DIY H-shifter

[carsonpoland]

I wanted to have hshifter along with my momo racing, ofc excluding buying different wheel. So ive looked into some diy constructions (best homemade hshifter imo), also checked real constructions and here it is, mine almost finished toy:



Its based on real gearbox shift.


Mine version:


I have to replace two stretched springs by new ones, mount microswitches and plug this into momo racing. Few more pic in next post...

[carsonpoland]

[Altrezia]

That looks bloody ace

[zild1221]

Best DIY shifter yet. My friend had a thought for the same idea but never made it happen.

[trotter2k]

that is sweet, i want a hand brake to go with my G27.

[carsonpoland]

Thx My main goal was to recreate that feeling when you shift real thing. Im quite happy with final result, it always could be better but i aint gonna bring real gearbox to my room Btw construction is more complicated than was originally assumed. For now, shifter will replace 6 buttons in wheel (sadly) but in near future im going to buy leo's bodnar usb controller. And this will lead in to my next project which is custom pedals. Ill post more pic when i finish job

[ZeosPantera]

Looks very similar to a prototype shifter design I was/am putting together. Right down to the sliding chocks.

May have some images.. Damn none of the internals.

Anyways I like your design. Very simple.

Take a video of it in action if you can. I want to see how well it holds the gears.

[carsonpoland]

Looks very nice, especially if you like historic cars How do plan to do main mechanism? simple gates, rods with clicks or maybe something diferrent? ofc you know that if you planed gear stick to be so long you will have to use very durable materials in mechanism on the other side of stick? it will be very easy to break something by arm strenght. I took a short video as you asked (sorry for bad quality)

Force required to lock/release gear is easy adjustable by screws and springs placed under. BTW yesterday ive managed to make 900* mod for momo racing. This is only "beta stage" but it works well. Huge different in historix mod for rf or RBR in regard to stock 270* Ill post some more details about it when it will be finished (have to figure out rotation limiter)

fixed, thx

[ZeosPantera]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

Looks very nice, especially if you like historic cars How do plan to do main mechanism? simple gates, rods with clicks or maybe something diferrent? ofc you know that if you planed gear stick to be so long you will have to use very durable materials in mechanism on the other side of stick? it will be very easy to break something by arm strength. I took a short video as you asked (sorry for bad quality)

Very similar to your setup with sliding chocks on rails. But my rails are of 1/8" thick aluminum. As far as bringing it into each gear I was considering using Neodymium magnets so it poped into place and held. It would be adjustable strength just by forcing the magnets to stay X distance apart. The only system I couldn't get my head around was returning all the chocks to center which you got around with the double spring swing.

[Flatspotter]

That's really slick!

[trotter2k]

that looks mint with it all working, think you could easy sell a few of these shifters and make a nice profit.

[mandafruta]

excellent work! would you mind telling me what kind of material did you use for this parts?


is that iron or steel?
what thickness is it? 1.5mm ?

thanks!!

[ZeosPantera]

Originally Posted by mandafruta

is that iron or steel?
what thickness is it? 1.5mm ?

thanks!!

Looks like mild steel sort of like what an old computer case would have been made of.

[carsonpoland]

Originally Posted by mandafruta

excellent work! would you mind telling me what kind of material did you use for this parts?

is that iron or steel?
what thickness is it? 1.5mm ?

thanks!!

Thx Its a 1mm thick mild steel sheet metal But its strong enough for the intended purpose

[mandafruta]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

Thx Its a 1mm thick mild steel sheet metal But its strong enough for the intended purpose

thanks for the info!! I really apreciate it.

My next project is going to be an H Shifter, and your model is the best H I've seen so far, very creative, it looks, sounds and feels great from what I see on the video.

I'll use try to use the same shifting mechanism of yours but with some modifications to the other parts: an aluminum case and maybe rod end bearings, I'll try to make it look similar to my actual home made sequential shifter:



thanks for sharing those pictures and info, I'm doing a 3D model of it in autodesk inventor now, hope I can ask you some other questions later as I build the model

Regards,
Alex

[carsonpoland]

Wow, u have great looking s-shifter there Inspired by frex one as i can see, well done. btw feel free to ask questions.

Cheers

[mandafruta]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

Wow, u have great looking s-shifter there Inspired by frex one as i can see, well done. btw feel free to ask questions.

Cheers

yup, it was inspired by 3 models I saw: frex and some other two frex-based diy projects

I already started with the H shifter mechanism, I started with a 3d model just to get an idea of the sizes of each part, and this is how it looks:



I already started building everything in cheap materials first (wood, pvc, etc) so I can get a reference model and practice some more before I build it on more expensive materials. I already have the 3 moving blocks, the cylinder that holds the momo stick shifter and the stick extension that moves those 3 blocks... it looks pretty cool!

but I have some questions:

can you tell me the size of this tube?


it looks like 40mm of external diameter, 6mm of thickness and 25mm tall.

I've found some tube on the street that is 34mm external diameter and it looks a little bit small, so I'm guessing 40 should be fine, but I'd like to know your model measures before I buy it.

And what about those 3 mild steel bars? did you use 8mm diameter on those?

well, that's it for now, and thanks for helping me out!!!

[ZeosPantera]

Anyone feel like joining forces to make a few of these. My design employed four sliders to incorporate reverse. It would also have a lockout so you could make it realistically six, five or a four speed.

No commercial shifters really do it right currently. I think we can do better.

[carsonpoland]

Originally Posted by mandafruta

yup, it was inspired by 3 models I saw: frex
can you tell me the size of this tube?

it looks like 40mm of external diameter, 6mm of thickness and 25mm tall.

I've found some tube on the street that is 34mm external diameter and it looks a little bit small, so I'm guessing 40 should be fine, but I'd like to know your model measures before I buy it.

And what about those 3 mild steel bars? did you use 8mm diameter on those?

well, that's it for now, and thanks for helping me out!!!

My sugestion is to make two side moving blocks a little (few mm) higher than middle one. I forgot to do this but luckly all of them are high enough to not lose stick neb. Instead of this you could put two sided rods with blocks little higher than middle. Something like this:



Ofc you are aware of that rods are moving with blocks (they are connected)? rods diameter is 7,8mm

Also to simplify construction, those marked parts along with side springs:



Can be replaced by adequately chosen springs placed on rods. This is a much easier way to achieve "gears returning to neutral position" mechanism than paddles with springs (as ive done). I figured this out too late and there was not enought room for springs placed on rods.

And BTW if someone is going to make hshifter based on my idea for salary then he should talk to me firstly, i supose. It wouldnt be fair to get profits from mine idea. Cheers

[mandafruta]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

My sugestion is to make two side moving blocks a little (few mm) higher than middle one. I forgot to do this but luckly all of them are high enough to not lose stick neb. Instead of this you could put two sided rods with blocks little higher than middle. Something like this:



Ofc you are aware of that rods are moving with blocks (they are connected)? rods diameter is 7,8mm

Also to simplify construction, those marked parts along with side springs:



Can be replaced by adequately chosen springs placed on rods. This is a much easier way to achieve "gears returning to neutral position" mechanism than paddles with springs (as ive done). I figured this out too late and there was not enought room for springs placed on rods.

And BTW if someone is going to make hshifter based on my idea for salary then he should talk to my firstly, i supose. It wouldnt be fair to get profits from mine idea. Cheers

wow! a lot more info than I expected! thanks !!

About those sliding blocks, I noticed it slips out when shifting sideways, so I carved the middle one a lot deeper than the side ones and it seems to work great now.

great, I bought the same rods here, 5/16" it's about 7.9mm, I think I'll just glue them to the blocks, I made the hole very tight so the rod has to be pushed hard to insert it into the block, but ocasionally it will "slip" so I think some glue might help.

I can't believe I didn't think about using standard springs on the rods, it's a great idea. I already started bending a 0.9mm metal sheet to create those springs of yours, I'll see if I can get cheap springs instead, as I'd have to get 6 springs instead of 2 to make each gear return to neutral. but I really like the idea, and it's easier to adjust normal spring by pre-loading them.

and yes, DIY projects should stay in the DIY circuit, it's really annoying when someone starts selling them without permission, it destroys the concept of DIY, people won't feel comfortable to publishing their own work to the community when the community just wants to profit from it.

The whole idea is to share information for people to build their own stuff.

thanks carsonpoland for the detailed information!!!

[mandafruta]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

For now, shifter will replace 6 buttons in wheel (sadly) but in near future im going to buy leo's bodnar usb controller. And this will lead in to my next project which is custom pedals. Ill post more pic when i finish job

why don't you buy a cheap gamepad and solder 6 of its buttons to your shifter's switches?

and if you know electronics, you can build your own controller, similar to leo's bodnar, 6 axis, 32 buttons (10 bits resolution), everything is available, pcb diagram, schematics and firmware. I built two of these controllers already (one for me, one for a friend) and they work perfectly, let me know if you plan to do it, the tutorial is in spanish, but I can help you out.

if you plan to build some pedals, take a look at mine, still in progress, there are photos and videos in there, I keep updating it as I progess (also in spanish):

http://www.xtremeracers.info/forums/...hp?f=45&t=9305

[carsonpoland]

I was going to buy leo's controller in near future but now im considering make my own ofc if you share scheme and other things. Unfortunately i dont have experience in chip programming (and dont have programmer). Your pedals look really nice, i like idea of replacing pot with hall sensor But you should improve construction stiffness

[ZeosPantera]

Here is a great alternative to the Bodnar board since you won't need analog inputs.

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/pc-.../prod_347.html

Or if you want analogs too

http://www.analogtousb.com/Products/HAB8012.aspx

I'd also like to say I am planning on making my shifter for sale. DIY is great if you have "the ability" but most sim racers just have "the money" which I would gladly take in exchange for my labor and effort. The reason I halted work on my shifter is because I needed to find a 100% reliable solution for every aspect. I can't go bending random pieces of metal into shapes and hoping they don't fail in the first year or two of HARD use.

My previous shifter has lasted nearly two years with certain parts braking and being replaced with a different solution. My newest prototype I could likely swing around by the shifter clubbing seals to death and it wouldn't break (good idea for a commercial). The locking parts vs spring tension for centering is the nut I have yet to crack.

If I have to grab some pictures of my stuff so you don't think I am ripping you off I will do so. I have put too much time into this to not make it worth my while. Besides as you all already know. All current commercial H-Shifters are crap.

[mandafruta]

Originally Posted by carsonpoland

I was going to buy leo's controller in near future but now im considering make my own ofc if you share scheme and other things. Unfortunately i dont have experience in chip programming (and dont have programmer). Your pedals look really nice, i like idea of replacing pot with hall sensor But you should improve construction stiffness

all the schematics and tutorials for the game controller are available here:
http://www.xtremeracers.info/forums/...hp?f=45&t=5696

There are two versions of the controller, willynovi and noalone, I use willynovi version as it provides more features like bootloader option.

about the programmer I made a really cheap and easy one, based on JDM using a protoboard:

here's the schematics:


and here the details on how to mount it on a protoboard:


here's an overview of how it looks (it's an outdated pic and doesn't match the pin numbers of above, but you get the idea of how it looks):



I recommend this software to burn the .hex files into the pic microcontroller:
http://members.aon.at/electronics/pic/picpgm/

it autodetects the programmer and the chip, it's compatible with windows 7, and very easy to use, no need to go tweaking settings all around.

you will need a serial port on your computer to use this jdm programmer, and be aware that usb-to-serial adapters won't work as they don't provide enough voltage for this programmer.

let me know if you need translation or help with any of these, I'd be glad to help.

about my pedals: I didn't finish the construction yet, I'll use a bar or platform joining the left/right stands to provide more stiffness to the structure.

[T M N Racing]

Well you can put me down as your first customer if you want, you guys have talent and im sure between you you could make a very good shifter.

Keep us all updated, with prices too if you have any ideas. I, like the rest of us, probably dont mind spending if a product is good.

[bgis]

Another option is Dereks board, it also has a load cell amp built in and you can also add steering if you want to make your owne wheel and pedals.
http://www.derekspearedesigns.com/

[carsonpoland]

First test

[Flatspotter]

Outstanding! The craftsmanship on that shifter is amazing!

[ZeosPantera]

It is bigger than I thought it was.

[carsonpoland]

my next project

[propainkiller87]

Can you post a step by step on how to get a logitech momo to go 900 degrees?

[ZeosPantera]

Originally Posted by propainkiller87

Can you post a step by step on how to get a logitech momo to go 900 degrees?

Buy a DFGT. I had a momo. Lay it to rest.

The resolution on a momo is designed to be adequate @ 270. Spreading that out over 900 makes it jerky. Plus the FFB on the momo is so rough and primitive. And it is huge and the wheel is so small..

I miss my momo. But my G27 is my baby.

[propainkiller87]

yes it is big.

i am looking to get a new wheel preferably something with a clutch and H Shifter like a G27 but people say that the Porsche 911 GT3 RS V2 Wheel is good to but i love the quietness of a g27..... any one got any opinions?

[carsonpoland]

Originally Posted by ZeosPantera

Buy a DFGT. I had a momo. Lay it to rest.

The resolution on a momo is designed to be adequate @ 270. Spreading that out over 900 makes it jerky. Plus the FFB on the momo is so rough and primitive. And it is huge and the wheel is so small..

I miss my momo. But my G27 is my baby.

No it doesnt make it jerky but ive to agree that ffb on momo is nothing special.

a little update:

[carsonpoland]

Finally finished

[ZeosPantera]

Very nice. Are you going to move it up or cut that arm off your chair? You should have taken a low power rally car someplace dumb. Like you want to break the shifter dumb.

[aston007]

OMG! So many working hours spent into that beautifull shifter -only to be spoiled by that chair -how can you drive like that!?

I wouldn't stand that arm rest for a 30 seconds I would took my 15pound axe and smash it to pieces

[brabham67]

Or just unscrew the arm from the chair, so it could be replaced later. No need to do more damage than necessary.

[ZeosPantera]

Originally Posted by brabham67

Or just unscrew the arm from the chair, so it could be replaced later. No need to do more damage than necessary.

I had a chair like that. The arm holds the back on. He would need to cut the top L and leave the bottom L and probably reinforce it afterward.