Custom G27 Classic Rim Build Thread - FINISHED!!!

[rj5992]

Extension works a treat. I left it maximum length, I may shorten it depending on how comfortable it is. I may have to consider further modifications in future to add a gate to the shifter for added support (and style!). If anyone wants me to list the tubing I used then just let me know.

 

[IfAndOr]

Extension works a treat.

Neat. You're going to have to stop yourself getting overexcited when shifting or you'll rip it off.

Slightly off subject but can I ask what speakers you've got there? They look nice little units.


I see you've got plenty of glove boxes in your car.

 

[rj5992]

Neat. You're going to have to stop yourself getting overexcited when shifting or you'll rip it off.

Haha yeah, it's a lot more of a relaxed shifting action than stock so hopefully I shouldn't have that problem! I did end up shortening it down, felt a bit like I was driving an 18 wheeler with it that length. Feels great, and removed the tendency for me to shift quicker than the in-game transmission would allow on the older cars which I suspect was causing increased engine damage due to the red line spurt that would occur before the game caught up. With it at its shorter length the shifting is now dead in sync.

Slightly off subject but can I ask what speakers you've got there? They look nice little units.

Of course you can. They're the standard speakers that came with the JVC FS-SD9 Mini Hi-Fi system. It's a cracking looking system to be honest, my parents bought the SD7 new in the early 2000's which I then inherited when I went off to uni. I upgraded to a second hand SD9 whilst at uni for the improved speakers, bought it off eBay for £40 and sold the SD7 to a mate for £30. Has an MD/AUX port so I have my TV running through it and a Sub port if more bass is needed, which I've never used. Also has great FM and LW antennas which were invaluable for listening to TMS. I've had the SD9 for about 8 years now and it hasn't missed a beat. Highly recommend it for your average home setup. I'm sure audiophiles out there with their stack surround setups would have something else to say but the rest of us have wives and neighbours. I did read one review that complained you couldn't go above 55 on the volume without it distorting. Well, I have had it up to 35 and considered that deafening so I would take that complaint with a pinch of salt. So yeah, I recommend it, especially when you can get a £450 system for £40 now.

https://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2002/02/26/jvc-fs-sd9-review

Apologies for the lengthy response, I'm on a train so have plenty of time on my hands!

 

[rj5992]

Progress!

So the wheel is finally cut out and filed down. The plywood grip you can see is definitely not the finished article, merely a dummy grip that I'm making to check diameters before moving onto the mahogany. I have so little that I can't afford to make a mistake.
It's just held on with spray glue, once I've finished the shaping I'll pull it off, chop the two pieces in half, and reattach them at the correct positions so I can mount it to my rig and try it out. Early indications show that shaping even just this dummy grip is going to take a while!

 

[rj5992]

So I got the test rim grip sorted and mounted to my rig. Just ran a test at Laguna Seca in a 250TR and the difference is astounding. Even though it's only 20mm wider than the original rim it feels like a much greater difference, helped by the thinner rim adding an extra 5mm to the grip diameter over the standard G27 rim. There's absolutely no loss in FFB weight that I can discern, I would certainly describe it as a 'heavy' steering (for a G27). With the much lighter wheel weight it feels like it rotates marginally quicker as well and I can catch slides easier due to the larger diameter. So far, so good!

 

[rj5992]

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that it's important to make up a spacer to go between the wheel and the plastic standoffs that you screw into. The housing comes outwards where the original wheels wires feed into the housing, so you need to space out to avoid it. If you're making a flat rim you also need to account for the dish that the original wheel has, although if you're going for a bigger diameter then this is less of an issue as the reach to the paddles will automatically be greater.

Decided to get the kitchen scales out to see what the weight difference is.

 

[rj5992]

Started cutting out the mahogany today from the block I have. Tolerances are ridiculously tight so it's going to be a stressful time on the band saw these next few lunchbreaks!

 

[MarcoM]

@rj5992 , lover your crafting and skills!

Does your Jaguar wheel have working buttons? Reason for asking is that while modding my G25 (stiffer springs for the return action on the shift paddles) I manager to destroy the connector for the R2 button.

 

[rj5992]

@rj5992 , lover your crafting and skills!

Does your Jaguar wheel have working buttons? Reason for asking is that while modding my G25 (stiffer springs for the return action on the shift paddles) I manager to destroy the connector for the R2 button.

Thanks a lot Marco!

It does indeed, although I haven't sat down with my soldering iron to wire them all up properly yet. I'm not sure if your G25's internals are the same as the G27 because it has two buttons instead of six on the wheel. Nevertheless, the G27 uses a 4pin Mini Micro 2.0mm connector. Two of them, on for each bank of three buttons. You may have two 2pin connectors. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope I've pointed you in the right direction.

(Thought I'd make a note for anyone viewing this in mind of making their own wheels with buttons: I highly recommend you file off the tags on the male Mini Micro connectors. They 'clip' into the female connectors, but make removing them to swap wheels very difficult. It's still a tight fit after removing the tags, but they come out a little easier. I myself am planning on extending the female end of the connector so that it pulls out of the housing - making swapping wheels even easier)

 

[MarcoM]

Thanks a lot Marco!

It does indeed, although I haven't sat down with my soldering iron to wire them all up properly yet. I'm not sure if your G25's internals are the same as the G27 because it has two buttons instead of six on the wheel. Nevertheless, the G27 uses a 4pin Mini Micro 2.0mm connector. Two of them, on for each bank of three buttons. You may have two 2pin connectors. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope I've pointed you in the right direction.

(Thought I'd make a note for anyone viewing this in mind of making their own wheels with buttons: I highly recommend you file off the tags on the male Mini Micro connectors. They 'clip' into the female connectors, but make removing them to swap wheels very difficult. It's still a tight fit after removing the tags, but they come out a little easier. I myself am planning on extending the female end of the connector so that it pulls out of the housing - making swapping wheels even easier)

It are indeed 2 2pin connectors. Also true about the clip in the connectors. I ripped the right one of by accident. And then I tried to solder things back but failed miserably. So looking for a 3rd hand circuit board .... Not that big of a problem really. I use the left button to enable DRS in the F1 games.

 

[rj5992]

It are indeed 2 2pin connectors. Also true about the clip in the connectors. I ripped the right one of by accident. And then I tried to solder things back but failed miserably. So looking for a 3rd hand circuit board .... Not that big of a problem really. I use the left button to enable DRS in the F1 games.

Seeing as the G25 doesn't have any LED lights one option you have is to remove the circuit board entirely and hard wire the two buttons and two switches to the cable that comes through the middle of the shaft. You could then possibly have a 5 pin (I think there are 5 wires going by a YouTube video) DIN connector as a break point to make seperating the wheel and base unit easier. You'll have to find a way of fixing the paddle switches in place as there won't be a board holding them, but that shouldn't be too difficult. It also opens up the possibility of a custom F1 rim with small magnetic shifters on the back of the wheel in the future

 

[rj5992]

Although, was it the female circuit board mounted connector that you ripped off? If it was the male, not the female, then you can buy more mini micro wires and connectors off eBay for a couple of quid and splice the wire in somewhere alone the cable run from the buttons.

 

[MarcoM]

It was the male, but then I tried soldering the male to the female on the board and due to the heat the pins got loose

 

[rj5992]

Quick update from earlier. Grips are all cut out. They are slightly oversized to give wiggle room for getting the joins accurate, hence why the bottom one doesn't fit at the moment in the second picture.

 

[rj5992]

Got the dowel holes all drilled out of the aluminium, plus extra for a bit of weight saving.

 

[rj5992]

Started shaping the grips today. I have to shape the interior curve before I glue them because the spoke positions will make it impossible. The four pieces on there are actually for the bottom of the wheel, they're held on by simple spray glue so I can pop them off and reposition them before the final fixing.

 

[MarcoM]

How are you going to do the final fixing? Glue? Or Glue and bolts? How do you know where to drill the holes?

 

[rj5992]

How are you going to do the final fixing? Glue? Or Glue and bolts? How do you know where to drill the holes?

The final fixing will be glue, Araldite to be precise. I used it on the Jaguar wheel and there has been no hint of movement since. I'll be gluing one side of the grips on first, then I can flip the wheel over and use the holes I drilled in the aluminium as a guide to drill through. Then the other side will be glued on and I can then flip it over and do the same again, this time using the holes in the wood as a guide. After that the aluminium dowels will be lightly coated in Araldite and hammered through.

 

[markvanhaze]

Fascinating work! Looking forward to this being completed!

 

[rj5992]

Found some photos of the build process of the Jaguar rim that I had sent to my mate for anyone that's interested.

 

[markvanhaze]

I admire your wood work. I am not where near as good at that and this just looks perfect. I can model that and print it but thats about it.

 

[rj5992]

I admire your wood work. I am not where near as good at that and this just looks perfect. I can model that and print it but thats about it.

Thanks very much! I on the other hand wouldn't know where to start with CAD!

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Thanks very much! I on the other hand wouldn't know where to start with CAD!

Any more progress rj? I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished wheel!

 

[rj5992]

Any more progress rj? I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished wheel!

That's really odd...I just took a picture at lunch time to update on progress. Great timing!

So work has been slow but I'm getting there. The past month has been spent shaping the inside curve of the grips. I'm on my last two pairs now, hoping they'll be done by the end of the week. For those wondering why it's taking so long, this is the process:

So yeah, it's all done by hand with a strip (well; many, many strips) of 80 grit sandpaper. The grips were cut as big as I could get out of the little material I had so as a result there is/was about 2-4mm to remove and shape into the curve. I don't have any spare mahogany so I'm unwilling to go at it with a router, it only takes one slip after all.

Once those last two pairs are finished it'll be a case of trimming them all down so they are equal length (they're oversized at the moment in all directions). I'll then need to go over the aluminium again to put a brushed finish on it and clean up a few little areas that'll be awkward once the mahogany is fitted.

Oh yeah, here's a photo of the grips I have finished:

 

[rj5992]

Some of my lunchbreaks have been taken up with another project of mine: increasing the speed and power of the FFB in my G27 with a larger power supply, although to do that I've had to improve the cooling somewhat:

That's a standard 80mm computer fan cut and filed down and a knob that manually controls the fan speed (the circuit board is underneath). There are also heat sinks for the motors and FET's. This is done on a second hand G27 case that I found on eBay so I've still got my original 'clean' one. The eventual plan is to flock the outer case and fan housing, partly to hide scratches in both but mostly because racecar.

I've got the flocking kit ready, I just need to bring my G27 in so I can see how far I can sink the fan into the housing before I interfere with the circuit board: there's not much room to spare!

This isn't my idea, the mod is the brainchild of @raghza on this page:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/raghzas-ultimate-racing-seat-v2-6.375811/

 

[raghza]

I really like your solution - sinking the fan in the case definitely improves the cooling power even more and ofcourse it looks a lot better. The speed control knob looks really neat too!
Well done sir!

EDIT: Let me know, which power supply you went with. Now that I see that my 30V 3A adapter doesn't make the insides hot at all, I'm wondering whether such 32V 4A one would work even better: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/328...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_3,searchweb201603_52

EDIT2: @MarcoM, I was also concerned about the same thing and opened my wheel a few weeks ago. No noticeable dust, I guess that the fan blows it all out. And I have a lot of dust lol

 

[MarcoM]

How about dust being easier to enter the steering unit?

 

[rj5992]

I really like your solution - sinking the fan in the case definitely improves the cooling power even more and ofcourse it looks a lot better. The speed control knob looks really neat too!
Well done sir!

EDIT: Let me know, which power supply you went with. Now that I see that my 30V 3A adapter doesn't make the insides hot at all, I'm wondering whether such 32V 4A one would work even better: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32820767130.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4e41c132kLdzDH&algo_pvid=767b2357-a36b-428f-aae9-04f3d7e60ea8&algo_expid=767b2357-a36b-428f-aae9-04f3d7e60ea8-4&btsid=731d8760-110f-4b51-8678-d7c0fbde2a8b&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3,searchweb201603_52

EDIT2: @MarcoM, I was also concerned about the same thing and opened my wheel a few weeks ago. No noticeable dust, I guess that the fan blows it all out. And I have a lot of dust lol

Thanks very much! I couldn't believe the improvement in your comparison video when I stumbled on it, I only looked at the thread so I could check out your rig. Thanks very much for working it all out. I went with a 30V 3A in the end.

How about dust being easier to enter the steering unit?

I did wonder about this and just thought I'd pull it apart and clean it every few months, but Raghza's update above has allayed these fears.

 

[Napalm_LT]

How about dust being easier to enter the steering unit?

I did something similar on my T300, but on my mod fun extracting hot air from base insted to add cold air inside. I believe it is not just prevent from dust inside base, but also is more efective cooling.

 

[MarcoM]

I did something similar on my T300, but on my mod fun extracting hot air from base insted to add cold air inside. I believe it is not just prevent from dust inside base, but also is more efective cooling.

I also think extracting the air from a unit is the thing you should be doing.