Hi All, Just in the process of building a simulator and thought it may be worth joining for some tips and advice. Im using a Logitech G27 as the basis but am trying something a little more ambitious than most....... About 10 years ago, I bought a shell and ever since, its been sitting in the shed. I had previously cut the front off and also the back, but that's about as far as I had got. So here is a bit of a build thread so far (photo heavy): 1. Put a sleeve over the driveshafts to keep them off the ground and allowing them to free spin. 2. Built an extension for the steering column, positioned a couple of bearings on it. Added a couple of cross-members and bolted the bearings down using power steering rack brackets (see below). The idea is to mount this shaft to a logitech G27 steering wheel,but instead of using the steering wheel on the unit, will be using the real steering wheel. 3. Built the interface for the Logitech wheel. 4. Here is the steering wheel fitted. 5. Here is the gearstick sitting in place. Still have to build a base to support it though. 6. Gear Shifter is bolted in. Because the stock manual shifter is cable driven and there is no gearbox, I couldnt use the stock shifter. Looked into it, but as the shifter doesnt stick to a H pattern when there isnt a gearbox attached, there is no easy way to make it remote control the Logitech shifter unit. 7. Have got the pedals sorted. This has taken quite a bit of work and no small amount of engineering. Happy with the accelerator pedal as that feels about right, but the clutch needs a little more resistance and the brake pedal needs a lot more. 9. Samsung 40" monitor. Windscreen is removable - just using it to stop the dust. 10. Some extra springs to stiffen up the clutch and brake and a shelf for the wheel. 11. 20 Amp regulated power supply. 12. And lights...... Stereo is now working (although I still need to wire in the rear speakers). Havent tested the setup yet, but got a 2nd hand PS3 in the post today....
Thanks. Will get a better pic of the interior when I have it all together. Think im going to have an issue not having the steering wheel gear change though. I had to sacrifice that when I put the G27 wheel in the engine bay. Might have to find a universal quick-shift and try and wire that in.
well at the moment that wheel will not work on ps4 so that narrows it down. If you can still set the shifter to sequential the I would think any game is possible. Could you move the buttons from the wheel to the wheel in the cockpit? could use them as paddles if you map them in game...get some real paddles that when you pull them, push the button mounted behind the wheel or some such jazz... also same thing for handbrake maybe? while I am thinking about this, in gt6 there are buttons for wipers and lights...so some more button mapping maybe to the stalks? twist the lights on, which holds down the lights button...flick the wipers up to turn on/off wipers button
I attempted the handbrake mod yesterday, but the soldering iron I have is too big and was too hot as well, so ended up backing out. Might have to pay someone with a proper setup to do the job. Wouldnt mind an external interface to all the buttons. That way I can map them to actual switches on the car. Now that is interesting
cheers. At the moment the dash lights up and I have the stereo working. Climate control knobs work as well. Havent tried getting main dials to move yet. The speedo and tacho would be very difficult though as they are a mix of gear/load and accelerator. Things like fuel gauge/temp gauge should be fairly easy to set to a set position. Volt meter is reading properly and clock works as well.
Time for an update.Me and the son have been using it fora few weeks now and have the feel pretty good.Very happy with the result. So, onto the next thing. Climate control and electric windows now working (no heat/cold obviously). Built in some 150kg linear actuators into the strut towers. These actvate directly off the steering column. I havent been able to test these properly yet as I managed to burn one out due to the pressure in the springs. Have rebuilt it, but need to build in a protection circuit to reduce the throw. Anyway, Here are some updated pics: