Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
A different approach to a custom shifter
Howard_Casto:
Ok so I was looking through one of my junk piles for phone cables and I ran across this:
http://www.geocities.ws/myhalfsale/joystick.html
I was in office max one day and they had a pile of em for around 1.25 a pop. I figured that I might use them for a hack one day... I started to make a sw yoke out of the handles... but eh they've just been lying around.
So what do you guys think about using one of these as a shifter? I know the big companies use analog ones at this point and I'll have to use a teensy for output lamps and misc buttons anyway (VR buttons, ect). I was thinking instead of unreliable software based solutions, the translation of the analog values to button presses could be done internally. I could even get fancy with some help from the avr programmer types (I'm still a beginner). Maybe use the two buttons to allow for programming?
Hardware wise a person wouldn't have to do too much to it. The base is really small and full of empty space, so it'd be easy to screw it down. The joystick is of course spring loaded on a ball joint and the joystick grip actually screws off, exposing a shaft complete with screw holes.
BadMouth:
Based on similar PC sticks, I think the spring action would be too spongy on its own.
If it were at the bottom of an apparatus that gave a more solid feel, then maybe.
But then the more solid feel might encourage the user to be rougher with it.
Not sure it could take the abuse of being a shifter.
Just my 2 cents.
SegaOutrun:
http://hrsim.blogspot.com/2010/04/joystick-cruelty.html
like that?
i gotta agree with badmouth, i dont think it would take the beating. i feel like im going to break my act labs shifter all the time.
speaking of shifter projects, im currently making an up/down shifter out a on old 4/8way bat joystick. basically im making a restrictor to make it only travel 2 way.
Generic Eric:
I bought a logitech wingman extreme with serial to usb adapter which was used in a DIY H Shifter I saw on thewayiplay.com. Of course it is still on a shelf, but one day...
Howard_Casto:
Well it's funny you guys mention that. I've just spent the last hour or so intentionally twisting the crap out of it to try and break it. So far it's held up ok..... not even a creak surprisingly. I think I might put a longer shaft on it tomorrow and see if it's still ok.
I should probably clarify though. I didn't mean just mount it as-is like a boot-style shifter. I mean to use it as the ball joint/electronics at the bottom of a h-shifter box. So there would be a groove pattern in the top of the box preventing it from over-traveling. The springs are a tad weak, but they just screw on. I can probably replace them with something sturdier.
I was playing around with shifter designs last month and the issue/weak point always seems to be the joint at the bottom. Either people use a big old spring, and the thing is kind of unwieldy or they use an over-engineered, custom milled ball joint, which certainly works... if you want to spent 100+ on a shifter build. I've got other ideas though.... I've got these odd-ball Australian sticks. They don't use springs but rather this gigantic rubber grommet. That could probably be used for quiet mounting as well.
I know a couple of guys that went the FF shifter route btw... the motor on the stick burnt out after a while. It's probably better to save that one for Afterburner.
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