Road Car Steering Wheel on Fanatec Universal Hub?

[LeonS]

Hey guys,

I'm wondering if any of you are using large-diameter road car steering wheels on their rig?

Proper DD wheels should have enough power to reasonably simulate the forces and turning speeds that one experiences in road cars, so it wouldn't be so far fetched to put a road car wheel on a DD wheel base. Since I'm waiting for the shipment of my DD1 wheel base, and I still have that 350€ voucher for the delay, I was thinking about getting a Universal Hub and a large diameter road car steering wheel, in the 36-39cm range. However, this seems to be more difficult than I had originally assumed.

- the largest Fanatec wheel is only 35cm and looks nothing like a road car wheel
- it's hard to find good-looking, regular road car wheels without airbags at a reasonable price, I wouldn't know how to connect them to the hub, and the hub's buttons would likely be out of reach
- the largest tuning wheel I can find is 36cm. it might do the job okay, but ideally I'd like something a little larger and a little more road-car looking.


Am I the only one who finds the idea of having a large diameter road car wheel on a sim rig intriguing? The purpose would obviously be immersion / real feel for road car racing, and it would give me a chance to better compare the in-sim feeling to real road cars.

If any of you have a large diameter wheel in use for that purpose, what are your impressions?
Oh and is the Fanatec Universal Hub even a good idea in the first place? I'd want that solution to be as solid as any of the regular Clubsport Wheels.

Thanks!
Leon
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edit: Out of curiosity I'll just collect some wheel diameter sizes of road cars here in the top post, measured from outer edge to edge. Feel free to measure you car's steering wheel and post the diameter, then I'll add it to the list

2008 Volvo S40/V50/C30 - 38cm
1991 BMW 5 series - 40cm
2009 Land Rover Defender - 42cm
2006 Renault Clio - 38cm
1953 Ford Anglia - 41cm
2012 Suzuki SX4 - 37cm
2015 Mercedes Vito - 36.5cm
2017 Audi A3 S-Line - 36cm
2012 Mercedes E-Class - 37cm to 37.5cm

 

[knucleon]

As for the mass of the wheel, the Audi wheel (without the parts I haven't finished yet) is 1.8kg -- it will probably be a little over 2kg fully assembled. By comparison the CSL Steering Wheel is 1.2kg. So the Audi one is heavier, but not by a drastic amount, especially considering the CSL wheel has an entirely plastic frame (Audi wheel is cast magnesium alloy with leather wrapped grip area and some kind of rubber coating on the back)

 

[Vojvoda]

As far as if it were possible to build an emulator type board, i'm not sure about that. I also took apart my CSL Steering Wheel and the common component seemed to be a small unidentifiable controller chip -- I am guessing this provides communication to the base and very well may implement some form of lock-out to prevent unauthorized 3rd party parts. I didn't try interfacing directly to the base so I can't provide any details about that.

There is a "emulator" based in Teensy, but not seems "fully" compatible with Fanatec bases.
https://www.simracingmachines.com/WebShop/fanatec-csw-base-wheel-emulator

 

[LeonS]

A little update from my side: With April 30 approaching and no official announcement of the new Porsche wheels yet, I decided to go with a Formula V2 plus a Universal Hub, to make my "road car dreams" come true.

I also found a surprisingly cheap 38cm rim on Amazon (69€) that I'm expecting to arrive today:
"Simoni Racing DEF/P Sportlenkrad" (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01GDX4V1Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

I attached the Universal Hub in Photoshop:

And I'm considering improving the look of it later, if such pieces can be made at a decent price:

 

[LeonS]

Made some more changes:
- Porsche logo (ordered a 3d domed sticker with a printed custom graphic)
- black aluminium ring around the horn button (came like that, different from the product picture)
- shifter paddles to outmost position

Looks really nice like that, doesn't it? Hope it'll look as good in reality. The wheel itself looks pretty nice actually, good workmanship as far as I can tell so far, despite the low price.

 

[RaceWasGood]

Looks nice. May i ask from where you ordered the logo and do you know if they trade other brand logos too?

 

[LeonS]

Looks nice. May i ask from where you ordered the logo and do you know if they trade other brand logos too?

Just some sticker print shop, I made a custom graphic with the Porsche logo on a black background.
https://www.aufkleber-drucken-lassen.de/
Paid ~22€ for 5 stickers + shipping (I took 5 just for the fun of it. getting just one would have been ~18€).

edit: If anyone needs a 44x44mm circular domed sticker of a Porsche logo in or near Germany, let me know ;-)

 

[LeonS]

Another update straight outa Photoshop. I figured I'll just keep the logo on the bottom for now, removed the funky switch, repositioned the buttons on top, and matched the colors better.

 

[LeonS]

I needed one, ordered five, and got 20 stickers. 44mm. Anyone in/ near Germany want one? ;-)

 

[RaceWasGood]

That turned out neat! Not so near Germany, but I'd be happy to pay the expenses if you care to send one to Finland. As a proof of concept if you like as i'm thinking of ordering some myself. Is that the "normal" 70mm spacing for the rim bolts btw?

 

[LeonS]

That turned out neat! Not so near Germany, but I'd be happy to pay the expenses if you care to send one to Finland. As a proof of concept if you like as i'm thinking of ordering some myself. Is that the "normal" 70mm spacing for the rim bolts btw?

Yep, it looks neat. Unfortunately, the colors are not very vivid and the resolution is a bit low. I'll get back to you later after I looked up shipping costs.

the bolt pattern is 70mm, and the horn button inside is 44/45 mm in diameter. I think that's the standard diameter for these horn buttons, but I'm no expert on tuning parts ;-)

 

[LeonS]

It's done!
Video on this is also in the works.

A few changes to my plans:
- Unfortunately, it doesn't come with all black button caps.
- I couldnt get the triple-button boxes closer to the wheel.
- I'm keeping the funky switch on since it's really useful to set things up.
- Covered the logo on the rim with electrical tape. Looks really good.

 

[KnIgHtCoM]

View attachment 302362 View attachment 302363
I needed one, ordered five, and got 20 stickers. 44mm. Anyone in/ near Germany want one? ;-)
View attachment 302364

Do you still have any of these stickers available? Need one for my wheel project.

 

[biggnasty989]

Hey guys,

I'm wondering if any of you are using large-diameter road car steering wheels on their rig?

Proper DD wheels should have enough power to reasonably simulate the forces and turning speeds that one experiences in road cars, so it wouldn't be so far fetched to put a road car wheel on a DD wheel base. Since I'm waiting for the shipment of my DD1 wheel base, and I still have that 350€ voucher for the delay, I was thinking about getting a Universal Hub and a large diameter road car steering wheel, in the 36-39cm range. However, this seems to be more difficult than I had originally assumed.

- the largest Fanatec wheel is only 35cm and looks nothing like a road car wheel
- it's hard to find good-looking, regular road car wheels without airbags at a reasonable price, I wouldn't know how to connect them to the hub, and the hub's buttons would likely be out of reach
- the largest tuning wheel I can find is 36cm. it might do the job okay, but ideally I'd like something a little larger and a little more road-car looking.
View attachment 288730

Am I the only one who finds the idea of having a large diameter road car wheel on a sim rig intriguing? The purpose would obviously be immersion / real feel for road car racing, and it would give me a chance to better compare the in-sim feeling to real road cars.

If any of you have a large diameter wheel in use for that purpose, what are your impressions?
Oh and is the Fanatec Universal Hub even a good idea in the first place? I'd want that solution to be as solid as any of the regular Clubsport Wheels.

Thanks!
Leon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
edit: Out of curiosity I'll just collect some wheel diameter sizes of road cars here in the top post, measured from outer edge to edge. Feel free to measure you car's steering wheel and post the diameter, then I'll add it to the list

2008 Volvo S40/V50/C30 - 38cm
1991 BMW 5 series - 40cm
2009 Land Rover Defender - 42cm
2006 Renault Clio - 38cm
1953 Ford Anglia - 41cm
2012 Suzuki SX4 - 37cm
2015 Mercedes Vito - 36.5cm
2017 Audi A3 S-Line - 36cm
2012 Mercedes E-Class - 37cm to 37.5cm

Name your price. I will supply you with an AMG wheel and require paddles and all avail buttons to be mapped. My cap is 2k. Please contact me as I am serious!!!!

 

[biggnasty989]

Just figured I'd drop a few more screenshots here -- I have done a lot of work on the electronics, to the point that I just sent the board design off to get some prototypes made I also put the Audi wheel back together and did some testing with it and my prototype circuits on the Fanatec CSL base I am using for testing. Once I have the actual custom boards I can finish the code and testing easier since I won't have to deal with wires flopping all over the place and coming loose

2k is my cap. Pm me please. I will supply the AMG Wheel.

 

[biggnasty989]

Just figured I'd drop a few more screenshots here -- I have done a lot of work on the electronics, to the point that I just sent the board design off to get some prototypes made I also put the Audi wheel back together and did some testing with it and my prototype circuits on the Fanatec CSL base I am using for testing. Once I have the actual custom boards I can finish the code and testing easier since I won't have to deal with wires flopping all over the place and coming loose

This is incredible. I will pay, will you build?