Messages

Are you playing in bare feet?!

Am I the only one playing in gloves and boots? 

Well, in socks... Boots wouldn't work because I don't have enough clearance between the shifter and the ground!

Looking awesome David!
Nice to see The Thing is thriving. Do you do any online racing?

Thanks!

No online, I always feel I suck to much. At the moment I'm just playing MX-bikes, waiting for the GP-bikes update before I jump back in.

That's awesome and so intricate, I could stare at that for ages working out what does what. Poor wheel though

Thanks!

What are the significant changes from v2 to v3?

Thanks for the compliment!

The gearbox started it's live as a Sidewinder wheel (the cogs inside the housing)  All in all it's three different controllers merged into one monstrosity. Wingman wheel circuit board controls the gearbox, rear brake and clutch (replaced the puny pots with bigger sidewinder pots on each), Sidewinder for steering, throttle and front brake. The biggest issue is that there is no bespoke calibration software for Windows 10 so I can't set a psychical stop on the wheels rotation. That's where the bicycle brake wires and the clamps on the steering wheel and the mounting board come in.   

Main changes from v2 to v3: my rider movement controller on the left side of the handlebar was just a circuit board and two analogue sticks from a gamepad. It was a less multifunctional solution than the current one but it was also less weighty and cumbersome. Unfortunately, one of the wires snapped on the board side and I fucked up when I tried to solder it back. I didn't want to slaughter another gamepad so I just stuck a full one right on there.

Then I padded the "foot pegs", the bare aluminum (actually a part of a vacuum cleaner pipe) was hurting my feet after an hour of playing.

And I changed the throttle mechanism, managed to get a flat spring in there somehow (not much room to play with), the throttle rebound now feels natural and smooth, before it was an external solution with a thick rubber band... You can see the previous version in the link below the last pic, and there's also some work in progress footage there, and a parts list.     

Cheers.

David "Gonzo" Boda #46

The Thing 2.0 (for reference)

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46

So, long story short (as possible). The Thing (my homemade Frankenstein controller ) was having some issues when I tried to play MotoGP22 (using x360ce and UJC). Since the base is an old Sidewinder FF Wheel there is no current software for calibration and settings, just the generic one that's in Windows 10 (joy.cpl). When calibrating the wheel I need to have the rotation restricted but that unfortunately also affects the throttle length (x and y respectively, they are not separated, the break axis is). After some lengthy time on Google I found out that the calibration data is actually stored in the registry (regedit).

"Navigate to the registry keys of the respective controller, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\DirectInput\VID_<VendorID>&PID_<ProductID>\Calibration\0\Type\Axes\<NUM>."

The problem is that it's all hex so I could not make heads or tails of it, even when using an online converter (this is the converter I used to try to make sense of it all: https://coolconversion.com/math/binary-octal-hexa-decimal/_hexadecimal__FF__binary_).

According the post I found the values can be interpreted as:

"Modify the Calibration key which is mapped to a 12 byte binary value (encoded as <MIN> <MID> <MAX>). So for instance, suppose we wanted the y-axis Calibration to be from 30-70 for a defective analog stick, with 45 centered stick. Then we Calibration mapped 12 bytes should be set to <1E 00 00 00> <2D 00 00 00> <46 00 00 00>"

Well, it's still gibberish for my poor brain, because, my SW FF Wheel setting in regedit for the wheel rotation and throttle looks like this:

(Axis 0)
00000000   EA   FF   FF   FF   FF   FF   FF   FF   
00000008   16   00   00   00

And the raw data displays "-22" "0" "22" (left, center, right).
"16" is "22" so that's clear, but the rest? "EA" is "234" and FF is "255" so if we divide that we're left with "21"... not "22", and definitely not "-22". Also, what are all the other "FF"s and the three "00"s (I'm guessing one of the "00"s is the center)?

I figured out that if I reset the controller to default, all the calibration files in regedit gets deleted and only the "default" entry is kept. So I ventured that if I calibrate everything as I want it to be, except for the throttle (Axis 1, the brake is Axis 5), and then delete the throttle calibration file, effectively resetting it to its default state (which has full range)... and to my surprise it worked!

I don't know if this is all common knowledge or if anyone has any use of this info, but I figured I put it out there in case somebody runs into similar issues or just want to tweak their controller calibration settings in this way (given that they understand the hex to decimal thing better than I do).

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46       

Hi David, looks like your pad is not seen as an xinput pad, so no joy.
A quick search on the web (Logitech Rumble Pad 2 xinput) brings up a lot of results of people with troubles using that pad in xinput games. There may be a solution via x360ce (e.g. here), but it may be a bit messy.

But why would you want the rumble active on a pad mounted on your steering wheel ? Just curious ...

Just for a bit of immersion I guess. The force feedback is unusable with my rig, the feedback is too high even at 25% and since the wheel itself is an old SW FF wheel I can't use the dedicated software to change the wheel's proprietary force feedback sensitivity. And my "wheel" is "The Thing"... https://forum.piboso.com/index.php?topic=5163.msg78677#msg78677. The board in the left side of the handlebar broke, and I could not solder it back to life so I stuck a full gamepad there instead... Never played GPB with a rumble controller so I was mostly curious.

Cheers,

David "Gonzo" Boda #46

Hi Max.
Have a question. I have a Logitech Rumble Pad 2 USB controller mounted on my steering wheel. Use it for rider movement and buttons. Is there a way to activate the rumble function on it to work with MaxHUD. When I go to the rumble widget, I can only scroll through 4 Xinput devices and they are all disconnected. The controller is working fine for everything else (ie it shows up in other widgets as Logitech RumblePad 2) but not in "rumble". I'm not to clever when it comes to Xinput and such.... Can I add the controller in the ini file or do I have to use x360e or something like that, or is it even possible?

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46

Awesome video Chris!

David "Gonzo" Boda #46

Chris, you're rig looks absolutely amazing. I wish I had the skills, bits and the tools to do something similar, but I don't think I'll ever get there. Anyway, I'm super impressed, can't wait to see how it works when you done.

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46

Just wanted to say that the stuff you're doing is awesome and it's so much fun watching your projects progress over time.

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46
 

Just a small immersion-breaking thing. When you have the bike in neutral (or you're holding in the clutch) and push it forward and backward, the bike stops (like if you would brake) if you rev the engine.

Cheers,

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46     

https://mythoughtsabout2wheels.blogspot.com/2021/07/once-maverick-always-maverick.html

Enjoy.

Cheers.

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46

https://mythoughtsabout2wheels.blogspot.com/2021/07/motogp2021r9.html

Enjoy.

Cheers.

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46

https://mythoughtsabout2wheels.blogspot.com/2021/06/motogp2021r8.html

Enjoy.

Cheers.

/David "Gonzo" Boda #46