Advice on sim racing gear
Discussion
fblm said:
All my goodies finally(!) arrived out here in the further reaches of the empire. Lovely kit it is too. Far nicer controls than most real cars; the 'gearbox' is awesome! Thinking I need to make a proper open gate for it though. And get a buttkicker. I haven't even plugged it in yet. Oh god this isn't going to end is it?
Making my own frame so that it is quickly adjustable between me and the little people...
Welcome to the slippery slope Making my own frame so that it is quickly adjustable between me and the little people...
I quite fancy a fanatec shifter, I have a TH8A currently and, whilst it does the job, doesn't feel sufficiently purposeful when I change gear.
Anyway, that's a great start - be sure to post pics of the rig when it's finished.
Speckle said:
Welcome to the slippery slope
I quite fancy a fanatec shifter, I have a TH8A currently and, whilst it does the job, doesn't feel sufficiently purposeful when I change gear.
Whilst it'll never feel like a real gearbox, upgrading the detent spring unit to a higher rated one (and doubling it up by putting another one in opposite) makes the TH8A feel rather more clunky than it is as stock. I quite fancy a fanatec shifter, I have a TH8A currently and, whilst it does the job, doesn't feel sufficiently purposeful when I change gear.
skinny said:
Whilst it'll never feel like a real gearbox, upgrading the detent spring unit to a higher rated one (and doubling it up by putting another one in opposite) makes the TH8A feel rather more clunky than it is as stock.
I tightened up the tension screw this morning (I didn't know there was one until today!) and it feels a bit better already. I'll give it a roper test over the weekend and may look into upgrading the spring if it still feels too flacid (possibly not the right word but, I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at)
Speckle said:
Anyway, that's a great start - be sure to post pics of the rig when it's finished.
Finally got some spare days to finish my setup. Couldn't be ar5ed doing metal in the end so it's all scrap 3/4 ply. Pretty happy with it to be honest especially the seat and pedal adjustment so my little guy can play too, he only just turned 5 so it needed a huge amount of movement to fit us both well...
and for when they go to bed...
Hoofy said:
Amazing. I'm jealous. I just had a crap pedal gokart with plastic wheels.
Funnily enough their go karts (there's one in the background) have plastic wheels on the back so they drift. They're naturals at holding huge slides. It's definitely one of their favorite things to do after school, my 6 year old daughter included. Makes me laugh when people say kids aren't interesting in cars or driving any more! She chose the colour by the way... Rosso Corsa!fblm said:
Hoofy said:
Amazing. I'm jealous. I just had a crap pedal gokart with plastic wheels.
Funnily enough their go karts (there's one in the background) have plastic wheels on the back so they drift. They're naturals at holding huge slides. It's definitely one of their favorite things to do after school, my 6 year old daughter included. Makes me laugh when people say kids aren't interesting in cars or driving any more! She chose the colour by the way... Rosso Corsa!
Can't beat physical/actual driving even if it's human-powered.
Speckle said:
That's a brilliant rig you've put together! I must admit, I looked at the first photo and thought you must have tiny legs before reading the bit about adjustability and kids 
Thanks, it took a little bit of thought to get it to fit us all and so it looked good enough that it'd be allowed in the house! To keep it strong the wheel and screen don't move and you can't really see underneath but there's like a whole triangulated reinforcement keeping it all solid. The pedals slide back 18 inches and up about 4 and the seat moves forwards, up and tilts forward too on unequal length arms because I found the kids really need to sit more over it to have the strength on the pedals. I found some rubber vibration mounts that the a/c guys left behind too so the seat is mounted on those ready for the butt-kicker speaker. It's been a fun distraction with my daughter doing lots of the drilling and sanding. And then me fixing it when she's not there! Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 13th February 16:53
This has given me some wallet emptying ideas! A G920 will be with me tomorrow. I need to nip out for a sheet of 3/4 ply at lunchtime now, I have a nice MX5 2.5RS seat spare in the garage and some ideas floating about in my head. Will try and set it up so it can be used for driving and my HOTAS setup for flight sims/Elite too.
Got a super cheap deal on a buttkicker gamer2 in the US a few months ago, finally hard mounted to the seat and running simhub. Only played an hour or so and disappointingly I'm not yet convinced by it to be honest. It shakes the seat pretty well but I guess I was expecting a satisfying rumble when ever you clip the curbs but it doesn't seem very accurate, might just be PC2 track map detail, telemetry data, or simhub setup, not sure. It's going to take quite a bit of messing about with I think.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 29th May 01:14
fblm said:
Got a super cheap deal on a buttkicker gamer2 in the US a few months ago, finally hard mounted to the seat and running simhub. Only played an hour or so and disappointingly I'm not yet convinced by it to be honest. It shakes the seat pretty well but I guess I was expecting a satisfying rumble when ever you clip the curbs but it doesn't seem very accurate, might just be PC2 track map detail, telemetry data, or simhub setup, not sure. It's going to take quite a bit of messing about with I think.
You might be able to get a head start at race department forum, there's loads of stuff there and people all sharing their simhub setups. For example:https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/simhub-and-...
skinny said:
You might be able to get a head start at race department forum, there's loads of stuff there and people all sharing their simhub setups. For example:
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/simhub-and-...
Excellent thanks. The setup has an infinite number of possibilities! Had another hour on it today after registering simhub and really got into it this time with slip and skid enabled. I think you just have to accept the physical limitations of the shaker and that the feel isn't 'right' but after a short while you start to associate the sensation with what the car is doing. It's quite absorbing. https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/simhub-and-...
Some guys go crazy putting loads of little shakers all over the place, and set them for all sorts of stuff - engine noise, kerbs, gearshifting feedback etc.
Then as you say they can also be used as aids rather than strict immersion. Like putting shakers on the pedal mounts to signal brake lock ups.
Then as you say they can also be used as aids rather than strict immersion. Like putting shakers on the pedal mounts to signal brake lock ups.
Edited by skinny on Saturday 30th May 16:15
After a few months enjoying Project Cars I took the plunge on iRacing at the weekend... wow! After the initial disappointment of having so few cars and tracks to enjoy, and then spending for ever navigating the menu's to find a car and track you actually own; who knew chasing 100's of a second in an MX5 round Lime Rock could be so utterly addictive. I was really rather impressed with myself setting a 1:04.7 thinking I might get pole only to be behind half a dozen people in the 1:03's! I have no idea how I'm going to make that up; as luck would have it though with a +CV19 test in the house we're in isolation for at least another week... right, back to it.
By the way, iracers, I'm assuming the MX5 cup rotates to a new track at some point; is there a track schedule anywhere?
By the way, iracers, I'm assuming the MX5 cup rotates to a new track at some point; is there a track schedule anywhere?
fblm said:
After a few months enjoying Project Cars I took the plunge on iRacing at the weekend... wow! After the initial disappointment of having so few cars and tracks to enjoy, and then spending for ever navigating the menu's to find a car and track you actually own; who knew chasing 100's of a second in an MX5 round Lime Rock could be so utterly addictive. I was really rather impressed with myself setting a 1:04.7 thinking I might get pole only to be behind half a dozen people in the 1:03's! I have no idea how I'm going to make that up; as luck would have it though with a +CV19 test in the house we're in isolation for at least another week... right, back to it.
By the way, iracers, I'm assuming the MX5 cup rotates to a new track at some point; is there a track schedule anywhere?
Near the top of the Iracing webpage you should see a menu bar, Find Official Races then Race Guide. By the way, iracers, I'm assuming the MX5 cup rotates to a new track at some point; is there a track schedule anywhere?
I tend to stick to one car per season, this season it is the BMW 12.0 in the M4 for me.
Thisonepotato said:
Near the top of the Iracing webpage you should see a menu bar, Find Official Races then Race Guide.
Thank you. I'll check it out once the kids let me back on.Had my second MX5 race at limerock last night and was coming second when the fanatec box registered the wrong gear and I hit 2nd instead of 4th. Came in third in the end which was a nightmare (but some seriously tense fun) with the box registering a bad gear every other lap... really disappointed with the fanatec though, it feels so well made and it's only had 3 months real use, recalibrating didn't fix it either... seems this is not an uncommon problem with several fixes, so it looks like I'll be tearing that apart tonight instead of racing.
fblm said:
Thank you. I'll check it out once the kids let me back on.
Had my second MX5 race at limerock last night and was coming second when the fanatec box registered the wrong gear and I hit 2nd instead of 4th. Came in third in the end which was a nightmare (but some seriously tense fun) with the box registering a bad gear every other lap... really disappointed with the fanatec though, it feels so well made and it's only had 3 months real use, recalibrating didn't fix it either... seems this is not an uncommon problem with several fixes, so it looks like I'll be tearing that apart tonight instead of racing.
I love Lime Rock. That is a shame re the Fanatec, I have had mine for 1.5 years and any miss gear is def user error.Had my second MX5 race at limerock last night and was coming second when the fanatec box registered the wrong gear and I hit 2nd instead of 4th. Came in third in the end which was a nightmare (but some seriously tense fun) with the box registering a bad gear every other lap... really disappointed with the fanatec though, it feels so well made and it's only had 3 months real use, recalibrating didn't fix it either... seems this is not an uncommon problem with several fixes, so it looks like I'll be tearing that apart tonight instead of racing.
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