Driving cab questions

[neil99a]

have decided that my second cab will be a driving unit.  I have learned a lot by reading the threads here on driving cabs but I have a couple of questions....

1) Upright or cockpit?  I am leaning toward cockpit but I am interested in hearing the pros and cons from those that have been down this road. NPI

2) The wheel  270 or 360?  Should I get one that self centers?

3)  The driving interface from Happs.  Anyone have experience with this unit?  Is it worth getting it and using industrial controls or is it worth while to just use a PC product?

4)  Speakers.  I thought it would be cool to put a car stereo into a driving cab.  The problem is that the tweeters of a car stereo are not magnetically shielded.  I can't find a car stereo speaker set that is...  I have considered the bucking mag and mu metal shielding but can't decide how to go.  Anybody have any comments?

5)  I like the idea of having an extra LCD for intructions etc.  Whoever thought of that was really clever!  I was thinking of incorporating one of these sun visor LCD units you can buy.  Anyone done this?  I haven't looked into getting one but I am sure they don't just plug into a PC.    I am sure there will be some hacking to do....

[elvis]

4)  Speakers.  I thought it would be cool to put a car stereo into a driving cab.  The problem is that the tweeters of a car stereo are not magnetically shielded.  I can't find a car stereo speaker set that is...  I have considered the bucking mag and mu metal shielding but can't decide how to go.  Anybody have any comments?

As a kid my favourite driving/racing/flying unit speakers where always the ones that where embedded in the seat of the cockpit units.

There's no hard and fast rule that says speakers must be infront of the player.   Mounting them above or behind the player in a cockpit is what I'm planning to do if I ever get around to cab number 5 (3/4 cab for the kids and a SmashTV cab have to come first as cabs 3 and 4 ).

Plus being much closer to the player, they don't need to be as loud or as big.

[Tailgunner]

I tend to prefer the enclosed cockpit style cabs. I've got two of those, and two open cockpit cabs.

Biggest downsides to these cabs are their size and weight. They eat up a good bit of floor space, and moving them is a pain. This does work to your advantage at auctions, most people won't bid on them unless it's something current that makes money or rare and valuable. Were you looking to buy one, I'd hunt for a Pole Position cockpit. There are quite a few more PP cockpit cabs out there than there are working boardsets to restore them with. As a result the cabs are inexpensive and you're not MAMEing something that's irreplacable.

As far as controls, it would depend on what your favorite driving games are. Older ones tend to use a 360 degree wheel, newer ones use 270 degree wheels. Arcade shifters are mostly either a hi/lo shifter, or a 4 speed shifter. I'd probably start with a 360 arcade wheel and a PC type wheel for the other games.


A car stereo would be cool, but powering it will be an issue. Car stereos and the attendant amplifiers need a healthy source of 12 volt power. A Radio Shack 12 volt power supply isn't going to cut it, and high amperage power supplies aren't cheap. 

[elvis]

I'm running a 200W car stereo amp in my current standup cab via an old 200W AT PC power supply.

The power supply is rated to a 8A max draw, and the car amp is rated at 5A max.  Likewise the "200W" rating on the amp is complete marketing BS, along with the fact that it is powering two 35W RMS speakers.  The load is fine, and wiring the whole lot up was a piece of cake.

[Chris]

I'm running a 200W car stereo amp in my current standup cab via an old 200W AT PC power supply.

The power supply is rated to a 8A max draw, and the car amp is rated at 5A max.

[TOK]

I like the idea of a driving cab too, but I'm thinking if I was going to do it, I'd go with standard PC gear and use it to play PC games/sims.
There are some decent games in MAME, but I think I'd spend more time playing Need For Speed:Porsche Unleashed or Underground for arcade thrills and NASCAR Racing 2003 w/mods for simulations.

Edit to add: I think if I was going to do a fully enclosed cab, I'd also leave a little room at the sides so it'd work for flight sim controls and mech games. This thread actually has me looking at the corner of my room where the TV is sitting to see if an enclosed cab could be wedged in there! 

[markrvp]

I promised my son I would build him a driving cockpit cab that would house his TV, X-box, and MAME computer for Christmas.  Please let's post these projects in the Project Announcements section and compare notes as the projects progress.

[j123vt_99]

instead of a car radio, what about something like this

http://www.thinkgeek.com/pcmods/cables/6b35/

[elvis]

Are you drawing power through the motherboard power connector or a drive power connector?  I have a 40 watt (20 per channel) "stereo booster" amp from Radio Shack, but when I tried hooking it up to a 200W AT power supply through a hard drive connector, it would either be real quiet or die outright.  (Actually, it may have been a 140W power supply, now that I think aboutit...)

Through a hard drive connector.  I should point out at this stage that I have a dedicated 200W AT PSU just for the speakers, and the computer in my cab runs off a separate 300W ATX.  So the speakers aren't competing with anything else for current.