31 in 1 Kids Driving Game Steering Wheel pinout

[jdevane]

Have you see these "spinner" 360 wheels that are packaged with a kids setup arcade package, commonly advertised as a 31 in 1 deal?  I have one, the steering wheel, it has a three wire plug I'm guessing is for steering and one has a 2 wire plug which should be the center button, but I don't have a wiring pin out for it so I'm just guessing and want to interface this with a PC setup, but having trouble how I would do this...  I'm guessing it uses a hall effect sensor.  But it only has the 3 wires so I'm not sure what path I need to take.  Would I be able to use an Opti-Pac?

Thanks

[PL1]

it has a three wire plug I'm guessing is for steering and one has a 2 wire plug which should be the center button, but I don't have a wiring pin out for it so I'm just guessing and want to interface this with a PC setup, but having trouble how I would do this...  I'm guessing it uses a hall effect sensor.  But it only has the 3 wires so I'm not sure what path I need to take.

Assuming that it has a Hall Effect angle sensor similar to this one:
- The three wires will be VCC (5v?), ground, and output -- similar to a potentiometer.
-- Unlike a potentiometer, you can't swap VCC and ground to invert the output.
- The output is a variable voltage controlled by the position of the wheel -- similar to a 270 degree steering wheel with a potentiometer.
- Try testing it with your multimeter and a 5v power supply.

- The output should be one 0-5v range over one turn of the wheel, allowing you to use an analog (potentiometer) encoder like an A-Pac, a U-HID, or a 32u4 Arduino board. (Pro Micro, etc.)
- If the output is more than one 0-5v range over one turn of the wheel like the sensor shown in the video, it probably won't be usable.

Would I be able to use an Opti-Pac?

An Opti-Pac is an optical (mouse) encoder that converts two quadrature waveforms into relative mouse movements.
- Wiring for this is 5v, ground, Data A, and Data B. (4 wires)
- Unless your wheel has optical circuits that are getting ground from the 2-pin button connector, there aren't enough wires.




Scott

[Sky25es]

It's an optical encoder wheel. It has a large encoder disc attached to the rim of the wheel and two sensors plus board fixed in the middle of the main body. The (disc) tracks are very thick, so I think that it's a very low resolution encoder. I already tried to connect one to an U-Hid board, but It barely moves left or right.

[PL1]

If jdevane's wheel is like this one, it's probably a different version than yours, Sky25es.




Scott

[jdevane]

Yes, mine looks like this one.

If jdevane's wheel is like this one, it's probably a different version than yours, Sky25es.




Scott

[PL1]

It's probably got a Hall Effect angle sensor, but the only way to tell for sure is to take the wheel apart and see what's inside that plastic shell.

If you find an encoder wheel like Sky25es described, it's an optical circuit.
- Make sure you don't accidently apply 5v to one of the data lines because there's a good chance that will fry the circuit.

Post some pics of the inside and let us know any markings that you find.


Scott

[Sky25es]

If jdevane's wheel is like this one, it's probably a different version than yours, Sky25es.




Scott

Let me show you some pics..






In any case, you'll have to open your wheel to find out what's inside....

[PL1]

I stand corrected, Sky25es.

Great pics.  Now the construction makes sense.   

Did they follow typical wire colors?
- Red for 5v
- Black for ground
- Yellow and green for data lines
- White for the button

Like you mentioned earlier, that 12 tooth encoder wheel is really low res.

You could probably 3d print a higher resolution replacement.   
- There are some generic parametric ones on Thingiverse that could be adapted for this application.



Standard angular spacing between the optos equals a whole number multiplier + 0.5 (1.5, 2.5, etc) times the width of a tooth in degrees so when one opto is at the edge of a tooth or gap, the other opto is in the middle of a tooth or gap.

  opto degrees = 1.5 (multiplier) * 360 degrees/24 tooth-widths (that's 12 teeth + 12 gaps)
  opto degrees = 1.5 * 15 degrees/tooth
  opto degrees = 22.5

If you step up to a 2.5 multiplier, you get an 18 tooth wheel with 9 degrees per tooth.
- Probably do-able and a 50% gain in resolution.

If you step up to a 3.5 multiplier, you get a 28 tooth wheel with about 6.43 degrees per tooth.
- Wouldn't hurt to try, but you might run into backspin.   

Another improvement to the original encoder wheel design is to add a very narrow inner hub to reinforce the teeth, especially for a 28 tooth version.


Scott