Updated 12/9/2013.
I have been lurking on here for a while now but never had anything worth posting but now I do, so I figured I should do a build thread.
I've been drifting on gt5 for a while now and it was starting to feel a little stagnant, like I couldn't get any more out of the game, then it dawned on me, get a wheel!
I bought a g27 about a month ago for $169. from Catchoftheday.com and set about building a rig, however I was so keen to just start using it that the rig I made was a rush job and annoying to use which meant starting over.
This process repeated 4 more times before I decided to just do it properly.
This is my inspiration..
...My track car.
So I went out to the shed and measured everything, seat height, seat position, pedal height, shifter length and throw, everything! Then set about collecting all the bits, including an s13 dash and center console just to feel right at home.
I used a cheap set of modular shelves that resembled a big meccano set as a base so they could be adjusted as I built it and and it's also going to need to come apart at some point.
I reverse mounted the pedals to a board using chillicoke's tutorial, (cheers mate!) and mounted the board under the shelves.
I grabbed a spare bride race seat and GKtech steering wheel from my garage and started putting it all together...
I extended the shifter by 40mm with a thin bolt and made an adapter plate for the wheel but stupidly offset the holes. My wheel is currently sitting dead straight at 1 o'clock so I black taped the yellow leather centering ring and made a new ring with yellow tape. This will be remedied with an adapter plate that's on it's way from Derek Speare.
Next on the list was a good handbrake so I explored all the possibilities, I knew I wanted the handbrake hard wired but I wasn't keen on pulling apart the shifter. At the same time I also wanted a button box but it would defeat the purpose if I couldn't find one with a "home" button. A third issue arose during assembly in the form of a giant gaping hole in front of the shifter that's usually occupied by a stereo.
3 birds - 1 stone!
I received a crash course on how electricity works from my friend who is an electrician and went and bought supplies; a cheap ps3 controller, soldering iron, solder, wire and some buttons.
This is what I came up with...
The missile/ignition switch isn't connected to anything yet, it will eventually be used for lighting or something. I flush mounted the analogue sticks so they could still be used and the "X" button has an extra pair of wires leading off to the handbrake where they also make a connection.
It's still a work in progress but atleast it's now usable.
Sorry about the poor Ipad pics, ill take better cam pics when I can.
UPDATE 12/9/2013
I have since rebuilt my rig from the ground up, I wanted something a little more portable so I can throw it in my ute and take it to a mates house and LAN.
MK.VI as I refer to it, consists of 3 pieces and is designed to be light and portable without compromising rigidity, the main aim was to have the smallest footprint possible.
The whole rig connects together using no tools at all.
-The floor base, which houses the pedals and wheel unit.
-The seat base, which houses the shifter and handbrake.
One piece fits inside the other and it looks like this
With the seat clicked in.
I swapped the genuine Bride Brix for a fake Bride Brix 1.5 that has lower side bolsters and is generally a little more comfortable (and about a tenth of the price!).
I have since remade the handbrake and tapped it into the "O" button on the shifter.
I've extended the shifter to 330mm long, I work in hardware and I always keep an eye out for little feature pieces I can use, I now have a glass shift knob that is actually a bathroom drawer handle.
Another small project I have been working on is a scratch built sequential shifter, like most things I make I try to over engineer everything for the worst case scenario (Drunk mate wanting a go thinking he's Daigo Saito), this shifts the same with a hard open palmed shove as it does with the tip of your little finger.
It has an amazing feel to it and i'm very proud of its simplicity.
This is tapped into the paddles.
I am currently designing and engineering a gated H-pattern shifter using the circuitry from a G27 shifter, with the amount of time and research i'm putting into this i'm expecting to even dazzle myself, this I feel shall be my crowning achievement.
My G27 has just bitten the dust after 14 months of absolute abuse, i've opened it up and tried every common fault and many that aren't so common and I just can't get it to respond.
So i'm at a crossroads, I had planned on re-engineering the G27 into belt driven and generally beefing it up, and now is a good opportunity since I need to buy another one,
But..
I was also considering upgrading to a t500 and th8rs and was wondering if there is anyone out there (specifically drifters) that have upgraded from a G27 to a t500rs and if so, how was the adjustment and was the upgrade worth it?
Bearing in mind that I only play Gran Turismo and I only really drift.
I have been lurking on here for a while now but never had anything worth posting but now I do, so I figured I should do a build thread.
I've been drifting on gt5 for a while now and it was starting to feel a little stagnant, like I couldn't get any more out of the game, then it dawned on me, get a wheel!
I bought a g27 about a month ago for $169. from Catchoftheday.com and set about building a rig, however I was so keen to just start using it that the rig I made was a rush job and annoying to use which meant starting over.
This process repeated 4 more times before I decided to just do it properly.
This is my inspiration..
...My track car.
So I went out to the shed and measured everything, seat height, seat position, pedal height, shifter length and throw, everything! Then set about collecting all the bits, including an s13 dash and center console just to feel right at home.
I used a cheap set of modular shelves that resembled a big meccano set as a base so they could be adjusted as I built it and and it's also going to need to come apart at some point.
I reverse mounted the pedals to a board using chillicoke's tutorial, (cheers mate!) and mounted the board under the shelves.
I grabbed a spare bride race seat and GKtech steering wheel from my garage and started putting it all together...
I extended the shifter by 40mm with a thin bolt and made an adapter plate for the wheel but stupidly offset the holes. My wheel is currently sitting dead straight at 1 o'clock so I black taped the yellow leather centering ring and made a new ring with yellow tape. This will be remedied with an adapter plate that's on it's way from Derek Speare.
Next on the list was a good handbrake so I explored all the possibilities, I knew I wanted the handbrake hard wired but I wasn't keen on pulling apart the shifter. At the same time I also wanted a button box but it would defeat the purpose if I couldn't find one with a "home" button. A third issue arose during assembly in the form of a giant gaping hole in front of the shifter that's usually occupied by a stereo.
3 birds - 1 stone!
I received a crash course on how electricity works from my friend who is an electrician and went and bought supplies; a cheap ps3 controller, soldering iron, solder, wire and some buttons.
This is what I came up with...
The missile/ignition switch isn't connected to anything yet, it will eventually be used for lighting or something. I flush mounted the analogue sticks so they could still be used and the "X" button has an extra pair of wires leading off to the handbrake where they also make a connection.
It's still a work in progress but atleast it's now usable.
Sorry about the poor Ipad pics, ill take better cam pics when I can.
UPDATE 12/9/2013
I have since rebuilt my rig from the ground up, I wanted something a little more portable so I can throw it in my ute and take it to a mates house and LAN.
MK.VI as I refer to it, consists of 3 pieces and is designed to be light and portable without compromising rigidity, the main aim was to have the smallest footprint possible.
The whole rig connects together using no tools at all.
-The floor base, which houses the pedals and wheel unit.
-The seat base, which houses the shifter and handbrake.
One piece fits inside the other and it looks like this
With the seat clicked in.
I swapped the genuine Bride Brix for a fake Bride Brix 1.5 that has lower side bolsters and is generally a little more comfortable (and about a tenth of the price!).
I have since remade the handbrake and tapped it into the "O" button on the shifter.
I've extended the shifter to 330mm long, I work in hardware and I always keep an eye out for little feature pieces I can use, I now have a glass shift knob that is actually a bathroom drawer handle.
Another small project I have been working on is a scratch built sequential shifter, like most things I make I try to over engineer everything for the worst case scenario (Drunk mate wanting a go thinking he's Daigo Saito), this shifts the same with a hard open palmed shove as it does with the tip of your little finger.
It has an amazing feel to it and i'm very proud of its simplicity.
This is tapped into the paddles.
I am currently designing and engineering a gated H-pattern shifter using the circuitry from a G27 shifter, with the amount of time and research i'm putting into this i'm expecting to even dazzle myself, this I feel shall be my crowning achievement.
My G27 has just bitten the dust after 14 months of absolute abuse, i've opened it up and tried every common fault and many that aren't so common and I just can't get it to respond.
So i'm at a crossroads, I had planned on re-engineering the G27 into belt driven and generally beefing it up, and now is a good opportunity since I need to buy another one,
But..
I was also considering upgrading to a t500 and th8rs and was wondering if there is anyone out there (specifically drifters) that have upgraded from a G27 to a t500rs and if so, how was the adjustment and was the upgrade worth it?
Bearing in mind that I only play Gran Turismo and I only really drift.
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