Console Shifter Spoofing Project.

[Howard_Casto]

So the selection of sim shifters on the market suck.   Either it's overbuilt and insanely overpriced, cheap plastic junk or overpriced junk.   Enter the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune arcade shifter.  They had a bunch on ebay for around $50 so I bought one of those and with a $5 ps/2 cable and $5 arduino uno I built a spoofer via code I found on this website.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393024402909

https://www.isrtv.com/forums/topic/24532-gearbox-connector-on-base/

Here is a super crude video I just shot.   Be kind I'm doing this with one hand. 



As you can see it is changing the gears just fine on Forza Horizon 4 on my xbox except for one hiccup in 6th where I need to adjust a microswitch.   Btw to put it in reverse you just hold the gearshift far right for a couple of seconds.   



Anyway all of this is part of my ongoing racing rig build which I've done a pretty poor job of keeping up to date.   Don't worry, I've been taking pics though.   I thought this needed it's own separate thread as I'll be releasing software.   The intention is to support a few of the major arcade shifter types like the sega 4 gear, console analog shifters, ect.   If possible I'll code it to spoof both manufacturers, logitech and thrustmaster so they can just be used on anything.   In addition I'll add basic pc support (shows up as keyboard) and hopefully e-brake support as I've also kind figured out the protocol for the sparco hand brake.   

So to summarize I bought a $50, quality, all metal, arcade gearshift, took about $10 in parts and via an arduino uno, made it act like a $180 console gearshift that uses a lot of plastic parts.   

Any suggestions or comments would be welcome.   This might not be that popular of a thing to do as the forum linked above is the ONLY place on the internet I've been able to find any info on the thrustmaster i2c data.   

[Mike A]

Nice work Howard.
And you did just fine with one hand.
If you need two hands then you are more of a man than I am.

[buttersoft]

Lol, MikeA

Nice Job Howard, TBH if i could find a nice used stick like that at a good price i might go for it as well.

[Malenko]

So how much for you to just send me one that's plug and play?  I have a Sega 4 way shifter in my project cab that's on hold because my buddy needed the GTX 1070 out of it , I dunno if that 6 way will fit in the Dayclona shifter cup, but I could always fabricate something

[Howard_Casto]

They are of a similar size but I'm not sure.   Obviously if it's smaller that's not a problem but if it's bigger that could be an issue.  I'll post the dimensions later. 

Right now I suppose I should finish mine first.   I've got a project box coming, which adds another 8 bucks or so to the total but it's worth it to keep those wires from pulling loose.   


There aren't any wangan/namco shifters on ebay atm but if you can find the materials and send them to me I'll just make you one.  It's about 20 min of soldering and the uploading of a sketch I already have... not exactly a lot of work.   

[nipsmg]

Hey Howard, any way you'd share the sketch?  I think I want to do this on my cab as well.  Mine has a 4-position shifter and there are a lot of games I'm forced to go auto on. 

EDIT: Nevermind, don't need it likely --  I should be able to hook up to my arduino as-is.  It's not using a matrix or naything crazy, is it?  I'm hoping it's just individual microswitches.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I fully intend to share the sketch.   I can post it now if you want but it's unfinished.... still need to add sequential support and pc support.   

Daytona/Sega 4 speed shifters use this crazy wiring matrix but it ends up acting like each gear has it's own input so yeah it's pretty simple so long as you keep your switches wired correctly.   The namco 6 speed that I'm using works like a 8-way joystick.... it has left and right optical switches and up and down micro switches.   1st gear is up and left, 6th is down and right, 3rd is up and that's it, ect.   the only thing electrically peculiar about that is the optical gates need to be hooked up to analog pins or the uno sometimes has trouble reading them.

Give me a day or so and I'll post the sketch and wiring instructions.

[MrThunderwing]

Nice work! What's happened to your hand?

[Howard_Casto]

Nothing.   I'm trying to juggle my phone while shifting when the shifter isn't mounted in anything.

[Howard_Casto]

Mapped out all the pins making as good a use of them as possible.   Now I need to actually code all these shifters.... some are easy and some aren't.

[nipsmg]

Awesome, can’t wait.  I’ll probably have to merge it in with the nzj3 sketch for the arduino/backforcefeeder. I bought mine off eBay and it will apparently be here sometime within the next 2 months.  :/

[Howard_Casto]

If you are going to feed it into the thrustmaster base unit I'd suggest you have a separate board just for the shifter.   The i2c data has to be sent constantly for it to be reliable and that eats up a bunch of resources on the board.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so I wanted to keep you guys up to date as I work on this since I've kind of been dropping projects the last few years.   I've got a racing rig in pieces sitting in the middle of my game room so this will get finished.

The code for using the namco 6 speed on the thrustmaster wheel is completely finished, both for H shift and sequential. My project box arrived and I mounted it but I still have some switches and stuff to hook up. Tomorrow I'll work on the e-brake and see if that is going to happen.    After that I'll add in support for the other shifters, which is fairly easy (except the logitech g shifters).   Then I'll see about pc support which should work but due to the usage of an arduino uno I have to alter the bootloader, so that has to be done dead last. 

Sorry I'm just busy so it's going to take longer than normal but I am working on it every night so stay tuned.

[PL1]

So would it be nice for my shifter project to have a button that swaps the switches?

With proper configuration, a button like that is probably not needed.

The loss-of-sync situation where you might need that button wouldn't happen in Pole Position or Buggy Boy with a one-switch shifter and properly configured MAME.

Seems like loss-of-sync could only happen if you were trying to adapt a sequential shifter (i.e. no dedicated first-gear or second-gear microswitch on the shifter) to support those one-switch shifter games.
- AFAIK that would involve using some sort of AHK/LUA/Arduino script/code.
- The script/code could monitor and re-sync the game and shifter as described here in the other thread.

I'm going to support all the shifters man.   I'm not talking about for my personal use, I mean in general for others as I'll be adding hi/low support for my shifter spoofing project.

There's a lot of info to juggle so I'd recommend:
1. Make a list of all of the shifters you plan to eventually support, what output they produce, and how they behave.
(just spitballing with some of these examples)
- 2 speed, one microswitch (closed=high, position held by detent)
- 2 speed, one microswitch (closed=low, position held by detent)
- 2 speed, two microswitches (constant output, position held by detent)
- 2 speed, two microswitches (momentary output, lever returns to center)
- 4 speed, three microswitches
- 6 speed, two microswitches, two optical switches
- Sequential (momentary)
- Sequential (constant output)

2. Make a list of games that typify the specific shifter behaviors in MAME/console games/PC games.
- 2 speed, one microswitch, switch held closed = high gear ==> Pole Position (polepos)
- 2 speed, one microswitch, switch held closed = low gear ==> Buggy Boy (buggyboy)

3. Turn those lists into a table with shifters on the X-axis and games on the Y-axis, with each cell describing how to use that shifter with that game.
- For example, Buggy Boy only needs a bit of configuration (toggle="no" and NOT the shifter input) to work with a Pole Position shifter, but can't work with a sequential shifter unless you use something like my script idea here.

If the table has too much info, group it by shifter type like this:

    Shifter type: 2 speed, one microswitch (closed=high, position held by detent)
        polepos: toggle="no"
        buggyboy: toggle="no", NOT the shifter input
        daytona: Not supported

    Shifter type: Sequential (momentary)
        polepos: Script needed to convert momentary shifter output to constant MAME input
        buggyboy: NOT the shifter input, script needed to convert momentary shifter output to constant MAME input
        daytona: . . .


Scott

[Howard_Casto]

I figured for the hi/low shifters, on the hardware side at least, I can treat them as one.   To my knowledge they all just use a standard microswitch and inverting which gear gets the on signal is as simple as putting a NC wire on the NO or vice versa.   On the software end I was thinking that it might be useful to map a hi/low for the paddles on the wheel (aka sequential mode in thrustmaster mode) for any arcade style pc games that just have two gears.   Obviously they aren't going to work like mame, they are going to expect a hi button and a low button.    I suppose they should be re-mappable in game though.   


I actually stayed up last night researching every shifter I could think of.... there are really only three types.....   matrix shifters, direct switch per gear shifters and hi/low shifters.     The difference between a sequential shifter and H shifter is irrelevant as the game decides what to do with the switches, electrically that sequential shifter is just like a 2 gear "H" shifter (yes those exist).   

So to support 90% of the shifters out there I'm just going to have one 8 gear H shifter with switches for every gear, that takes care of daytona, those happ 6 speed shifters, the obscure 3 speed shifters, ect.  If the shifter has less than 8 gears well obviously those extra gears aren't going to be pressed so it still works fine.   Anyway more news as it develops.   

[Howard_Casto]

Ok interesting developments tonight.   There is a wire that's supposed to be grounded on the ps/2 connector for the thrustmaster that's supposed to be the "on switch" telling the wheel when a shifter is plugged in.   Turns out that doesn't do crap as the wheel only reads it when first powered on.   Thankfully I can still wire a switch up to the arduino and just use it to determine if I should actually send data (wheel mode) or not (pc mode). 

Also I integrated the e-brake code and unfortunately it isn't going to work.   Both the shifter and e-brake send a 15 byte array of data with various info in them.   Sending one array and then another makes both the shifter and e-brake toggle on and off, with each taking turns of control.   Sending one big 30 byte array doesn't seem to do anything.  I'm going to leave an input reserved on the arduino in case someone can figure it out, but for now it is a no-go.   I can send data and what I think it does if anyone wants to play with it. 

On the positive side I wired up most of the stuff I need and all the code for the thrustmaster side of things at least, is working fine.   I can switch between sequential mode and h mode and all the gears work, including the soft reverse.   I'll probably add the direct h shifter code in tonight and look up the code for the logitech shifters later this week as I think there is serial communication involved to read the buttons and I really don't want to deal with that this late at night.

[Howard_Casto]

I wanted to give an update.   I had a power outage so that held me back a while.  I'm started to implement the other features like auxiliary buttons and control switches.  I've also cleaned up the code significantly so that I can start implementing other shifter types.   I'm working on generic one switch for each gear shifters and High Low shifters tonight.   I want to go ahead and support the craptacular logitech shifters as well since using analog axis is another common input method for diy shifters.  It seems the older ones had a bunch of buttons while the new one doesn't.   I'm sure some kind of matrix or multiplexing is going on there so I'll have to look into it.   I should have some kind of sketch ready to be released for testing within the week.

[Howard_Casto]

Generic and High Low are now implemented.   I need to think about how to deal with the HL shifters though..... I can just have it hold a switch down all the time when in gear or maybe have an option to tap it.   Suggestions are welcome.

[PL1]

I need to think about how to deal with the HL shifters though..... I can just have it hold a switch down all the time when in gear or maybe have an option to tap it.   Suggestions are welcome.

Once again, start by listing the hardware you want to support + the behavior of the original hardware.
- More clarity = better feedback.   

High/Low Shifter #1 (continuous)
- One or two microswitches? (Only saw one-switch versions on the Happ site, but I may have missed a two-switch version.   )
- Switch pressed for one gear, released for the other or lever presses and holds the microswitch for the current gear?

High/Low Shifter #2 (momentary like this one)
- Two microswitches
- "Makes switch contact in low and high position and returns to center"

Next, find a typical game for each of these shifters and work through the four permutations of how to support/configure them in MAME.
- #1 shifter with #1 game (toggle off?, constant output)
- #1 shifter with #2 game (??)
- #2 shifter with #1 game (??)
- #2 shifter with #2 game (momentary output)

Possible choices for #2 game:

    GLOBAL VR
        Need for Speed
    Interactive Light
        Kick it Standard
    Konami USA
        GTI Konami
        Winding Heat
    Sega
        Indy 500
        Outrunners
        Super Monaco GP

---------------------------
Are you using keyboard keystrokes or gamepad button outputs?
- A constant-on keystroke can cause bootup problems.  Does a constant-on gamepad button cause a similar problem?
- Maybe build a delay into the firmware so no outputs are sent for X seconds after power is applied?


Scott

[Howard_Casto]

Well the way I have it setup there is a physical switch to put the shifter into windows mode and obviously nothing is sent if it is turned off so I don't think held buttons/keys should be an issue.   I know how mame does it, either the input is constantly held down in one gear and not in the other or you can play the game in the normal toggle mode, where each button toggles between high and low.   What I don't know is what games if any on the pc or consoles would benefit from a high/low shifter and how I would need to implement the inputs.   I am probably over thinking it.   

[Howard_Casto]

Okay this is how I think I should do High Low shifters.....   With the sequential switch turned off (don't ask it's a thrustmaster thing and I have to include one to give people full functionality.) it'll behave just how mame prefers it.... a switch is held down in one gear and released in another.   Turning sequential on will put the shifter in "tap mode"   Any time the gear is changed, regardless of direction, the shifter will tap the down gear.   That should allow some usage on arcade style racers on the pc and consoles as those usually have you tap a button to toggle if there are only two gears.   

Just tested everything btw.... all the modes I implemented last night seem to be working fine.  I'll try to start adding in analog shifter modes tonight.   Almost there folks.   

[Howard_Casto]

Added support for the logitech G29.... I don't have a clue if the code works though as I don't have one.   Someone will have to test once I get a sketch out there.   G25 and 27 support requires some serial reading and writing, so I'll have to look up the protocol.   

I also need to research how to send an analog signal to support interfacing shifters to a logitech wheelbase.  I know AnalogWrite uses pulse width modulation but I don't know if that is readable by the base units or electrically what I need to do wiring wise.   

[BadMouth]

Bit late, but I messed around with a G27 shifter years ago and came up with a table and circuit for the gears:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134988.msg1396429.html#msg1396429
Circuit is further down.  I don't recall if I actually built and tested it.
It might still be of some use.
I'm not sure if the G29 works the same way or not.

I still have the shifter if you're interested in having it shipped to you for this project.

EDIT: The link in Ramjetr's post might be more in line with what you are doing: https://www.isrtv.com/forums/topic/13189-diy-g25-shifter-interface-with-h-pattern-sequential-and-handbrake-modes/

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks man, I'll look into it tonight.

[Howard_Casto]

Heh, that second link was the one I was already looking into... didn't realize it was ramjet and he actually contacted me on my youtube page.   The circles in this community is tighter than you think.      Anyway final episode of JoeBob tonight so I doubt I'll get anything done.   I'm going to have some sort of sketch ready by the weekend though.   What I'll do  is release a sketch that doesn't have windows input support, as that's a bit tricky to upload and I might have to make a utility.  Instead of that, when the uno is put into windows mode you'll be able to read the status of the shifter via the serial debug in arduino.   Thrustmaster emulation will work though.... as I said I have to do windows support dead last due to the clumsy way you have to flash it.   I want to add at least basic logitech emulation so it is an any shifter to any base solution.

I might look into alternate bootloaders that let you emulate a keyboard/joystick and still let you upload a sketch.  Surely someone has had to have done this.

[Howard_Casto]

Sorry about the lack of updates.   I've spent the last couple of days trying to get my 3d printer back up and running as I need it to make restrictors for my shifter.   I'm going to set that aside and work on the firmware tomorrow.

[BadMouth]

Sorry about the lack of updates.   I've spent the last couple of days trying to get my 3d printer back up and running as I need it to make restrictors for my shifter.   I'm going to set that aside and work on the firmware tomorrow.

It...
never...
ends...
with 3D printers.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I thought I had it dialed back in until the next day when I measured and realized the height was wrong on the stuff I printed out.   Z-axis squash could be a few things, so ugh. 

[Marsupial]

@Howard_Casto
Just wanted to mention people are following your progress on this.

Driver cabs is the next level so I'll be looking for such a shifter, and your development may open up much more possibilities.

Keep it going! And thanks for the inspiration.

[nipsmg]

I’m psyched as well.  Looking forward to progress.

[Howard_Casto]

Sorry guys.... lots of real world stuff lately.   I have to get up early in the morning so I doubt I'll get anything done tonight but I'll work on things some more monday.   

[nipsmg]

How dare you have real life things to do....   

I'm the same way, good intentions and all but I'm behind on multiple personal projects -- life comes first.  Looking forward to progress whenever it happens. 

[Vee21]

This is genius, I have one of these shifters and the wheel and pedals to go with it all from a Maximum Tune 3 arcade cab shell. I'm looking to get all the arcade hardware working on my PC, sounds like you have the shifter working please do share a how to guide when your done with the project! Also since I have the same shifter I'd be happy to do some testing for you, I've also got a Thrustmaster T300rs if that is of any help for testing it with. Awesome work!