New idea to offer power through QR - Looking for feedback

Simucube 2
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I am Simon Maltby from Sim Racing Machines. hopefully many of you know me and that I try and improve things for sim racers.

When trying the Leoxz XF1 wheel on my SC2 I realised that although it has bluetooth there is no battery so the only way to run it is via a USB cable.

Now, Moza and Simagic both have the 5v coming through the QR. They do this by using a wireless power passthrough, a bit like wireless phone charging, I was thinking that it would be good to have something similar on the SC2… both for wheels like the Leoxz and to get away from batteries in SC2 wireless wheels.

What I would like to know is how popular something like this would be?

I have done a proof of concept just using a cheap kit from Ebay and it works well.
To do it properly though I would need to fine tune the physical and electronics as well as thinking about how to connect the wheel through the QR or alternative.

Ideally this is something Granite might look at, but i’m quite happy to design a system to do this and bolt onto the wheelbase (both SC1 and SC2)

So, as I say could I have some feedback - Is this a good idea?

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great idea. that’s what I miss the most

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I believe GD’s explanation of not going this route was reliability of the electrical connections in high torque application, thus they opted for truly wireless, disconnected from the the base solution.
What wheels will work with this new solution, we have either SC2 native wireless or USB at the moment?

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Hello,
Extremely popular ( if ) you can add ( data ).
The problem Is the cost for wheel side and base side.

Update
Data Is not necessary. Can work in MIXED mode. Power from QR and data from SC2 BT Module.

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This is a good idea, a conversion kit for both base and wheel side sounds attractive.

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This would be really great, Beano had mentioned something like this on the IR forums a while back but I havent heard any news. Would there still be a wire hanging from the Wheelbase side QR? I am really curios to see your design even in its infancy.

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What would be the consequences for all the wheels, both wireless and USB, using the actual solution? Do you propose a dual solution?

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If you go to the main simucube site then you’ll find a reveal happening in about a month “revolutionising sim racing”. IMO this is likely to be a new wheelbase family that amongst other things allows for power and data to passed through the wheelbase itself.

A Simucube 3 essentially.

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Interesting, I was not aware of this.

However, not everyone will upgrade, so there are still a lot of users that would probably find it useful.

But it is exciting to see what’s going to be coming and when.

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you can search my posts on the forum, where I’ve said where we are with development for a new wheelbase - very recently.

So keep on guessing :slight_smile:

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Of course it was already said earlier this month, that there would be no new simucube in preparation.
I can imagine a pedal board with a very very affordable price

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Pedals?
Possible, but probably too much of a hoopla for something modest like that.

STEP INTO THE FUTURE
We’re changing the sim racing scene forever. Again.

Could be entry level DD wheelbase to undercut TM, Logitech and such, OR may be a motion system.

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That’s a bold statement. I just hope it is a low force sub 10NM wheel, which however will have to be aggressively priced to be able to compete nowadays in this already saturated segment. Otherwise if it is an SC3, i believe a lot of SC2 owners (including myself) will freak out. BTW i was under the impression that we were waiting all this time for some actual/meaningful improvements in the SW side, wonder what has happened with this…

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Can we stay on topic please

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Back on the to the topic it is.

We are looking at having wireless connectivity that would enable us to have e.g. wheels with displays. Certainly with wireless connectivity we are now using, it is a no-go due to having a large lithium battery AND short operational life (battery will drain fast) and short lifetime (lithium batteries only last for X amount of cycles. Also, there is the certification to be able to air freight devices that have lithium batteries in them, and we would have to follow those as well. We do know that some wheel manufacturers have Lithium Polymer battery cells and to not have correct markings on the products. Thats a risk we are not willing to take.

There are several ways to do this both technically and in business sense. We have no news to tell about all this, but if someone is also looking at same thing for our wheel base product perhaps it would be wise to contact us officially about these ideas.

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Once you have a wheel with display you won’t buy any wheels without. Only exception is a rally wheel, or one for NASCAR.
Having such a product (wireless with display) would be a real cash cow

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Not quite sure how to interpret that last comment Mika?

I’m not thinking about anything Simucube specific… I’m thinking of something totally generic and totally independent of the wheel base. So I don’t see the need to contact you “Officially”.

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I have actually been looking at this concept for the last year… but haven’t figured out a good retrofit method… This is I believe what Fanatec does for power delivery (others may as well) to their hub but then they use IRLED Data signaling for the communication. So essetially it is wireless but wired as well.

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I’ve looked at the Fanatec and Moza solutions.

Fanatec use 2 flat discs for the power and then they have an optical solution for the data. But the data relies on the hollow motor shaft.

Moza and Simagic use the coils over the shaft so one coil inside the other.

So far I made a working model with the flat coils, 3D printed case just stuck to the base and base side QR with double sided tape. This worked but the coils had to be very close (too close as it caused friction). But it did work. This was just using cheap stuff from Ebay and a 3D printed case. The hardware I have needed 9-12v input to keep the 5V steady

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I have done some testing around 2017-2018 and the concept worked very well, just haven’t developed it further. But it works rather well. Good memory though, I’m impressed, Kevin :wink:

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