After years of being on the fence with buying a racing sim I finally decided “it’s now or never” and I pulled the trigger. After a couple weeks of settling in I realized there is a lot to be desired in terms of realism; I also wanted an excuse to break out the 3D printer and soldering iron.
Parts
- 3D Printer or access to a 3D printer
- Printed 3D Files
- Arduino Pro Micro
- Metric Bolts
- 2x M5*20mm
- 4x M3*8mm
- 4x M2*8mm
- Mounting hardware for your Chassis
- Tinted Polycarbonate or Tinted Acrylic
- Brass threaded inserts
- 4x M3*4*5mm
- 4x M2*6*3.5mm
- WS2812b 8×8 LED Matrix
- Hot glue
- This is used to secure the Arduino to the flag box bottom tray
Printing the files
All the files Are able to be printed in a single print without any supports at 15% infill.
Assembly
Inserting the brass bushings
Using a soldering iron set to 300°C insert to brass fittings to the top and bottom of the flag box
Preparing the lens
- Cut the Acrylic or polycarbonate using the light box top as a template. Sand the edges until snug fit. You can also use a deburring tool to very slightly chamfer the edges of the lens for a nicer fit
Assemble the light box
- Place the lens in the top
- Soldering
- 5v red wire from the matrix to the VCC pin on the Arduino
- GND white wire from the matrix to the GND pin on the Arduino
- DIN green wire from the matrix to PIN 6 on the Arduino
- Place the spacer on top of the lens the place the LED matrix ontop of the spacer
- The spacer is the loose fitting thinner square shell
- Place the press fit ring on top of the LED matrix
- The press fit ring is the tighter fit thicker square ring
- Hot glue the Arduino into the light box bottom tray so that the USB micro is facing the opening
- Close the lightbox and bolt in the M3 bolts
Congratulations! you’ve assembled the core light box
Assembling the arm
- Bolt the back plate onto the bottom tray of the light box using the m2 bolts and bushings
- Orient the back plate that makes the most sense when mounting the light box to your simulator
- Using the M5 bolts connect the arm and base plate together
Programming
- Download Simhub to get started programming your lightbox
- Open simhub and open the “Arduino” tab and open the “My hardware” tab.
- Click on “Open arduino setup tool”
- Find the “WS2812b 8×8 Matrix” device in the list and enable it
- Make sure pin 6 is selected
- Enable “Serpentine layout matrix”
- Select “Arduino pro micro” in the board dropdown
- Connect your light box to your computer using a micro USB cable
- Select the COM port the “Arduino serial port” dropdown
- Click the checkbox to agree you’re wiping out previous programming on the Arduino
- Press “Upload to Arduino”
You’re done!
You can play around in the “RGB Matrix” tab within simhub to add effects. By default it will react to redline, vehicle proximity, and flags
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