My setup changes during off season

[David Turnbull]

thought id make a small (very large) post about the changes ive made to my setup during the off season, last season i managed to upgrade to a triple monitor setup and it helped me no end, but i thought id try some other things out on the cheap

first i made a nixim style brake mod, from a 2cm piece of rubber, i added this to the inside of the spring in the brake pedal and filled the rest of the spring with soft foam, it now feels like a progressive brake pedal like in a car, its spongy at the top until you get to the hard rubber then it gives resistance, now i dont lock up anywhere near as much and i can use 100% brake pressure.

second mod i made was to my pedals again, i made small wedges to go behind the top screws of the brake and accel pedal of my g25, now they are near vertical, i have my pedals laying on the floor so they were always tilted quite a bit back but now their more like racing pedals, it makes throttle control much easier.

third is to my wheel iteself, ive never been happy with the loss of so many buttons after my g27 gave up on me, thankfully i had the g25 but the button loss was a big problem, so i made a wheel plate from old scrap plastic and and old pc joypad, i now i have 8 buttons on my wheel and plan to add 2 more and an sli-race for the gearshift led's and the gear indicators, heres some pics of it so far.........

no laughing at the rusty knife lol only one i could find laying about and i did say this was all done on the cheap


adding circuit board from old pad


mounting buttons


internals


the behind when attached


the front when attached

its still got 2 more buttons to be added, the rotaries at the bottom are actually buttons made to look like rotaries, once ive added the last buttons ill strip it, give it a couple coats of paint, reassemble and wait till i can afford an sli lol

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Nice work in the end, looks awful at first but turns out really nice looking. Good use of space around/inside the wheel, i may have to copy that (i have a usb joystick that is waiting for disassembly, havent found a box/board for the switches yet, after that i can decide whether it need to be attached to steering column..)...

I did my pedal angle change some time ago, my ankles (and what ever muscle that is in the front of the leg, tibialis anterior says anatomy picture ), thanked. I moved the whole unit to get better angle.. Rubber "stoppers" are essential, doesn't it feel nice now in the 90-100% range? My foam keeps getting flattened but i have so much resistance added to the mechanism compared to original that i can't use so stiff materials anyway, have to sacrifice a bit from 90-100 range for better control in the 40-90 range. The rubber stopper and single spring is a nice combo, proven to be effective.

 

[David Turnbull]

i used the rubber from an exhaust hanger if you know what that is?

its hard black rubber mounts that hold your exhaust to the bottom of your car, i cant see it deteriorating very quickly but ill keep you informed.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I use one from carpenters kneepad now, it should last better. It hasn't got the right material characteristics but i keep searching.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

What do you plan to use the various buttons for?

Mine (6 buttons) are look left, look right, look behind, clutch (aka launch control), tear off and pit radio. In addition I can change brake bias with my gear stick (momo) and toggle pit speed limiter with space bar.

 

[Jonas Lex]

my momo wheel is set like this:
buttons:
up left clutch
up right ignition
mid left pit limiter
mid right starter
down left look left
down right look right
gear stick push pit menu
gear stick pull pit request
tear off is # and brake bias is ü and ä (only germans will know where those buttons are )
and I set the pitmenu with arrowkeys and enter
I think thats all

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Mine are:
Left side from top:
starter, tear, look back
Right side:
Clutch, pit request, pit limiter
On stick i have neutral on push and reverse gear on pull.
On joystick i have pitmenu on missile control (top of the stick, no need to look), three buttons on the case: camera, brake balance +/- (plus i can fly with the joystick, pretty nice when recording replays..)
I wish to get "look left/right" to the wheel and brake balance closer to it, in to no-need-to-look zone (i don't need to look now but in need to search=feel around a bit for the right buttons..). If i can have stationary buttons for pit request and limiter i can have "look left/right" on the wheel and brake balance to some place where i don't need to search for it. The more there is dedicated buttons/switches, the better. Keyboard is awful, you most likely have to look at it (unless you get really creative where the keyboard is..)

But then again, i'm thinking of getting a keypad for FPS games, that would bring all those missing buttons very close...

One nice thing about joysticks, they have few analog inputs (in the form of of pots..) and working drivers/hardware.. Good for any kind of non FFB inputs, like clutch.. or any kind of pedal/knob, for that matter.. My 1€ driftstore joystick has 4 analogue channels and something in the range of 13 digital ones (could be 12, makes sense...), nice electronics for DIY projects...

 

[Henrik Jordfald Olsen]

Wow, realize that I have much to do if I want a good setup.
I guess everything would work much the same with a wireless gamepad.

Thank you for sharing David, really inspiring.
Maybe I will have a go at this.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I did some controller setting tweaks. Mainly to FFB sensitivity, i dropped it back to default and similarly took the compensation from the previous sensitivity off, ie dropped steering force to default 1.00 (= 100%). I got litlle bit more articulation to the center of the wheel while the effect is now linear towards the edges. Previously i sacrificed a bit from the center to get better range during turn in but i has known masking problems then. What i found was that the old habit over overturning the wheel while in a understeer preventing early power-on... When i loose grip, i turn more, exceeding the maximum slip angle of the tire thus creating even worse understeer (last longer....) and if i try to correct it with throttle, the steering input is in such steep angle that there really is no grip left for both rear wheels, inner one them starts to spin sop i have to either apply brakes or release throttle... I know from past that this problem slowly goes away but i need some extra laps to get the right feeling back. Extra laps with heavy fuel load too.. Basically doubling the hours..

That's why i said in the general thread that feeling a bit of pressure now, i have two weeks to file it down. Don't know when this have crept back, could be even in the last races of the season, i noticed some drop in pace... By taking things more smoothly i could do the same lap times as before but with less effort and less scary situations.

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Hi thought i would show you guys what ive done with my rig during off season up to now just got 4th monitor fitted i moved monitors onto rig a while ago now to.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Sweet!

I see what you did to decrease bevels, clever.. Is the difference in distance noticeable while driving between the screens? Like if you look at the left edge of middle sceen and then continue to look further to the left screen, does the step in distance bother? If not, that's really good news, don't need to find a screen with superslim bevels.. There's a lot of cheap second hand 22-24" monitors that have little bit thicker borders, just need to find one that's thinner around the edges.

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Ye it works fine you dont even notice, i just setup bezel adjustment sitting in seat, so your view straight on is all lined up there was a slight difference on straight lines top to bottom like it was lined up at bottom and looking up you would see line gradually get gap upto to top of monitor but you have to adjust angle slightly so its square to your eye position.
It takes abit of getting used to when driving no look to apex and having to move your head more, corners feel longer, track ups and downs looks like more change in elevation.
Its great fun thats for sure with 3 after a while youu forget bezels are even there, so even bigger bezels i wouldnt worry

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

That's good news, those thin border screens do rack up more cash. Those 24" second hand office monitors could be a salvation to many.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Yesterday I did a stint with a few guys, and when I went on track I noticed that my right monitor was black / not working. Drats I thought, but there was no time to correct it.

After half a lap i forgot about it and din't notice again until 5 min after the race. (I guess this means that when you are focused you only look at the middle screen. My side screens are for noticing someone comming up my side -> safety)