***Driving Equipment for Xbox360, PlayStation3, PS2 and PC***FORCE FEEDBACK

[Timoe]

Here is a new one for BYOAC member, isamu.  Featuring a force feedback steering wheel. 


More to follow soon...

[theCoder]

Cool stuff.  It costs what, about $600 a piece?

[isamu]

Tim's gonna be famous after this. 

[divemaster127]

where is the driving kit from
dm

[divemaster127]

Does anyone know where the website is for the above driving kit
dm

[patrickl]

try google for raceframe?

[divemaster127]

no luck, found other models but not this one
dm

[MaMeNnO]

That looks awesome! I'm not really into driving games, but I liked Ridge Racer. Playing that in a seat like that would be real fun!

[Cornchip]

  Raceframe homepage for DM.

   http://www.trinity-racing.com/page3.html


 Cornchip.

[divemaster127]

thanks a bunch
dm

[theCoder]

Cool stuff.  It costs what, about $600 a piece?

I stand corrected.  I was off by about $1,000.  For over $1,600 that had better be some good hardware.

So Timoe, you are building a cab around these components?

[Timoe]

Cool stuff.  It costs what, about $600 a piece?

I stand corrected.  I was off by about $1,000.  For over $1,600 that had better be some good hardware.

So Timoe, you are building a cab around these components?

Ah no.  I'm just building the housing for the wheel.  I'll also be re-wiring some things so that the pedals plug into the wheel housing via RJ45 and a single USB cable exits the wheel housing towards the computer.

I just thought I'd share the frame that the wheel will get used on.  These are some quality parts.  I am excited to be working with this stuff.  The final set up, as isamu, describes it should be very impressive as well.

I asked him, "so are ya gonna put a little monitor on the frame too?"  He responded something like "Monitor? there is no monitor... Its a HD projector on a 100"+ screen in a dedicated room wired for surround sound."

[Cornchip]

  For $1600....I'll have mine with tires and a motor. I could do better for less.

[Timoe]

  For $1600....I'll have mine with tires and a motor. I could do better for less.

I have no doubt I've spent more than $1600 on this hobby.  Where can I put the tires on my cabinet?  What is the motor for?

[Cornchip]

Ooopps....I didn't mean to offend with that post. I don't think that was supposed to be taken like that. I just don't think the experience is worth it to me for the money. I would rather have a vehicle (with motor and tires) to get the thrill. My 2 cents. Sorry if you thought the reply was to flame....it wasn't.


 Cornchip.

[Timoe]

I've spent some time measuring, sketching and measuring some more.  The basic frame is ready.  I think I'm going to paint the inside, then laminate the outside with black formica.

[Timoe]

Not much visible progress but we've got the top and bottom pieces cut, the corners shaped and the t-mold slot routed out.  The inside of the box has been primed and painted.  All other surfaces will receive black formica laminate.

[Timoe]

Photo Update.

The box is complete.  Now I have to wire up the buttons.  The PCB is from a company called Immersion Tech and the buttons wire up matrix style so there will be a total of 6 wires going back to the PCB from 8 buttons.

Confused?  So was I initially but thats what I love about this hobby, I'm still learnin' new stuff all the time.

I'm off to radio shack to buy some diodes.

[Timoe]

Here are the guts.

[Timoe]

What is all this stuff?

[Timoe]

What is all this stuff?

Its a shifter box.  Rather than have some silly shifter attached to the wheel, Isamu prefers a shifter located naturally next to the seat.  We designed this box to sit on the ground.

Its gonna take a beating and get pushed all over the place so we designed the box so that we could put bricks inside on the bottom to give it some serious weight.

The box is glued and screwed to support heavy use.

I am not sure what kind of flooring it will end up on so I have added some feet ( see picture below )

They will keep it from scratching any wood floor, they will prevent any floor from scratching the box and they can act as cleats if used on carpet.

[Timoe]

I was asked to leave a lip on the back side of 1.5 inches so that an alternative shifter can be clamped to the back of the box.

[spacies]

Looks hot.

VERY tidy.

 

[isamu]

*bows*

Looks ---smurfing--- HOT!

[Timoe]

Thanks to Mark Shaker for technical support I was able to figure out the wiring and the diodes.

Here is some progress

[Neilyboy]

This thing is looking awesome! Nice work Timoe

Neil

[Timoe]

We're going in a new direction now with a new PCB, this one from a Logitech wheel .

I'll try and post more text by the weekend explaining what is going on and what not.

[Timoe]

We changed the project somewhat to incorporate Xbox360 compatibility. 


I'll be working on cleaning up the wiring over the next few days.

[Timoe]

We've removed the joystick on the shifter box and added D-pad buttons on the side of the steering box.

We've also changed the button colors.

[BobA]

The components in the steering box looked much more robust in the previous configuration.  Will the 360 components have the same durability?

[Timoe]

We went to a machine shop and had a couple of custom hubs made so we could use these two MoMo wheels.

The smaller one will have a button harness on it.  I'll take pictures another day.

[Timoe]

The components in the steering box looked much more robust in the previous configuration.  Will the 360 components have the same durability?

Oh yeah, the only thing we're using from the xbox360 wheel is the PCB.  both the driving force pro and the xbox360 pcbs will be hooked up to the amplifier and to the Happ force feedback wheel.

[Timoe]

We ended up using DB25s to disconnect or switch between xbox and PS2

[Timoe]

Got all the buttons working finally and we hacked the pedals for both the xbox and ps2.  Isamu is going to use the fancy racing pedals made by a company called Ball Racing Development.

I dont know where this shifter came from but we upgraded from the Happs shifter today.

[theCoder]

Let me know when you are done playing around with this hardware.  I'll be glad to take that second hand junk off your hands.  I'd love to have your pedals & wheel in my box.  Seriously, you really ought to build a cab around this gear. 

[ChadTower]

I stand corrected.  I was off by about $1,000.  For over $1,600 that had better be some good hardware.

Build the interface yourself, using one of these as the frame.  This one is a bit small but there is a bigger one I can't find at the moment.  My kids have them and they're pretty sturdy.  For a 200lb adult you'd probably want to reinforce the frame a bit while you're doing it but it's a damn good starting point for something like shown above.  I think Toys R Us carries them in the $100-200 range, IIRC.  I picked up two of them at a yard sale for $20 each in excellent shape.

EDIT:  Toys R Us link

[Timoe]

I have no idea what any of this stuff costs.  I just build it. 

I'm not even sure what an ledwiz really costs now that I think about it.

 

[isamu]

I want to thank Timoe publicly for the work was able to do with the project. He's a stand up guy and is very trustworthy. His control panel building skills are top notch! Timoe was able to complete roughly 85% of the project. The remaining 15% requires someone who is electronically inclined, and knows about PCB connectors and signals. All that's left to do is wire my gear shifter and pedals to both PCBs.

I am trying to make contact with GoPodular.com but no response. Mike, if you're reading this please contact me.

[stephenp1983]

Awesome work Tim, and isamu I really look foward to seeing it all together.

[isamu]

Thanks bro

Anyone know what happened to? GoPodular