Hello to everyone, here is a quick note before you read further. If you don't have an open mind, if you can't look outside of the box, if you think you know it all and have never done it and have a love affair with a gamepad, DON'T READ ON !!!
So let's get started, a little history behind my thinking my help you understand that this is not my first system, in fact I have lost count on how many I have made. I built my first controller, or rather made my first controller conversion back in 1983 for a bike racing game on a Commodore 64 with an Atari joystick, remember the old square thing with a stick and 2 buttons?, well you might not be as old as me, but that was high tech in its time. I've built so many steering system starting with the old bungee cord for centering you name it, ive basically done it. The only thing I have never gotten into is FFB (Force Feed Back) , as it has a cost factor to it.
Onto basic concepts. First and foremost, have you ever ridden a motorbike? If you have then you know the physics involved in riding down the road and taking a corner, if you have not ridden then you wont know!!! In order to build a system that EVERYONE can use and not just those that have ridden you have to take that into account, plus, how old are you? is everyone that will use this system the same age with the same knowledge? NO!!! To design a system that will allow the real rider to enjoy and have his fun, it must also be useable by a 12 year old who has never ridden!!! The original prototype was tested with a 7 year old girl who had never ridden a bicycle and she learned the basics in riding within half an hour. Our systems are as much for the real racer as a learner. My son died on his bike (December 5th 2005 RIP Koni), aged 18 after he hit an oil patch. He was on a Ducati and knew how to ride it, but maybe he might have had more of a chance if he had played around on a good bike game or simulation and learnt how to react a bit quicker in a certain situation, I will never know, but I intend to give the chance to everyone, to maybe learn from scratch, or learn just a little bit more in the safety of the home. I am a fanatic and love my simulations, but have ridden for over 36 years ( 7 as a professional medical courier ) and still don't know it all.
ON THE ROAD VERSUS IN A ROOM
To really understand the reality of designing a control system for use on a computer thats sitting stationary in a room, you need to understand what physics are involved in the real world. In a room the only force of nature you really have while sitting still is gravity, in the real world when you ride you can add momentum, velocity, centrifugal, friction, drag, thrust and more, I am not a scientist, but in a room, all other physics are lost, they don't exist and therefore you have to practically leave them out of the equation in the design of a static control system. If you have $10,000 no problem I can build you a system to simulate movement, but I am talking about a system for everyone.
PROGRAM CODING AND REAL MOVEMENT
This is a very important point. Today's programmers have more controllers than ever to write code to allow them to integrate with a program, BUT, they still mainly program for silly gamepads when it comes to bike games and simulations, WTF!!! they can code for ALL kinds of input but DONT!!! So now we have a game/sim that is coded to the movement of a little joystick that moves 10mm in one direction at the most, measure the movement of a bike thats standing straight while going in a straight line, you come to a curve and crank the bike over, it's about 600mm of movement measured from the top of the headstem, as you go through the curve.
Using a gamepad means very quick movement, but takes away the ability for small control movements, no sensitivity. There are so many out there that I have seen ride with a keyboard or gamepad and are amazing, but they spend their whole life and maybe sleep with the dang thing, it's not natural. Programs are simply coded wrong (GPBikes and MX Simulator excluded), even in these modern times. So to the real point, if you want to steer a bike with a controller as you would on a real bike, you would be steering through a near horizontal axis, depending on the rake of the headstem, and would be giving counter-steering pressure on the handlebars, meaning, you put pressure on the right side of the bars to go left, how much? 10mm, 15mm in movement if that, well if you only use a gamepad with a joystick that is 10mm high, thats fine, but now do it with a set of real handlebars, you would have an over sensitive scenario due to program coding and to be honest you can't do it, it's so sensitive you just could not ride. It is possible using loadcells to replicate pressure, but gets expensive and is boring as there is practically no movement while riding in a game/sim, I know, I tried it and its BORING. Does a rider just sit upright? NO!!! A rider leans a bike with the body, weight transition is a natural movement while riding, if you ride, think about it, as you counter-steer, you automatically lean the top of your body into the curve, your foot on that side is pressing against the foot peg, now try to replicate that with 10mm of movement on a gamepad, it sucks. With all these points and after testing so many ways to replicate all of these points into steering design, the southern-pendulum system is the only way you can combine, lean, sensitivity and feeling in one axis. Many who have simply looked at any of the videos I have made, have done just that, looked, you need to look, study and think. When I ride on my systems and come to a right curve, I push left with my right arm, I lean with the bars to the right and use my body weight to move the bars, not my arms. I pivot the top of my body from the bottom of my spine, as I would on a real bike. If I put the pivot point of the handlebars in the center of the yolk I would not be moving naturally, my wrists would have to twist in an unnatural angle. Using the southern-pendulum system, I keep my wrists in a natural riding position. At the end of the day, that means all of you that critic my system for not being counter-steering have got it wrong.
SYSTEM CONTROLS AND BUTTONS
IASystems controllers have full high resolution analog controls for:
Steering
Throttle
Front Brake
Rear Brake
Clutch
Our motherboard allows an additional 3 analog axis which on certain systems are used for body movement, but can be customized to the customers wishes. We can provide up to 32 digital switches/buttons and an 8 position POV Hat. IASystems controllers connect by USB cable and need no additional software with most programs. Unfortunately, every game made by Milestone/Blackbean, which are the SBK and MotoGP Series are programmed only for silly gamepads need to have a Joy2Key file and XBox360 file set placed in the game folder, these are supplied and take only a few minutes to transfer from the included DVD. Potentiometers for braking can be replaced with loadcells but at substantial cost as this is still in testing and involves far more work. We are also moving onto using Accelerometers and Gyros for rider control in the near future.
SYSTEM PHYSICAL DESIGNS
IASystems has no limitations on the physical design of a system. All systems are hand built and can be custom designed and built to your specifications. IASystems controllers are not toys, every system is designed to take the punishment a real bike would get on the road in real life. Unlike a car steering wheel, handlebars receive up to 200 times the physical forces placed upon them. Whether your 100lb or 400lb the IASystems controllers are made to take it. IASystems can also offer a system with full fairing, gas tank, tail piece from Sharkskins for certain models, or if you send us yours we will fabricate all mounting brackets.
IF YOU WANT IT WE CAN BUILD IT
I hope this helps you all understand where IASystems is coming from. Our goal is to change the motorcycle gaming/ simulation world into an equal of the car gaming/simulation world. This means offering a controller that people want and getting the software houses to start writing code for real
controls and not toys. We can only do this with your support. It is our time now, so let's do it
"Keep it sunny side up"
Allan J P Beaton
