Costco selling a $35k turnkey driving sim: VRX iMotion Custom Racing Simulator

[DrumAnBass]

Anyone see this thing at Costco.com?

VRX iMotion Custom Racing Simulator
http://www.costco.com/VRX-iMotion-Custom-Racing-Simulator.product.100016149.html

The $35k includes "white glove delivery, setup and training"...

I am sure there are quite a few billionaires out there who would think nothing of plunking down that kind of cash for a turnkey racing sim to sit next to their golf sim... Wonder how many they'll sell, and what the profit margin is on this item.

Anyone want to speculate on the cost of a BYO version?

[Howard_Casto]

Just pulling a number out of my butt... around 5k. 

Let's see..

computer  ~600
3 monitors  ~200x3
Racing controls ~400
seat ~100
structure ~300
linear actuators  ~300 x 4
control board ~200

Ok so that totals around 3400, but I've got to think there would be tons of hidden costs I can't think of.  This is to buy the stuff and assemble it mind you, not to make it from scratch, which for some of the stuff (structure, controls and control board) would be a lot cheaper. 

[BadMouth]

While the G27 is todays standard, it always bothers me that they don't include a more expensive or custom wheel on expensive rigs like this.

I think it was dream authentics who had the driving cab with a projector in front and a kegerator in back.
That one used a $60 Logitech Momo and a plastic arcade seat.  Looking at pics now, it looks like they moved on to the G25/27.
It was far short of $34k though.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I know nothing about the controls.... just getting into this stuff again.  You guys really need to stop posting cool ideas/rigs....

[Fursphere]

I love my G27 - but I have concerns it won't last forever.  The ECCI 7000 series is what I would expect to see on a $35k driving rig - I dont' think you'll ever break one of those.

Then again, I don't know what the game compatibility is for the ECCI 7000 either - the only thing I really saw listed on their webpage was iRacing.

[Howard_Casto]

Well what I do know is that it's rather futile to spend a lot of money on any controller because eventually it won't work in windows anymore. 

I had some really nice wingman flight sticks...  only they stopped working after win 9x....  I looked into getting a cheap usb wingman with FF to test afterburners outputs... well the cheaper ones don't have win 7/vista 64 bit drivers.  Sometimes I wonder if the companies do this on purpose because high end controllers are such a niche market and they want to ensure that you buy their product over and over. 

Things have gotten better since the invention of HID drivers, but you have to be really careful.  My rule of thumb is if you have to install drivers to get something like the FF to work.. don't bother buying it.   

[Fursphere]

Windows 2000 / XP broken a lot of Win9x stuff.   But Win7 actually lets some of the *really* old Win9x stuff work.   So it comes and goes in waves.

I had the Thrustmaster F22 / F16 throttle setup ($350 i think?) back in the day.  15 pin joystick and 5 pin AT keyboard connectors.  Ya...  good luck with that today. 

[BadMouth]

I've seen a couple custom interfaces using arduino and similar devices. 
Last time I looked, nobody was sharing their software, but it's been about a year.
One guy was talking about selling his boards. 
I've been meaning to have a look around the internet again concerning this option.

It would be nice if we had an interface on an opensource platform and software similar to logitech profiler.

[Howard_Casto]

I can make a avr show up as a hid joystick right now if that's what you mean.  Buttonbox and similar projects have been available for years.  The thing is that the parts for the physical wheel are the costly bit.

[BadMouth]

I can make a avr show up as a hid joystick right now if that's what you mean.  Buttonbox and similar projects have been available for years.  The thing is that the parts for the physical wheel are the costly bit.

I was thinking as an interface for a Happ FFB wheel.
The couple I've seen didn't suffer from the centering wobble that the servo amp/logitech hack does.

The motor in the ECCI doesn't look much different than a happ, it's fed 24V, just like the Happ....and it uses a usb interface board originally intended for a Happ. 
The website says it's a 200w motor.  I'll have to convert the specs on my happ to wattage and see what it says.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah, I'm not sure how far along they got with the FFB, but it is supported.  Google up button box and see what you come up with.  Generally you just just upload it to your most common avrs without modification.  You might want to change the pin usage around for your personal preference, but other than that. 

I've got a teensy showing up as a HID joystick in my gorf cab as we speak.