Showroom Building Journey of "Crate" Racing Cockpit

Your sim was the reason I ended up here from YouTube . It's come a long way since then great build.

Just need the driving skills tweaking a little

Yeah, I am an immersion seeker and like driving very, very much (in sim and real life), but definitelly lack some skillz I'm affraid . But now that there is more time to race instead of fiddling with my rig, I've been practicing a lot especially with Lotus49 in iRacing. I'm far from being in the top row in GP Legends series, but constantly in the middle of the pack and I've had some very entertaining races lately.

By the way, very nice and powerful rig you have there, saw your videos, some nice throws!

What rod end sizes are you using? Do you have a link?

Scratch great looking rig!


Why the Mitsubishi motors? Was it intentional or this was the one available cheap?


I see that you have managed the potential meter like so:

http://www.xsimulator.net/community/attachments/img_0857-jpg.14251/

I have found another enthusiast solved the issue with cogs:

http://www.x-sim.de/forum/gallery/image.php?image_id=2669

What is the task of the potential meter?


Also I can see you are only using one H bridge?

http://www.xsimulator.net/community/attachments/image-jpg.14542/

The other colleague is using two:

http://www.x-sim.de/forum/gallery/image.php?image_id=2765

http://www.x-sim.de/forum/gallery/image.php?image_id=2792


Is there actually need for two?


Lastly he made a kind of heat shield for the motor:

http://www.x-sim.de/forum/gallery/image.php?image_id=2665

To you recon that is needed?


Sorry for any idiotic questions, really a noob in this area

Thanks for your advice in advance!


Greg

Rods and joints are used steering rods from my chinese quadbike, I have no idea what sizes they are, sorry. But I could measure them, what sizes you actually need?

Thanks!

I'm still quite a newbie with this stuff also and I have only experience of this one rig, but I try to answer the questions I can. If @bsft , @eaorobbie , @RacingMat , @noorbeast , @Pit or other big boys are reading this, please correct me and help with more details

I used Mitsubishi Lancer wipermotors, because those motors they first offered me with resonable prize on scrapyard, I was lucky with them I guess, they were easy to mod for sim use and are still going strong.

Regarding potentiometer mounts, my way is definitely not the best, but that was something I decided to try with the materials I had available then. They work, but they don't allow 360 degree turn if something goes wrong, for example motor goes crazy and turns beyond it's limits. That has not happen, but if it happens, I have some repairing to do then...
Cogs are one way, but they are hard to align perfectly so there is no slack or kickback. Many of the big boys here use silent blocks or couplers, check this faq for more info of mounting potentiometers: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/how-to-connect-potentiometer.13/

Task of potentiometer is to tell h-bridge (or it's controller, Arduino, JRK etc.) the position of the motor.

I use Monster Moto Dual H-bridge like many other Arduino users, it has two h-bridges in one board. It is enough for wiper motors and seatmover-type light rigs, but if you need to use more powerful motors that need more amps, you might need two monster motos (one for each motor) or if you use JRK's or other h-bridges, two of them. And preferably two psu's, one for each.

I have no idea what that heat shield is... My motors get warm when in use but even without fans I don't think they would overheat, I installed fans just for extra protection. H-Bridge is something you need to cool down with heat sinks and good air circulation, though.

I've been wanting an H-Shifter for my sim for a long time and after realizing how much it would cost for me to order Thrustmaster TH8RS or Fanatec Club Sport Shifter, I decided to continue DIY path with this one too. I spend one evening watching youtube videos of various DIY Shifters and one of the first videos I saw was at the end the one I used as a base for my own shifter.

This video by nikescar I used as a reference:


Thanks belongs to nikescar for sharing his build!

At first I made a prototype using chipboard. I added proper joint inside the spring (instead just attaching shifter lever straight to spring) to make it rigid.

Tested mechanism inside cardboard box. Used pretty small H-pattern, lenght 60mm, 10mm between gears.


Building mechanism out of steel tube and aluminium L-profile based on the dimensions from the proto.


Made the proper H-pattern plate out of cutting board, like in the video.


Electronics out of cheap usb pad from ebay.


Mikroswitches under the H-patternplate. Just few of the wires are soldered at this point.


Building a case, and test fit to my rig.


Finalized.


And video of it in use

love it great work

Would you be able to post where you wired the microswitches to the USB control card? Which inputs are you reading?

Nice work. Looks the mutts nutts!

You did a really neat job with that shifter bud, good job.

This usb pad I used uses some kind of matrix. But all we need to know where original "button contacts" (sorry, I don't know better word) were. If you look closely the picture taken of the board, you can see original "button contacts", those round areas where are overlapping copper threads, two overlapping "forks". There used to be button directly over it, and when pushed, it closed the circuit through those "forks". Forks are not connected if nothing (conductive material) is not connecting them. You could solder wires directly to them (making sure you're not short circuiting), one wire to the other side (fork) and one to the other. That way microswitch is connected parallel to original button contacts (forks).

But in this case I found out that attleast six buttons (six is what we need, offcourse you could add more gears if you will) were connected at the same contact from the other side. Meaning that to be able to connect six switches, we only need seven wires instead of twelve.

Again, if you look closely the picture of the board, you can see three (poorly) soldered wires on the left, one black and two blue wires. That black wire acts as "return" for all six buttons. And those blue wires are soldered in the other side of the button contacts, making two buttons allready soldered. Four blue wires more and we are done for all the six. That black wire needs to be connected to all six microswitches and from every microswitch, you need to solder one wire to one of the buttons contacts, but not to the same "side" where the black wire is connected. I think I'm explaining this very unclearly, but it really is simple. You can actually see from the board, which contacts are connected together, but you can also use multimeter to check.

For computer, usb gamepad still looks like usb gamepad and it works the same way.

Thank you fellows!

Thanks @Scratch - perfect. With the pictures too it all makes sense.

Really great work! Also the h-shifter is outstanding!
Please do not misunderstand any criticism I would never like to dampen the great result of your work - but IMHO there is something "wrong" with the "heave", isn't it?

Thanks Scratch,

No the noob definately is not a word I would describe you in your current state of knowledge regarding 2DOF

Now I would just have a couple of hundred of questions left

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30A-VNH2S...ther_Computing_Networking&hash=item20e1de9482
So this is the Board you were talking about?

Regarding the wiring did you find it in a topic or someone gave you detailed instructions?
I have a colleague with electrical knowledge, I can ask him, but if there is a diagram I would prefer doing it on my own

Thank you for the potential meter link!!!!!

Yes and for what I can say this vendor is top (already bought at this shop 2 Moto Monster samples)

http://www.xsimulator.net/community...3dof-motor-driver-and-windows-utilities.4957/

Pit Thanks for the link!!!
Well gentleman it seems I'am ready, so off to ebay
I'am sure when it will come to setting up software etc.. I will be back with a bucket of questions.

Thank you for all your help/advice and time!

Thank you for pointing out the problem with the heave, definitelly not taking any criticism in the bad way, on the contrary.

But can you tell me what is wrong with it? I admit I have no clue how it suppose to work! When I was setting up Simtools and Tuning Center values, With Heave I was like "ok, there are bumbs on the road and seat is shaking my ass, it is good"

First point: while you are breaking, the seat moves forward and there is no heave anymore.
Please switch off all other forces but only heave. Then drive a car with a very soft suspension (to get a big shaking), make a video and put it online (including all your settings of SimTools.)
PS: the shaking of the car is not synchronized with the seat.

True, under braking seat is not shaking, haven't noticed! Ok, is Sthere too much surge so it masks heave or something...

I'll record a video with just heave. And take shots of my settings.

Not syncronized shaking, yeah, that is something I'm somewhat aware of, I'm affraid it's because my motors, wiper motors are slower and weaker than proper wormgears.

You will get some heave, but work on it on its own, turn off the rest of the forces and rinse-repeat