I've been wanting an F1-style steering wheel for sim racing for ages, but I didn't want to spend massive amounts of cash on a commercially-built steering wheel that could be great but had loads of features I didn't care about (especially LEDs and a screen) since I play in VR.
A colleague of mine, who is also into sim racing, built a steering wheel that was better than almost anything you can find from Fanatec/Moza/Thrustmaster/whatevs for around 500€.
So, of course, I decided to ~~buy the same thing~~ build it myself from scratch for the challenge and to save some money. Because I'm an idiot, I guess. I thought it would take me 2-3 weekends. It took 4 months. It's basically a wheel-shaped mechanical keyboard. It was the biggest non-essential project of my life. I learned a lot, including not getting myself delusional enough to start that kind of project on a whim.
Features:
- F1-shaped steering wheel, heavily inspired by Ferrari's one with the general shape and front. Back is closer to Mercedes'.
- Magnetic shift paddles
- Analog clutch (WIP)
- 7 rotary encoders
- 10 face buttons + 2 back buttons + 5 clickable encoders
- Quick-release connection to the steering column
- Aviator-style USB connector
- QMK firmware
- Everything is 3D-printed except for the aluminium mid-plate and the quick-release
If you guys are interested I have a few WIP pictures, so I could start a build log. WDYT?
I haven't really thought about anything remotely in spitting distance of sim racing since I was playing XBox One Forza games (mostly the Horizon one that is set in the Riviera-ish region) with a Thrustmaster TMX (I think?) clamped to a Home Depot Fliptop table.
This looks really cool. May I assume the Moza drive unit was the priciest component?
Yeah by far, although I don't consider it part of the build.
I actually started this build with a Thrustmaster T300RS in mind, but it took so long I upgraded to a Moza R9 partway 😅