A few days ago, I posted a first story on Željko Roso’s impressive self-made Ferrari F1 steering wheel. After showing us plenty of pictures and a first video, he has released new footage showing the wheel in action in rFactor.

His wheel comes with 14 buttons, 5 rotary encoders, 2 rotary switches as well as clutch and shifting pedals. Also included is a fully-functional display, Željko has spent over 4 months on this impressive piece of hardware.

Several months ago, Japanese sim hardware experts FREX unveiled their canopy screen, an alternative to the traditional three-monitor setup.

Now, the Canopy screen has been tested with a Stereo 3D projector, showing us iRacing and RACE On in 3D below. More info on all their products can be found on the FREX website

Željko Roso has put together a very impressive self-made Ferrari Formula One wheel that comes with 14 buttons, 5 rotary encoders, 2 rotary switches as well as clutch and shifting pedals.

The result of four months of hard work can be checked out in the gallery below. The included video does not just show the wheel in action using rFactor, it also shows some of the building process of this fine piece of hardware.

 

Corrs78 has gotten his hands on one of Fanatec’s sought-after Porsche 911 Turbo S wheels for the PC and next-gen gaming consoles, sharing his impressions with two HD review videos.

Even though the videos are in French, the high-resolution look at the wheel is interesting for everyone. It shows the wheel in action with Turn 10’s upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 for Xbox 360, Dirt 2 and Need for Speed Shift.

For an even closer look at Fanatec’s newest wheel, you can check out a picture slideshow here.

Following his very popular SLI-M display that was part of many self-built steering wheels, Leo Bodnar has now unveiled a new generation display by showing first photos of the SLI-PRO unit.

The feature-rich SLI-PRO comes with two six-digit displays and a gear indicator, 13 RPM LEDs and six info LEDs at the bottom. The display is connected via USB, offers a connector for five external LEDs and lots of inputs for buttons, switches and two independent clutch pedals.

The SLI-PRO will go on sale in November 2009, costing around $150.

Features:

• USB connection to a PC (control and power)
• Two bright orange 6-digit displays on each side of the bright red gear indicator
• 13 RPM / shiftlight LEDs
• 6 info LEDs at the bottom
• Connector for 5 external LEDs
• Standard mini USB socket and additional USB connector for direct cable connection (e.g. when permanently mounted on a wheel)
• Inputs for 16 buttons and shift paddles, 8 rotary encoders and six 12-position rotary switches
• Inputs for two independent analogue clutch paddles with automatic priority (F1 style)
• Outline dimensions 102 x 31 mm
• Requires only 13mm of space behind the mounting plate (with flat cables attached)
• Matching cables available

 

MMG has released new version of the MMG SimRDispXX Manager software, extending the compatibility of their range of sim racing data display to all Simbin simulations.

MMG’s displays are now supported by 11 simulation titles including all Simbin simulations, rFactor, iRacing and Live for Speed. Other new features of version 1.2 include a new user interface and a new automatic unit checker.

 

Download MMG SimRDispXX Manger 1.2 Here

The guys over at GTForums.co.uk have gotten their hands on an early example of Fanatec’s sought-after Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel, the first Fanatec wheel to be compatible to all gaming consoles including Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Furthermore, the 911 Turbo S is the Turn 10 Studios approved wheel to use with their upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 title. Check out the first shots of the wheel below and visit this link for the full story in the GTForums. The Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel sells for 229€, the high demand on this fine piece of engineering has caused quite a waiting time for interested customers though.

 

Next week will see the release of a new version of the MMG SimRDispXX Manager software, extending the compatibility of MMG’s range of sim racing data display to all Simbin simulations.

Below are some previews of the new 1.2 version, the upcoming version makes MMG’s displays compatible to 11 simulations including all Simbin titles, rFactor, iRacing and Live for Speed.

 

Back in 2008, Canadian company Beta Innovations closed its website, leaving many simulation hardware modders without a source to buy parts that allow them to built their own gauges, button boxes and more.

Now, their products are available again for a short time, everyone looking to get some of their products should act now as it may be the last chance. Follow this link to find a price-list of all items, orders can be placed by following the info in this RSC topic as Beta Innovations is looking to group orders first.

To give you an idea what’s possible with their products, below are two videos showing self-made gauges that have been built using Beta Innovation hardware.

It will take a little longer while until Fanatec’s Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel will enrich the driving experience for both PC and console gamers and the company has used the delay to equip the upcoming wheel with a few new features.

The new wheels now comes with a USB connection cable, giving PC and Playstation 3 users the choice to either use cable or the wireless connection. The new driftmode can also be used on the consoles as no changes in the driver are necessary. And finally, the wheel now comes with ABS brake vibration both for the wheel and the Clubsport Pedals that works in all games on all platforms.

The Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel will be compatible to the PC, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 – Being Fanatec’s only Xbox-compatible wheel and the sole interesting choice for sim racers looking to get a decent wheel for Microsoft’s console. Below is a video of Fanatec’s Thomas Jackermeier, showing off the new features with Microsoft’s upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 title.

Logitech has released a new version of their driver software for various products, including their popular Logitech G25 & G27 steering wheels.

The new driver is available both as 32bit and 64bit version, a list of changes can be found below.

Changelog:

• Mouse clicks can now be assigned to a device button correctly
• Added support to allow more than one mouse assignment commands to be played at a time
• Software should now install correctly in some unicode Windows
• User can now turn off panel lights for G940 in custom game control panel
• Support G940 ministick manual calibration
• Better support for G940 resume from suspend

Download Logitech Driver 5.08 Here

I usually don’t cover general PC hardware news but here’s something interesting for sim racing enthusiasts as ATI will be introducing the so-called ATI Eyefinity Technology with their newest line of DirectX 11R adeon graphics cards.

Up until now, sim racers who wanted to use more than two screens in their racing simulators had to use additional hardware like TripleHead2Go to connect their monitors. This is no longer needed with Eyefinity as the newest ATI graphics cards can be connected to multiple screens, allowing the connection of up to six screens with a combined resolution of 8000×8000 pixels.

The technology can be seen at work in the video below, more info on Eyefinity and the possible screen setups can be found on the ATI website. Eyefinity will be introduced with the new range of Radeon 5800-series graphics cards that will be available starting September 23rd.

MMG has put togheter a new preview video of their line of racing displays, showing them in action with rFactor.

Their product line includes the SimRDisp7X both as desktop and Logitec G25 version as well as the new G25-compatible SimRDisp1X. Check out MMG’s webshop for further info on the displays.

Japanese sim hardware experts FREX have added a new product to their line of professional sim racing hardware by unveiling the SimConVBRAKE brake vibration motor.

The SimConVBRAKE is combined with FREX’s SimConBase and adds adjustable brake vibration when locking up tires. The SimConVBRAKE works with all Simbin simulations as well as rFactor, a price for the new product has not yet been set.

Below is a photo of the unit, more info and technical specifications can be found on the FREX website.