Thanks ThereIs0nly0ne
I usually start a project by reading absolutely everything I can about it, then sourcing the parts along the way before having a go and getting stuck in. For my direct drive wheel, there was plenty of information on the iRacing forums, along with wiring diagrams. The only snag was I have not that much of a clue with electronics and I had not soldered anything since middle school! Anyway, a couple of YouTube videos later I felt confident enough to tackle the group of parts I had acquired...
The board in a plastic case on the left is a discovery board, just needs some software flashing to it and it acts as the controller board. I believe it's used in lots of applications. This and many other parts came from America.
Bottom left is the IONI 4x & board. These are the motor controller and cost about £300 for both parts, so had to be very careful not to fry or mishandle those.
The case was from Overclockers (of course!) and was a Coolermaster 130.
The motor 'Small MiGE'
Direct from China in a couple of weeks, weighs about 15kg I think, so not exactly small! Fitted here with a Q1R quick release and a SRH Dashboard screen.
Soldering the encoder cable for the motor as it came with a plug on one end only
Mounting hardware in the case
The largest component, the PSU was also from America, weighed about 10kg!
All wired up and ready to test
At this point is was displaying some odd behaviors which after some time I traced back to a bad connection where I had soldered two wires together. With that fixed it worked perfectly and never faltered, through 3 24hour races as part of a team or at any other time.
Having owned Fanatec, Logitech & Thrustmaster wheel this was leagues and leagues ahead of them. It's hard to call it a toy as it's capable of such realistic forces. It was so strong it snapped 1 of the wheel tray supports on my Obutto Rev and I had a friend strengthen both with some stronger welds which cured that problem, although ideally I would have moved to an 80/20 build.
The wheel was not made by me, it was a custom job from Sam Maxwell. I supplied a lot of the parts myself, including the LCD & buttons (same as used on F1 cars)
Here is as test video with terrible FOV of my trying it out with the HPD in iRacing. It's not that easy to tell from the video but a DD wheel gives you access to forces you never knew existed in sim racing, going through Eau Rouge you can feel the downforce load up and the steering get heavier with the compression, when the wheels lock the wheel goes lighter and turns freely. A real night and day experience for me.
I also kept a parts light with prices for everything I bought for the project except the wheel
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cT2IC82gXUVt7cG-t6wsfpHXEQcnj-85AVy6_7gIIl0/edit#gid=0
I have now thinned my rig out somewhat while I have purchased a new house and I get married later this year, so hopefully the nice sim racing toys can return after all that
I can tell you appreciate the sound of your amp by the choice of words you use!
