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Logitech Driving Force Pro... 270 or 360?: Pictures Added
u_rebelscum:
--- Quote from: 2600 on July 20, 2007, 07:37:39 am ---
--- Quote from: u_rebelscum on July 20, 2007, 04:20:32 am ---
With five wires attached to the board. Hmm... makes me think there's three sensors (vs the normal two) and one of the three could be "index". The index sensor, marking once per revolution, is very common in high(er) end optical encoder wheels used in areas such as such as astronomy and industry. The only game I've seen an index in arcade games is the 720 controller, and not in any mouse/trackball, either PC or arcade.
It's hard to tell, but it don't look like the sensors are reading the gear teeth but something closer to the axle, correct? Any more pics of the holes (or whatever) the photodiodes detect, and a closer pic of the photodiodes themselves? If not, no worries. :cheers:
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Remember, There has to be and index channel. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to center.
Personally, I'd probably hack it so that it is a wheel and a mouse.
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The index will definitely help centering, but technically it's not needed for centering:
a) The Nintendo64 gamepad centers fine without an index channel even though it uses encoder wheel IIRC.
b) The encoder wheel probably turns a lot more than once per wheel turn. (Dmod, could you shine some light on number rotations of encoder wheel vs rotations of steering wheel?) This would make the index not always signal the center, but other places too.
c) The motor looks like it is what centers the wheel. If so, "center" is wherever the device thinks it is. It would be a pain if you could only turn 50 degrees right and 150 left (in 200 degree mode), but it would still "center". ::)
That said, the index channel probably really helps keep it calibrated over time. Vs, say, using driver software to manually set the center when it gets off center, which can work but is not automatic like the index channel.
Maybe I'm arguing semantics, though. ;D
Dmod:
--- Quote from: u_rebelscum on July 20, 2007, 04:20:32 am ---Do the stops feel any different? I only tested in the store awhile ago, and I think they felt the same solidness, but I wasn't really thinking about the mechanics behind the two settings so I wasn't looking at it at the time. Pretty simple but effective way of doing it.
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The wheel feels the same in both modes. Whether the center stop is slid in place or not, the wheel travels on the geared slider. The stop doesn't really make contact with the slider and just prevents wheel motion when the fitting on the wheel makes contact with the stop.
The only thing that really seems to change feel is the resistance of the force feedback motor. I played with a few games using the Project64 emulator, and they seem to vary the amount of resistance the wheel gives toward turning.
Dmod:
--- Quote from: u_rebelscum on July 20, 2007, 04:20:32 am ---It's hard to tell, but it don't look like the sensors are reading the gear teeth but something closer to the axle, correct? Any more pics of the holes (or whatever) the photodiodes detect, and a closer pic of the photodiodes themselves?
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This is the only other picture I have of the encoder wheel. You're right, it doesn't read the teeth. There are little holes in the wheel closer to the axle. You can just barely make them out in this picture. If I open it up again, I'll try to get a closeup of the electronics in this area.
Dmod:
I thought this was interesting...
The correct name for the part I've been referring to as a 'slider' is a 'rack', and the mechanical term for the combination of the wheel gear and the rack is 'rack and pinion'. I've heard this expression a lot before with regard to 'rack and pinion steering' but never really understood what that meant.
Here's a pic of the gear in action from Wikipedia.
Popcorrin:
--- Quote from: u_rebelscum on July 19, 2007, 01:23:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Popcorrin on July 18, 2007, 03:57:49 pm ---I am specifically looking for a driving force pro with a pot, so this might make it more difficult to track one down.
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Any reason why you're looking for the POT one? Planning to hack it? Something else we should know?
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That's correct. I was planning to hack it. I want to use an actual arcade wheel and interface it to the pc by using the guts of the driving force pro.