So long MS Sidewinder... hello new rig! (G27 / Hydraulic Brake mod [WIP])

Marc Coyles

So, tis a lovely sunny sunday afternoon here in Yorkshire. And I'm a ginge. What better way to spend the day than sorting out the rig?! I've finally retired the 18yr old Sidewinder FFB wheel which brought me so much joy thru Colin McRae, rFactor, NFSU, NFS Shift 2, and rFactor2. It's resigned to a box... for some future bodging.

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Mainly because last week, i stumbled across a steal on eBay, and thus I present: NEW RIG!

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Yep, got me a G27 finally in it's rightful position in front of yonder 50" plasma. Extra bling brought to you via iHud...

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And with my spare laptop... yay for telemetry!

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A trip to B&Q this morning saw £30 dropped on some metalwork, and thanks to my 'keep it simple, keep it cheap' l33t meccano skillz n' shizzle, voila: inverted pedals!

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The pedal frame just clips round the laptop stand base, which is affixed to the sofa frame with some more meccano skill... avoiding the dust bunnies. It's surprisingly solid!

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VERY happy with it all - we spent last night hurling the '79 Tyrrell round Silverstone with clutch & H-gate. It's completely revolutionised the whole experience for me...!

EDIT: Full album is yonder, on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/102297050@N03/sets/72157644950088432/
 
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Just won a rear motorcycle brake calliper / master cylinder / reservoir, and a 300 psi pressure transducer o'er on eBay too... so later in the month I'll be having a shot at converting over to hydraulic brake, and running the pedals to a Bodnar BU0836-LC board, bypassing the wheel.

Eventually I'll be moving the lot into the basement (once I've gutted, tanked and insulated it) with either triple screens or wraparound projection (already got a Matrox Triple-head-2-go kicking about). THEN I'll build a proper seat frame etc for it. From there it'll be time to start keeping my eyes open for linear actuators going cheap ;)
 
Nice...
I like the data acquisition too.
How are you capturing so much on that screen?
 
https://community.racesimcentral.net/showthread.php?t=3336

Set the above plugin to log to a network share, then open the created log files (in any desktop software capable of reading MoTec format log files) at the end of a stint / after a hot lap. Have a button on the wheel assigned to start and stop logging, so when two of us are at it, I can analyse issues at end of every other lap...
 
Is the data on that screen (third picture from top) updated in real time?
I recently came across a small add-on display on e-bay (IMSMC)... which connects by USB.
I may have to search again to find it and see if it'll support this function.
 
Marc Coyles said:
Yep, realtime. iHud app, available for android and iOS mobiles/tablets. Plugin installs in rFactor2 plugins folder, then you just pop your gaming pc's IP address into the app.

http://www.mightygate.com/en/portfolio-productos/hud-for-rfactor/
NB: Don't bother with the inapp button box purchase... Doesn't work right with rF2.

Demo vid: http://youtu.be/YN_2JQu5FPM
Click to expand...

Now that's 'seriously' cool.
Thanks. Didn't even know it existed for RF2.
I have to go find a display.
That's a 'must-have' for me.
 
Is there anything like this to run on a laptop rather than iPhone?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
 
So long MS Sidewinder... hello new rig!

Just won a rear motorcycle brake caliper / master cylinder / reservoir, and a 300 psi pressure transducer o'er on eBay too... so later in the month I'll be having a shot at converting over to hydraulic brake, and running the pedals to a Bodnar BU0836-LC board, bypassing the wheel.
Click to expand...


So... about that. As per above, I figured the best way to have hydraulic brake feel is to have hydraulic brakes. I love cheap and I love eBay.



One complete CBR600 rear brake setup for £6 delivered, and a 300psi Pressure Transducer (SAM Sensor apparently *shrug*) from China. The brake setup's a bit on the grubby side, but I'll get round to cleaning it up eventually. For now I'm just testing everything out.

Fortunately the Nissin caliper used on the Honda CBR600 has a slave port (which I presume is to link across to a second caliper on a disk on the opposite side of the wheel when it's used on other models - this is from a CBR600 F1 '87-90).



A quick compare of the bung's thread against the 1/8" NPT = close enough for me. Brute force with a 22mm spanner got it in to the stop on the caliper. If it appears to leak then PTFE / threadlock'll get slapped on it.



The sensor is a 4 wire job. The Bodnar board a 3 wire. Fortunately the ground on the sensor is just cable shield so we can run that off to any spare ground on the board. Solder on the headers (red to +5V, green to ANALOGUE IN, black to GRND), and hook it all up to the board ready to plug in and test.

It works!
https://flic.kr/p/nXWL4M

Yes, the range is pants at the moment. I haven't bled the brakes after removing the bung and topped them up, and I'm pumping it by hand with a spanner jammed between the brake pads to stop the pistons popping out - not needed as they're not moving due to the air in the system... but it works, and has thus far cost a mere £47. Without the Bodnar board, £21.

Now I know that I can spend some time cleaning it all up and putting some thought into how to mount it all onto the G27 brake pedal and the pedal frame... and finding something better than a spanner as brake disk substitute.

NB: You can just disconnect the wires of the Logitech brake pedal potentiometer and connect directly to the sensor, and run the sensor's cableshield to any bolt / metal. The Bodnar board isn't really necessary.
 
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Very nice, you're the first I've seen do a hydraulic kit to G27 pedals.
 
Ta! There are a load out there if you mooch about a bit, just none posted on here. Got the idea for this from folks over at RaceDepartment forums (lurker)... but everyone seems to spend a fortune on new cylinders / pneumatics / pedal boxes etc. Figured motorbike parts would be perfect for the job as lots of them about cheap, and they're not overly big so easy to mount up. Will be a week or so before I get round to trying it all on the pedal as need to get some decent bar to extend the pedals with and give me an attachment point for the master cylinder.
 
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