Servo FFB wheel.

[Chomp]

Hi guys, I made a thread in another section but possibly not the right section or no interest in this I thought I would put it here as well as I see wheel discussions are happening here, not in the hardware section..

I ordered parts to build a servo wheel a couple of weeks ago and yesterday did my first with it. It is awesome, I came from a fanatec gt3 wheel.

The amount of force it can generate compared to other wheels. For example, I think a fantec CSW was around 5NM force and this one will peak 25NM.

Driving cars around using the full forces at the wheel that a real driver would have is kind of neat, and not just a gimmick, I think it helps.

Here is a picture before it was mounted, gives you an idea of what it is, a big industrial servo with a rim connected

I will make an offer to people in auckland who have been around the forums for a while to give it a go if it is something you may be interested in doing for yourself. At this point the only thing on the market similar is the leo bodnar simsteering wheel, costing about $6000nzd landed, ouch.




If you are interested so see what they look like going, here is another guy that built one showing it

https://player.vimeo.com/video/111744407
https://player.vimeo.com/video/111744408

[Chomp]

I know there is not a lot of interest but I will post anyway I have had mine working for a while now and I am more than happy with it. It certainly is in a different league from anything that is not direct drive.

I would certainly encourage anyone thinking of spending a good amount on a wheel upgrade to have a think about doing one of these. A lot of people have done them now, lots with no experience with electronics etc but it is not that difficult to put together. You would finally get the wheel knowing that there isnt going to be another one that you want to upgrade to.

[BK]

Looks very impressive.

I would love to upgrade to something like this... but had to buy a house instead

[Hugh]

it is pretty sweet... did you take any step by step/progress photos of your build?

[Chomp]

It's expensive compared to an off the shelf wheel but not nearly as expensive as a bodnar servo that would cost about $6500 to get here.

Depending on how you did it you could put one together for $1500 which isnt a huge amount more than a thrustmaster or CSW, considering you are getting the kind of wheel in professional simulators it's a good deal.

Hugh, here are a few pics to see what was involved. Basically add a QR system on to the shaft of the motor.. From then bolt on any wheel with a standard 50 or 70mm bolt pattern. Can be fancy or not, I converted a fanatec wheel to use and am building another.

For the controller you have four off the shelf components you need to wire together. A couple you need to flash with software using a procedure similar to updating the firmware on your existing wheels.
I dont have a pic of my internals on hand but here is someone elses for now, just mounted on a wooden board just to show what is involved. Blue item is servo driver, yellow is a big resistor, silver is a 24V PSU and the green board is a $24 development board that you flash with the FFB firmware to make it look like a FFB controller in windows.





turn on power and drive

[Peroxide]

Is that $1,500 including shipping and GST etc?

Or raw parts price?

Could be a cheaper solution than the Accuforce, and a higher quality one.