The HazyPit Build

[edgley]

Intro
I have been reading at all the cockpit threads on here for a while. I am drawn more to the ones that look like a real car than the metal frame ones, the one that is made from the actual dash of a car is just fab.

Whilst looking one evening I came across Mr Latte and his journey in to the world of feeling GT5. I had first heard about Buttkickers 10 odd years ago as AV toys. Always wanted to add some to my sofa, but as I live in a flat it wasn’t the best idea.

But this is for GT5. So here I am now, a pile of wires and box’s, MDF dust in the air, and almost a new cockpit built. And when the girlfriend sees the massive chunk I have taken out of the stair case bannister with my circular saw I know who I will blame

Goals
To fit into a room that is a second bedroom/ office / den
To be modular so its easy to remove or adjust
To hold all of the equipment internally
To make use of all the scraps of wood I have
To make it look proper
To have a working setup at the end of each day, so I can play

As mentioned I live in a flat, so space is limited. I have a nook where the window is, and its just big enough to take my telly, so thats the space I get to use. Unfortunately its right next to my desk, but hay. I also have to balance not taking over the room, but don’t want to impose so much on the design I don't get what I want. Which, now I think about it, would be my own KITT.

One of the biggest problems I face is an inability to cut straight and to the right dimensions. This project has been planned to allow for this, to hide all the crap cuts out of sight. One of my mates is a most amazing carpenter; he is always cracking up when he sees something I have put together; not this time though!

As I wasn't sure of what I wanted, the design was made to allow the bits to be added to it when I figured out what I wanted as it took shape.

I got the main side pieces and two top pieces worked out, and went to the local timber yard. I got them to cut a sheet of 15mm MDF into the basic shapes; at least that way I knew for sure that I was starting with straight sides.

First problem was that although I worked out that the pieces would fit onto one sheet, when they were cut another sheet was needed. And these sheets are 2.5m by 2m. I didn't understand how I could have got it wrong. Figured it out when I got all the pieces home; turned out the ruddy bloke I tipped a tenner to to cut the pieces cut them to the wrong sizes!

All worked out in the end, I took the spare pieces home, randomly cut smaller to fit in the car and have ended up using just about all of it.

I used Parts Express in the US for the supply of the shakers. Delivered four days after ordering via Fed-Ex, amazing service.

Testing
The first shaker order was just for one of each. I wasn’t sure of what the difference would be so I wanted to play first.

I removed the subwoofer that was already fixed inside the chair, then after removing all the staples from one side and partly from the other I was able to open up the back of the chair.
Turning the existing subwoofer box 180 gave me the perfect platform to mount the Aura on.

Next was to cut a bit of wood large enough for the chair to stand on and the Clerk to be mounted behind. I also mounted the rubber feet to the bottom of the board; more to stop the vibrations escaping and reducing the experience than as a token gesture to the people below me

I then connected the Aura up to the sub channel, and the Clerk up to the centre channel, without any EQ.

And the big question, what was it like? There was a great smack in my back when I hit something, or something hit me, but there wasn’t any real subtly to the effect. The centre channel didn’t really add anything, just sort of acting as a low sounding speaker.

However, I have not let me put this off and have plodded on...

Equipment
5.1 Decoder
old Sony 5.1 AV amp
Samsung 40” LCD
2.1 Sound system
EQ,15 slider

Xrocker SE II Chair
3x Clerk TST209
1x Aura AST-2B-4
4x Rubber Feet
Yamaha Inline Active Subwoofer

G27 - With Nixim spring upgrade
Hori Arcade Controller

Jigsaw
Circular saw
Drill
Electric Screwdriver
Spirit level
Set Square
Plastic Right Angle Triangle Thingie

 

[edgley]

The Build

Before I start, no mentioning of the wall paper. I have a big fish tank in this room, and I would rather have flowers on the wall than have to move it.

I started with getting the bottom board cut down so it fit in the nook. The dimensions for the two side panels and the top board for the TV had already been worked out as they were copied over from my old stand.

As I like the TV to be as close to me as possible I had to notch out two areas to allow the TV to slide forward into the front part of the stand. I will be adding a small plastic spacer to the rear of the TV stand to slightly topple it forward; seems to be better to me than having it horizontal.

I didn't screw any of it to the wall or the bottom board as I wanted to play to make sure it was fine. It was, so the two side were screwed down, and the bit of wood at the rear was added to the TV platform to allow me to screw to the wall.

As I wasn’t sure which side I wanted the 5.1 decoder to go I decided to make a shelf for it on each side.

I worked out the dimensions by sitting down and sketching it out. I then screwed two pieces of MDF together and cut them to make the side of the left pod. I thought the idea of screwing them together was just about genius; a perfect way to get over my crapness and get both of them the same. Hardest part was the curve with the jigsaw, there are some bumps in it, but it has been designed so that another piece of MDF will go over the top and cover any issues.

I figured that the quickest way of assembling it was to cut four blocks from the same length of wood, thus guaranteeing that they where all the same width. These were used to provide structure and shape to the pod. I then angled one shelf for the decoder, so it is looking upwards, and the shelf above is for switches.

And that was day one done. I put the wires all back together, and had a race with my mates; nice.

 

[edgley]

The Pedals

This was the job I had been dreading. I went looking for info about the angles to mount the board too, and found that people used between 40 and 60 degrees.

I followed a guide to removing the pedals. I marked up centre lines on my board, and as I had looked the other night as to where my foot rested I knew roughly where to mount it to test. I drilled holes to pass the wires through to the back side, out of sight.

Once mounted I removed the TV and the board it rested on, lowered the pedal board in place and used the triangle to get the angle roughly right. Once done, a screw through the side held it in place, allowing me to check that it was right. It took a couple of times to get right, once it was getting the brake and clutch position was easy.

It all works well, it does make a squeak when pressed heavily; looks like its caused by the pedal board rubbing on the bottom board. This will be fixed when its all carpeted.

Right Side Pod

Same principle as the left, although by this time I knew that I wanted the decoder on the right, made more sense and left me another shelf for buttons on the left; mmmm, more buttons.

I wanted to get more fancy for this side, hence the decoder at an angle, and the shelf too.
By cutting the notch in the shelf I could lower the back and raise the front. Once a piece of wood was screwed at the back to hold the decoder in the right position I ran a pencil down the front of the decoder to mark the line to jigsaw. Still need to make a couple of small bits to tidy this part up.

The spacers in the main part not only will hold the two EQs in place, but also give strength to the unit.

Day two was done, and another race was played. Upside down pedals are just great.

Remaining

Mount the TTs to the chair.
Wire up all the sound
Disassemble arcade controller and mount buttons
Purchase and install keystart / wiper / headlight switches
Make finishing pieces to tidy it all up
Cover in carpet and leatherette
Enjoy

 

[Mr Latte]

Nice to see you start the thread.

Youve been working away like a little beaver by the looks of things.
Coming along nicely and could be a smart little setup.

If you can post up images of how the "Clarkes" are installed, show us the seat and their positioning too please.

I would recommend you remove the "Centre Clarke" from what seems the back of the seat to behind and above your angled pedal board. You will get engine revs going into the pedals and exhaust sounds if close up behind a car. Do that and get up behind something like a EVO in GT5 to see.

Where you have the 3x "Clarke Tactile" it might not be the best placement and they all are connected close together on the same board. Better results would be possible if attached to a solid timber piece of wood thats then attached to the MDF and also connects to the seat section. Having seperated bits of wood could also help eliminate the chance of one cancelling the other out so to speak.

For your L/R tactile you might get better results if you can attach them to the side the seat in some manner. You want a good solid connection between what these are attached to and the seat rising or frame. Also remember the T209s can be mounted vertically and horizontally.

GT5 can alter its tactile a great deal depending on the car and some dont come off that great tbh. I recommend you do testing in GT5 with a Nisan GTR as it has one of the best effects with tactile.

Trust me we will get that tactile working well, it just might take a few changes and trying alternative positions and ways of mounting.

 

[scoddee]

...Plastic Right Angle Triangle Thingie

In Louisville, Kentucky USA we call that a "speed square". Great and quick work, is it hard to climb into ? 👍

Scotty

 

[OLDSKOOLACURA]

very nice

 

[MuchoJimbo]

In Louisville, Kentucky USA we call that a "speed square". Great and quick work, is it hard to climb into ? 👍

Scotty

I was wondering the same thing.

Which got me thinking, someone needs to build something where a car door is required to enter the cockpit.

 

[edgley]

Thank you all for the kind comments.

If you can post up images of how the "Clarkes" are installed, show us the seat and their positioning too please.

They are just screwed, in a line, to the white board, just behind the seat; this is only temporary.

I would recommend you remove the "Centre Clarke" from what seems the back of the seat to behind and above your angled pedal board.

That is actually the Aura, which was going to be linked to the sub, so the kick of a collision gets you right in the back.
I will move the Clarke from the middle of the white board and mount it where you suggest.

Where you have the 3x "Clarke Tactile" it might not be the best placement and they all are connected close together on the same board. Better results would be possible if attached to a solid timber piece of wood thats then attached to the MDF and also connects to the seat section. Having seperated bits of wood could also help eliminate the chance of one cancelling the other out so to speak.

Yep, they were just mounted there for testing. The sides will be going directly onto the side of the chair and the middle is now going down by the pedals.
I will get a proper bit of wood for the base then, as currently it is only chipboard.

For your L/R tactile you might get better results if you can attach them to the side the seat in some manner. You want a good solid connection between what these are attached to and the seat rising or frame. Also remember the T209s can be mounted vertically and horizontally.

Thats where they will be, directly mounted to the boards that make up the side of the chair.

 

[edgley]

Great and quick work, is it hard to climb into ? 👍

No more so than my real car
There will be a hinged board covering up the EQS. One will be able to stand on that to get into it.

I did try to get a door, or at least a half door, incorporated but the space is too limited; this time.

 

[Mr Latte]

Thanks for the info Edgley.

Contact me again via PM about the tactile if you need to.
I assume then your using the Aura Pro as the LFE tactile connected from your decoders subwoofer output and its going to be powered by a your 2.1 audio system?

You will later have to show how its all connected or are you using "Multi Audio Output" via PS3 with HDMI and Optical together?

 

[edgley]

Will do a proper diagram once I know what is going where.

The 5.1 decoder will be powering all the TTs. The Aura will be on the .1 channel.

The 2.1 will be fed via the MAO of the PS3; although sticking another 5.1 receiver into the mix is looking more likely by the time I get to the end.

I have my arcade stick now, so this afternoon will be spent removing the buttons and mounting them on the left pod. Not sure that they are right, as I have now ordered the key starter, light switch and wiper switch; the primary colours of the arcade stick might not be in keeping with what I am trying to achieve.

If there is time I will also be opening up the gear stick and mounting that correctly.

 

[Mr Latte]

Okay no probs man...

Please can you do a detailed "how to" with the switches if possible...
I have some Id like to use as well but may just have as decorational purposes if using the ipad and iwavit.

Has the girlfriend discovered your stair case bannister yet?

 

[edgley]

I was taking pictures whilst taking it apart, and as there is most certainly a knack to unsoldering and removing the buttons I will. Turns out the buttons are not right so I have had to order some proper arcade buttons. All the bits should be turning up during the week.

I did get all the TTs wired up and tested this afternoon, however.
And for the first time I got the effect of the rumble strip going from L/C/R and R/C/L

Only problem is that the levels have to be so loud that if (when) I crash that extra bang is way too much. Only good thing is that it is so OTT that it makes you slow down to avoid it happening.

Guess its time for a spectrum analyser to see what is going on. The Eq I have does have a low pass filter so I must give it a go.

I did find this on Ebay, though. Thought two of them mounted somewhere would be cool.

Link

 

[edgley]

GF came home tonight and said two things:
What the hell is that?
You need to get out more.

Fortunately I have mended the bannister so well that I doubt Norm would notice:

Mounting the Gear Stick.

I took the gear stick apart. I was just about to remove the actual mechanism when I noticed that it was the cover keep it all in place. So I decided to keep it all in it and mount the whole unit; that meant cutting it in two.

The top panel is only 6mm MDF compared to the 15mm of the frame.
I tapered the top panel so it fits down between the two chairs, and provides a handy surface for the person sitting in the proper chair to balance a beverage or snack on.

I had worked out where my hand would natural fall for the position of the stick.I then cut the whole, enlarging when the stick couldn’t move its total range. I ended up having to cut an extra part out at the top as there is a little plastic lip on the ring that needed to have space. Ideally I would route a thin line all around the edge of the hole, as the plastic cover is not level and the groove would take care of this.

Next was the juggling act of holding the stick in place and getting the screws in the side to hold it there.

Once there I could use the little black screws from the bottom of the original gearstick module to hold the collar on.

 

[edgley]

Gutting the Arcade Stick

Tools Needed
Soldering Iron
Solder Sucker
Solder
Multimeter
Pipe cutters
Sand paper
Wire


I had a moment this morning.
I realised that you had to press the PS3 button to get in to the menu that allows you to re-assign the controllers. Problem was that neither the wheel nor the arcade stick has a PS3 button.

All of this could be for nothing, I thought as I used a normal controller to bring up the menu to re-assign. But no, for some reason Sony got something else right and it is the controller that you use to go into the re-assignment menu that get changed. Not the one used to invoke the XMB; phew.

I took all the screws out and removed the metal base plate.

Now to the fun part.
I heated up each of the pins for the buttons where they poked through.
Once the solder was wet I used the sucker to remove it; rinse, repeat.

I had to take apart the sucker now and then and clear out excess solder. It took at least four attempts at each one to remove most of it. I had to keep moving around to different ones to try and stop the heat building up too much in the PCB.

Once I had most of the solder removed I started at the buttons at the end and heated both legs at once. By having my figure underneth I could apply pressure upwards. When I managed to get both legs wet at the same time the PCB moved upwards. I then had to work my way round each leg, lifting them up a bit at a time.

I found that if a set of legs didn’t move I had to try sucking again to remove some more. They all popped up without too much effort. I could then remove the remaining screws and drop the whole assembly out.

Next was to solder the wire on that would connect my new switches.

I took a bit of trusty CAT5. Cleaning about 5mm from each end, I then used my thumb to bend a right angle in it, where the bare wire came out of the sleeve. All was left to do was to trim the end down, so only about 2/3mm of bare wire stuck out.

I could then poke it through the hole, and where the right angle bend was the bare wire laid directly on the old solder. Just a case of adding a tiny blob of solder and new wire all present and correct.

Once all of them were done I checked them for continuity to make sure I hadn’t joined any of the solder blobs; any job done

 

[edgley]

More Switches

Posty had dropped off a load more bits, so out came the tools again.

I started by marking up the board for all the holes to be cut.

One issue was when I didn’t know the diameter of the hole to be cut. I tried to measure it but was small on a couple of them. That meant a whole load of sanding to get the hole big enough.

To mount the arcade stick I put it on the back, drew round it, found centre and cut a hole.
Then by using the small pieces of wood I managed to hold it in place. I needed to bend a couple of the micro-switch’s wires. There are also four screws that need to go in to hold the micro-switches in place. Without these when the stick is move the pressure is not on the switches so contact is not made.

I put the heads between the face plate and the stick so the pice of wood across the back would hold it all in place.

Next was to cut the holes for the remaining buttons and install

 

[andosillano]

AWESOME JOB Mate!!!

 

[Mr Latte]

Great work, now that has helped me as wanted to do summit like this at one time.
Can you put up a link where you got the buttons and stuff mate?

The "HOME" button on the "Arcade Stick" should be your "PS" button is it not?

Also what is the Cooker/Oven style switch for?

 

[MuchoJimbo]

I have 'zero' knowledge of electronics but I find this build fascinating and that picture where you cut into the stair ledge is priceless, I could totally see someones GF or wifes face after that one.

 

[edgley]

Thanks Guys,
Tis amazing, but she has still not seen it, and she walks past it at least twice a day :0
I could tell you about the time I spent an hour working out the place to cut the hole in the ceiling for the speaker in the kitchen; I had access to the loft adjacent. I measured, I checked, I measured again. You guessed it, out fell the piece from the hole cutter to show a rafter running right through the middle of it.

Will go back and add links for the buttons to the post about them.
If you want me to go into more details about any of, just ask.

Spent the today soldering all the wires together, about to wire it up and do some power tests. Yep, did see on the PCB that the home button is also labelled PS3, so will add another button for that.

The rotary momentary switch is for the lights and the wipers. As I am not sure what sort of buttons I want I am just getting loads and having gander at how they look in situ. Ordered some great aircraft toggle style last night too, hoping they will be here tomorrow.

 

[edgley]

Sod it, easier to do another post with the info in.


Red button - all my arcade buttons are from him

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370521649319&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2365wt_1156

Triangle

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390304106307&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2207wt_1156

Aircraft

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250866292178&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2282wt_922

Rotary

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170675917107&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_500wt_922

Cockpit light level control

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300581287793&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1240wt_922

Horn

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180672914153&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2619wt_989

Key Switch

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370532086376&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1487wt_1199

 

[edgley]

 

[Mr Latte]

Coming on well and thanks for the links.

Look forward to more of your updates.

 

[edgley]

Managed to get some more bits done. Also had to sort a problem with the buttons. Seems I was getting ghosting; the horn would constantly (faintly) sound.

Turns out it is the wires I used to extend the distance from the PCB to the buttons were picking up mains hum. Got some help and a solution that should fix it; will post the details when I get it working.

Had to move the left hand side towards the right 2cm to get the subwoofer in place.

Made the panel to fit over the pedals.

The gap at the top is for the neon tube to go.

Have tried to use the EQ to sort the sound, one of the problems is seeing where the problem is. My new EQ and combined Spectrum Analyser, with DSP should take care of that. I had to mod the side to allow the much bigger unit to fit in.

And today I managed to get the rough dashboard done and placed.

Will post the details, getting it to sit in place and still be removable was achieved, and its even level
Just need to cut the holes in; one to mount my old iPod Touch and the other to make a glovebox.

Then comes the final mounting of the side pods, cutting of the dash and then the covering.
And some wiring.

 

[Mac K]

Thats so cool, is that lighter actually functional?

 

[edgley]

Thanks Mac; it will be.

 

[scoddee]

Ashtray ?

EDIT: Of course it will have one, my proper question is where will it be located ?

Scotty

 

[edgley]

In the glove box; next to the can holder.
Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to drop the mini fridge, just not enough room.

 

[Crispy]

I'd love to add a light switch and turn key ignition switch like that. Does the Key actually turn something on? Or is it just for show?

 

[edgley]

The key turns on the power for the unit when turned to the first position.
If I could think of something todo with it when turned over (starter motor firing) I would add that too.