Ideas for a Steering Wheel

[zelony]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased an NFL Blitz 99 Showcase Arcade to convert to a MAME cabinet.  I have been toying around with what modifications I want to make to the control panel.  The one thing that has really made me have to think is how to integrate Steering Wheels.

First, I do not want to build a removable or interchangeable control panel.  The ones I have seen are great, but I like the way the built in steel panel hinges up on mine.

So, after looking at Groovy Game Gears latest spinner, I bought all of my buttons and 4 GPWiz-49’s from them, I got an idea.

I liked the idea of using a spinner for a steering wheel like the Turbo Twist2 with the Steering Wheel option; however the wheel is too small for my taste.

That’s when it occurred to me to modify the idea.  I want to place a spinner side ways, with the shaft protruding horizontally from the front of the pedestal/control panel.  Then I can attach a Steering Wheel to each shaft and have 4 Steering Wheels!!!

I plan on two major modifications to this. 

1.   Quick Release wheel, to make it easier to put the wheels away.
2.   Some type of sliding/locking mechanism within the control panel to recess the spinner shaft when not in use.  I figure it could be similar to the way a rack mount server is on rails and retracts.

So my questions for you are:

1.   Has anyone already done this?  (that way I can learn from them)
2.   Any suggestions on a spinner that would have the strength to be mounted this way with a steering wheel attached to it?
3.   Anything else I should think about?

Thanks,

Jeff Green

[Havok]

If you mount them sideways, I would think the stress on the shaft would be much higher, coupled with the fact you want to use a larger wheel. I'm not sure even a TT2 would be able to handle it. Are you planning on a BYO type? If so, you would probably want to design one with more bearings to handle the added weight.

[zelony]

I know that the additional strain from moving to a horizontal mount and a heavier wheel would be significant.  That is why I am asking if anyone can recommend a sturdy enough spinner.

Otherwise, I will just buy four authentic arcade steering wheels and convert them for my use.  I just thought this would be easier.

[Donkey_Kong]

I've thought of somehow mounting the Turbo Twist 2 with just somewhat of an angle versus straight across level on my CP so that the mini racer wheel would have a bit of an downward angle to seem a little more authentic to a racing game.

Just a thought though really...What do ya think?

[pcates]

Do you really need 4 wheels? I know that super off road cabs are not too hard to come by. I got a 2 player one a few years back for free, and they had a few 3 player ones available at the time. I just set up a dedicated driving cab for 360 degree games. That way you can just use  the cab you have for stick, and avoid the whole mess of different panels.

Good luck, Patrick

[Fozzy The Bear]

The stresses involved here are HUGE! Trust me I maintain a lot of real arcade driving cabs. Attaching a large hoizontal wheel directly to the turbotwist in any way at all would be a very bad idea.

However! the way you should do it is to build your steering wheel shaft separately and with a set of heavy bearings... Then only attach the turbo twist to the end of that well supported and well fixed shaft.

You could use a piece of garden hose to connect between the steering shaft and the turbo twist to take the shock loading. This is in fact how the position sensing pots and steering pots on the Gaelco motion platform games (ATV Track, Tokyo Cop etc etc) are connected to the huge motion motor and gearbox assemblies.

Hope that helps...

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[zelony]

Fozzy,

I like the idea of a seperate shaft and a linkage.  I may go that route.  There is a ton of room under the Control Panel.

pcates,

I don't want a third arcade cabinet.  My daughter has a 4 player Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom and I have my showcase cabinet.

I am planning for the showcase cabinet to be a multiuse platform.  I am replacing the 36" viewable arcade monitor with a decased 36" Gateway Destination SVGA monitor.  That way I can hook up the Xbox, Playstation 2 and my MAME PC easily as well as watch DVD's and Television via my All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro.

I am converting my daughter's cabinet as well, using a JPAC and IPAC2.  No other mod's though.

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

[Extreme8]

I've often thought about connecting a wheel to a spinner using one of those flexible cable deals similar to the extensions used on Dremmel tools or a mechanical speedometer.
Seems that it would provide a great deal of flexibility when determining where to place your controls and would isolate the spinner from the majority of the horizontal strain forces.
I haven't built one yet so I could be completely wrong but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[zelony]

Hi all,

The other day while messing around with the computer that is going in my MAME cabinet, I got an idea on how to make a quick connect mechanism for my steering wheels.

I was sitting there waiting for the PC and I was looking at some of my tools on the floor.  There was a socket extender and 1/4" adapter sitting there.  So I picked it up and pulled them apart. Bingo!  If I can modify these to work with a steering wheel and a set of bearings, I should just have to line it up and press.  Then pull to release.

I will let everyone know if it works or not.  Just thought I would throw the idea out there if anyone else wanted to give it a try.

Jeff

[leapinlew]

I built a mousehack for my old driving game, but I remember thinking if I were to do it all over again I'd use a standard spinner connected to my wheel using a flexible shaft like the kind you see on drill bits. Would this work?

The flexible shafts look like this:



I figured one end would be on the end of the steering wheel and the other end would connect to a spinner which could be mounted anywhere in the cabinet.

[Fozzy The Bear]

I built a mousehack for my old driving game, but I remember thinking if I were to do it all over again I'd use a standard spinner connected to my wheel using a flexible shaft like the kind you see on drill bits. Would this work?

No reason why that shouldn't work...  The only thing to remember is that the closer to a straight line between the wheel and the spinner, the better...

When you bend a flexible shaft it increases the friction in the shaft. But it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[extremepong]

Even though you have the spinners on hand I wonder whether a mouse hack spinner might still be a good way to go since you already are going to build a rotating shaft with nice bearings for you wheel. Rather than figure out how to avoiding damage to the nice spinners,  perhaps you could just affix a  clear/striped  drum around the steering wheel shaft (as a light chopper) and use the 'ol mouse hack. Of course, that's probably not what you wanted to hear.

[Zeppo]

So, will a 360 spinner work for all driving games?
Or are there some games that need one of those wheels that don't go all the way around?

[leapinlew]

you'll have a much smaller collection of driving games when you try to get the exact setup. The variables are:

Horizontal or Vertical monitor layout
270 degree or 360 degree steering wheel
Manual shifter and automatic shifter
Turbo button on the shifter or no turbo button
1 pedal, 2 pedal or 3 pedals
microswitch pedals or pot pedals
fire buttons in various locations (steering wheel, shifter, control panel)

Once you decide on your layout, you'll find that there are only a handful of mame games you want to play using that layout. I built a 360 degree, 2 pedal, horizontal layout, microswitched pedal game. It could play about 4 games great - the rest were a compromise.

The one thing you can do to get maximum driving games to work is to use a console, like an xbox. They use a standard setup and many driving games will work using a console setup.

[shardian]

So, will a 360 spinner work for all driving games?
Or are there some games that need one of those wheels that don't go all the way around?

A 360 wheel will work for all spinner/wheel games. However, you won't have the spring back to center. I played Outrun the other day on my spinner, and I could have swore I had more of a turning radius than in the arcade, but keeping the car going in a straight line was a little more difficult. Still definitely playable though.