Just What IS Inside Of A Microsoft Xbox 360 Steering Wheel? How Does It Work?

April 21, 2021 

#423

Gentle reader,

A little backstory: I was never much interested in computers until I watched my wife copy and paste a paragraph in a work processing program. "Whoa! How did you do that and what else can this do?" At that point in 1996, I became interested in PCs and my old portable Olivetti typewriter was forgotten.

As time went by I built an entire PC, a 586 Tower. I used a processor from the now defunct Cyrus chip company. That dates it.

Anyway, I am retired after 44 years working first as a dealership auto mechanic and then on our nation's capital's subway cars. 

The point of that little tale is that I have a LOT of experience working on things that if one does something wrong, they could very well end up dead. I have been hit with 700 volts DC twice, fortunately, both times it went in and to ground through the same hand.

This is the face of Microsoft's proprietary Steering Wheel which they created to work exclusively (and wirelessly) with their then-new Xbox 360 console. It includes an equally nice set of pedals. 

Microsoft played their cards right when they decided to enter the lucrative world of GAMING and came out with their original Xbox console. Since that happened, a LOT has changed. Now their most popular racing series, Forza Motorsport is up to number seven and runs on their new Xbox ONE S consoles.

I have never been on to have to have the latest and greatest. For example, I do not want nor need a smart phone. If I want to go onto the Internet, I do it the way God intended, I sit down at my PC and open a browser. And I am perfectly happy with my Sonim XP3 military-grade flip phone. It doesn't even have a camera. Over all the years of flip phones I have used I have used it's tiny camera ONE time to send my wife a photo of something she was looking for at the hardware store. But I digress.

Another way I am old fashioned is that I shift gears myself while driving. Below is the gearshift of my turbocharged 2005 Volvo V50 wagon. Not a bit of "tech" anywhere on that dash.

While today's kids cannot imagine a world without smart "devices" and a constant connection to the worldwide network of computers called The Internet, and thus they seem to have been born innately knowing how to play electronic games, I was not. As a result, I cannot "drive" with a controller

To operate a vehicle, real or virtual, I MUST have a steering wheel, pedals, a sturdy stand to hold same and a way to SHIFT the virtual gears in the virtual transmission of whatever I am pretending to operate. 

Above is the Logitech steering wheel made for the SONY PS3 console. I have updated it with carbon fiber-looking larger paddles. Note, at the right of the wheel is the shift-knob for pretend sequential transmission I might be operating.

NOW, all THAT being said, have YOU ever wondered just HOW that plastic wheel and pedals can make that virtual car do what you want it to? No? Well, I have.

 

This is a shot of my "Simulation Station". By the way, I have written a number of articles about simulation racing, here is a link to a LIST of LINKS to each and every previous article:

The Robb Collections: INDEX TO Simulation Racing THE ROBB COLLECTIONS  

Once again, the tiny microswitch inside my steering wheel has had enough and would shift no more. And I cannot drive in Automatic mode!

I have replaced the steering wheel at least five times in all the years I have been racing. The first time I physically broke the right (upshift) paddle! I know that I am not alone in having done that. Since then, I shift less aggressively, but still the microswitches, they wear out.

So, I looked for yet another used wheel on eBay. I found one which the seller promised worked perfectly.

Yet, when it arrived, NOTHING worked! With the AC power plugged in, pressing the "horn" button did nothing. Nor with two AA batteries in their pack. 

So, I tried the battery holder from my old wheel and at last it came on and worked. 

BUT, when using battery power, ONLY the wheel, shifter paddles and pedals work. NO: Feedback of any kind, nor the vibrations which greatly help the racer to feel what their car is doing.

I contacted the seller and he offered to refund half the money since I said that I could probably fix it. I had not taken one apart before, BUT, I have fixed THOUSANDS of things in my lifetime. What could go wrong?

Let's start with what I found once I figured out how to get the wheel itself apart and separated from the base.

There is the motor what provides the jerks when one bounces over a curb or any other bumpy surface on the virtual tracks.

 

The small tan board on top, with three wires attached, is for a sensor which reads the large gear's position and tells the console whether the wheel is centered (the car is going straight) or is turned and how far, and which direction.

You can just see the small round sensor at about 8 o'clock by the largest gear. The wheel is directly attached by that white shaft of the large gear. A pinion gear (the smaller one attached to the medium sized one) is rotated by largest gear when the wheel is turned. That medium sized gear which is part of the pinion gear assembly, turns the motor or vice versa.

The motor will jerk or move the wheel in your hands when a virtual tire or tires encounters rough pavement or curbs.

This photo by Dave Alan of Getty Images, shows a rough curb. If you look at the far curb (left side of the photo) you will see it is almost saw-toothed. There ARE smooth curbs, also painted red and white which race cars jump over like this: 

Oh, look! A racing Volvo! Yes, my favorite racer, New Zealand's Scott McLaughlin racing his Volvo S60 in the V8 Supercars Series in 2014. They race mostly in Australia and a few times a year in New Zealand. For more: Supercars - YouTube

 

To me, and millions of others, Supercars provides the BEST racing experience. Did you KNOW that in Forza 4 one can buy and drive several authentic V8 Supercars? Just look at the bunch of racing sedans under FORD or HOLDEN and you too can virtually experience these awesome cars.

This is one of the two vibration motors which are glued into the TWO silver portions of the bottom of the wheel. They and the chrome ring between them create the flat bottom of the wheel. 

The paddles are physically part of the lighter grey portion of this assembly. Above you can see the "L" shaped levers which press the microswitches which tell the console to upshift or downshift.

Here is the inside of the back of the wheel's center arms/column. You can see the two springs which push the paddles back to their original position after you let them go.

Do you see the two square silver and black devices with a round black button in their centers? Those are the microswitches the "L" shaped levers press. The board is facing you, but inside the wheel it faces away from you.

Now it is facing up, or towards the driver. The smaller board is the one within the "horn" portion of the wheel center. Three carbon switches are closed when any of the three buttons are pressed.

On the larger board beneath that, you can see the eight carbon switches which are closed by the "L Pad" on the left side and the four colored buttons on the right side. See below:

You can clearly see the "L Pad" on the left, the three buttons on the "horn" and the four colored buttons on the right. Pretty cool, right? 

This large board, 90 degrees left of and upside down from the position is occupies in the right side of the white portion of the wheel platform assembly.

For example, the AC power plug inserts into the cylindrical black thing at the bottom left corner. Directly above that is where the telephone plug from the PEDALS plugs in. Yes, it IS a telephone plug from a "landline" type telephone.

On the right side, top, the clear thing is a projector for the green LED power indicator. Below that is the microswitch operated by the small white button one presses to sync the wheel/pedals to the console. At the bottom right is where one can plug in their Microsoft Gaming Headset.

This last and smallest board, is wired to the main board shown above. The curly (and blurry) metal things are AA battery terminals.

I do not know what the six gold terminals are for, but suspect they are test terminals for use when the wheel has been freshly built (or rebuilt) to test all the moving parts and make sure they are working as they should be prior to shipping it out to the stores then finally to us.

 

Hopefully, you now have a much better understanding of the complex devices needed to virtually operate a virtual wheeled vehicle. Do these work on Tanks and such? I have no idea.

 

Blogger just notified me that by the end of July, 2021, they will not longer be able to e-mail followers with news of new articles. Sigh. But take heart! I WILL post new Racing Simulation articles to the Facebook Forza Motorsports 4 Group. 

Now that you have finished this article. Go ahead and click or tap on this link:
The Robb Collections: INDEX TO Simulation Racing THE ROBB COLLECTIONS  to read many more (hopefully) fascinating articles about Forza 4 and other racing things I have done.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog. When I began doing this, it was just for fun. To my surprise, people READ it, more than 300,000 so far!

Scott

April 21, 2021

#423

 

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What the Heck is a Tachymeter For? That Scale of Numbers Engraved Around Some Chronograph Watch Bezels.

April 5, 2021

#422

Gentle reader,

I first wrote about my small collections of chronograph watches in March of 2012. You may read that article here:

The Robb Collections: The Watches

There is a LONG explanation about tachymeters in Wikipedia here:  Tachymeter (watch) - Wikipedia

The gist of it, they simplify with this line: "A tachymeter is simply a means of converting elapsed time (in seconds per unit) to rate (in units per hour)."

Anyone familiar with the measurement of time and speed in automotive (and boat) Drag Racing knows there are two measurements: How Long it takes the car(s) or boats to travel from a dead stop at the starting line to it passing the finish line is the ELAPSED time in seconds. The second measurement is the speed the car is traveling as it passes the finish line. Two photoelectric beams shine across the drag strip, one X number of feet before and a second one the same number of feet after the finish line. How many seconds it takes to trip both beams of light is calculated to determine the speed. A YouTube video linked below is a graphic demonstration.

New Nitro Altered World Record: 4.92 at 304.53 mph by Richard Hartman - YouTube 

But THIS article is not about drag racing, it is about TACHYMETERS.  And no, they are not used to gauge how BADLY someone is dressed.

This lovely yellow watch was made by ADEE KAYE and it  most clearly shows the TACHYMETER scale. However, THIS watch is not one which someone can actually USE the scale with since the seconds had is part of TIME telling.

The SECONDS hand of a true tachymeter watch MUST be the elapsed seconds hand for the chronograph (stopwatch). Thus, it must be stationary unless one is TIMING something. As you can see the second hand with it's red arrow tip below is.

This stunning C.T.I. chronograph, a copy of a Breitling watch, the only hands used by the watch are the hours and minutes hands. The seconds hand and all three smaller (subdials) do not move until the top button (called "pushers") is pressed. Then the seconds hand and all three subdial hands begin moving. One of them is 1/100th of a second and it whirls very quickly then stops at 12 o'clock on it's dial. The other's are 1/10th of a second, then minutes and hours. When the top presser is pushed, all four hands stop and the 1/100th hand also swings around and stops to show how many hundredths of a second were elapsed. Pretty cool, right?

However, that watch does NOT have a tachymeter. The bezel (metal ring that surrounds the watch face) rotates and as you can see, 60 is not at twelve o'clock, as it should be. Rotating bezels are often on DIVE watches and much more clearly visible so divers can keep track of how long they have been down and not run out of air.

Now this ADEE KAYE watch has the fixed seconds hand, BUT it lacks the tachymeter scale! Also one of the pusher buttons was separated from the watch. :-( 

This lovely two-tone Citizen watch has BOTH the scale and the fixed seconds hand. I am now wondering why I got rid of it.

I have never counted just how many watches I have owned in total, but it is around forty. I limit myself to just seven at a time now. 

But, almost ALL of them have been CHRONOGRAPH watches. Which are a wristwatch (usually) which ALSO has a stopwatch built into the one watch movement. 

Nancy had bought me a Swiss Legend watch which has a yellow face and yellow silicone band. It's big and heavy which seems to be the thing these days. I like it and decided to find a chronograph from the same company. ABOVE, is what I found, used for $50 on eBay. That is the seller's photo which I rotated and cropped for this article. I picked out one of the watches I already owned and sold it on eBay.

AS you can see, it has it all: Fixed second hand, tachymeter scale and subdials. I am retired, and sometimes I DO wonder what day it is, so the bottom "day" subdial does come in handy.

In Hong Kong, China, one can find COUNTLESS "luxury" watches for BARGAIN prices! The problem is almost all of them are FAKES. 

Before ROLEX put pressure on eBay to prevent sellers from hocking their wares of counterfeit Rolex watches, I was able to buy these.

The red/blue one is a fake Submariner diving watch, but I would not get it wet! 

I call them "Fauxlex" watches. It is a word I coined. Faux is French for fake. It is pronounced "foe". Put together it is pronounced "Foe-lex" which rhymes with Rolex.

All the others are Daytona chronograph watches. The trouble is, while they do have automatic or self-winding movements like the original, THEIR movements are CALENDAR movements. The subdials show the day, date, and month. The black face/strap watch has the correct markings for that type movement, the rest look exactly like the real thing. Pressing the pushers does nothing unless one pulls out the crown and presses them repeatedly to "zero" them at the 12 o'clock position. ALL of them are long gone from the collection.

Someone who read my previous article contacted me to tell me he had a fake HEUER Monza chronograph (as well as the fake Submariner) which he wanted to offer to me. I bit because the price was right. It actually is a chronograph, but the back of the watch does not match the front. 

TAG bought HEUER or the other way around, and the back is clearly marked: TAG HEUER.

What Rolex objects to aside from their watches blatantly being copied is not just the design of their watches, at least in the case of the Daytona models, it is the USE of their NAME as well as their designs.

The Daytona design patent ran out years ago and many watch companies started making their own watches with the same look. Here are some I have owned:

                                       ADEE KAYE's version.

Apogaum's version which uses the self-winding Chinese calendar movement.

Italian named, but Japanese movement within the Enrico Coveri version which has added a red face and a date window.

This is the black "Fauxlex" Daytona. I included it so you could see the markings on the subdials. Note that they pressed the bezel on crooked. "60" is supposed to be at 12 o'clock.

A pair of INVICTA Speedway watches. I still have the stainless steel watch, but sold the gold one. It came with the alligator band as well as an all gold (plated) metal band. I have since purchased a two-tone Invicta Speedway which resembles this Faulex: 

Again, I picked out a watch from the collection to sell to allow room for it. 

A little history on the Rolex Daytona watches. Every January, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida, USA, is held the "Rolex 24 at Daytona" endurance sports car race. It is twenty-four hours long and starts out the new season of IMSA's premiere races. It USED to be part of what is now called the "WEC" or World Endurance Championship. The second race was the 12 Hours of Sebring, also in Florida in March. Then the racers went to Europe for the rest of the season's races. The PREMIERE event is the 24 Hour of Le Mans in France, in June. Races are held in several countries throughout the season.

This photo is from the parade lap (right before the green flag drops to start the race) of the 1968 Daytona 24 Hours race. Two Ford GT40 cars lead with four Porsche 908 behind, four Ferrari (I don't remember their models) and the white/black car had a JET turbine engine in it! It did not finish the race. MOST cars did not finish endurance races back then. 

ANYWAY, the winners (two or more drivers shared driving duty) received solid gold Rolex Daytona watches, second place, two-tone gold and stainless and third place all-stainless steel Daytona watches. 

BUT, this article is SUPPOSED to be about TACHYMETERS so, here it is.

A tachymeter is to be used when a vehicle is already moving at SPEED. This Swiss watch (Swatch) has the requisite fixed seconds hand and a tachymeter scale. Since almost ALL cars (except land-speed record cars) cannot go more than 200 miles an hour, or 321.868 kilometers an hour, we can ignore any numbers higher on the scale.

The driver, or preferably a passenger, presses the top button AS they are passing a marked/fixed point, such as a mile or kilometer maker, while the car is at top speed. The watch wearer again presses the top button as the vehicle passes the second marked/fixed point, such as a mile or kilometer marker.

Then, they look to where the second hand STOPPED and read the scale to figure out how fast they were going.

This scale is much more complete than the Swatch so one could calculate by the distance between the numbers. NOTE how they get farther apart as the speed numbers get slower. So, if it stopped at 12, the vehicle was going 60 miles or kilometers per hour.

How useful are tachymeters and for that matter, chronograph watches? To me, not very. ALL cars sold HAVE speedometers to tell the driver how fast they are going. And, I don't speed nor race real cars (only simulated ones) and the ONLY thing I've ever TIMED with one of my watches was how long it took to get our FOOD after we ordered it in a restaurant! 

But, I love their looks and IF I wanted to time something, I have the technology to do so. Between you and me, a DIGITAL watch would be much more accurate and goes down to 1/1000th of a second. But digital, BAH! Oh, and I deliberately do not have a smart phone. Useful they are, but I see SO many people who seem to CONSTANTLY be looking down at their phones and NOT at their surroundings. I do not want to be like that. 

I also drive a WAGON, not an SUV or crossover or minivan or pickup truck. I LIKE being different. 

My 2005 Volvo V50 T5 Sport is extremely rare since it has the six-speed manual transmission.

Oh no! The socket plug is upside down! Well the car was new to us then and I corrected that. 

To give you an example of it's size, here it is next to VW's (then) smallest SUV, the Tiguan. 

To show it's prowess, I added these Prancing Moose emblems. Every new Volvo goes through the high-speed moose avoidance test. I'm not making this up. And these emblems are a dig at Ferrari owners.

Thank you for taking the time to read my humble blog. Please take a moment to click or tap the FOLLOW button which is located by the ADEE KAYE watches version of the Rolex Daytona chronograph photo. That way, you will receive notifications of new articles as they come out. Also, feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook.

Scott

April 5, 2021

#422

Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature Chapter Six. The One That Got Away: 1964 Pontiac GTO Convertible

March 30, 2021

#421

Gentle reader,

It's kind of appropriate that this article is number 421. That is the next size up in cubic inch displacement from the big block Pontiac engine in the car in which I write about in this chapter number six of my series: 

Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature. This one is subtitled: The One That Got Away.

Let me set the scene, it is September, 1973, over the weekend, my dad told me that we were going to go buy my first car on Monday. "But it's a school day." I was newly into my senior year in my high school in Denver. "I'll write you a note." 

This was MOST uncharacteristic of my father. He was an only child and as a result, despite being a preacher, he was not very good at talking/dealing with kids. Nevertheless, we set out down Broadway Blvd looking at used car lots. The car I found is the subject of Chapter One and can be seen here:

The Robb Collections: Replicating My First Car In Diecast 1:24th Scale. 1964 Chevy Impala

Come Spring, 1974, a season always welcome, especially in Colorado where, at least back then, before global warming, one could expect snow from September to June. I was driving my beloved Impala home from school and to my utter surprise I spy a 1964 GTO convertible with a FOR SALE sign in the window, parked on the residential street. 

I pulled over, looked the car over, one dent in the driver's door which could probably be popped out, body was rust-free, top and interior were good and it had a four-speed stick.

I knocked on the door, a man answered and said, "I'll get the keys." He did, we looked it over together, under the hood was THE top engine, 389 cubic inches with THREE two-barrel carburetors. I call it THE engine because, that engine in that body was THE beginning of "Muscle Cars" as they came to be called.

So, off we went with me driving. When it was safe, I punched the gas, and it PUSHED us back in the seats, I let off the gas and said, "It's got good pickup." Anyway, I drove back to his house and said, "How much?" "$250, you think that's too much?"

For the first time in my life, I tried a poker face. "Well, it is a ten year old car and there is a big dent in this door, so no, it sound's right. Let me see about getting the money together."

I drove quickly, I mean within the speed limits, home to ask dad if I could borrow $250. "Why?" I want to buy this car I just test drove." "But you already have a car." "But this is a GTO!" "You could get in trouble with a car like that." And he was right.
 

This is a photo of another Pontiac engine with three carbs. I noticed right away that there is a difference between the two, did you see it? Take a look at the previous photo. BTW, all three of these are actual FILM photos from the 1990's. So, did you figure it out? The radiator hose on this engine goes to the LEFT side of the radiator, while the one in the GTO, goes to the right. IF you were thinking, "This one has manual brakes." You are correct.

I have been wanting a 1:18th scale 1964 Pontiac GTO diecast model for sometime now. I sold one of Nancy's Scion TC models, yes, I asked her, to make room for a couple more large models.

As you know, there is a WIDE price range when it comes to 1:18th scale models. The more DETAILED the model, the higher the price. Ideally I wanted a convertible, but they are too pricey. 

I had never heard of Sun Star models, but looking at photos of their GTO models, I decided to go with theirs. Normally, at least on eBay, these go for at least and often more than one hundred dollars, but I found a seller asking only $59.99.

I am very happy with this model. It is well made and VERY detailed with the exception of the engine compartment. 

The first thing I noticed is that the roof is plastic, clear plastic, which has been painted where metal would be on the real car. Clever in that they could more easily make a convertible with the same body mold. The REST of the car body is metal.

I don't recall what the rear end of these cars look like and was wondering why there are five segments to the taillights/trim. So, I just found this photo, courtesy of HOT ROD magazine to compare it with. 

They got it right, with the exception of no backup lights in the bumper like the real car has. The central section folds down to access the gas tank filler.

      The sections are more evident from this angle of the model.  

Is the model perfect? Not at all, if one want to pick nits, there are some to procure. But, check out these shots of the interior.

It's as I remember it. Note the three pedals with brake and clutch pedals the same distance from the floor. This car does not have power brakes. Back then, at least with GM cars, maybe others, if the car had power brakes, the brake pedal was much closer to the floor. Must have been a sales thing.

The gauges are clearly marked, it is one of the better dashes in cars that I own.

They flocked the trunk, which would work for MUCH newer cars than this.  

Again, thanks to HOT ROD magazine, this photo shows what a REAL trunk looks like in a 1964 GTO.

Remember I said this car has manual brakes? No power brakes booster, just the single chamber master cylinder. Yes, these cars had drum brakes all the way around.

See the tabs on the fenders on these two photos? They got that right, look at the second REAL engine photo, well above, it clearly shows that these fenders look just like the real car.

Sun Star put their effort into everything but the engine. See how the radiator hose goes to the right side? Just as I pointed out with the photos of real Pontiacs.

The chassis is well detailed and, again, they did their research. The company is located in Macau, but the models are made in China.

What follows are a few photos showing the details Sun Star put onto the car.

Telescopic radio aerial or antenna is correct. They painted the wipers black too. Could they have done better? Yes. Does one notice with the naked eyes? No.

They might have simply molded these fake grilles into the hood and hand painted them silver, but they did it like the real car.

That G T O emblem looks three dimensional, but is not.

Nicely done mirror and delicate door handles, even a tiny key hole beneath.

G T O 6.3 LITRE emblem is correct. I think that is the first time a metric engine measurement was used on an American car. A nod to the Ferrari GTO perhaps? Note they have actual chrome trim where they can, such as the bottom of the main body.

Red striped (or wall, if you prefer) tires were THE thing to have back then. Simulated knock-off on the wheel covers, another nod to the European cars that actually held the wheels on with them.

The headlight lenses are even detailed and lack the obvious center post on the back side that gives away they are plastic model lights.

All-in-all, I am well pleased with this car. I spent more for my 1967 Impala SS model, so here is a photo of it's engine compartment to show you what more money buys.

I could take the model apart, remove the engine and spend HOURS detailing it, but why? The models hoods are all closed in the collection.

Here are links to all the previous chapters in this series:

 

The Robb Collections: Replicating My First Car In Diecast 1:24th Scale. 1964 Chevy Impala  

 

The Robb Collections: Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature Chapter Two: Audi 100LS

 

The Robb Collections: Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature Chapter Three: Triumph Spitfire

 

The Robb Collections: ERTL Authentics Muscle Machines 1967 Chevy Impala SS 427. THE Most Detailed And Realistic Diecast Car I've Ever Seen!

 

The Robb Collections: Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature Chapter Five: 1964 Chevelle Malibu SS Convertible 

 

Aside from my first car being the first article, they are not in chronological order of when I owned them.  

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my humble blog. Please take a moment to click or tap the FOLLOW button which is located by the second MODEL engine photo. That way, you will receive notifications of new articles as they come out. Also, feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook.

Scott 

March 30, 2021

#421