Sim Racing H-Pattern Shifter Support

[BlueReaperX]

I'm currently working on my 8HP swap and since before I started, I was thinking about a DBW/CAN H-pattern Shifter to work with the Turbolamik TCU and the 8HP.

Something similar to the Koenigsegg CC850 shifter. The ability to change between manual and automatic on the fly. For a racecar, this is unnecessary and possibly even worse than a simple DCT shifter or a pedal shifter. But for a streetcar, I see this as an absolute game changer if implemented correctly.

A clutch pedal has proven to be functional, Zeroto60 has also developed a clutch emulator that would work perfect for this. However, I can see someone using an H-pattern shifter without a clutch pedal simply because they can with this transmission and TCU.

Looking at sim racing shifters, there are plenty that could potentially work. The Simagic DS-8X Shifter seems to be the closest thing to what the CC850 has with the bonus of using all 8 gears and a sequential mode for racing. It works through USB and possibly CAN but I can't verify that. All I can find is that there is a CAN Hub that Simagic has for its peripherals so there is a good chance the shifter does use CAN as well.

Since the current software does not support this natively, it might be possible to wire the shifter as a program selector with each gear position as program mode. So 1st gear would be P1, 2nd is P2,... I haven't tried the TCU yet on my project but hopefully the program maps switch fast enough between gear changes.

However, we are only limited to 8 maps and with neutral and reverse, that only gives us 6 gears to work with and no way to map a fully automatic/sequential mode. Maybe we can use an analog signal for neutral and reverse and then use the last 2 maps for a sequential/auto mode.

I don't see why this wouldn't be possible, the shifter is relatively inexpensive and I'm willing to ship one to Turbolamik if they're willing to make it work.

Otherwise, If someone can figure out a way to fully utilize the shifter through CAN BUS with the current software, let me know. I might get the DS-8X and mess with it myself once my swap is done and functional.

[zeroto60]

Morning!!!

We have spoken to quite a few people interested in this. While the novelty is great, i can forsee it being difficult to perfect. Maybe.

The logic isnt in the Lamik yet to select a specific gear (not to my knowledge anyway). The program modes will not select a gear, either they select a drive mode. But with some trickery at the shifter unit, an external controller should be able to know if you are going up or down the gears based on previous gear position and then send a gear shift up or down command to the lamik.

However if anyone else has some better knowledge of how to make it work, im keen to hear it. I think for people doing 8hp swaps in restro mods, this would be epic. And a sweet talking piece.

[BlueReaperX]

Morning!!!

We have spoken to quite a few people interested in this. While the novelty is great, i can forsee it being difficult to perfect. Maybe.

The logic isnt in the Lamik yet to select a specific gear (not to my knowledge anyway). The program modes will not select a gear, either they select a drive mode. But with some trickery at the shifter unit, an external controller should be able to know if you are going up or down the gears based on previous gear position and then send a gear shift up or down command to the lamik.

However if anyone else has some better knowledge of how to make it work, im keen to hear it. I think for people doing 8hp swaps in restro mods, this would be epic. And a sweet talking piece.

An external controller would be perfect, and I might know a guy who might be able to make one. I might contact him later on if I ever decided to mess with this idea myself. If you'd like, I could put you in contact with him. He previously made me a custom CAN BUS translator between an OEM ECU and the CAN of a GT86/BRZ before I went with a Haltech.

Regarding using the program modes, my theory was to set each program mode to be in Auto, locked converter at all times and limit it to a single gear by setting the shifting parameter beyond the engine limiter.

For example, if we have a vehicle with an engine limiter at 7,000 RPM, P1 would be set to stay in 1st gear until 9,000 RPM before shifting to 2nd gear essentially locking it in 1st. and then for P2 it would be set to shift into 2nd from 0 or 100 RPM and into 3rd at 9,000 RPM again. And so on for the rest of the gears. Neutral can probably be rigged into the shifter by using an analog switch but we'll have to take the shifter apart to figure it out. Reverse and Park can be normal momentary switches.

I don't see why this wouldn't work unless switching between programs takes more than 200 ms to take effect, in which case either Turbolamik will have to support this or an external controller like you said.

[zeroto60]

Hi Again,

Just saw your reply and i must apologise. You were 2 steps ahead of me with using program modes to limit gear selection. That would work..... i think.

Im miles behind with customer enquiries on these controllers, so not something i can look in to just yet, but definitely something im interested in.

If anyone else has any input on how to make it work please add it to this forum thread.