Project: F1 Steering Wheel (WIP) input welcomed :)

[Devil_Dog]

I finally decided to go ahead with a project I've been wanting to do for some time now. Building myself an F1 wheel. I pretty much know what I want but could also use some guidance as well for some things. Mainly the electronics. So I will be building this starting with the electronics layout and will build the wheel around that so to say.

The wheel will be attached to a G25 base but I will make it universal so I can attach it to other wheel bases so a quick disconnect will be in use as well. This is minor at this point but plays a key part as I want to keep this wheel and be able to use it when an upgrade comes around.

So here is what I want to do. I want to have hard mounted paddle shifters on the wheel and possibly two clutch paddles as well. I'm thinking of using hall sensors for the clutch paddles but need to do some research on how to apply this. For the shifters I can use buttons for this.

Now I do have some questions regarding the SLI-Pro. I'm unsure if I can hook up all of the buttons, switches and encoders to it. I don't know if I will need to add an additional HID device or not. Here is the short list of what I want to connect.

The front face of the wheel:
12 buttons
central rotary switch with 12 configurable positions
2 additional 12 position rotary switch
rotary switch for display brightness
two 12 position switches for changing display information
2 rotary encoders for thumbs

The back of the wheel:
2 buttons for the paddle shifters
2 buttons or hall sensors for the clutch


Total for the front:
6 rotary switches
2 rotary encoders
12 buttons

Total for the back:
2 buttons
2 hall effect sensors/or some sort of switch

Now is it possible to connect the above to an SLI-Pro or will i need to add another HID to achieve this?

Thanks and pics will be posted as this project progresses.

 

[kimi69]

RS Components - However i made plastic adapters to recess them in

Thank You!

 

[phildaleg]

Thanks Brian. The challenge I'm facing is housing and mounting it. I'm not sure how to really go about it. Being that it will be used for clutch paddles I'm trying to figure out the best way to achieve this. Also, do you have any suggestions for what type of magnet would be best for this application.

Another note, I have a source here in the States to get the sensors. So I can get them within 2 days.

Thanks again Brian.

hi, yes im too interested in working out how to mount paddles onto the back of the wheel as im finding this part to be the most challenging of all. Need some sort of bracket with a spring that it can be mounted on but cannot find anything stable enough.

 

[William Geuze]

It also depends on what kind of spring you want to use. Do you want to use a compression spring (jut a regular straight one) or a torsion spring (like the ones in clothing pegs).

It also helps to just look at real wheels and how they did, or to find examples of other people. For example, how this guy did it:

 

[phildaleg]

cool, thanks i watched the video, great to get some ideas, i guess it would be a torsion spring that im after