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Easy Steering wheel idea
Wade:
I was just thinking the other night how it would be nice to have a steering wheel for my cabinet. I was trying to think of a way to have one that attaches easily (easier than swapping the entire CP, that is).
This is what I came up with. I have a trackball right in the center of my CP. I could attach a steering wheel to the front/top of the control panel and use a couple of clips or clamps to attach it. There would be some sort of a "box" that covered the trackball area. Then the axle of the wheel could have a rubber wheel (something like a roller blade wheel) that would fit tightly against the top of the trackball. Spinning the wheel would rotate the trackball left or right. The only electrical or software change would be a reversal of the mouse x axis.
Does this sound workable, or does anyone else have similar ideas?
I realize this won't work for all wheel games. Some games use a pot instead of a spinner style interface, right?
I sometimes see super sprint style wheels on ebay. I'd want to use something like that (not a hacked PC steering wheel, but something durable and arcade-like).
Wade
AX:
seems like a very cheap solution to a wheel. What I use currently is a pc wheel which I have already broken once. tha paddles needed a stop support becasue when your in a game and get excited you tend to squeeze harder than normal. oops busted paddle shifter. andway I stuck a few wooden dowles in the screw holes behind the paddels as a quick fix. but getting back tot eh wheel. what TheDemo and I have come up with is a preliminary design for a quick removable mount for a pc wheel. We intend to use 2 pieces of PVS pipe(painted black of course) screwed to the sides of the CP. then create either out of PVC or wood a sort of bridge that loops up over the cp with a flat portion to clamp the wheel to.
rampy:
--- Quote from: AX on April 17, 2003, 09:37:49 am ---seems like a very cheap solution to a wheel. What I use currently is a pc wheel which I have already broken once. tha paddles needed a stop support becasue when your in a game and get excited you tend to squeeze harder than normal. oops busted paddle shifter. andway I stuck a few wooden dowles in the screw holes behind the paddels as a quick fix. but getting back tot eh wheel. what TheDemo and I have come up with is a preliminary design for a quick removable mount for a pc wheel. We intend to use 2 pieces of PVS pipe(painted black of course) screwed to the sides of the CP. then create either out of PVC or wood a sort of bridge that loops up over the cp with a flat portion to clamp the wheel to.
--- End quote ---
I don't understand, based on your description... do you have pics of a drawing or something?
I too am trying to figure out how to nicely add removable steering wheel and star wars yoke to my cabinet. (I don't have a lip on my CP to clamp stuff down)
Wade, that's a pretty novel idea. And it seems like it *could* work... although my first reaction would be, if you already have the physical wheel, and have found a way to easily make it mount and unmount from you CP, the optics and electronics isn't *that* much of a barrier at that point, is it?
I still think the idea has merit, but that's just my initial reaction.
rampy
Wade:
Rampy,
The basic idea is on the back of the wheel, on the axle, instead of having an encoder wheel, you'd just have a rubber wheel that rests on the top of the trackball. You spin the wheel and the trackball spins with it (but in the opposite direction).
You're probably right though. It wouldn't be that hard to make a hidden connector and switch to share the electronics for the spinner with a steering wheel. Since the optics are so inexpensive, it probably would make more sense to just wire it up instead of making a mechanical solution.
AX,
Like rampy suggested, obtaining the wheel and making a way to mount it to the CP are probably the bigger issues.
On the other hand, if I'm going to go through the trouble of making a steering wheel assembly, I might as well make a cockpit style driving cabinet, right? ;)
Wade
Rocky:
Driving games (specifically Spy Hunter) is what got me into MAME and building my own cab.
I considered for a long time how I could have a steering wheel that is durable yet detachable from my main CP. I gave up on the idea and am going with a dedicated driving panel -- pot based wheel with shifter. That is if I ever stop playing pacman and start building stuff again. ;)
Your idea about mounting a wheel to directly move the trackball seems like it would have problems. I think you would wear out the trackball or the wheel would have slippage problems. But, I would never have believed that a workable rotating monitor or rotating control panel could be built. :o
Good luck,
Rocky