Happy New Year

Happy new years to all and I hope your Christmas was enjoyable!

I have done a little bit of work on my little project so here are the latest pics I have of the work taking place.
In these pics I have started the removable headrest protection area, while most will know what this section is, for the others…its a section that sits around the drivers head and continues down to almost in line with the wheel. This section can be  removed by driver to aid in getting in and out of the car.

It is still possible to get in and out with out removing this section, but it is rather a tight fit and requires angling the shoulder to do it. The width is regulated by the FIA but as a practical size when it’s installed it makes the cockpit opening about the width of your hips.

Not finished in those pics but you can see even though it looks rather crude it’s starting to take form.

I also got a chance to drag the rig out side to add and shape the largest top piece of the nose area.

So there you have it…

More pics soon as I want to try and get it all assembled in January so I can get it painted….hmmmm now to chose a colour. I swore it wasn’t going to be red but now one Schumi has left maybe I can once again support Ferrari…!!! Don’t know now…hmmmmm. Maybe I’ll make my own livery?!?!

While I consider MS to be one of the best drivers ever, he isn’t THE BEST imho… 

Ayrton Senna holds that crown and will for some time.

In saying that I am pumped that Schumi has decided to make a come back..The 2010 F1 season is looking like it will be an absolute cracker! Can’t wait.

More buttons

A few buttons inside the cockpit.

It’s good now I dont have to use the keyboard as all the buttons I need are either on the wheel or with in easy reach. All the wiring etc is hidden away and out of harms reach. Happy to have that chore out of the way now…

So many wires….It’s not a hard thing to do but it is time consuming.

If there is a coolish day soon I will drag it out side and install the top of the nose and route it, but it’s been so HOT lately. Too hot to move……

One year I really would love to see snow rather than sweating 20 hours a day.

Update

Just a few pics of wheel and me and my floral boardies inside the cockpit…:)

I managed to paint the wheel and rebuild it using the hacked usb number pad I posted about last time. Amazing amount of wires inside the wheel, but more amazing (well to me ) is the the lack of wires coming out…got to love usb devices!

Not finished with wheel just yet, got to make up some decals for buttons, get better knobs, and make provision to have wires travel up the steering column, and connect via QR din style of connection. But that sort of stuff doesn’t need to happen right away. Next plan while I have the soldering bug is to add internal buttons for functions like seat adjustment,  starter, exit etc things I wouldn’t use mid race. These will go nicely on dash bulkhead and on the upper armrest areas.

Enough talk here’s some pics.

Headphones

Mmmmmmmm

• Bass Vibration
• LED Flash
• 5.1 Surround Sound
• USB Sound Card
• Noise Canceling

Price? $29 +gst

Progress

Hi all just small update of work done.

Pulled wheel apart to finish it….

Spent my time sanding and priming the front half of the wheel and then gave it a few coast of gloss black.

I think it come up pretty good, not to worried about the handles as I will glue some leather or rubber on them. Not bad for $3 can of spray paint

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I also had to add the covering for cockpit infill or armrest area as it was majorly painful to use the sim with out some once I put it in, my elbows would graze the edges and scrap…now it great.

I have plenty of room to turn wheel with out fouling against the area but I can also use it to rest or brace the elbows/arms on straights and long corners.

Amazing how pic quality changes from outside light to inside light…

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I have also being a tight ass decided to hack a usb numerical pad to use more button options…Highly recommend do this mod if you have the time to put aside to figure it all out.

I was fairly crapping myself even thinking of dong this but after I realized I would only be screwing up a $5 keyboard I felt a little more at ease. Also to say  my soldering skill aren’t that good would be putting it mildly but even this knob managed to do it.

Then I semi traced all the lines to keys before hand so I knew what most of the keystrokes would do…but  then I had to methodically go thru and work it all out just to make sure.

So now I have a 20 button usb encoder to use…and it will be great as it will cut down the amount of wires that is slowly building up.

This is my highly sientific method to mapout keystrokes…..

And just to show the behind the scene mess I have created….LOL

ummm wife = not happy!

Dont worry dear I’ll clean it up….I need to I only have a 20cm by 20cm work space to move the mouse….

Oh nearly forgot I bought some of this stuff for the wheel…..

And wish I didn’t bother….it looks a treat, but this stuff is useless, it won’t stick properly it doesn’t mold at all. It would be excellent if you wanted to cover a book or something flat and that’s about it. I spent ages preparing surface and then going slowly but a total wast of money and waste of my time.  Grrrrrrrrrrr