TM Ferrari & Sparco
Wheel Conversions
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Thrustmaster make some beautiful sim racing wheel rims. However they are designed to work only with their respective wheel bases and so can't natively be used with direct drive wheels.
The goal of this project was to use the research already done by Taras at http://rr-m.org/blog/ to implement an adaptor so that the Thrustmaster Ferrari 599xx evo alcantara and Sparco R383 rims can be used as OSW / SimuCube rims.
Shopping List
I've added links to all the bits that you'll need except the nuts and bolts that hold it all together.
- Thrustmaster Ferrari 599xx Evo Wheel
- Thrustmaster Sparco R383 Rally Wheel
- Spark Fun Pro Micro
- Thick Metal Adapter Plate
- JST 6 Pin 1.25 (Ferrari Wheel)
- JST 6 Pin EH (Sparco Wheel)
- Coiled USB lead
- Quick Release of your choice
- Not needed for the OSW conversion, but I'd highly recommend a magnetic shifter mod
Software
I've written the arduino software provided here in collaboration with Taras from http://rr-m.org/blog/
I'm not going to explain how to get the sketch onto the Pro-Micro board as there is a million articles on the about how to do that already
Wiring
Ferrari 599xx Evo
To remove the back, just remove three screws from the front of the wheel (the silver screws in the picture above - at 60, 180 and 300 degrees). The back should then come off easily enough. Again, there are plenty of youtube videos showing how to do this. Lastly remove the connector from the PCB.
The wiring, as can be seen in the picture is as follows. Obviously the colours are only per the connector that I bought. Yours might be different.
- PCB Pin 1 - Red - Arduino VCC
- PCB Pin 2 - Black - Arduino Pin 15
- PCB Pin 3 - Yellow - Arduino Pin 7
- PCB Pin 4 - White - Arduino Pin 14
- PCB Pin 5 - Green - Arduino GND
- PCB Pin 6 - Blue - Not connected (see snipped wire in the photo)
Sparco R383
Along with the Ferrari wheel, I wanted a rally style wheel for the Dirt Rally series. I chose the Sparco R383. I removed the paddle shifters as I felt this made for a more authentic rally / drift wheel.
Wiring is the same as for the Ferrari wheel above. See the picture to determine the pin order (in both pictures "Pin 6" is snipped to make it clear which end is which).
Final Details
Finally bolt it all together. For a strong OSW you will need to make sure the bolts are well tighted and use nyloc (non slip) bolts.
I was fortunate that the quick release I chose had more of a 6 pointed star plate than a full circle plate, so this allowed just enough room for the usb wire to thread though.