Let’s face it, waving your arms around in front of your Xbox360 Kinect or wiggling that Wii Mote and tilting the crap out of your iPhone might be fun for the first ten minutes. But seriously you can’t play a descent race car or motocycle simulation racing game that way. It just does not give you enough control and is often not accurate enough.

I am not a big handheld gamer – actually I am not much of a gamer lately at all. I am still waiting for the nerve feedback system or the Equilibrium attachment that you stick in your ear so you can experience true motion in games. What’s really missing in racing games though is that kick in the guts, that “oh my god” my head is falling off during cornering and that rare sensation when shifting gears becomes a work out during extreme acceleration. The little rumble of the force feedback controller has a long ways to go…

Anyway, back to the problem on hand. Racing games are fun and motion controls suck.
Solution: Build a Steering Wheel for the iPhone or iPod. Thank god for Lego Technic…

Racing Steering Wheel and and iPhone/iPod Device Holder Front View:

Racing Steering Wheel and and iPhone/iPod Device Holder Side View:

Racing Steering Wheel and and iPhone/iPod Device Holder Rear View:

I tried different size steering wheels – bigger ones don’t look as good but tend to offer more control. Another advantage of using Lego Technic to Prototype this is that I am able to change the gear ratio as well.

Some of you may remember the old Sega “Hang On” Arcade Game – hint the one with the cool full size red bike.
Anyways that inspired my iPhone Motocycle simulator attachment. Not fancy, but makes me smile and works rather well ..just to bad it is not red and they don’t have a port of “Hang On” in the App store.

And of course the whole steering stand motion unit or whatever it should be called can also be used as Surfboard, Snowboard or Skateboard game simulator.

What’s next?
The current setup makes it a bit hard to use the touchscreen while driving. Most racing games offer some sort of acceleration or brake assist but those are limited and a bit lame. I will revisit the project and figure out a way to add gas and brake pedals. Of course the tricky part is that the entire screen moves and the contact (touch) points for gas and brakes move up and down. …we’ll figure it out.

Aside from being a lot more fun it actually makes racing games such as Moto GP, GT Racing etc a lot easier to play.

The platform is build on just a few lego technic pieces. I was not going for prettiness or fanciness – I was just going for function.

Here is the Video:

For Christmas I received the LEGO 8053 Technic Mobile Crane which right out of the box is already awesome. It got all-wheel steering (8 wheels) and a really cool gear selection setup to control the crane arm to go up and down and extract, in addition to powering the hook winch.

During the building period between Christmas and NewYear (yes I actually took my sweet time rather than rushing through it) it became clear to me that this Lego model just beckons to be remotely controlled in some shape or form.

Of course it is easy to just go online and order a bunch of motors – Lego has some really awesome motors these days for their MIndstorm and Technic Models. But spending money felt like cheating. So I decided I will make due with whatever parts I have…

Thank goodness I held on to my old Futaba F14 radio from way back when. By the way I recently found out that rather then buying the super expensive MultiProp or MultiSwitch adapters and extensions you can simply use a 5K Ohm Potentiometer to control a channel. Which by the way if you open most rc radios is what you will find in there – cheap potentiometer.

I also held on to the grey little gear reduction motors that came with one of the first Lego Mindstorm kits. Unfortunately I have only 3 motors. But the functions I wanted required a bunch more. Time to get creative.

List of simultaneous functions for my Lego Technic Crane:
1) Drive Forward and Reverse
2) Steer Left and Right – 8 wheel steering
3) Turn the entire crane unit 360degrees
4) Arm Up and Down
5) Arm Extension In and Out
6) Hook UP and Down
7) Sidepods In and Out

Long story short I ended up rebuilding the entire crane from scratch.
I decided to keep the Crane unit and the Chassis completely separated to allow for 360 degree turns of the crane unit.

Problem was that I had three motors but only 2 ESC( Electronic speed controllers), what I decided was to use one servo to trigger a microswitch which in turn switches the output of my ESC between 2 motors.

A) Servo 1 – Steering
B) Servo 2 – Switching Gears between Arm Up and Down and Hook Up and Down
C) Servo 3 – Arm Extension In and Out
D) Servo 4 – Activates microswitch for ESC toggle
E) Motor 1 – Driving Forward and Reverse
F) Motor 2 – Rotate Crane unit
G) Motor 3 – Power Arm, Hook and Extension

I also had some small lightbulbs – I know these days we use LED’s which by the way 3mm LED’s and Lego’s are a match made in heaven.

But why not use up what you have. I also found an old blinking module, which I worked into using as my hazard lights. I further found an old Birthday card which had tiny flashing LED’s which turned out to fit perfectly into Lego’s clear yellow bricks for warning lights.

This was without a doubt the most complex Lego project of mine so far. Lego Technic RULES!

Concept:
2 IR Detector’s connected to an Arduino Microcontroller listen for 10 pulses from a TV remote coming at 38khz to avoid sun light interference.
If 10 pulses are counted then the Arduino will blink the LED’s 3 times. This tells the racer that the TV remote signal has been received.
A short delay gives time to store the TV remote and to focus on the actual Race start.
The start sequence works similar to an F1 or German Touring Car start. The LED’s come on one at a time with a short delay and go all out at the same time which is the start of the race.
The Arduino resets after the start sequence and waits for 10 pulses again to start the next starting sequence.
Due to the fact that the IR LED’s are pulsed they can be “over driven” as far as current goes – which is the reason why a TV remote works from easily 20-30 feet away.

Video:

Items List:
LED’s
220Ohm Resistors (one for each LED)
Arduino Microcontroller
IR Detectors 38Khz
Costco Apple Packaging
9 Volt Battery
20 or 18 Gage Cable

Tools:
Drill
Soldering Iron
Hot Glue Gun

Total Cost: $40
Time: 4 hours

If you are an Arduino Expert or if you are a “Real” Programmer you will probably get a good laugh out of my code. But hey it works.
I noticed that when I run the Arduino on Battery it tends to pick up noise from the IR Detectors. I was trying to let it time out – say if there is no second pulse detected after 1 second ignore the first pulse cause it is likely noise. Unfortunately I did not get it to work. So instead I have it programmed that it needs to see 10 pulses from the TV remote before a starting sequence is initiated. The Serial print commands helped me during the build and for troubleshooting. They are not essential to the function of the race starting lights.

Here is the complete Arduino Code:

//F1 Style Starting Lights

// Set pin numbers:
const int ledPin2 = 2; // LED 1 connected to digital pin 2
const int ledPin3 = 3; // LED 2 connected to digital pin 3
const int ledPin4 = 4; // LED 3 connected to digital pin 4
const int ledPin5 = 5; // LED 4 connected to digital pin 5

const int ledPin6 = 6; // LED 5 connected to digital pin 6
const int ledPin7 = 7; // LED 6 connected to digital pin 7
const int ledPin8 = 8; // LED 7 connected to digital pin 8
const int ledPin9 = 9; // LED 8 connected to digital pin 9

const int buttonPin = 12; // IR Detector connected to digital pin 12
const int ledPin = 13; // Onboard LED flashes when IR Detector sees beam & stays lit for entire loop

// Variables that will change:
int buttonPushCounter = 0; // counter for the number of button presses
int buttonState = 0; // current state of the button
int lastButtonState = 0; // previous state of the button

const int flasher = 200; // Delay of 250 mili seconds for IR signal detected & start sequence initialised
const int ready = 3500; // Delay of 3.5 seconds mili seconds before start sequence
const int timer = 1500; // Delay of 1.5 seconds between starting lights

void setup()
{

// Initialize the LED pins as an output:
pinMode(ledPin2, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin3, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin4, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin5, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output

pinMode(ledPin6, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin7, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin8, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output
pinMode(ledPin9, OUTPUT); // Sets the digital pin as output

pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // Sets IR check LED digital pin as output

// initialize the pushbutton pin as an input:
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT); //Sets the digitalpin for the button as input

// initialize serial communication – only used for troubleshooting
Serial.begin(9600);

}
void loop()
{

// read the IR Detector input pin:
buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

// compare the buttonState to its previous state
if (buttonState != lastButtonState) {
// if the state has changed, increment the counter
if (buttonState == HIGH) {
// if the current state is HIGH then the button
// wend from off to on:
buttonPushCounter++;
Serial.println(“on”);
Serial.print(“number of button pushes: “);
Serial.println(buttonPushCounter, DEC);
}
else {
// if the current state is LOW then the button
// wend from on to off:
Serial.println(“off”);
}
}
// save the current state as the last state,
//for next time through the loop
lastButtonState = buttonState;

// turns on the LED 13 and Starting Lights every 10 button pushes by
// checking the modulo of the button push counter.
// the modulo function gives you the remainder of
// the division of two numbers:
if (buttonPushCounter % 10 == 0) {

digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

{
if (ledPin == HIGH);
{
Serial.println(“High”);

// Confirm buttonState HIGH by flashing all LED’s 5 times
digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // sets LED 1 on
digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH); // sets LED 2 on
digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH); // sets LED 3 on
digitalWrite(ledPin8, HIGH); // sets LED 4 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH); // sets LED 5 on
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH); // sets LED 6 on
digitalWrite(ledPin7, HIGH); // sets LED 7 on
digitalWrite(ledPin9, HIGH); // sets LED 8 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // sets LED 1 on
digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH); // sets LED 2 on
digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH); // sets LED 3 on
digitalWrite(ledPin8, HIGH); // sets LED 4 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH); // sets LED 5 on
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH); // sets LED 6 on
digitalWrite(ledPin7, HIGH); // sets LED 7 on
digitalWrite(ledPin9, HIGH); // sets LED 8 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // sets LED 1 on
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH); // sets LED 2 on
digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH); // sets LED 3 on
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH); // sets LED 4 on
digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH); // sets LED 5 on
digitalWrite(ledPin7, HIGH); // sets LED 6 on
digitalWrite(ledPin8, HIGH); // sets LED 7 on
digitalWrite(ledPin9, HIGH); // sets LED 8 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // sets LED 1 on
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH); // sets LED 2 on
digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH); // sets LED 3 on
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH); // sets LED 4 on
digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH); // sets LED 5 on
digitalWrite(ledPin7, HIGH); // sets LED 6 on
digitalWrite(ledPin8, HIGH); // sets LED 7 on
digitalWrite(ledPin9, HIGH); // sets LED 8 on
delay(flasher);
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // sets LED’s off
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
delay(ready);

// Turn LEDs on – initiate Starting Sequence:
digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // sets the LED 1 on
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH); // sets the LED 2 on
delay(timer); // waits for 1.5 seconds

digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH); // sets the LED 3 on
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH); // sets the LED 4 on
delay(timer); // waits for 1.5 seconds

digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH); // sets the LED 5 on
digitalWrite(ledPin7, HIGH); // sets the LED 6 on
delay(timer); // waits for 1.5 seconds

digitalWrite(ledPin8, HIGH); // sets the LED 7 on
digitalWrite(ledPin9, HIGH); // sets the LED 8 on
delay(timer); // waits for 1.5 seconds

digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // sets the LED 1 off
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW); // sets the LED 2 off
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW); // sets the LED 3 off
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW); // sets the LED 4 off
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW); // sets the LED 5 off
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW); // sets the LED 6 off
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW); // sets the LED 7 off
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW); // sets the LED 8 off

{
if (ledPin9 == LOW);
{
Serial.println(“LOW”);
}

}
}
}

buttonPushCounter = 1; //reset
Serial.println(“Reset”);
}
else {
// turn LEDs off:
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin7, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin8, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin9, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
}
}

Simply download Torcs, install it, unpack the backyard3.zip file and move the folder into your torcs dirt track folder.

Watch the Video of my Torcs RC Car Track here or read the blog post here.

Here are some Torcs RC car track screenshots:

It seemed like a fun idea to build a drive-able computer car racing game based on our R/C backyard track and our Subaru Tamiya Rally car. Needless to say that it does not come even close to any of today’s Xbox360 or PS3 games, but that wasn’t the point in the first place. Driving my own track on the computer while looking at the “real thing” out of the window still makes me happy :-)
With the initial experience and all the measurements taken I am really tempted to build the whole thing on XNA Express to make it playable on the 360. I am afraid they will have released 3 new models of the 360 until I figure it all out though…

I own a good amount of newer Xbox360 and Playstation3 racing games, yet none of them has a track editor. Before I receive email from PS3 fanboys -  I don’t consider “Modnation Racer” a racing game in the sense of simulation racer. It is a lot of fun though. Gran Turismo 5 may of course change all this but we’ll have to wait until it is released to find out how useful the track editor is to create a virtual replica of  a backyard RC track.

For the time being I downloaded one of the longest running, most established and best of all “FREE” PC racing simulators available. The racing simulator is called ” Torcs” which stands for “The Open Racing Car Simulator”. As the name implies the game is Open Source and available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Initially I downloaded the Mac version, however I could not find the track editor – this may have been a user-error on my behalf. TORCS does provide some How To’s and FAQ’s, however you’ll be left to figure out a lot of stuff for yourself. The Windows version worked like a charm and all game assets are very nicely organized.

Most (if not all aspects) of the game can be very easily customized by manipulating the according XML file. My primary goal is to create a drivable version of my backyard RC track, however Torcs also offers the option to program your car to drive the track by itself, it’s like watching racing on TV just with your own robot driver behind the wheel. Don’t even think it is as easy as it sounds.

First step of building my track for the game is to take precise measurements in the backyard. Click the images for a bigger version:

I will post screenshots of the track editor and progress as it comes available. I will also make my track available for download once it is done. Download Torcs here http://sourceforge.net/projects/torcs/

Other good links to learn more about Torcs are Wikipedia and the Torcs Site

I will make more files available for free download as it comes available.

RC Car Website Theme, Icons and Files:

• This site is powered by WordPress
• The Theme is called Rocas and was created by Lorelei
• I customized the WordPress theme a little bit to be used as my R/C Car homepage. Get it here. Also includes header as PSD (Photoshop) Layers File.
• If you like the original by Lorelei, but want to replace the Porsche with another car, then here is the header Photoshop file
• Many Icons found on the site come from mysitemyway.com

RC Car Lap Counter and Timing

• Lap Timer Software is created by Gregory Braun at hoslotcarracing.com
• Direct download of hoslotcarracing Lap Timer for Windows – Download here.
• Webcam based Laptimer – Easy Lap Counter

Tamiya DF-03RA Product and Spec Sheets

• Tamiya Stock Motor Specs Official Mabuchi 540 Motor Spec PDF.
• Tamiya DF-03RA Building Instructions and Product Manual .

Torcs Computer Game Files

• Torcs Open Source Racing Simulator for Windows Linux and Mac
• My RC backyard Track as drive-able Torcs track