Will Davis
Projects / Sim racing wheel

Formula-style sim racing wheel

A carbon-fibre, formula-style wheel and force-feedback rig, built for under half the cost of a commercial wheel.

Duration
18 months, personal project
Electronics & software
Teensy, ODrive, CAN bus, C / C++, Python (PyQt5)
Design & build
SolidWorks, CNC, 3D printing, welding
 Drag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom · right-drag to pan
Full wheel assembly exported from SolidWorks.
Rendered front of the formula-style wheel: carbon-fibre faceplate with a central display, push buttons, rotary encoders and fabric-wrapped grips
Front: carbon-fibre faceplate with the central display, buttons and rotary encoders.
Rendered rear of the wheel showing the paddles, switch housings and central hub mount
Rear: paddles and the hub mount.
Rendered side profile of the wheel showing the depth of the grips and the rear hub
Side profile.

The wheel

I designed the wheel in SolidWorks and built it with a carbon-fibre faceplate. Across the wheel and rig the build used CNC machining, 3D printing and welding. It came in at under half the cost of a comparable commercial formula wheel.

PlayStation 5 compatibility

For PlayStation 5 compatibility, I reverse-engineered a Thrustmaster T150.

Telemetry HUD

A HUD written in Python with PyQt5 shows live game telemetry while driving.

Force feedback

The rig's force feedback comes from a Control Techniques industrial servo motor driven by an ODrive over CAN bus. I designed custom electronics to convert the servo's differential encoder signals.