Ok folks, I may have taken my interest in PS3's GT5-P a bit to far... I decided to build me a race game seat or race pod as some call it using 2" PVC joints and pipes with Logitech's G25 steering gear. And besides the joypad was just not cutting it for taking the corners . So in the interest of sharing I thought I'd start a thread here to invite others to show off what they're using or created and perhaps help each other along the way. And just to be fair it can be a flight simulator or race simulator, it don't matter just post up your rigs.

So for starters, here's mine Although, I haven't taken any photos of it while I was building it I can share what it is currently today. I'm in the process of adding a 100w sub-amp to power up the 50w Aura Bass Shaker located underneath the seat and a set of PC speakers at the headrest plus frabricating a small platform for a wireless keyboard and mouse in case I decide to go PC from console.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

more......

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Cost so far:

$60-70 for 2" white PVC pipes, joints and glue
$17 for a salvaged Integra seat (passenger side) from junkyard
$15-20 for nuts and bolts
$50 for the Bass Shaker
$3 for the speakers
$240 for the G25 steering gear
$10-15 for paint (plastic)
0 for scrapped MDF wood 1/4", 1/2" & 3/4"

Total time to build: About 2 days for the basic frame. Measuring, cutting and mocking was easy, it was the preparation for gluing that was quite tedious which involved cleaning, sanding, cleaning again, gluing and then setting. And I'm talking both pipes and joints at each end. But once the glue sets it's permanent.

Out-frickin-standing!

Not much of a gamer but if I was, I would definitely want one of those!

awesome... I have been planning on building one for a long time to play live for speed on the projector. Did you follow plans or anything? I am going to get going on this next weekend I think. You have inspired me!!

Came up with the design myself on paper. Dimensions are 30" @ widest and 4'6" long. Mocking before actual gluing was key. I can take measurments for each section and post them if it'll help. Since the Integra seat does slide forward and back it can accomodate those past the 6' mark, I'm 5'11". Some of adjustable features are:

Headrest
Seat back incline
Seat forward/back
Shifter up/down
Tilt wheel

Pedals are permanent

Thanks a bunch. If it is of very little hassle Measurments would make my life a little easier, but if it is involved at all, which I think it may be, don't worry about it. Your setup looks really nice.

It's fabulous SIM!!! Just took me awhile to make it over here and check it out.

Appreciate the responses guys but seriously nobody has a setup of their own that they wanna post?

If you buld me one I'd be happy to post pictures of it!

Sure D, here ya go. Now how do you want it delivered? Mind you shipping might be kinda hefty
Click to view attachment

Ok, here are the measurements. If I had to do it over again, I'd move the left side of the frame over somemore - see my explaination in the drawing.
Sorry, best I can do using MS Paint.

EDIT (Nov8,09): Ignore the details of moving the left support over as I have mentioned and drawn in the plans, there is no reason to (read on). The frame is quite solid during play. Just don't lean on the steering box/wheel itself for support while climbing into your cockpit.

Click to view attachment

awesome thanks for the drawings. It occured to me that I have no where to store my cockpit at the moment, so some rearranging needs to be done. Do you use this in front of the projector? I was also looking into diy motion control

Not until I setup the garage as my man's cave so currently using a TV for now. Seen those motion controls, and they are quite spendy but bet they're alot of fun.

Yeah they are so I gotta figure out if I would rather have motion or a commercial projector. I think motion will come later and the commercial projector first. I will probably just attach a 24" monitor to my cockpit because my computer is kind of far from my projector. Of course then I would need to buy the monitor. I guess I will just use it with my 19" crt that I have had since they were THE thing to have like 12 years ago lol. Still has better colors than any tv in my house.

I understand the Logitech's run on sprockets so there is a dead point while steering compared to those running with belts. From what I found those wheels run up 3 times or more then the Logi's. For a full motion seater I'd probably up the wheel as well since they are built more ruggedly and can handle the beating while being thrashed around in your seat. It's amazing what some of the pro simmer's put into their setup even as far as using 3 projectors for that peripheral view.

well I have raced on both frex and ecci wheels and I have to say they are nice, but I really really like my g25 and have no plans to upgrade. Besides I like the force feedback and as far as I know no other good wheel maker offers ffb. The logitech is not as good but its close enough to not justify the 1000 more. I would probably keep the wheel and upgrade to better pedals in the future. I really really like the wheel . I have had mine for a year and a half now and it is holding up well.

I hear ya I'm just a rookie simmer for now with no intensions for anymore extravagance than what I can penny up. So hope my G25 lives up just as long.
BTW, are you referring to this frex ffb wheel ? Cause, dam, it's a sweet setup.

No I raced on an early hydraulic dampened unit at ces 2003 i think it was. I was not aware that their ffb was out of developement yet. If I had the money I think I would get frex's entire setup... but alas I do not and I am just a casual simmer as well =D

Turns out you can just take the g25 pedals out of the case and hang them and they are really good pedals, I think I will incorporate that into my cockpit. It may be a while before I attempt this now that I am researching it a little more

Ok so I am going to copy your cockpit pretty much verbatim at least for mockup. I dont really have room for it but so what lol. I will move the pvc pipe out that you suggested and I have a couple of questions for you if you dont mind

Did you use screws to mount the wood to the pvc that the chair and steering wheel attach too?

Where in home depot would I find those u bolts that you used to wrap the pvc for the shifter mount?

How exactly is the shifter mounted?

Is the cockpit sturdy with the ffb of the g25? Because my desk shakes sometimes, and it is very big. lol meaning basically I play in the middle of the night so I cant have it noisy.

Where did you get that rubber for mounting the seat?

The little details of your cockpit are outstanding just like your projectors

sorry for all of the questions

DAMMIT!!! had a bunch of explainations typed out but lost it.!@#$%^&*(

I'll explain later but for now here's some pics that may help you.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

#10 wood screws rounded heads unless your countersinking them. 1 1/4" should do for 3/4" MDF.

The platform for the steering assembly isn't screwed to the PVC. The platform is actually a combination of 1/4" and 3/4" MDF that are screwed and glued together, it's built in such a way that it stradles the 'T' joint. The 'T' joint have these PVC caps glued at the ends (also found at Home Depot) that I drilled 3/8" holes on center. The platform is bolted thru the 'T' joint/caps with a 3/8" - 8" long bolt/washers/wingnut. There's a 'U' bolt in front of the wheel for angling the pivot for tilt and I used wing nuts for tightening. I found plastic washers that I placed between the 1/4" MDF and 'U' bolt but you can also use another set of nuts instead. These can be found in the nail/screw/fastener isle at Home Depot, just be sure the 'U' bolt is long enough (you may have to bend this bolt a bit wider to fit around the joint).


These 'U' bolts for the shifter are for automotive exhaust pipes. I found them at Schucks Auto Parts. They're 3/8's with 2 1/4" width and tightened with 3/8's wingnuts I found at Home Depot.


3 pieces of MDF screwed and glued, see drawing. Not only did I use the shifter's screw tightener but I bought mechanical screws to bolt the assembly onto the MDF. Same goes with the steering wheel and the foot pedals - they're all screwed on.
Click to view attachment


Very much sturdy, your weight holds the frame down. There is a slight flex at the wheel mount if you put the weight of your arms at the wheel. I refrain from leaning on it as I climb into and out of the cockpit. Thats why I suggested moving the left part over somemore.


The front are actually collected caster wheels I had in my bin that I drilled out the holes larger. The rear are automotive shock bushings from Schucks. I suggest 3/8's nut/washer/bolts.


Not a problem.

Here are those caps I mentioned earlier for the 2" PVC 'T' joint. Drilled on center with 3/8's carpenter bit which are then glued onto the ends of the 'T'. The 8" bolt goes thru the steering platform and this which is then tightened with washers and a 3/8's wing nut.
Click to view attachment

wow thanks alot for the detailed descriptions. I am a little ashamed of myself for not recognizing the exhaust clamps and schock bushings Lucky for me I have both already. I am stoked, I already have a seat out of one of my mustangs that I can't seem to be able to get around to replacing the fuel pump on(its been almost a year already) so I am going to use that for a freebie until I can get a light weight summit seat or similar. I should have pics up within the next couple of weeks as with work and kids its a little tough to get to the store(i work nites, and dont wake up unitl after noon so its hard to get there during business hours as I am the baby sitter during the day).

Thanks alot and you really should try lfs.net on your comp, the graphics arent as pretty as gt5 prologue, but the physics are spot on, and the online community for racing is pretty good(ie respectful) overall. I have not d/l gt5 prologue on my ps3 because of live for speed really. It is a great game.

Hey, no problem Looking forward to see what you come up with. But do me a favor, if the measurements I've provided don't come out right when mocking up the frame let me know what you had to adjust so that I can make the changes on the plans I painted (I should really try and master Google Sketch )

Believe me, I'm already looking into what other sims are out there that I want to try and DIRT looks like one of them. Thanks for the info on ifs.net, I'll certainly look into it.

Cheers!

Had an opportunity to try out the D-box racing sim chair at CEDIA year before last. It was frickin' awesome.

Their Home Theater motion chairs are kick butt as well (sold a few back in my Installer days)

Actuators, now that's what I'm talking about. That's the kind of high that would put you in the game. And I bet you know a thing or two about transducer's Fly

Sweet sim job . Love that wheel, been meaning to upgrade to it myself. There are pics of my PVC simulator here if you havn't seen it.
It has 2 base shakers on it these days. The base shakers are cool they mostly just increase the base on any music playing while racing. Makes it feel like you are in a car with 4 15 inch subs .

that does look really nice and you've GOT to play it in a dark room with your projector and a BIG stereo...I mean loud enough to drown out the wife & kids if you got them .

better yet...put it in the basement..if you don't have one, dig one.

one last question...since it's made out of PVC..does it creak when you move around in it?

Same respects twisted, the G25 is actually not bad but would have preferred it to be a bit more rugged especially the shifter, been misshifting ALOT! BTW, nice set up, thanks for posting a link to your pod I did try my 1 bass shaker for a bit and I see what you mean, it did actually boosted up the feel of the engine for me and I guess the feel of the race. I'm still fabricating the sub-amp to the frame and to combine the headrest speakers.


Thanks, but I'm not quite sure about the drowning out part , if anything I'd like to just used the headphones. Plus, I may just end up on the BAD BOY'S list with the housing association I'm in . I haven't gotten the 720p projector or the 8' High Power Dalite set up in the garage yet nor the 6.1 stereo receiver but I'm certainly headed in that direction.

Surprisingly, the frame does not squeak at all from gluing every joint. Like I've mention, once glued the joints are permanent and the only way to detach any part of it would be to crack it with a hammer. So far, the only noise this thing makes are the G25 items i.e. steering wheel, the shifter and me pounding on the pedals. Oh, and the bass shaker does cause some reverberating noise to the surrounding room if I crank it up higher

A few months ago my friend built a cheap racing chair setup for his XBox. He asked me if I wanted to buy it, but I only do PC Games. So I set out how to allow me make something VERY realistic for NFSCarbon. So I played around, got a program that allows you to GET/SET points in the computer memory directly. So I located the point NFSC uses to store the current gear the cars in, and I was able to change to a specific gear in the game, from outside the game (sweet, I know!). I also was able to locate the vehicle's vector cords (thinking I could run a linear actuator with these). One day when I get the money/time I might pick this up again. But thought I'd let people know, it can be done!

Interesting MyZ, can you give us an example of what you meant by changing gears in the game while outside the game? I'm wondering if this explains the constant mishifting between 1 & 2 while playing GT5/PS3. It seems I have to gradually put in gear which is kind of a burden and slows me down on tight corners.

Race rig and mancave/garage theater 95% done. Running on 5.1 digital all mounted to the walls above including woofer.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Crude setup, currently with the allowed distance I'm getting 98" diagonal.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Hey SUMUL8R! Brilliant design you came up with there! I have pics of my v2.0 ABS pipe driving stand somewhere around here, and will post 'em if I find 'em. I would just take pics of it to post now, but after finding this post and seeing the pics and drawings of yours, mine has fallen victim to being canniballized in my recent endeavor to create my v3.0...which I'm intending to be sort of a combination of your setup and the $3000 D-Box GPH-120 chair.

Mine won't have the transducers or stuff like that, and it needs to be easy (somewhat, at least) to store or get out of the middle of the room...so I'm gonna be using a high-back office chair for the seat. It will sit over/around the rear framing of the assembly - keeping everything in place, but still easy to disassemble and store out of the way. I'm also mullin' around with the idea of making it comvertible to being adapted to using in my HT recliner (as I've been doing with my previous versions) if I so desire.

I've already installed Frex Hall-Mag pots on my loud pedal and whoa pedals (did a writeup with pics on another forum, but can't remember if it was at GTPlanet, or somewhere else at the moment), and like tham quite a bit. I would, however, really like to invert them to pendulum-style and reposition them for better heel-toe'ing. May try incorporating that conversion into this build, but probably not right away. Unless someone else who's done it pipes in here and is kind enough to share their shop notes.....???

Anyway, I'll definitely post some pics of my build once it's completed. Shouldn't be more than a day or two at most, I hope. Already have all the pieces/parts, just need to do a bunch of the "measure twice, cut once" routine. I'm using 1 1/2" PVC, not the 2" like you used. I'm pretty confident it'll be plenty sturdy, since it'll be anchored by my office chair (along with my bulk sittin' in it!). You'll have a better idea of the method to my madness when I post the pics.

But nevertheless...big thanks for the inspiration!! After finishing this project, I wanna learn more about that monster projector of yours that I've taken a few glances at. That's one HUMONGOUS lens!

Ok, I'm goin' back to work on the PVC.

Pyro

Hey Pyro, welcome to the forums and thanks for the comments. Looking forward to see what you come up with. Hmmm, heel-toe'ing, I've heard of this but not sure if it's for better cornering or as a drifting technique.

its better for lap times as you never get any shock to the tires from downshifting basically. Means faster(later) braking, dunno if prologue can take advantage of it, but live for speed and the other racing pc SIMS will. Its a necassary technique for the fastest of lap times... thats why many people hang the g25 pedals, as the stock configuration makes heel toing almost impossible for people with avarage feet.

Ok, I just tried it with Prologue and saw you meant with the G25's pedals being close. Looks like I may have to play with both feet somehow to get the technique down. I'd hate to mod the pedals just for this reason.

Hi SIMUL8R,

Your setup is amazing and I LOOOOVVVVEEE it. I don't know too much about building stuff but I would love to try it and setup the way you did. I would try paint it white colour instead.

Just curious, do you think it would work on 1.5" pipe instead of 2". I kind of want to make it like a roll cage or some sort.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Crystal Heart

Hey Crystal, thanks and welcome to the forums. Quite honestly, I wouldn't use 1 &/half for the build. The steering platform currently has a slight flex to it as it is and I think a 1 &/half "T" joint will give it more then desirable. The 2"r pipes/joints give this a real rugged feel and is quite sturdy especially during play.

I suppose you could design it differently for a roll cage but I don't see the purpose for it. My 'pod' sits quite low to the ground as it is, so climbing in and out through a cage would require even more effort.

Thanks for the feedback and they are all very good points.

In that case, I would love to copy your design if you don't mind. Or just curious, do you build and sell to other people as well? I am such a novice on building stuff.

Hey Sim,

Almost done my replica pod, thanks to you!

Can you post the mesurements of the shifter platform, the chair base platform, the wheel platform and the pedals platform.

Sorry for inconvenience, just wanted to get it right the first time around.

Thanks Again!
Efactor88

Hey efactor88, good for you! I'll look into your request as soon as I can but generally these platforms can be any size you want as long as they accommodate the holes for your steering/pedal/shifter/seat gear while allowing space for adjustments such as the shifter assembly and leg room. In the mean time can you post some pics of what you accomplished so far? Appreciate it bud.

sim

Hey Sim,

I will definately post some pics for you shortly. My rig is exactly like your but no speakers of sub under the seat.

I think I have figured out the platform sizes, but I have another question for you. I have the exact same seat as you, got it from the wrecker (1995 Acura Integra), I told you it was very similar to yours. Ha Ha!

Questions tho, How did you mount the seat? Did you have to bend the bolt holes under the seat or were they just straight like that?

Thanks again
Efactor88 - Member of the Simul8r race team!

Yes, I did have to bend the ends 90 degrees using pliers. I angled my Integra seat (passenger) from the platform with some trashed caster wheels and shock absorber bushings for ergonomics otherwise it's not really neccessary.

Hey Sim,

Sorry about the long delay for the pics, but here we go!

Just need to clean up a few things to be 100% done!!

Can't seem to upload any pics, even after resizing. Any suggestions?

How do I upload pictures to the Lumenlab Forum?, A quick How-To guide

Okay Sim,

Let's give this another try, hopefully it will work this time around.

I have already painted the pedal and seat mounts black.

Next big project is a 1080p projector!!!

Peace!

I applaud your ingenuity, men!
If I were to make something like that, it'd have to be foldable. Space is at a premium right now.
Looks like it could be done, though. May if one were able to separate the front portion from the back and reattach it with cotter pins, or something.