Monthly Archives: January 2012

Bodnar Cable

January 25, 2012 in Hardware

Bodnar CableLeo Bodnar’s Bodnar Cable directly connects Logitech G25 and G27 pedals to USB, bypassing plugging into your steering wheel. It helps keep the calibration in Windows and makes them much more accurate by using a 10-bit resolution on all pedal axes.

Links: leobodnar.com | Product Page | Sim-Sport.net Product Page

Features

• 10-bit resolution on all pedal axes
• Highly accurate, smooth and stable position measurement. 250 updates per second
• Reliable, rock-steady calibration settings
• Windows calibration settings will not be lost after unplugging or swapping USB connectors
• Completely standalone solution
• Use Logitech® G25, Driving Force™ GT, Driving Force™ Pro or pedals on their own or with another wheel.
• Use your DIY pedals using potentiometers or Hall sensors
• Connects to any USB port with a standard USB A-B cable (not included)
• Automatic recognition of connected pedal types.
• Logitech G25, Driving Force GT*, Driving Force Pro, or generic pedals with up to 3 axes
• *Driving Force GT pedals are identical to Driving Force Pro and will be shown as such.
• Natively supported by Windows Vista/XP/2000/Me/98, Mac OS X and Linux
• True Plug-and-play.
• Two shapes available
• Black box 70x40x20mm (2.6″x1.7″x0.8″). Box can be opened if PCB needs stationary mounting.
• Embedded into USB cable. Cable length is 1.5m (5 feet.)

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Derek Speare Designs

January 25, 2012 in Hardware

Derek Speare DesignsDerek Speare Designs (DSD) offers high performance virtual racing products, such as button boxes, shifters, pedals (in development), mini plates, and other adapters and components.

Derek Speare has been in the sport of virtual racing for over twenty years. His experience is what drives his designs, attention to detail, and quality. Derek’s ideas and products offer functionality, economy, immersion and fun.

Links: Derek Speare Designs Website

News & Updates

Win a DSD Track Boss in 2013 Season 1: Derek Speare Designs (DSD) is giving away a Track Boss button box every week in 2013 Season 1. In the iRacing Paint Shop, select the DSD Logo for your racecar in the list of secondary sponsors. When you run an official race, your name will be added to the random drawing. This official promotion is open to all iRacing members, for any car and any official race. Winners will be announced on Tuesday’s of each week throughout the season. View Track Boss Screenshot 1/29

Button Boxes

DSD offers several button boxes to choose from. All boxes are USB ready to plug and play.
• Track Boss: 19 push buttons, 5 two-way toggles, 2 covered safties
• Black Max II: 19 push buttons, 5 two-way rotary encoders, 2 covered satfies
• Velocity R5: 9 push buttons, 3 two-way toggles, 4 two-way rotary encoders
• Velocity R3: 13 push buttons, 3 two-way rotary encoders
• Velocity: 14 push buttons, 3 two-way toggles
• Black Max: 19 push buttons, 5 two-way toggles, 2 covered safties
• Oval Champ: 15 push buttons

Shifters

DSD has two different sequential shifters that offer a heavy throw with a solid, “notch” action. The DSD Pro Sequential measures about 8-inches in total height with an aluminum alloy case. The shaft is steel and is threaded to accept 1/2″x13 threads, allowing you to replace the knob with an aftermarket knob of your own. The latest design from DSD is the Bent Rod GT. All specs are the same as the Pro Sequential, but with a 20-degree bend in the shaft used for a more “GT Style” feel and appearance.
• Goto DSD Shifters Page

Mini Plates

DSD has mini plates available for G27 wheels. Those who have an aftermarket racing wheel on the G27 have lost those six buttons from the stock wheel. A DSD Mini Plate gives them back. They are a direct fit, plug and race solution for restoring those lost buttons but plugging into the circuit board inside the G27 hub. Mini Plates are shipped complete and need no wiring, buttons, or anything other than a simple installation.
• Goto DSD Mini Plates Page

Pedals

DSD Hydarulic Pedals are in development. No information yet on price or release dates.
• See Preview Screenshot
• Goto DSD Pedals Page

Components & Circuits

DSD offers a varity of wheel adapters, wheel paddles, SLI Tabs, wheel plates, gate plates and other sim racing goodies. DSD has also developed circuit boards which are available for purchase. The circuit boards are 12-bit boards which feature 36 total button inputs and 6 12-bit analog channels offering 4096 steps of resolution per channel. This is the only 12-bit board made in the US. All boards require NO soldering.
• DSD Components Page
• DSD Circuits Page

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CST Pedals

January 25, 2012 in Hardware

Cannon Simulation Technologies (CST) builds high quality pedals that are designed to be as realistic as racing pedals as possible. CST claims to offer a line of products for the simracer who is looking for that extra level of Realism and Performance.

Each set of pedals is personally hand built by Todd Cannon to the highest standard of quality. Features of the pedals include pressure sensitive brake, analog clutch, steel construction, stainless steel pivor bolts, self lubricating shaft bushings, powder coat finish, 12-bit USB controller, aluminim racing pedal faces, and more. All pedals include full adjustable height, angle, pedal depth, spacing, pedal travel and spring preload.

Links: CST Website

CST offers several varieties of pedal sets on their website, two and three pedal sets all available in red or black. Pedal sets start as low as $449, up to $698. Another $139 for the floor bracket set.

NASCAR Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said, “The brake system reacts much more realistically. My wins are coming more often, and if that’s not always the case, my lap times and tire wear are quite a bit more manageable.” Indycar Driver Justin Wilson said, “The build quality is excellent! They are precision racecar quality pedals. They just feel so natural.”

CST also offers a DIY Pedal Guide. It is an 80-page step-by-step instruction manual for constructing your own set of high performance sim pedals. Both overhang and floor designs are included. Both designs feature a load cell brake pedal for pressure sensitive braking just like a real car. No welding or machining is required. Only hand tools, power drill and circular saw are needed. The design uses off the shelf parts, material and hardware. The DIY Pedal Guide is available on the CST Website for $12.

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Layne Sim Products

January 20, 2012 in Hardware

Layne Sim ProductsLayne Sim Products has some of the highest quality button boxes available for sim racing. Customize your box with templates, or check out the Ready to Race button boxes. All boxes are constructed out of steel chassis. Layne Sim Products also offers a new mount, which slides and mounts under a G25/27 shifter. It will hold a button box, iPad/tablet, phone or anything for ease of use.

Links: Layne Sim Products Website

Layne Sim Products offers a variety of ‘Ready to Race’ button boxes, including some LED boxes. The LED boxes have several LED lights organized in different patterns for use as RPM gauges, fuel gauges, flag indicators, engine stall, pit limiters, etc.

Custom boxes really set Layne Sim Products apart from its competition. Customers can download a template to customize the button box with button color and position, as well as LED positioning and layouts.

The LSP LED BOX uses the ProShift from www.symprojects.com. It will allow you to have up to 16 LED’s and 4 inputs. This is in addition to the 32 inputs controlled by an additional board. With the LED BOX you can have up to 36 inputs(push buttons or toggles). Visit the www.symprojects.com website for information on uses of the LED’s. A Standard NON LED Button Box will have 32 inputs.

Media:
• LSP – Toggles
• LSP – Toggle Saftey Covers
• BN’s LED box
• LSP – Button Box
• Led Box
• Test RPM – ProShift cup car


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New Build: What to Expect

January 20, 2012 in News

The new build for iRacing is just around the corner. Unofficially, the new build is slated for next week during week 13. Sources say iRacing plans to release the build as early as Tuesday of next week, or on Wednesday. There aren’t a lot of confirmed details so far, but this is what we do know.

The newest version of Daytona International Speedway will not be included in the build, but will be released shortly after. It sounds like February 2nd is going to be the release day, but it could be as late as February 18th before we see the new track. Daytona International Speedway completed a complete repave project just over a year ago before the 2011 Daytona 500. Following the July race at Daytona, iRacing took to the track for a re-scan. The track has been in production, with both a day and night version coming once the track is officially released. Those who currently own the track will not have to pay anything for the new track, but those who do not will need to pay up the $14.95 for the track. Those who do purchase the new track, will be able to purchase the old version for just $5.

We know changes are coming to the tire model, but we have no clue yet what those changes are going to be, or if/how they will affect the current cars. We know the Riley DP and Star Mazda will be receiving the new tire model.

A lot of details have came out about the new myTeams feature. It will be rolling out in stages, probably between this update and the next, with this build launching the new live spotter abilities. iRacing’s goal is to have team creation, team racing and endurance racing with or without a team. Eventually you will be able to “create a team” and run 24-hour races with driver swaps.

More animations are on this way in this build, with shift animations and head movement. No idea if pit crews will join pit road and actually service the car during a pit stop. Although pit crew sounds should arrive in this build. Other sounds such as flyovers are supposed to be introduced in this build as well.

Possibly some updates are coming to the areo model with side force and side drafting in the works to be released at some point. This update will include at new grid options for mixed class racing, allowing up to four cars entering a race.

iRacing has been relatively quiet leading up to this build. We expect (at least hope) for a few surprises, but not expecting weather or dynamic track conditions just yet!

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iRacerstuff.com in 2012

January 20, 2012 in News

iRacerstuff.com has completed a major overhaul in design and content for 2012. This is the first major change for iRacerstuff.com since it’s initial launch back in July of 2009. The new version of the website has been completely rebuilt from the ground up, using a new system. Many new pages and areas for new content have been added, but much of theiRacerstuff.com

There are news and update pages for:One of our goals was to bring the most up to date information to the community as possible. By reading, watching and listening we can compile tons of information and post it on our news/update pages. The entire home page has been rebuilt to offer the latest news, updates and rumors involving iRacing. We’ve also added sections for Featured Articles, which is where we will post links from sites all over the net related to iRacing.com.content from the previous version has been removed to make room for new, more up-to-date content.

  • New Build Updates: discussing all of the features and updates expected in the next iRacing build.
  • Oval Track News: looks at all tracks that have been talked about, strongly requested, scanned, or in production and what the current status is of that track coming to the service.
  • Road Course News: same as oval, looks at road courses being talked about and rumored to be coming to the service, and looks at the current status.
  • Car Content News: looks at all of the cars in the pipeline to be released, and tells the current status and estimated time of release.
Other great sections of the site are the hardware and software sections. These sections are compiled lists of some of the great tools/products/services offered throughout the iRacing community. Some great Windows/PC items for setups and telemetry, as well as some iPhone/iPad apps for telemetry are featured. The hardware section has links to several different cockpit manufacturers, steering wheels, pedals, button boxes, and more.
We have a lot of great things planned in the coming weeks/months with content, that we are really excited about:
  • Paint Schemes! We want to do this right. Our goal is to bring many of the 2011/2012 Sprint Cup/Nationwide/Truck Series schemes to be available. Including 2012 Sprint Cup schemes also available for the Silverado. This will be a huge project, and we really hope some of the great painters throughout the community will come together to help with this project. We also want to have a wide selection of fictional schemes as well.
  • Spotter Packs: We hope to bring several different versions of spotters to iRacers. From real NASCAR spotters to some funny and different fun spotter packs as well. With the right help, we’d also love to put together some road racing specific spotter packs and some packs in other languages.
  • Setups: We are still working on this. We’d really like to offer setups to the community, but only if the right team comes together to put them together. We don’t want to post a bunch of sets then have all outdated sets each new build that are never updated (as many other sites).
  • Track Guides: One of our biggest goals since the beginning is to put together tools to help the average sim racer learn how to pick up speed. Track Guides would help learn the different lines and braking points, as well as what to look for when testing setups. The guide would also help cover strategy, as far as fuel mileage and tire wear.

Overall, 2012 should be a fantastic year for iRacerstuff.com as we rebuild and fill our site with resources for the community. We hope to have tons of content and links by mid-year so we can shift the focus to new ideas and new content. We are always looking for more ideas, content and links. If you have ideas, or are interested in submitting any content or links, please reach us at submit@iracerstuff.com.

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