That's the old gearshift yeah. Not too much to it really, it's an old pc-raider joystick with the handle removed.... a lamp rod will screw right down into the shaft of the joystick so it's mostly software. Like I said though, it's thoroughly worn out from use, so it's time to make something a bit more robust.
I was looking at videos to get inspiration when I ran across this one:
Yes you are looking at that correctly, the inner workings for a $185 dollar gear shift are a pipe with a bolt in it. Yeah it's a little more complex than that, they use hall effect sensors, I'm sure there are some bearings inside that pipe and there is a rather clever latching mechanism, but this is something we can make without much fabrication. Of course again, once you are done you essentially have an analog joystick, so software is needed, but there is already an arduino sketch floating around to convert the Logitech shifter (which is also just an analog joystick) to show up as a th8a so I'll just modify that a bit and release it. The point of this one is the thrustmaster compatibility so it'll work on consoles.
I'm making progress on the build, but still no pics because I'm out of room so I'm having to pile all my tools and electronics on top of the platform when I'm done for the day. I'll make a note to take the time and get some pics this evening.
Thats actually a pretty robust shiftter design. Far better than what was used in Daytona USA... from what I can see.
In fact, most arcade shifters themselves, were often made fairly inferior to this. The one exception of note... was Hard Drivin sitdown.
Ive see the current price at about $150. Not cheap, but its actually decent, when compared to other offerings. Most MFG at this or below this price point,
are using all-plastic designs, that creak and flex, wear down, and have poor sensors / failing switches.
The most robust shifter design that Ive seen / felt... is in the hard-drivin / race-drivin sitdown cabinets. Its basically a door hinge, that has welding
to a center pivot shaft. With one end of the hinge, having a welded coupler for the shifter shaft to be inserted into.
The X and Y, are read via pots. The pots are driven via little lever arms, attached to the assemblies.
From fuzzy memory...
The bottom of the unit has a rolling bearing on a spring-tensioned bar. There are two or three divits on the shafts circular disc, that the bearing can snap into.
The cabinet went one step further... with a locking mechanism, that could be activated in the service menu. I believe it used a coil, to prevent shifting unless
the clutch pedal was depressed. Might have just been to make it harder to shift in this case. Cant recall exactly... as it was usually just disabled.
Crazy enough... the seat itself, had a magnetic plate system, to lock it in place via electromagnetic force.
The Pedals were equally amazing. The gas was kinda standard.. but the brake, used a high-level strain gauge pressure sensor, in addition to its
different spring and rubber dampening system. Looking in the service menu, and one can see how far the brake values can shift. Its much greater than a typical
gas pot, for example... and Far more sensitive / accurate.
The Wheel used something like a washer motor. Very powerful. Huge, heavy, a lot of magnetic stop points, for smooth positional control.
No gearing. All driven via the main drive shaft. If you turned the motor settings to max strength... you probably could lash a small child to the wheel... and it
probably would have no problem spinning them in a full circle. Assembly used a 10-turn pot... and the wheel could spin something like three full rotations.