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Question Motor for a DIY Sim Wheel

Discussion in 'DIY peripherals' started by K120_Enthusiast, Apr 20, 2022.

  1. K120_Enthusiast

    K120_Enthusiast Member

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    I am thinking about making a Sim Wheel, but I don't know what motor to use. I need a motor that is decently powerful around 200w, brushed, available on ebay, and cheap (50$-100$). The motor will probably be used in a belt driven wheel, but if it comes with a suitable gearbox I will be happy. Of course I don't want to rule out a direct drive wheel, but i doubt there is a cheap enough motor that's suitable.

    Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
  2. itsumairu

    itsumairu Active Member

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    hello there.
    for the motor I use a my6812 brush dc motor, 120w 24v.
    it's strong enough to be pair with belt driven, 8:1 ratio pulley. more torque than T300.
    and I think for a steering wheel, its recommend to be pair with a belt and pulley, not a gearbox for a smoother experience.
    I got it from local market in my country for 30$, and I found on ebay the same motor, around under 40$
    you can choose the 150w for more power and pair it with a LED PSU 24v.
    hope this will help.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/323648439538
  3. Billel

    Billel Member

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    150W with 8:1 ratio pulley for a steering wheel ? isn't that too much, won't that make the handling a bit dificult ? i was thinking of using 30W motor with 3:1 ratio polley lol.
    I inspired my project from this Video

    And what PSU (how much Amps or Watt) did you pair it with ?
  4. itsumairu

    itsumairu Active Member

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    that's far from "too much".
    and you can always set the strength to your like.
    with the bigger torque, you will have a much flexible wheel to choose. as if you want use a bigger wheel, and depend on it's material, you must have a powerful motor.
    and of course , for drifting, it's better to have much power.
    I believe for a steering wheel, "more is better".
    Cheers!

    --edited--
    forgot to answer lol.
    I use the LED PSU, 24v 10amps. its more than enough to handle the 120w 24v motor, with 80% FFB or more.
    with more torque , you can feel more detail on your wheel, and it's cue for the better handling. that's why wheel on racing car is heavier than commercial one.
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  5. Billel

    Billel Member

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    Ok my friend, thank you for your responce
  6. K120_Enthusiast

    K120_Enthusiast Member

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    I think the 30W motor will be a bit weak for a sim wheel, especially if you only use a 3:1 reduction, with that reduction the motor would put out around 0.24 nM of torque, for reference the logitech G920 (a budget wheel) puts out around 2.2 nM of torque. As itsumairu said you can control how "heavy" the steering feels in the software.
  7. Billel

    Billel Member

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    What motor and what reduction do you recomand ?
  8. K120_Enthusiast

    K120_Enthusiast Member

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    I haven't been able to find motor myself, but I am looking for a motor that has around 150W, and of course spins as slowly as possible (If two motors use the same amount of power, and one spins slower, the slower one will have more torque). The reduction really depends on the motor, you don't need more than 200 RPM for sim racing. For example a DC 895 motor spins at 6000 RPM at 24V, to reduce the speed to 200 RPM you would need a reduction of 30:1, I was planing on using GT2 pulleys, the smallest i could find was 16 teeth, to get a reduction of 30:1 you would need 480 teeth, a pulley of that size would be far too impractical and heavy (and probably doesn't exist). But I could find a 120 tooth pulley on Ebay for cheap, using a 16 tooth pulley on the motor and a 120 tooth pulley on the wheel you can achieve a reduction of 7.5:1, with that reduction you could get around 7.35Nm of torque on the wheel (keeping in mind that the DC 895 motor makes around 0.98Nm of torque at 24V).

    Here is a good video of a DIY wheel using the same motors:
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  9. Billel

    Billel Member

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    i was told that you can reduce the motor's torque and the speed on the EMC software, i mean you don't need to use big pulleys to do so
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  10. K120_Enthusiast

    K120_Enthusiast Member

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    Yes, you can. But the purpose of these big pulleys is to increase the torque. If you were to connect the motor directly to the wheel you would only have 0.98 Nm of torque, for sim racing that would be a pretty bad experience, I remember reading somewhere on the internet that the torque on a car's steering wheel that has servo assisted steering is somewhere between 3-5 Nm, for a car without, a lot more. The reduction of 7.5:1 I recommended means the motor will spin 7.5 full rotations, while the output will spin only once, but you get 7.5 times more torque. The 7.35 Nm of torque you should theoretically get will be a pretty good experience, the more torque you have the better it feels. You don't have to worry about that much torque making the steering unimaginably heavy, because that much torque won't be applied all the time, it will probably be applied only when you crash. Of course if the steering is too heavy you can reduce that in the game or in the software.

    If you have anymore questions, just let me know and I will be happy to answer them.
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