Simucube & Ioni Beginners Guide

Simucube 1
1

Hi all,

I currently bought everything to build a Simucube Setup for Simracing including:

  • Simucube
  • IONI Pro (arriving this week)
  • Small Mige (BissC)
  • NDR-480-48 PSU

As I read through the “SimuCUBE Firmware User Guide” I got a little bit confused. I don’t want to shoot neither the Simucube nor the IONI by doing any wrong steps, because I’m really low on budget! :wink:
I would take the following steps to get my setup running:

  1. Before Starting:
    In which state should i keep the e-Switch? Pressed/Not-pressed/not connected?

  2. Flash Simucube Bootloader
    Because I bought the Simucube and Ioni Pro directly from granite devices, it should be already in DFU Mode and I only have to flash the “simucube-bootloader” via DfuSe_Demo like shown in step #3-#9, right? I would flash the bootloader that came with the “0.50.4c” Version
    And the Micro-USB will be pluged into the X3 connector right?

  3. Install Simucube Firmwareupdate via SimuCUBE Configuration Tool
    I could not really figure out how this works but I assume that the “Firmware Update Wizard” will guide me through every step and file that is needed to successfully install the firmware.

  4. Ioni Firmware Update
    It is said that after Simucube Firmwareupdate the Simucube will boot automatically and update IONI Firmware automatically. So there is no need to plug the USB Cable to X4? Or use any other software as Granity? Or is it recommended to use Granity to configure IONI drive?

  5. Motor-Configuration
    First question: When I bought my Mige i was asked whether or not i want to have the Biss-C Encoder. Now I read somewhere that there are different types of Biss-C. How do I know which one came with my Motor?
    Secound question: Should i use Granity to upload the Motor-settings? Is there a premade *.drc file for small mige with Biss-C encoder that I could use?

  6. Is there any step I missed?

Sorry for the long post and perhaps stupid questions. I just hope to figure everything out before my holliday starts to complete the project.

Thank you in advance!

2

In the end I did overcome my fears and just tried it.
Long story short: Everything works just fine.
For someone who’s got the same questions like I had:

  1. First I wired my PSU to check if I get 48V as Output-Voltage.

  2. Build up the rest of the Simucube System with IONI pro hc. Connect motor, encoder, e-switch (unpressed at first; if you have to change the state the software will tell you) and both USB-cables. Luckily I could use my encoder-cable like it came from Mige. For everybody else who wants to check the encoder cable for Biss-C encoder:
    Pin 9 :Red
    Pin 10:Black/Gnd
    Pin 11:White/Black
    Pin 12:White
    Pin 13:nothing
    Pin 14:Green/Black
    Pin 15:Green

  3. Startup Simucube and pc. Be sure that there is no driver from old FFB wheels. Install and run latest version of Defuse_Demo and install latest Bootloader (delivered with Simucube configuration tool) like in Firmware User Guide.

  4. The only problem I had appeared to me in Simucube Configuration Tool. When you buy a new Simucube+IONI from GD you can not run the firmwareupdate with the latest Version of 50.4 because the Buttons “Next” and “Cancel” do not show up in the Update-Wizard. To solve this problem use the older 11.2 version and install a old firmware first. Afterwards the tool from 50.4 can be used as normal to install the latest firmware.

  5. Afterwards the Configuration Tool asks for motor and encoder configuration for IONI. I just took a DRC file for Biss-C small mige I found somewhere online (as far as i can remember from “simtechracing”).

So all in all it wasn’t that hard to set everything up.
There is absolutely no need for granity or anything else.
If you use two usb cables there is no need change from X3 to X4 or vice versa.

The only thing i couldn’t figure out is the size of my fuse that I should use between 230V Input and PSU.

Sorry for the long text and rather simple topics for the pros in here.

Kind regards.

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