Customizable, Modular and Transportable Race Car Gaming Simulator.

During the pandemic I had the opportunity to build a racing simulator inspired by the motorsport 24 Hours of Le Mans. The target was to create a compact and easily transportable 3-axis simulator but also modular like the seat and customizable for graphics and colour.

The main structure of the seat is a single structurally loaded tube. The budget was very small and almost everything was built from scratch. The modules of the seat are plug-ins as a result there is the possibility of replacing the seat module, the lumbar and the backrest with different sizes. The seat was also padded and wrapped with black linen fabric.

The seat modules have cavities where the sensors and shakers (all hidden) are installed. In the headrest there are two speakers for medium-high sound frequencies. The large moulds were made by 3D printing using PLA plastic filament.

The force feedback module of the steering wheel mimics the intake manifold sensations of a 6-cylinder Alfa Romeo. Inside the steering wheel there is also a laser projector to adjust the trim once the reference point is taken on the wall the game is projected onto.

The 7 rear light lines (backrest module) recall the 7 curves of the Alfa Romeo's snake and the lights are turned on when the shakers are activated. The brake and throttle are pedals suitably modified from a go-kart brake that house hall effect potentiometers to transmit the signal to Arduino UNO.

The computer that manages the platform is a hybrid obtained from a portable mainboard mounted in a common PC case which also contains 6 transformers, one of which supply current to the graphics card, to the 3 DOF of the platform and also for the force feedback steering wheel.

The carbon fibre main structure of seat resembles a backbone and has a high level of rigidity that when subjected to shaker vibrations, vibrates with only few watts power needed. This needs an operating system such as Windows and three Arduinos to control.