Gaming
/ Racing Wheel - How to build a Steering
wheel? (tutorial
/ guide to building a gaming / racing
wheel yourself)
Author - Saju Asokan
Last Updated: Aug 02 2008
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If you like to
have a horn at the center of the
steering, follow these steps. Else,
simply skip to the next heading.
Loosen the bolt
passing through the drilled hole
and insert a twisted pair of wire
through it. Now tighten the bolt.
Take a small push switch (that closes
only when pushed) and solder the
two wires' ends to it's terminals.
Place the switch over the bolt and
use adhesive to fix it. Now cover
the tip of the switch using some
flat plastic or rubber piece and
fasten it to the whole steering
wheel's plywood piece using cello-tape.
Make sure that you don't put too
much pressure on the switch's tip
while binding with the celo-tape
or the contact will always be made
and the switch will always remain
closed.
Building
the steering wheel's Internal Assembly
For
constructing the steering wheel's
internal assembly we need a few
more components. We need a 10K potentiometer
and a pair of gear wheels. The 10K
POT you can purchase from any electronic
spare parts shop. The gear wheels
you can either purchase or get from
some old toys. The gear wheels should
be such that one is atleast four
times larger than the other, but
at the same time their teeth should
couple well.
You
would also need a few pieces of
plywood to support the whole assembly.
The
internal assembly of the gaming / racing wheel
is shown above. The large metal pipe extends
to about half of the box's inside. Cut plywood
pieces and fix them on to the box using adhesives
to support the metal pipe very firmly. The
plywood has to be extended to the other end
so as to support the potentiometer. The smaller
gear wheel has to be mounted at the end of
the small metal pipe (passing through the
large metal pipe). A thin but strong metal
rod can be made hot and pierced through the
gear wheel's other end so as to act as a pivot.
This pivot rod should extend out through the
other side of the box. The potentiometer needs
to be mounted on the plywood using metal braces.
The larger gear wheel has to be glued to the
handle of the potentiometer.
More
details on the internal assembly are covered
in
the next page >>
