Gooch Turismo

I had a working plywood SimVibe/FF sim I used with my Oculus Rift and some low end Fanatec gear (is anything Fanatec low end?), but I decided it was time to upgrade to motion simulation and high end gear. Since my last rig was built almost 20 years ago I also am taking the opportunity to rebuild from scratch and build something that lasts another 20. I thought I'd document the progress here.

- 3DOF traction loss system with Oculus Rift
- Fanatec Xbox One wheel, wheel base, inverted pedals, and shifter
- Sparco seat with Buttkicker mini Concert and 4 point harness
- 34" curved ultrawide monitor
- 6 core proc, 16GB RAM, Nvidia Titan X GPU, 512GB Samsung Pro SSD
- Logitech THX 5.1 speakers
- Working brake light (& reverse/running)
- Cupholders
- Various ground effects LEDs and body blinky lights

I've been designing the sim in 3D (Blender) for a couple of months, I have most parts purchased already and have begun construction on the base & traction loss base. Still have to buy gear motors, JRKs, PSUs, pots, etc. and will possibly/probably need advice on this as I post.

Some of it still needs funtional or aethestic design work. Suggestions welcome.

Beer holder is a nice touch

Thanks! Nothing quite like numbing the constant sting of 14th+ place with a cold one. Or five.

I'm probably getting one of these as well, a DC powered chiller.

Using some recommendations I've seen posted I think I have my parts list for the 2DOF portion (mostly one from @shannonb1 helping another member):

(2) Pololu JRK 12v12
(2) DC12V 40A 480W PSU units (I'm in the USA)
(2) 12V DC gear motors (75-80RPM 50:1)
(2) 360° 5.5V pots.

For my traction loss platform, are there any special considerations? Such as stronger motor? Different controller? Or just get a 3rd one of everything listed?

Posting some progress photos, going to wrap it in auto carpet tomorrow.

I made the uprights using polymer coated lumber from the hardware store. As soon as I get a warm weekend I'll be spray painting them with an auto red color and a clear coat for that clean, finished look.



I'll have to get the vinyl decals printed up soon, pretty happy with how the graphic looks against the checkered floor.

To make it more stable I'm going to be attaching the uprights to the wall, still toying with the aesthetics of how to do this.

It's exciting watching the 3D CAD design come to life, today I finished up the auto carpet.



Next step is to add RGBWW LEDs and wire management conduit. I have 1" tall furniture feet but I may need to increase that to 2".

I now have my gear motors, JRKs, pots, and PSUs for the 2DOF mechanics of the seat. I'm a bit focused on the LED system and cable management (pics soon), but i want to get crackin' on understanding how SimTools works.

Still have to buy a 3rd set for the 3DOF traction loss platform, but I want to make sure I understand the full weight so I can size the motor right.

Finished up the three circuits of RGBWW LEDs - Left Side, Right Side, Exhaust. Also changed the 1" feet to 2" feet and added wire management conduit. I may replace the PVC 90 degree's with a 3D printed model that exposes more light.



Right now I'm using a cheap $5 RGBW LED controller to verify functionality, but I'll eventually be replacing it with an Arduino controller. The intent isn't to have full-on underglow at all times (that would be distracting), I want it to interact with the games in some way that serves as eye candy to those around (ie - flash red during crash, blue/brighter blue based on speed, etc.)

Wanted to test things out for sizing, it's matching up fairly close to the Blender model of the rig. The traction loss steel transfer bearings are a bit noisy against the steel plate so I may have to switch to rubber wheels.



I liked the auto carpet stretched tight against the wood, but I thought it could use a finishing edge or lip of some sort so I stapled some weather stripping to the edges. I took special care to keep lines straight, it would've annoyed me until the end of time if it looked all sloppy.



I wanted the LEDs to reflect better off the bottom so I stripped everything off (ugh) and carefully gave it 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of glossy white.

I didn't like the PVC pipe corners strapped down with copper, thought it was too bulky and blocked too much LED light. I made some custom 3D corners in Blender and had a friend with a 3D printer bring them to life.



Here are a couple of test proofs and the final product in the center.



Gives it a more polished look than the PVC pipe corners. I think the cable management came out nicely considering how many types of wire were run.

The transparent plastic corners allow a lot more light through and the light is reflected quite a bit better with the white paint. The photos are nice, but they still don't capture how much brighter and fuller it feels this way.





FINALLY flip it over, hopefully for the last time (but I know I won't be that lucky). Got a chance to test out the console beer chiller and R2-D2 unit.

I used an electrical box for an enclosure for the three 12V 40 amp PSUs. It'll also house the JRK 12v12 motor controllers when it's complete. I've got the JRKs and some 3D printed JRK mounts (found on this site), I just haven't mounted them yet. There is also a cover for this I am still designing not shown.

I mounted this all on a piece of plywood with the matching checkered tile and some painted trim, it was nice to find a use for some of the extra I had from the floor.



Right below the box is a 120V 20 amp PDU with an L5-20 twist lock - small data center grade. I had a dedicated 20 amp circuit run for this because even if I suck at racing I can still throw money at it.

I Dremeled out an exhaust hole and found some edge trim that made for the clean look I'm shooting for. It'll eventually have a black mesh over it once I figure out the best way to attach it to the steel. The cover will also have the trim and mesh look too.



I also Dremeled out three holes in the bottom for C13 connector ON/OFF switches, one for each PSU. Bought a cheap device shelf to hold the AC/DC adapters for the RGBW LED controllers and cockpit console cigarette lighter adapter (for the aforementioned beer chiller).

A couple of misc shots of some of the planning and brainstorming.

I finally began to build the carriage for the cockpit. I used strips of aluminum from Home Depot, a drill press, a miter saw, and bunches of nuts & bolts & washers. There will be cross bracings of course, but I don't want to drill those out until I've finished the overall design (Make it functional, then reinforce).



I wanted to do some sizing before attaching the seat mount and pedals so I brought it back inside. I spent a couple of days making a very important set of decisions that would affect the placement of my fat butt for potentially thousands of hours.



The photos below are from once it was attached. Next steps are to build the wheel and shifter mounts.