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A different approach to a custom shifter

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Howard_Casto:
I think a post with a bunch of arcade assemblies might actually be useful for this forum.  It might be something to sticky if we can get enough useful pics collected.

Anyway, it looks like the weather probably will prevent me from doing a whole lot on the cab this week so what I've decided to do is go ahead with the crappy flight stick plan.  My thought is doing the avr programming is going to take a while anyway, so what I'll do is use it just as a poc and then swap it out with something more substantial once I devise a better plan. 

I've got a teensy 2.0 lying around and I think that would make a good base simply because they are cheap as hell.  The code could easily be ported to a 3.0 or similar upgrade so that wouldn't be an issue either. 

I think I've got a HID ddr example lying around somewhere and it's got blinky lights and shows up as a hid joystick, so that should be a good start. 

The 2.0 has ~20 useable pins, not counting VCC and GND, so two analog pins for the shifter... 5 buttons (VR 1-4 + Start), 5 LEDS and another 8 I/0 pins to play with.   I'm thinking with that few leds I could probably get away with a simple one byte control command.  There are 9 bit masks in a byte afterall.  I dunno though, a two byte command with the pin position and value is probably easier on the end-user.  Or do people actually use those "bank" commands on the ledwiz and pacdrive?

Generic Eric:
CAVEAT
I passed auto shop because the tests were based from the text book.  If there was a practical exam, I would have failed.  I had high scores in all the sciences.  I marginally based the ASVAB mechanics section.   But that is not important right now.


Idea:
Many, this is it right here isn't it?  5 speed with reverse. We don't have to make a long rod move a gear assembly, but if we need to replicate what is going on in the shifter section.  Looks easy.



3 self centering "sleds" on rods and bearings that are moved by a gimble.  Centered by springs or bungees.  The sled hits micro-switches instead of pushing/pulling rods.

I do understand the challenge of translating up/down shift to actual gears.  No answer there.

Howard_Casto:
It wouldn't be particularly hard to do it that way no, but it complicates things in terms of I/O and software.  Now instead of two pots you are using three, which is sort of unnatural for a joystick.  Also for every two gears you add, you need another pot. Of course you could use switches instead but the same concept applies.  With a two pot system you can add as many gears as you want in any position you want... well within reason anyway.  The other issue might be the physical design.  If your ball joint is mounted at the base of your shifter then it doesn't have to be super sturdy.. all the forces go into the base, you simply need to keep it from sliding around.  With the ball joint suspended like that it's mount is going to have to be really sturdy and the gear box really deep to accommodate all the extra stuff in the bottom.

I'm not saying no, I'm just asking why you think it would be a better solution.  Enlighten me a little.  ;)

It could definitely be done, I just don't know the benefit of doing it that way. 

twistedsymphony:
an 8-way joystick with a square gate would map easily to a 6-position shifter

no direction = neutral
right+down = 1st
right+up = 2nd
down = 3rd
up = 4th
left+down = 5th
right+down = 6th

extend the shaft and feed it through a shift gate with those boom handle holders to hold it in gear

you could add a button or a collar to the stick and pushing that and shifting into 2nd for reverse or just add a reverse button like San Fran rush.



for 6-speeds there really is no standard for where reverse is placed... it's usually an extra gate all the way to the left past 1st and 2nd or all the way to the right past 5th and 6th and up OR down... cheaper cars require you pull a collar or push down on the shifter in order to put it in reverse... more expensive cars use an electronic lock out to block the gate unless you're driving under 5mph.


if you want discrete inputs for each gear you could map the joystick switches to a few AND gates and get unique outputs for each position.

Howard_Casto:
Yeah the thing with 8 ways though is that shaft extension.  The shaft is really narrow for extending it up to a foot or more.  Like wise, that base, which needs to be suspended probably isn't so study anymore unless you build a beast of a mount for it.    Other than that there isn't a whole lot of difference mechanically, you just put a physical switch where the cardinal directions or in the case of a 8-way just use the existing switches.  But then the spring is weak as well.  It's easy enough to swap for something stiffer, but then you've put even more stress on that base so I dunno.

I'm wondering if anyone has attempted that and what the results were. 

Now if you were referring to an "arcade style" sega-ish stick where the shifter is mounted up high on the dash then yeah, and 8-way would work without much modification.  It's just my opinion, but a floor mounted shifter is more natural though.

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