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Qiaoan’s Status Report for 02/11/2023

Week 2/5 – 2/11:

  1. Prepare for the proposal presentation.
  2. Build my 3D printer for future prototyping. Learn how to use Fusion360 to create 3D models and Ultimaker Cura to control the 3D printer. Successfully print a test file to make sure the printer is ready for future prototyping.
  3. Search about possible gyroscope options available for purchase. One possible option is LSM6DSR from ST Microelectronics. It fits our requirements based on the info I find. There are many other gyro modules for sale on Internet, and I think gyros around $10 should be good enough for our project if we want to use cheap as an advantage for our solution.
  4. When designing the steering wheel, I prefer to set around 11 inches wide and 6 inches height. Also about less than 2 inches wide thickness if that’s enough for microcontrollers and battery.
  5. I think I’m on schedule. Next week will be focusing on the design of the steering wheel. I think I will come up with a draft for it together with Xiao. I will also order a gyroscope and look into its manual to see how it works.
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Yuxuan’s Status Report for 02/11/2023

This week I’ve been mostly exploring the software design ideas related to how the game should interact with the controllers. I looked into the API which is developed by the game BeamNG.drive on this repo. The examples and features are mostly related to setting up a car driving environment by using the library function calls to set up a simulator on a PC.  For example, the user can specify the car brand to be Honda and the location to be west coast by calling related APIs This is quite different from what we initially thought since we are designing a program that sends input data to a PC.

Then, the focus is shifted towards firmware on hardware that can read inputs from hardware and send the data to the PC. The game itself should interpret the control data sent by the controller.  I found this repo which is a firmware that can act as a game controller using Raspberry Pi Pico and send data via USB.  I’m planning to dive into code and explore their design ideas in order to gain a better idea of how hardware and game interact via firmware for my following research. Currently, I’m on schedule.

 

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Xiao’s Weekly Status Update 02/11/2023

  1. Researched existing enthusiast level DIY gaming steering wheels. There are a lot of 3D printed open source designs that we can borrow ideas from. There are also a lot of existing button layouts we can learn from. Researched feasibility of adding analog joysticks to Arduino for control. Researched components needed for an LCD screen to work with Arduino/Raspberry Pi.
    1. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4058270
    2. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400357
    3. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2980569
    4. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4668185
    5. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2762839
    6. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5173152
    7. https://www.instructables.com/Create-a-Joystick-Using-the-Arduino-Joystick-Libra/
  2. So far I am on schedule.
  3. I will have the first version of components to purchase ready next week.
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Introduction and Project Summary

Our project aims to build a portable mobile steering wheel for racing games and simulators. The current designs of racing steering wheels are usually based on a fixed structure and replies on cable connection. We want our design to be wireless and movable so the user can play with our steering anytime at any place. The user should be able to use our product to drive the car in the racing game like it’s a real steering wheel.