Hi guys, I'm new to the forum, and I might aswell admit, microcontrollers and PCB's.
I have a project going on at the moment, I'm building my own Force feedback steering wheel controller for the PC. I need some help with figuring out what I need, and how to install the circuits to provide inputs and outputs. The original board (that I cooked) was from a Thrustmaster RGT FFB pro clutch edition. The controller had 13 buttons and a hat switch (in some sort of weird matrix), 4 potentiometers and 2 sliders for inputs, and 1 motor (powered externally) for output. The original software only recognized a maximum of 5 analogue inputs and 10 buttons in each configuration.
What I need to know, is what I'll need to run the hardware and how to route the circuit. I would also like to know if it is possible that I could run all 5 axis' and 13 buttons + Hat at the same time, without having to switch the configuration. The major problem I am facing is the FFB motor, as the inputs could be controlled by many PCB's on the market today, but none of them support the FFB motor. I would much rather have 1 board that does all the work than several that share it.
And once the hardware is installed, would there be any available software and firmware to tweak or would it be a complete re-write?
Although I don't have a very good camera. The motor doesn't have any markings on it other than an ROHS stamp. I believe it's an AC motor, the print on the plug states that it's an AC adapter input is 230V ~ 50Hz 130mA and output is 20V 750mA, the plug feeds only the FFB motor and secondary IC, there is no other information I have on the motor.
However on the original board, the analogue and digital inputs ran to 1 IC which communicated through the USB port, this IC also connects to the secondary IC, which I believe was possibly just a gate system to create PWM, I could be wrong, but since the motor runs in both rotations, it would need a -signal am I correct?
In this picture the motor looks like a permanent magnet DC motor. It looks about the size of a battery operated drill motor. They appear to be using a pot to monitor the position.
I couldn't confirm that, but it does look similar. The only problem is there are no markings on it. The motor itself is told by the software which direction to rotate and at what strength, I need something that is also able to do the same
I've taken apart and repaired a Logitech force-feedback steering wheel, and that used a pair of DC permanent-magnet motors driven by a MOSFET H-bridge. So, that seems to be a reasonable way to do it. Motors like that are found, as mentioned earlier, in cordless power tools, and also in 12V jump-start/lighting/tyre pump units (to run the tyre pump).
In my case, one of the motors had shorted internally and blown the H-bridge, so I repaired that and ran the wheel on the one good motor.
need help im having problem only pin 3 and 4 can register an input (microswitch) and other pin cannot
is it my board problem or the bootloader/hex vfile?