G25 steering wheel plate with wheel swap

[Tinker 15]

Here are two pics of the CVs steering wheel button/switch plate. It's just waiting for the buttons and switches to be installed and wired up. There are ten Knitter buttons and two 12 position rota switches and a cut out for a Leo Bodnar SLI-Pro. Center cut out on back to accommodate the Chilicoke adapter.

Front Side

Back side

[Tinker 15]

The plate finally arrived. I test mounted and made sure everything was working. I can't decide if I want to put a CF film over it since its pretty heavy as is.... . Works like a champ tho. Still have to install the button tops and chicken head switches...but 1st I am still pondering the CF film or not. I am glad I have long fingers, they just reach the paddles with the added depth of the plate even with the Chilicoke pocket that was put in. CV did a great job on the paint and wiring. The only thing right now is getting the FREX shifter to work with the SLI-Pro since they can conflict with each other due to the limited amount of buttons that rFactor can support. Also prior to the SLI-Pro the FREX was giving me some probms in that it misses shifts...I can not determine if it's me or the Leo Bodnar interface card that is causing the probm. You really have to be forceful and aggressive with the shifts with the FREX, no wimpy wrist flick . The ugly wood top will eventually be covered with CF film.

[CaTaPulT 658]

Looking good Tinker.

That looks like it'll be great for not having to take your hands off the steering wheel to make adjustments while driving, all those on-wheel buttons will be handy.

How is all this wired though, a curly cable to the back of the switch plate of some kind so the wires don't get pulled on when turning the wheel?

I love the looks of the bigger diameter wheel also. Nice setup.

Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[Tinker 15]

Here is the finished plate with the buttons, switches and CF film. The CF film was easy to put on but a real PITA to cut out all the openings for the buttons, switches and esp a royal PITA to cut out the LED openings on for the SLI-Pro. The total process took me almost four hours to cut out the openings. I was very careful as not to destroy anything on the plate. I shld have a gotten the black rim wheel.

[Tinker 15]

SLI-Pro wheel plate with Chilicoke G25 adapter and extended paddles and a 350mm racing wheel. Obutto rig with tri 23.6" ASUS displays with Nvidia Surround using two old GTX280s SLI'd. Vid cap with a very cheap micro sport cam. I don't know why but i am about a 0.5 to 1 sec slower when the vid cam is on...cam shy...

[CaTaPulT 658]

Thanks for sharing the video Tinker.

The wheel looks great as does the rest of your setup.

Nice bit of driving too!

Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[Tinker 15]

The 350mm wheel felt real nice and drove well but I had probms reaching the buttons without taking my hands off the wheel. I mounted a 320mm test wheel and def I can reach the buttons a lot better. Not as smooth with the 320mm as with the 350mm. The 320mm tester was the wheel sent to me by mistake instead of the wheel I ordered and they told me to keep it. They also ran out of the wheel I tried to get. I got a full refund for the wheel and S/H but I did pay $16 to UPS Canada for broker fees and duties :censored. So after many thgts about the amount of monies I have spent on clone wheels, I bit the bullet and ordered a real MOMO MOD 88 320mm wheel. Cost a lot but not as much as the AutoMeter Tacho that I got that I rarely use... . I replaced the red chicken head knobs in V1 with RS knobs in V2 which are easier to use with gloves on. Here are the pics of my on going wheel swap.

Beta 1.2 320mm wheel, early foray into wheel swap. Mounted on my old Playseats Evo rig.

V1 350mm wheel (really like the looks and feel of the wheel, only if I would have gotten the blk rim instead)

V2 320mm fit tester wheel (hate the looks of the wheel)

[Tinker 15]

Well the steering wheel portion is mostly done, except maybe a few button changes to use encoders instead. Here is the rig with the 320mm MOMO Mod 88 steering wheel attached. It took over a month to get the MOMO from the seller on e-bay in the US to arrive here in Canada.

[FoxZero 0]

That momo wheel is nice! Cool thread too. I like reading stuff like this.

[CaTaPulT 658]

Hi Tinker.

The new wheel looks good and it's gotta feel nice and comfortable too.

Sheesh, with all the wheels you've been buying in search of the perfect one, you'll be able to open up a "used wheel" store soon! LOL

Enjoy the new wheel.

Take care

Regards: >>>> Jack <<<<

[Tinker 15]

I am still fastest with the 350mm wheel then with any of the 320mm ones. I am lot smoother with the 350. The MOMO is nice but you will have to wear gloves since it will get shiny from the natural shin oils from your hands since it's suede. I am having some issues with the software that drives the Leo Bodnar stuff. It keeps blinking off and on. it seems it's trying to recalibrate it self and it causes a lot of lag when that happens. Once it finally get settle it seems to run fine, but sometimes it takes many laps to get settled and you never know when it will happen a again. Maybe I will have to reload all the Leo plugins again.

[jcchaconjr 0]

Nice work there, Tinker! In the end, how are you handling the wiring for the USB cable? I've looked at CV's solution , but I may just mount a button plate on the wheel and install the SLI-Pro in its own enclosure.

[Tinker 15]

Nice work there, Tinker! In the end, how are you handling the wiring for the USB cable? I've looked at CV's solution , but I may just mount a button plate on the wheel and install the SLI-Pro in its own enclosure.

I use a mini to reg coiled USB cable (ones that are compatible for the GARMIN GPS) that I got off e-bay for the SLI-pro to provide some slack when the wheel turns. I would rec that you order a few since they really come in handy at times. Then a standard extender USB cable to the PC.

The probm of having the SLI-pro separate to the button plate is that the buttons need to have a joystick USB interface to work, the SLI-pro has one built in. The probm I had with having a separate joystick controller running with the SLI-Pro is that one will over ride the other. I have my FREX shifter hooked up to a joypad USB interface and when it's plugged in, the SLI-Pro buttons stop working. Display still works but the buttons don't. I used Leo's controller and another that I got from a flight sim store and they both over rode the SLI-Pro's onboard controller. But if you don't want to use the SLI-Pro controller then I don't seem a probm with having another separated USB controller. That is why I am planning to build a separate dedicated button box to work with the FREX shifter when I want to get my ALMS GT2 car fix ... .

It could also be a rFactor issue that it can only support three USB devices at a time. I have USB G25 wheel, USB CPS and then the Leo equipped wheel plate and the other Symprojects stuff connected by USB.

[jcchaconjr 0]

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the info.

I was planning on running a coiled cable from the plate and attaching a 9 or 25 pin serial connector (depending on how many buttons I end up putting on the wheel) and wiring the connectors from the SLI-Pro to a female connector that would be connected to the enclosure, similar to the way that Massimo (Cube Controls) wires the SLI-Box that he offers. This might also give me the flexibility to attach another button box via a separate cable as well, all going into the enclosure with the SLI-Pro.

[Tinker 15]

Well it had to happen, everything was going too well on my rig . Then the SLI-Pro started to act up. The display will do a swipe and blank out along with the buttons . While this is happening I get a major stuttering in rFactor. Its OK when it happens on a straight since the frame rate hit is not as critical and it takes a second or two before the Symprojects stuff takes over, they are my redundant systems displays , but a killer when it happens in a corner. This will keep happening at random intervals and at 1st I thght it was the program calibrating it self since some times after a few times I can race for hours but then it might happen again. But now I think there is something wrong with the SLI-Pro, I just lost the 13th LED on the display. I sent a email to Leo Bodnar, will see if I get a response, not hopeful since many complains he never answers.

I don't get any hiccups when I disconnected and took the wheel plate off. This only started to happen in the last couple of weeks. It was working fine before .

One thing I did notice after I took the wheel plate off. I was just a tad faster since I wasn't constantly looking at the the SLI-pro display. Information over load I guess, but I do miss the on the wheel buttons. Now I have to get off my butt and build that seperate button box.

Also I may have another wheel plate made supporting the mini Symprojects SS-01 LCD display and the SLI-M if I don't hear back from Leo Bodnar.

[Tinker 15]

Another month and another wheel...I need help... . It's a 330mm wheel and made in Italy (and not cheap). Its leather like polyurethane and not real leather . I was looking for a cut/open top wheel to mount the SLI-M and SS-01 and the MOMO's and others were too small for my liking (250mm-270mm) and/or real expensive ($250us plus). This was the best that I found.

[Johnny_Carr 0]

The mad mod man strikes again.Once again I am impressed.

[Tinker 15]

The mad mod man strikes again.Once again I am impressed.

Not a mod man but rather I am just a finder of stuff...and a probm solver .

[saroorhai 3]

Nice wheel, man. I really dig that.

I got my little cheap wheel drilled and installed, but I had to turn the levers upside down and swap sides to make it comfortable. It works great though, and I think it's actually lighter than the standard g25 wheel, and no added weight from an adapter. I'm hoping that will prevent any extra wear on the FFB motors. Still working on a solution for the two buttons though.

[Tinker 15]

Finally got the ISOTTA wheel. It looks a lot better in the pics. No horn button but that's OK since I never used any that I have gotten with all the other wheels that I bought. The wheel has zero dish offset, so it's flat. Its 330mm at the widest pt. Very quick wheel response from what I am used to. It is very light weight but still a strong wheel. Grips are thin, a tad thicker then the G25 stock wheel. I even find they are thin for me wearing race gloves. Maybe I am just to use to the MOMO. Bad is that that being flat with no dish offset, the 350mm Chilicoke paddles are a tad too long and the distance gap between the wheel and the paddles is min and to drive I have to have only my thumbs hooked to the wheel with the the other fingers on the paddles. Not enuf room in between for fingers. The 320mm paddles worked the best but one of them is screwed up. The stock G25 paddles are way too short. I will see when a friend orders his Chilicoke stuff that I can add another set of 320mm and split with him the shipping cost. For now I am sticking with the MOMO.

[saroorhai 3]

I had a similar problem with the little I bought, since I bolt directly with no adapter. I could not get my hands on the wheel because the gap was too small. I was using the stock paddles, but I reversed the side that faces you and switched sides (this way the big hook part of the paddles is still on top) and that gave me more room and was more comfortable. I can't say if this will work for you since the paddles are different and you got alot of stuff going on.

[Tinker 15]

I had a similar problem with the little I bought, since I bolt directly with no adapter. I could not get my hands on the wheel because the gap was too small. I was using the stock paddles, but I reversed the side that faces you and switched sides (this way the big hook part of the paddles is still on top) and that gave me more room and was more comfortable. I can't say if this will work for you since the paddles are different and you got alot of stuff going on.

The ISOTTA wheel will work better with the set of 320mm paddles. I had to order another set since one of the 320mm paddles I have now is screwed up. I will most likely get a G27 also so I don't have to swap wheels for diff cars. I looked into some quick release hubs and I could prob make them work on the G25, but then I would really need two sets since I would need to have the wheel mount part for each wheel. That got real expensive fast ... .

[Tinker 15]

I resolved the issue with the ISOTTA wheel being to tight for the paddles on a G25 hub. At first I thght about using washers as spacers but rejected it since it might be unstable due to the six individual attach pts. Finally I use a horn ring. The ones that come with the wheels that surround the center horn button and that worked great as a spacer. No movement since it's an all in one unit. I had to lower the FFB in the logi profiler to 110% from 125% that was used with the MOMO setup. Boy the ISOTTA wheel feels real quick. I just can't fig out why that is (lighter weight ?), but it def feels quicker then the MOMO. It's not as pretty as the MOMO tho .

Plse no comments on the mess...it's always a WIP with my rig...

[Tinker 15]

Well I am getting CV to make me another wheel plate for the MOMO Mod 88 320mm wheel, slightly mod'd and more refined then the first one....call it version 2.0 .

Now just waiting on supplies of the G27 to arrive...boy its been since Dec that they went out of stock at most places.

[Tinker 15]

Well it must be Feb, start of a new month...guess what .

Another wheel on order. Great price (1/2) due to the fact it was a demo...suppose to be like new. Seller listed as 350mm but OMP site list it as 330mm according to model number. I can live with either.