I thought I post some pics, now that I finally got it running
If anyone has questions just post them here
(For anyone new coming across this thread at a later date (post-2017), there is more info on the second page)






older pics from here on



I made my own design up cause most I found online lacked this certain "in-gear" feel. I tried different designs (one using clothes pegs ), but now I ended up forging some clamps myself.



The Electronics are from my old non-FFB Microsoft Sidewinder, the Clutch is wired to the former wheel poti connection, using a 3,5" audio cabel and a microphone jack sourced from a CD drive.


The hanger assembly for the Acrylic thingy is made out of two of these





The only piece with some racing background is the gear stick itself, it was the rear axle of one of this



My future plans are adding some springs/bungees to keep the stick in the middle, a longer cable to the clutch (1.50m is too short), and I need to think on how to mount it to my desk, most likely via a screw clamp of the right edge next to the mousepad.

I changed the cable and added some grease, feels like the real deal now. The range and angle of the stick and the space between the gears were taken from our Golf Plus. I change between 1-5 and reverse and 1-6 via scripts depending on the driven car.

Looks good, I would've never have the time to that kind of thing.

Took me like ~2 years, spent like 10-30 min a session on it, when i had time and mood to do it. Planning began way earlier. Almost all the materials were found in our cellar, only things I bought extra were the switches and a 50x50 piece of steel

Real nice man.

just found the first ever "study" in my desk

Nice. /me wants one .

how does it feel compared to a real shifter"?

Really good, especially after greasing. The one thing that's still missing is the bungees, so atm its not self centring. I really like the way it feels, the resistance of the springs is good, this *clack->in gear* feel And its sturdy enough to really race with it, you don't have the feel that it will fall apart next corner.
I like it more than the G25s little knob (my mate has one)

Very nice kit ! Ur "Home Shifter" is very nice too :P
Im using G25 , alot expensive :/

now that im thinking, if you add some sort of bracket where you are able to push down the gearshift and slide into where 6th is, as in push down reverse, like the g25; then you are probably going to have working 6 gears and reverse.

what im thinking, once you have the mechanism done, you can get a microswitch, and attach it to the bottom of the shifter, so when you push down, it will get pressed and when you slide it into the spot where 6th is, then it will register as both being pressed, which i am not sure if you can make that a whole seperate thing where you can make it reverse, but you can probably figure something out.

under the shifter would have to be metal so it is slippery enough, and that will press the switch

Well, that pics do not show that the stick is now fixed in the acrylic center block with some epoxy :o I thought about a diffrent system, similar to what is used on cars from Opel, where you have a lever on the stick itself, and an electronic that engages Reverse instead of 6th if you pull it up. But its really complicated and for me not necessary, all cars in LFS that eventually need Reverse (rally, derby, autoX) have only five gears And for the rare occasions driving the FZs I may add a simple button on the H-gate. For now Reverse is (for them) assigned to the Triangle button on my DFGT

believe me, one day boredam will fuel it

You have the same setup I have, a DFGT and a microsoft sidewinder. I even use the sidewinder pedals as a clutch and foot rest.

I like how you used the push buttons, so you can seperate both the negative lines they used on the sidewinder board. My first shifter I had to actualy switch between the negative lines using a custom switch at the bottom of the stick, so I could use all eight buttons. Made things realy complicated and unreliable. But that thing was made of lego and a knex set, so it was garanteed to be unreliable.

I'm actualy working on the design for a very simple DIY shifter that I can post building instructions for, I want it to be reliable and simple to build, as well as feel realistic. I already have the designs on paper, it's just building it so I can hammer out the details before I put it up for other people to use.

Quote from DragonCommando :

I like how you used the push buttons, so you can seperate both the negative lines they used on the sidewinder board. My first shifter I had to actualy switch between the negative lines using a custom switch at the bottom of the stick, so I could use all eight buttons.

Sorry, I don't understand you here. I just bridged the existing mini switches with the new ones, the original ones still work. The Sidewinder PCBs are really easy to work with, in fact I took it apart only because I couldn't find a sub-10€ gamepad in town. Was surprised how small (but "readable") the boards are.

Quote :

I'm actually working on the design for a very simple DIY shifter that I can post building instructions for, I want it to be reliable and simple to build, as well as feel realistic.

I can recommend my clamp design, easy to make if you have a metal saw, a brazing torch and a bucket of water.

ah, I just looked at the image again and you didn't tap into the wires like I did, I did away with the wheel board and just used the wires directly. As it turns out there are only six wires for the eight buttons.

The board is designed so that it has two negative wires instead of one. Each button doesn't have it's own negative wire. Depending on which negative you ground one of the four leads to determines which button it registers. Negative one makes 1,3,5 and 7. Negative two makes for buttons 2,4,6, and 8.

The way you did it means you don't have to deal with any of that nonsense, The design for my shifter meant that I would have to deal with it either way, because there are no push buttons, instead there are metal prongs on the gates and stick that make the connection. I had to figure out how to switch the prongs on the stick from one negative to the other for all eight gates to work.

Edit: I should add that after figuring that out, my new design is going to be set up to work with the wiring scheme of either a usb game pad, or the six wire setup the sidewinder uses.

some finishing touches (the wooden ball is somehow exactly as big as the seq-shifter ball of the DFGT)

Hi.
I have one question. Every gear have a button that when you put a gear you will gona press the button right? But how do i make it? Can you assign 1 key for each gear?

Sorry for my bad english.
Thx.

Exactly, the button has to be pressed to keep the gear engaged. Select "H-Shifter" in LFS, you can see the button assignment for each gear then. Or assign them to the Num-Pad for a laugh and try to make a fast lap like that

Thanks. Thats it. Now i understand how people do. Every key is for every gear as you said. Its simple but make it not so easy..
I tried in game that help me to understand

Why not use a gear linkage, knob and surround from some car?
All the mechanics are allready there, depending on the donor 6 speeds+ down-left-front reverse gear. Only thing to build is gear selector switches onto the car linkage.
the base would be lot thinner, but longer because of the linkage.

well sure it would work, but need a hell lot of more space (this is a simple shifter from a campervan)

maybe doable for a full cockpit build tho

btw. I can't use the shifter at the moment. The acrylic block thingy has so much play now that the gear stick can move like 2 centimeters to the left, so that 1st and 2nd aren't engaged anymore. Need to find someone who makes me that thing from solid metall

Quote from ACCAkut :

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btw. I can't use the shifter at the moment. The acrylic block thingy has so much play now that the gear stick can move like 2 centimeters to the left, so that 1st and 2nd aren't engaged anymore. Need to find someone who makes me that thing from solid metall

3mm Aluminium from hardware store (or off-cut from junk/recycler-shop) is very easy to work with, you could even use course sandpaper to finish edges if you don't have a file tool. Make sure you mark out the pattern first. The "white one" is pretty mangled.

The pressure clips were a super idea, I wish I could just add them to my G25.

the Alu is not the problem, I just don't have the right tools to do it right this time (a drill press would be handy) . I'll ask an uncle of mine (freelance designer), but he is very busy atm and I can wait. As I know him I will end up with it being made from Titanium or stuff like that (he builds e.g prototyps of medical devices, his scrapbox contains a lot of fancy materials)

About the disfigured Acryl block, thats what happens if you try drilling without a drill press Its a pain in the butt to work with

This is what the block should ideally look like, added a bore to secure the shift stick (hot glue/epoxy won't really work)

solidworks?

Pro Engineer Wildfire 4.0