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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Building
the Gear box of the gaming / racing wheel
The gear box of the gaming / racing
wheel that I built follows the simple
sequential shift pattern. ie: moving
the gear up shifts up and vice versa.
For building the gear box, you would
need a sufficiently large and stable
card-board box. (Go for a plywood
box if you can afford it). Make
sure that the box has sufficient
height so that the gear knob will
be at a comfortable position when
you start racing. Also get a handle
like thing (old joystick handle)
to act as the gear knob. The old
joystick handle i used has a button
on it, so i could use it as handbrake.
The gear knob and the gear mesh of
the gaming / racing wheel are shown
in the picture. You need to make a
small rectangular slit on the cardboard
box for the gear's metal stick to
slide up and down in it. Attach two
metal plates at the top and bottom
ends of the slit so that when the
gear's metal stick touches it when
you shift up or down, they act as
switches.
Use a thin metal pipe as the gear
stick of the gaming / racing wheel
and attach the gear knob on top of
it. Provide a hole in the gear box
for taking in the wires, if your joystick
handle has buttons on it.
Inside
the Gear box of the gaming / racing wheel
The
gear box's inside is shown in the picture.
The base of the box has some firm spongy
substance to support the pivot of the
gear stick. The vertical pipe is the
continuation of the gaming / racing
wheel's gear stick. The black section
on the metal stick is a surface made
using adhesive for gripping on to the
rubber bands. The rubber bands are used
for keeping the gear shaft centered.
The
rubber bands are stretched between the ends
of the gear box as shown and the gear shaft
inserted between them. Make sure that the
metal shaft's bottom end is tapered so that
it pivots easily on the spongy base.
This picture shows the top end
of the gear shaft that passes through
the slit in the gear box of the
gaming / racing wheel. As mentioned
earlier, two metal contacts are
placed at the up and down positions.
The metal contacts when made to
touch with the metal gear shaft,
closes the circuit and acts as switches.
Attach wires to both these metal
contacts. Notice the colour of the
wires so that you wont get confused
while assembling the whole thing.
Also connect a green colored wire
to the metal shaft. It is always
advised to use soldering to connect
wires to avoid loose contacts.
Paint
all the three units with a colour of your choice
and let the whole thing dry. Move on
to the next page to learn how to assemble
the whole gaming / racing wheel together
