MS Sidewinder Precision Wheel project

First off, I'm really glad I found this place. I've really wanted to do a DIY project with my wheel for some time, but I've never had chance nor oppritunity to go about it. However, at my first day back at Voc. Tech in my Engineering Tech class, I just so got it.

Right off the bat, we're getting to work on a new project; a fun little Electromechanical based project upon which we can do whatever we choose as long as it involves someting involving elctromechanics. Now you say, what does a acient non FF Sidewinder wheel have to do with that? Simple; I wanted to do this for a long time, but now I'm going to rip this thing apart and see if we can use the existing internals to create a new FF wheel. I plan to swap out the existing plastic wheel with a bigger real-world model which will be fastened to a bracket that I'll probably have to custom build to fit the Sidewinder's factory steering mount. With the bigger wheel, I may want to upgrade the pot from the existing 270 degree (if it is even that, seems less) to a full 360. If i can do this without causing bodily hard or death, the fun will be trying to determine if I jury-rig a motor and make a FF device from scratch. If by some miracle I can pull this off, I may try to add a LCD rev monitor/gear display to the top of the frankenstein.

Now of course, with as primitive a wheel such as this, it will not be an easy task. It dosen't help that I've never done such a project before and am stepping into unrelated territory. However, one of the things we have focused on today are servo motors and you guessed it.... POINTOMETERS. My teacher is a mastermind in the field of electronics so circuitboard stuff will be fairly easy, if not time consuming. And in terms of capital, I'm fairly certain that my parents will be able to help me buy most of the items needed being that this is for an educational purpose. Still, this is going to be daunting for someone like me and that's why I've come here to share this with a community of guys where this would be right up everyone's alley.

Crazy, yes. TBH, it would be a hell of a lot easier buying a new wheel, and I'm sure much cheaper as well. But one thing I like doing is getting my hands dirty and I would love a good DIY project. With everyone in my league stepping up to either a Driving Force GT or G27, it's really hard to compete with my limited resources. If I can pull this off, not only will I be a very happy man but I'll actually have something where I don't have to go balls out in order to keep pace with my competitors.

So what do guys think? Do you think it can be done? I'm not saying that it's going to be easy by any means, but I believe that I can truly work something out given the position I'm in. A school project that involves Sim Racing is already the best project ever, and if I can learn something in the process, that's even better! I'll keep you guys posted, as I'm positive that it's going to be a long road before the final product. I hope you all are as excited as I am to tear this thing apart! It has served me very well over the last 10 years that I've had it and I'm sure that I can make it an even better product with some elbow grease and a LOT of hard work! Quite honestly, the only thing I'm worried about is the Software portion because that will be a huge time dump trying to get that sorted out. But I'm not going to jump ahead of myself because I still have a lot of planning and steps before I get to that.

- Matt Brinson

Thanks for the reply. What is a X-sim compatible interface and how would I go about getting one? Also, what would be a good choice for a FF motor? I'm aiming to have strong feedback to it, because I feel like that would help me more than weak FF in the turns and would better mimic a race car at higher speeds. One of the problems without FF is taking a turn and not knowing when the rear of the car is stepping out until too late. I want to be able to sense that and fight the car in the turn, sort of like old school you know lol. Could you link me to what I would need because again I've never done this before so I'm trying to take an inventory to what I might in in terms of parts.

Today, I'm beginning the teardown process to see exactly what I have to work with. I would love to take pictures but I don't have my camera on me and even so, I would have to borrow my Dad's computer to upload them because my laptop does not have a card reader. Anyways, I'll let you guys know what I find.

I've completely disassembled the wheel now and I'm really suprised how simple this thing is. All that's in there is the pot, a tiny little board and a spring. That's it. To be honest, I may as well just go ahead and build a whole new one.

I was just looking around and I discovered about Leo Bodnar's stuff. Now that I've seen this, I kind of want to go ahead and ditch the existing board with one of his. If I go and do this, what exactly would I need? I'm a bit of a noob here, lol. I'm thinking of getting this with the Vishay pot. http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/ What would I need to do if I went this route and what would I need?