Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets

Building gearshift box, need advice (mainly wiring but feel free to share other)

(1/3) > >>

Billkwando:
Hello!

I am a longtime diehard Daytona USA fan who's never had room for a driving cabinet (though I do have a Neo Geo cab) so I've had to settle for console/emu versions with a wheel and racing seat, but I've always been missing that 4 speed shifter feel.

Well, I recently managed to pick up a Happ 4-speed shifter cheap on ebay (the red numbered kind rather than a daytona) and I wanted to build a box for it (suggestions also welcome) but I want to wire it up in a "universal" way, so that it's a hardwired USB PC controller, but also has external jacks for connecting to the console controllers that have been button hacked and external jacks added  (Like this: http://www.briandorey.com/post/External-Button-Connections.aspx )

I've done this sort of thing before, having built my own Virtual On twin stick controller last year: http://www.oratan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=502

What I'm worried about, and I admit I may not be fully thinking this through cos it's hard for me to wrap my head around, is the ground wires. I'm used to common ground and just jumpering all the switches together like an arcade joystick, but from what I can see with the 360 wheel, this is not how it would work.....I want to have sort of like a phono jack for each gear so I can mix things around if needed and not have a set configuration...but I'm wondering how to wire it to maximize compatibility, including the hacking on of a USB, (preferably without expensive 3rd party specialty items) and without one shorting the other out due to ill planned jumpers.

Thoughts? Does this make any sense?

Thanks!!!


Edit: Spoke to my bud at the hardware store at lunch and am having him cut wood so it's 13" long (up & down, laying on the floor, with the shifter in the middle) 8 inches across where the shifter is (left to right) and slightly over 8 inches tall (accounting for the pieces on the top and bottom of the 2 side slats, and it looks like it's gonna be pine... Let's hope that's not too narrow, short, or wobbly.

HaRuMaN:
Quoting yourself for any particular reason?  :D

Billkwando:

--- Quote from: HaRuMaN on March 05, 2012, 10:55:36 am ---Quoting yourself for any particular reason?  :D

--- End quote ---

No idea how that happened, trying to delete. Sorry!

Edit: Thanks to whoever fixed!

Edit 2: dig the Lain graphic.  :burgerking:

HaRuMaN:
Done  :cheers:

Billkwando:
Is there a way to wire a controller to be both common ground and, ahem...."uncommon ground"? What's the 3rd contact on a Cherry switch do?

Just trying to think of a way I can make this thing plug & play without having to open it up again (unless a switch goes bad).

I was thinking about wiring a + and a - to each switch, then hooking them to phono jacks via barrier strip/terminal block, but then having a 5th phono jack that was just a ground....so for non-common ground controllers I'd only wire the other end (the controller) to connect to my +'s and then have the final wire for ground......but...

Doesn't this mean that my common ground jumpering would instantly short out my circuit for controllers that each button uses its own ground?

I'm trying to think a way of building some kind of switch into the works.

Also, wouldn't I need a killswitch for the controller for navigating menus ingame, otherwise it would always think I was holding a button down? Those Happ sticks don't do neutral. LOL




Edit: Got my box built this weekend for the most part, and I just have to figure out what I'm gonna do for a jackplate, then prepare for final assembly. After that I'm gonna round off all the corners and edges and put that carpet they use on subwoofers on it. I also have some black corner protectors I salvaged from an old bass amp I'm prolly gonna slap on there too to make it look extra fancy. And maybe a handle LOL (prolly not). Those shifter boltholes are awfully close to the edges of the cavity....trying to think of a way to reinforce them.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page