DIY Ferrari 2011 Wheel

William Geuze · May 17, 2012

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:

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

arc_team · Sep 21, 2012

wgeuze said:
@modmate
Did they give you a hard time about the rotary labels even? That's just plain silly.
I know team ARC is offering the same thing actually, for 1200 euro's if I'm correct!

Terribly wrong..

wgeuze said:
But, they
are an Italian company after all...

What do you mean...?
Do you really believe Ferrari doesn't care of a comany that sell things with Ferrari logos without a license?

William Geuze · Sep 21, 2012

That it will be less hard for you guys to get a license

And no, thats not what I'm saying

William Geuze · Sep 28, 2012

Because there isn't much to do before the SLI-F1 is released, I set out to make production drawings for all buttons. All of these including the wheel frame have been sent off to be manufactured. I suspect some changes need to be made to reduce prices and technical difficulties though.

Small preview

edit:
I made an enquiry with a company which sells pre-wired Lifeline Formula style quickreleases. They can sell a wired set for 200 pounds, ex vat. I do have to connect my own wiring to the cables though, I asked for them to wire usb straight to the connectors, but I don't believe they want to do that... It's not an issue though, as I've read in the ZRoso manual, he does the exact same thing as I am planning to do, so thats a confirmation right there hehe.

Another plug for my donation page, I could really use some help in building this project!

www.wgeuze.nl/f1wheel

Kai Lohmann · Sep 28, 2012

Hey,

Those knobs are loking great, i do also want to replace mine but just figured out it will be too expensive.

William Geuze · Sep 28, 2012

I'll have knobs for the rotary switches as well, keep checking back here and hopefully I can post something in a couple of weeks!

Mr Pibb · Oct 2, 2012

For anyone looking for knobs (they can be hard to find in quanties of only one), there's a half decent selection here.

William Geuze · Oct 2, 2012

Thanks for the link

Too bad it's never close enough with thse knobs

fabien25 · Oct 3, 2012

hi one question i build too a wheel and i want to know how make you a clutch paddle whith effect hall ?how it work and how is it made thank

William Geuze · Oct 3, 2012

I wish I could speak out of experience!

The way I'm going to be using it is as follows:

The sensor to measure the magnetic field, I'll place that on the inside of the rear panel of my wheel. This is connected to the SLI-F1, which has a special input for that purpose.

The magnet, which the sensor is measuring how far away it is, I'll stick on the rear of the clutch paddle.

If everything is correct, I should be receiving values from the hall sensor (voltages converted to values). All that is left to do is make sure, you adjust the full range of the values to be consistent with the throw the paddle has

This can be done using diView.exe

Again, no experience using this yet, but I have the general idea.

fabien25 · Oct 3, 2012

ok thank you where are you from ?

fabien25 · Oct 4, 2012

another question ,in you quick release what you cable do you chose for connect the sli ? have you got a link for this please thank

William Geuze · Oct 4, 2012

No idea yet, probably a coily cable such as this one:

I'm from the Netherlands btw

fabien25 · Oct 4, 2012

i dont see the picture sorry

William Geuze · Oct 4, 2012

William Geuze · Oct 12, 2012

Still going strong.. finished working on the last part to be equal to the original wheel

Waiting on quotes for parts, exciting!

Kai Lohmann · Oct 13, 2012

Fantastic looks!

William Geuze · Oct 31, 2012

Manufacturing the levers is still a pain, not a single company can be bothered. DIY cnc guys only want to route out simple flat shapes because that's easy to do...

On a brighter note, the first paypal donation came in today! With it I can pay the custom knobs I'm having 3d printed, I hope to receive the first prototype next week for review

If I like it, I'll order two sets of knobs and reinforce them later with epoxy, weighing them down and making them more sturdy, resistant to use and smooth finished.

As for any leads of having parts manufactured, either local or foreign, are much appreciated!

The donation page can be found here: www.wgeuze.nl/f1wheel

William Geuze · Oct 31, 2012

Well that was awkward, to my surprise the prototypes came in today already!

But when I opened the envelope, I saw two tiny knobs :S I figured something must have gone wrong so I checked my measurements with the prototypes, they were spot on... I've increased dimensions on them now, but if it wasn't for the actual measurements on the display where I based my scale off of, I would be scaling everything up big time! This is a bit strange but luckily when reviewing the youtube video of the guy explaining the wheels functions, everything is actually quite small. But these knobs did made me think... if I could only have the case for the SLI-F1, that would be enough even for me to continue and fix remaining issues!