Dreamcast Racing Wheels?

[OlivusPrime]

That's really cool, this is something I always wondered. Is there a place where I can buy the de-dead zone board already populated?

Ben provided me with a fully populated board, and it was then just a case of opening the Race Controller and connecting it to the existing board. He had bought enough kit to produce 5 copies of the mod when he did mine, so if you contact him through his website, he might still have the gear to provide you with a full board.

[colgate]

That's really cool, this is something I always wondered. Is there a place where I can buy the de-dead zone board already populated?

Ben provided me with a fully populated board, and it was then just a case of opening the Race Controller and connecting it to the existing board. He had bought enough kit to produce 5 copies of the mod when he did mine, so if you contact him through his website, he might still have the gear to provide you with a full board.

Will do, thank you.

[megavolt85]

The US Race Controller had a port for pedals, but Sega never released any that were compatible. Ben actually tried experimenting with the circuitry for them and discovered some analog inputs, but they don't seem to be mapped to the accelerator/brakes and cause all kinds of effects in different games.

Unfortunately, he uses software that gives very little information.

[deluxux]

I would love to see a review of 4x4 Evolution (my favorite DC racing game) This game needs analog for steering and the D-Pad for shifting gears

[Alex_DC]

I wonder how much of a modding project it would be to get a set of pedals to work with the DC Race Controller. I had a couple of new-in-box Race controllers not so long ago, but ended up selling them on as (aside from the deadline issue of the stock unit) those paddles for the analog triggers were just such a poor ergonomic choice.

The US Race Controller had a port for pedals, but Sega never released any that were compatible. Ben actually tried experimenting with the circuitry for them and discovered some analog inputs, but they don't seem to be mapped to the accelerator/brakes and cause all kinds of effects in different games.

That's very interesting, thanks. But I was thinking it'd be more a case of rewiring the connections for the paddles anyway - and then (I'm no electrical engineer) I would think you'd need to have pedals with potentiometers that output the same values as the paddles, or be able to re-engineer those circuits to give the same values back to the console. I'm sure it can be done, but doubt anyone is that bothered invest the time to do it!

[OlivusPrime]

Believe it or not, but I have a few more mods in mind for my Race Controller - eventually I'll probably start a separate thread on it, but I thought some of the testing I did tonight would be of general interest.

The next mod I want to perform on my wheel is adding internal rumble, just as brunocore2 did in this video:


The stock Race Controller isn't officially compatible with the Vibration Pack - the VM slot is too small to accomodate one, and even if you disconnect the Race Controller's circuitry from its shell, the shell of the Vibration Pack is too thick to fit the VM connectors of the wheel properly. However, the above video proves that vibration is possible by attaching the pack without its shell, and from my experience with the Thrustmaster Ferrari Racing Wheel (which has a slot large enough to accomodate a Vibration Pack), I knew that vibration was possible in at least some games in both racing wheel and gamepad modes.

So tonight, I disassembled a Vibration Pack and tested a few games with it plugged into the wheel. Daytona USA, F355 Challenge and Sega Rally 2 all functioned as normal, detecting the pack and providing rumble during gameplay with no adverse effects. However, Crazy Taxi not only didn't provide rumble feedback, but also acted as if the pack wasn't connected at all. This is frustrating as this was the one game I thought would be greatly improved on the wheel with added rumble!

I guess this proves that not all games on the system will support the Vibration Pack through the Race Controller, probably on the assumption that because the pack couldn't fit into the wheel, they needn't support it. This might be something that can be rectified with GameShark/Codebreaker codes though, which is what I'll look into next in the case of Crazy Taxi.

[megavolt85]

Someone commented on you video that the best wheel is the MC2 from MadCatz, but I hate that company so I'm kind of wanting to stay away.

MC2 is really the best steering wheel for Dreamcast, if I ever need a second steering wheel, I will make it from the wheel for PC and STM32, but I will definitely copy all the functionality of the MC2 steering wheel.

[rjay63]

You may be interested in this Dreamcast steering wheel setup used by a Ferrari F355 Challenge players back in the day (circa 2000-2005).

Apparently a carpenter was hired to built the shell and one of the MC2 wheels they used was modified with an actual steering wheel.

Original source: https://web.archive.org/web/20050212000259/http://www.rpi.edu/~jonesg/f355setup.html

[OlivusPrime]

Functionally the MC2 is definitely the best of the bunch from stock, if only because you can offset the deadzone that all the other wheels suffer from. Though there's some feedback online about it feeling cheap/breakable but I can't confirm this myself, and they seem pretty pricey and hard to find these days.

[megavolt85]

I prefer the original SEGA controllers, for example:
In clones of the joystick have a variable resistor installed and the control is just terrible
in Fishing Controller, instead of an accelerometer, installed sensors that close the contacts during acceleration, that is, they have only two positions, minimum and maximum.
most light guns don't work with VGA.
the MC2 steering wheel is an exception, it has many advantages compared to the original:
Accudrive function allows you to adjust the sensitivity
Has pedals and gear shifter
built-in vibration package and there is a slot for VMU
compatible with games that don't support a steering wheel, thanks to a switch that puts the MC2 in joystick mode