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Can the Happ/Atari Active Steering Wheel be interfaced to a PC?

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Level42:

Uhmmm, does a cab like the Taito also incorporate an amplifier like you'd need with a seperate Happ wheel ?

Of course the cab already sends powerfull enough signals to the force feedback motor so I guess somewhere between the game PCB and the wheel there needs to be some amp ?

isamu:


--- Quote from: ponyboy on September 13, 2005, 09:26:09 am ---I myself have a driver board to connect the Happ Steering Wheel to a PC.  Back in 1996 I was involved in one of the first Arcade PC Projects, Ultimate Race.

We could not get funding for this game so it was shelved.  Still have the board just never done anything with it.

Ponyboy 

--- End quote ---


Helo Ponyboy. Can you please tell me what driver board you own that allows you to connect your Happ wheel to the PC? Would it happen to be the *Wheel Electronics Board* from Immersion Corp? They say it is designed to work with the Happ Active wheel.

I am planning to buy the Happ Active FF Wheel soon if BRD does not have their FF wheel ready by May. I'm planning on using it mainly for PC games but would be interested in using it to play Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2. I guess it depends on whether or not the game uses typical Immersion FF drivers for its FF code.

Hello Mark :) How's your Happ Active wheel holding up? Had any problems with it so far? Any looseness or worn out parts? Is it still as smooth as it was when you first got it? Is it true that the wheel does not have any gears and is strictly belt driven, hence the reason for it's smoothness?

One thing I am interested in doing with the Happ wheel if I get, is changing the actual steering wheel itself and replacing with a real racing wheel like one from Momo or Talladega. You can see a selection of them *Here*. The Talladega one looks pretty cool:




Mark.....With your Happ wheel, can you tell me if it's possible to unscrew and detach the wheel from the steering column? How many drilling holes does the wheel have in the center? It's hard to tell from this picture:




Looks like there's three, but the Talladega has them in a different position.


Anyway one more thing I'm curious about....does anyone know if the Happ Active Steering wheel uses the same parts and is built pretty much same way as the FF wheels found on Sega's arcade cabinet? I really enjoyed playing games like Daytona USA in arcade because the FF wheel felt nice and smooth. There is no "grinding" of any geard when you move it. It's all smooth. I'm really curious if Sega is basically using the same arcade parts to build their wheels as Happ.

mark shaker:


--- Quote from: isamu on April 24, 2006, 02:37:55 am ---Hello Mark :) How's your Happ Active wheel holding up? Had any problems with it so far? Any looseness or worn out parts? Is it still as smooth as it was when you first got it? Is it true that the wheel does not have any gears and is strictly belt driven, hence the reason for it's smoothness?

One thing I am interested in doing with the Happ wheel if I get, is changing the actual steering wheel itself and replacing with a real racing wheel like one from Momo or Talladega. You can see a selection of them *Here*. The Talladega one looks pretty cool:

Mark.....With your Happ wheel, can you tell me if it's possible to unscrew and detach the wheel from the steering column? How many drilling holes does the wheel have in the center? It's hard to tell from this picture:

Looks like there's three, but the Talladega has them in a different position.

Anyway one more thing I'm curious about....does anyone know if the Happ Active Steering wheel uses the same parts and is built pretty much same way as the FF wheels found on Sega's arcade cabinet? I really enjoyed playing games like Daytona USA in arcade because the FF wheel felt nice and smooth. There is no "grinding" of any geard when you move it. It's all smooth. I'm really curious if Sega is basically using the same arcade parts to build their wheels as Happ.

--- End quote ---

My Happ Active Steering Wheel is as good as new. It's designed for rugged arcade use, in my home environment it shows no signs of wear.  (I have tightened the belt a couple times.)

It is belt driven. So on most games it does play very smoothly. I do have the feedback turned up higher than usual, so any jerky movements performed by the software are exaggerated.

The picture on my webpage is obsolete, as I just changed my wheel to Happ's "2 Button European Design". It is less comfortable than the old wheel, but having 2 buttons on the wheel is great for arcade style games (Burnout series, Twisted Metal series ...). Here is an updated picture:

Obviously, the wheel can be changed. It is fastened by 3 socket head screws, which are visible in the picture.

I know the Happ wheel was used on Atari and Midway games, I don

isamu:

Wow that's encouraging! Thanks man can't wait to get mine!

isamu:

Mark...based on the three sockethead screws in the middle of the Happ wheel, would you say it should work with *THIS* quick release adaptor?





Or perhaps one o the ones listed  *HERE* ?

Would you say they're about the same diameter?

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