DIY Raildriver $1

[TacticalChaos]

Raildriver: $200
This: $1

I picked up a logitech wingman GP steering wheel minus pedals at the salvation army for a dollar (it was half off cus full price of $2 was too much lol) and stripped the board out of it.
Next I took a blown out model railroad throttle pack and gutted out the retostat (replaced it with a POT) and wired it up to the board (note the rectifier is still there but doesn't do anything but add weight).

The logitech software it works with is nice since I can assign keyboard presses to zones of analog inputs.
The reason this is necessary is because the train simulator I have (trainz) for some reason has absolutely no controller support.
Luckily there is an editable Key file with 8 throttle positions (must be how the raildriver works with it).

The throttle lever starts on brake and finishes on throttle position 8.
Pulse power switch is now the bell.
Direction is still direction.
Power switch is now the horn.

And when I get computer interfaced DCC on the layout, this will be used again to drive actual models.

[Howard_Casto]

That's kinda cool man.  I like those cheap hacks.  I wish I could run into good stuff at the salvation army... I'll I ever find are 8x overalls... somewhere in WV there is a very fat, very well off, very naked farmer.