motor. I simply swapped the two leads going to the HAPP motor on the Servo Amp. Problem solved. From what I’ve read nearly everyone has to make this change.
o From all my reading it seems most people have abandoned the idea of using this setup to run PS2 games. I’ve never tried but it seems that the lack of software control means that new Servo settings / tweaks of the Trim Pots are needed for each game.
MY RESULTS
FFB on Model 2 racers works great. There is some funny stuff that goes on with SEGA Rally on Model 2 that everyone experiences between games. I’ve never experienced the centring shakes that some have experienced. I think Badmouth talked about having it and then curing it, but couldn’t remember exactly what he did. I’ve got a couple of PC games working great with FFB. I haven’t messed with Supermodel (and I’m not sure FFB is supported yet).
Now with everything running I’m starting to look at some PC games, upgrading the PC to run Supermodel, running DEMUL, and trying to get FFB working in Outrun. Update – months have passed and I still haven’t done much!
LINKS
Mark’s Basement.
http://home.comcast.net/~mshaker/marks_arcade_001.htMark seems to be one of the first to undertake this hack. I emailed him a couple of times during my build but never had a response, and the site doesn’t appear to have been updated for quite a while. Mark has documented how to hack the buttons on the Logitech PBC. I haven’t worried about any of these buttons yet. I think I can get away with using an IPAC keyboard encoder for my service buttons, and 4 speed shifter. Again I only really want to play the Model 2 racers, and this should suffice.
I’ve recently bought a 2nd Logitech Driving Force wheel that will get me around some programming/button assignment issues for now. Some PC games require you to allocate a button for all actions; for example I couldn’t just reassign the brake.
Badmouth’s MOMO hack. The Logitech MOMO wheel uses an optical encoder which seems heaps harder than it is to hack a pot based Logitech wheel like the one I used. Looks like he’s done all the hard work, and he makes it seem fairly easy. The hardest thing seems sourcing an optical encoder. They turn up on eBay for around $50.