DIY Ferrari 2011 Wheel

At this point in time I'm in the research phase for my future DIY project. I have never done anything like this, and I'm certainly no handy man. You think this sounds weird? Wait till you read what I want to do...

In short, this is what I want to build:
Ferrari-Replica-Steering-Wheel.jpg

Features:
Leo Bodnar SLI-Pro
Shifter paddles
Clutch paddles
Hall effect sensors for clutch (Allegro A1302)
Microswitches for shifters (???)
12 rotary switches
3 regular switches
10 (knitter) pushbuttons (only if I can strike a deal)
Quick release
2 layers of Carbon fibre shell
glass fibre cast
rubber grips

I will create my own CAD drawings, guestimating measurements, with the help from some known sizes, and my own 3d model made for my 3D portfolio.

Estimated cost: €450,-

Yes, this might seem way out of my league for someone who has no experience with this stuff at all. Because it is. But I'm a stubborn bastard and I would love to do this. There isn't a single product on the market which suits me for an affordable price. Buying a Thrustmaster and adjusting that still sucks, since thats costs about 500 without the SLI-Pro and buttons added, and it basically is a plastic toy still..

For now, I have the following questions:
- According to Bodnars' website, the hall effect sensor can be connected directly to the SLI-pro, is this true?
- Is it expensive to have moulds routed/cnc-ed?
- Which microswitches for the shifters? What about the mounting, no idea how just yet.
- Is the quick release worth my money?
- Is it possible to route all wires through the steering wheel/colum into the steering wheel base?
- I will be in the market for a new steering wheel base, Im still using an old Momo Racing. second hand g27?

Any feedback, opinion, help etc, is much appreciated.


edit:
Before I forget, any plans, templates, files I create, will be free to use by the community :) Im just not responsible for any mistakes in them :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Worked on the first version of the complete mold for the rear today, totally crap! These shapes, horrible. At some point I really asked myself what the hell am I doing here...

Anyway, creating a mold with just glassfibre and resin sucks big time if you're not experienced.
Luckily, I know carbonmods.co.uk has a brilliant set for it. The problem a bit is, that I'm moving the problem along but atleast with their set we can get a perfect mold. Right now, this sucks monkeyballs... I'll see what the result looks like tomorrow, but I'm afraid it won't be good....

edit:
http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Products/Carbon-Fibre-Mould-Making-Kit__CMMMK750.aspx

Just ordered this great kit. As I've said I'm just postponing my problem a bit, but atleast it will give us a great base to work from. As my brother said, if anything, we can use the mold with another material if we fail miserably at the carbon fibre. If anyone has tips and tricks for the difficult shapes, please share them, as this is really difficult and expensive to mess with :)

The other side of the story though. I never expected to have the milled parts look as good as they do. With the coming molds using proper materials from carbonmods, that too will look great. Then it is only the last step in the production process that can go wrong really, all the important work up to that point has been finished and exceeded my expectations. I'm just quite frustrated that I'm so close to producing the first parts and seeing that fail, for now.

Something else. My brother is sick and tired of waiting on the SLI-F1. What we will do is start building a GT type wheel on the side using an off the shelf wheel, a 300mm momo wheel if I'm correct, and fit it with an SLI-Pro. This way we can already work on the scripting using SLI-Max manager and will also be able to upload it so it will be available for testing. More on this side project later, but we really need to get going on the electronical side of things as well to catch up with the rest of production. As ever, (pre)production is slow... but once we get the molds done, and I finally figure out how to create the parts how I like them, I realy hope to produce several, if only to get my ever growing R&D costs back. At this point, I could already purchase a Fanatec CSW with those alone...

edit:
This sucks, trashed the entire back of the wheel :( This means re-milling, again...
 
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Might have a go at vacuuforming the front pretty soon, seen if that works in a non-destructive manner ;) All new rear is going to be milled the coming weeks, if only I could start getting the first prototype together!

Anyway, because of the luxury problem we will have, quick release on the wheel, g27 shifters will be way too far to reach. Here is the design I'm working on to build within the next weeks :)
egd9aa.jpg

egpsa8.jpg


edit:
The material for this is bought as 1 sheet of premanufactured carbon fibre. I'm just plotting it out on the sheet, but I do have space left. This material is a bit too expensive to just throw away. On the first sheet I have space left, 82 mm x 36mm. Unless I find use for it, if somebody needs a piece, send me a pm with the design you want to have cut out. I'll be needing a second sheet as well later so there will probably be another chance to have some carbon cut :)
 
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It's sad, but its another alternative though. I think the guys in Leo Bodnar have their hands full with the sim wheel instead. May be they think it will be a bigger market, but at least they have to finished some overdue projects first. It's not been a good reputation for their name, may be they just don't care! Really piss me off!! :mad:
 
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If I had to choose to develop something for and with professionals I'd do that too, cause that pays the bills in the end of the day. As a user of the product though, it is very frustrating indeed... The SLI-Pro will arrive today or tomorrow so we will start working on the scripting today or tomorrow :p

This week the material for vacuuforming will arrive as well and can hopefully do a test next week, if my contact responds to emails that is.

edit:
I guess the polystyreen stuff, or whatever it is, arrived :X
2liwl1v.jpg


edit2:
And these supplies :)
jrp2xu.jpg
 
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The shifter unit for the regular wheels has been fabricated, I'll assembly it during the weekend opefully :)
1ongqg.jpg


We're also working on a small prototype board for the display (Pro and F1) and I've hopefully finished the clutch already. We had some ideas about scripting and stuff, but in the end, I found an image online somewhere where they had just literally soldered the two potentiometers together at all the connections. This way, all the 'work' is done before any other component comes in to play so there should be 0 chance of them failing. The only thing which will require some tweaking, is getting the same rotational values on both in means of calibration. Ideally, calibrating one should calibrate them both, but this will need some looking into for me.

Some news on the vacuform front, this process is postponed by two weeks. The upside of that though, is that in the meantime, all the milled stuff I destroyed can be re-fabricated and delivered to me, so we can get everything through the machine in two weeks. I really can't wait to work on the first glassfibre cast :D

edit:
this was the exact image :)


@Zappadoc
if you read this, I heard you were looking for me.
 
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It will look like the actual part, not something else :)
Thumbnail-PCU-6D.png


Saturday I'll get to vaccuform all the parts,hopefully that will result in proper molds. Again, if there is anyone here with experience and info concerning glassfibre construction, I'm happy to learn tricks of the trade as I've already seen it's quite difficult! Now the actual molds will be done soon it will be easier this time around working in a concave surface vs a convex one (hopefully). Anyway, still anxious about that part, if I can't get the flassfibre/carbonfibre part right that's a real dealbreaker, it just has to work out..
 
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It will look like the actual part, not something else :)
Thumbnail-PCU-6D.png


Saturday I'll get to vaccuform all the parts,hopefully that will result in proper molds. Again, if there is anyone here with experience and info concerning glassfibre construction, I'm happy to learn tricks of the trade as I've already seen it's quite difficult! Now the actual molds will be done soon it will be easier this time around working in a concave surface vs a convex one (hopefully). Anyway, still anxious about that part, if I can't get the flassfibre/carbonfibre part right that's a real dealbreaker, it just has to work out..


William

There is another company out of Spain working on a display based on the PCU-6D above, which as we all know is the same display that the SLI-F1 is based on.I believe it's worth investigating. I actually had opened up a thread on the subject, but it was removed by the moderators on the grounds of advertising, which was never the intention. I will send you a message with the link.
 
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Yeah that's what he meant, kind of making a point of not posting this since it got removed before ;)

I did find something about the display which doesn't help, and that is that only 4 rotary switches are supported, while I need 5. I contacted them anyway so maybe something can be figured out.

Tomorrow morning all parts will be vaccuformed, can't wait for the results! Hopefully those can be used directly as molds for the first glassfibre prototype!
 
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Well, the vaccuform did go so-so, only the front worked out..
Went to work on that straight as I got out of bed this morning and the glassfibre is curing as we speak.
2na61oz.jpg

All in all though, I have little hope this comes out well. If that is the case, I'm starting to feel glass- and carbonfibre are no longer an option building this at home. I might have to start looking at alternatives.. A hard silicone for example which I can simply line the molds with and extract when hardened.

All of this stuff is taking bites out of my motivation and I'm also sick and tired of spending money just to throw the stuff away...
 
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I was quite anxious yesterday, since the shapes of this front piece are quite hard to get right without some form of vaccum equipment and and oven to bake it when it's vaccuum. However, when I tore up yes another mold, clearly vacuuform plastic isn't strong enough, I was very pleasantly surprised. There are some airpockets here and there, but I think that is just due technique. Spending more time on massaging those out, and keep working it well after the laster has been put on. As the resin is hardening it tends to 'pull' a bit apparently. All in all, one panel will be be a days' job..
34rcff9.jpg


I'm not confident enough to start purchasing carbon fibre yet, but now I know these shapes can in fact be constructed I'm at least confident that if I refine my skills with this, which I never had in the first place, this can look quite good without the airpockets. Also, this is just 2 layers of glassfibre and the strength of the piece surprised me! Maybe with an additional 2 I wouldn't even mind bolting this thing on a servo driven wheel :)

All in all this basically turned my frown upside down. I was afraid the areas around the grips would be neigh impossible to do properly and had to devise a way to get around those and what do you know, it actually works as intended. And that on the first time around, that is a freaking first in this project!
 
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wonderful! just a small suggestion, have you thought of applying the carbon fiber on top of the fiberglass? increase a little shock resistance (since the fiberglass it breaks quite easily) And also It gives him a more realistic look
 
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That is the final purpose indeed, but for now I don't want to spend money on this expensive material yet, not until I know what the heck I'm doing and get the results as I want them without flaws. This has just to do with getting more experience in this, as I have never done this before, this was the first actually piece I ever done apart from one mold as a test.
 
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