Ger's Playseat Challenge Build Log

[Geraint Thomas]

I've finished the 50kg load cell build, and it's brilliant!

It's a bit of a mess at the moment, but it's working beautifully.

I've also replaced the pink rubber with solid silicone test tube stoppers. They're tapered so they compress really well, and they're a perfect feel in terms of stiffness. They're also 19.5mm, which is the exact dimensions of inside the spring. There couldn't be a better solution!

The blue dial allows me to alter how much load it needs until it reaches 100%, so I can dial this to however I want. If I put it to the max, I'm lifting my own chair off the ground before it even gets close to the top. I've dialed it to putting a huge amount of pressure gives 100%, but a hard brake gives about 80-90%, which is spot on.

I can how either use one of thoes silicone bungs with a tall black piston to pre-load it for a stiff pedal, or have a shorter piston setup and use two bungs for a more progressive feel. That, mixed with the dial on the circuit board, means I have an infinite amount of configurations for the pedal.

And it only cost me £15... ridiculous.

I've also invested in a £9 small digital clock from ebay to keep an eye on those server joining times...

 

[Geraint Thomas]

Blimey, it's been a whole year since I've updated this. Not a huge amount has changed though.

I tidied the pedal build up a little more, given the wires and boards a box in between the pedals, and printed new clamps for the pedal bar so that they don't come loose and rip the wires during heavy braking. Ask me how I know.

A keyboard was also added by taping it to the back of a phone holder. This was great, but eventually the phone holder snapped, so I'd need to think of an alternative as this was a very neat and tidy solution for the playseat.

I mocked up a very quick button box, and printed it out. This thing has been extremely useful, sitting into the aforementioned phone holder instead of the keyboard.

I'm currently designing a new style button box as small as this, that fits into a phone holder, for exactly this purpose.

Meanwhile, the office had a re-paint. I got a little tired of the darkness in the middle of the day, so the green was (sadly) gone.

More in the next post.

 

[Geraint Thomas]

The lights work a lot better in a lighter room, though.

As a quick side note, I've also been designing a new DIY wheel that people can buy the digital files and build themselves, or purchase it as a kit. This is through a joint venture with a friend, but so far the design is coming along well.

One of the best upgrades I've done so far is to fix the T300's cooling, and implement more power.

The cooling was finally fixed by fitting a Noctua A6x25 fan, along with a 3D printed duct that someone had kindly given me to print. I've been running this with very strong feedback and no fade. Along with a recent re-build of the motor with 300 degree resistant JB weld, it looks like this has fixed the issue entirely. High-temperature weld and proper cooling.

Now that the T300 has proper cooling, I decided to give it more power. The stock PSU gives 24v, but is unregulated and is pretty terrible in its power delivery. Replacing this with an external laptop 24v PSU fixes the notchiness some experience with the T300. However, after some research, you can give these 36v quite easily for a little more headroom with power.

I purchased an adjustable PSU from Amazon that has a dial and a readout, allowing me to switch between 24v and 36v if I need to. I also placed some heatsinks on the mosfets of the chipboard to help with the cooling.

After this, the PSU was removed (you can see in the fan image above), and the power port was cut and replaced with a simple female power port (didn't take a photo of this). I sourced this from an old Driving Force GT as it already had a plastic mount that, incredibly, fitted perfectly into the back of the T300. Worst case though, you purchase one from Ebay and 3D print a plate instead. Nice and simple.

The power leads are now a lot smaller.

No more notchiness, a bit more power, good cooling, and everything is as it should be.

I do love it when the FOV works seamlessly between the monitor and real display.

That leads us up to now. Future plans would be to tidy the LED lights on the chair, as the current solution of simply slapping on some adhesive LED strips is very messy. I'll consider some neater solutions.

As well as that, I'll look into adding some rumble motors for the pedals. I can easily build these, but my issue is that it's yet another power supply that I'd have to use that cannot be bound to the other wires as they plug into the back of the wheel. This new power lead would plug into the pedals, and as I'm trying to make this build as neat as possible, this wouldn't be great. I'll see if I could tap into the power that's supplied to the T300's fan, as this is 12v, which is required for the motors. This can then run down to the pedals along with the other wires, which would mean no more wires on show.

I'll see...

 

[Geraint Thomas]

Apologies for the lack of updates, life's been quite busy in the meantime. I've been continuing with the build and with the Rival DIY sim kit company, which is set to launch in the next couple of months (super exciting, and I can't wait to share it with you all).

The main thing that's happened was the design and build of a brand new wheel and button box

This is an early version, and it's changed much since then (as you'll see shortly). The main thing is the introduction of a PCB (a fake one for now) that houses the components on both the wheel and the button box itself, as well as 2x 5-way hat switches for menu navigation.

This led to an idea of using LED PCB buttons with custom PETG printed caps, just to see if it would work.

It did. However, the back was a complete - but functional - mess.

At least you can see how the fake PCB is in use. This houses the components, and when we have a real PCB, there won't be wires to deal with.

The result was lovely.

The middle texture was a test to see if inserts would be the way to go. However after much consideration and many tests, textured vinyl was the prevailing solution here for a more premium feel.

This was roughly cut by hand with a scissors. The new wheel (not pictured here) has professionally cut and printed vinyl, which looks and feels far superior.

The wheel also saw the introduction of a quick release, and newly designed hall sensor paddle clutches.

The T300 had an aluminium adapter fitted, as well as the other end of the quick release.

The T300's 36v power conversion is holding up well, but I had to obtain a new PSU as the old Amazon one gave up the ghost. I also wanted to neaten up the T300 even more by cutting the USB cable and implementing a female port into the back of the base to remove all wires.

I designed this to house the USB port, as well as the new power port.

Far neater with a lot less wires to deal with.

I've also fitted metal bearings throughout the pulley system to ensure that the belts are moving smoothly, especially with the extra torque. The result is a well-cooled 36v metal bearing T300 with better cable management. Such a cheap modification to the wheel which really puts it up there with entry DD bases in terms of power output.

 

[Geraint Thomas]

Regarding the button box, this also was given the same LED treatment as the wheel.

And also a very, very roughly cut vinyl (now cut professionally but not pictured).

As far as I'm aware, there is no other button box this small with these features (10 buttons, LED backlit and a rotary) that's this small on the market. It could well be a first. The new version (again, not pictured) is far neater in its build - these are early models for the Rival brand.

A new screen was also developed.

This is an incredibly slim screen with integrated mounting holes and no visible screws.

I've also printed new pedal faces with a lovely texture for extra grip and extra loveliness when looking at them.

Along with the new pedal faces, I've re-designed the pedal brackets to include three bolts, two each side of the bar and one in the middle. This is to ensure the brackets don't snap under load cell pressures, while still maintaining the same functionality and size of the original brackets.

With everything put together onto the rig, the result is wonderful.

To date, the specs of it are:

• Monitor arm to bring monitor up close
• USB hub under the base plate
• LED lights wired with no loose wires
• Keyboard mount on a ball joint so that it folds away
• Custom pedal clamps to withstand load cell pressure
• Custom leg clamps to lock chair when folding away (you can just about see the big plastic thing in the middle that clamps onto the rear leg)
• Pedal bars are bolted in with metal bolts to withstand load cell
• Base plate brace to remove wobble
• T300 with 36v PSU, female USB port, reinforced motor internals and internal cooling ducts to prevent fading
• Momo quick release
• Aluminium T300 universal adapter
• Self-designed wheel with hall sensor clutches, hat switches and LED buttons
• Self-designed button box with LED buttons and rotary
• Self-designed screen and hub
• Self-designed load cell brake pedal, pedal arms and faces

I've done a full walk-around here:

I keep toying with the idea of a Moza R9. At the moment there are better things I could be spending my money on; my actual track car being one, my family being another. The only reason I'd get it is for the smoothness and slight increase of power. Currently with the power output of this T300 and its metal bearings, you can't really compare to an original T300; it's a different wheel, so I'm happy to stay with this for the time being.

There is a temptation to replace the seat for a Playseat Challenge X. Main reasons for this are the better looks (I love the grey paint job), raised pedal section (though this could be tricky folding it away), but the most important change is the lack of side straps on the X. This means my arms can drop down a little more than they currently do. However, as you can no longer open this seat up, you have to use the straps for support to get in and out of the seat. I'm not sure how it would be without them.

Nevertheless, I'm still over the moon with this setup. A single cable reaches under the desk and plugs the rig in, and I'm set up or packed away within a minute or two. As said previously, I use my office day to day so I need the space. Knowing this, I'll most likely not get an 8020 rig (unless we move home with a spare room), and the NextLevel seats are quite cumbersome. As a result, this seat is quite literally the only choice for me. But with these modifications I'm able to get a full sim racing experience: load cell brakes with no flex, relatively high powered wheel base, a wheel with full functionality, hat switches, clutches and LED's, a button box, keyboard, heads up display and a quick release system for the wheel. The fact all of this plugs in with one cable and can be folded away within minutes is quite remarkable, and it's been quite a journey!