This is a deeper guide to how I put the Wind Generator together for my sim racing set.
Whats needed:
- Arduino Uno
- Arduino Motor Shield – like this one
- AC Adaptor – Like this (get a bigger one if you plan on using more than 2 fans)
- 120mm Fans (or any size PC fan) ideally something that moves a lot of air.
- Fan grille (can be 3d printed)
- USB cable
- 3d Printed Case
The setup of this is really straight forward -Forgive me, I forgot to grab good photos. Place the motor shield on-top of the Arduino board, and then hook up the fans. My fans had connectors on all the wires, a quick snip and the molex ends were gone. I then hooked up the fans to the motor shield, everything is marked on my board so it was a quick hookup. Positive wires connect to the positive terminals and negative to negative. Once the fans were hooked up, I wired in the 2a AC adaptor and plugged everything in.
Next up, the SimHub setup. This was even easier than the Sim Dash configuration. First up, write the sketch to the Arduino board using the motor shield option. After the board has the sketch written everything will start working. Click on “test” a few time and you should see the fans kick on. Configure the motor shield and fans however you desire, I did a basic setup that as MPH increases in game, the fan speed increases. You also can do a right and left fan, etc.
Note: I had to turn the volume all the way to max for things to spin up to max speed.
Fan Shroud & Mount
Now that the hardware is functioning properly, it’s time to mount the fans. I designed and 3d printed a few items for this project.
I made a few quick changes to an existing fan mount, then made a GoPro style mount in Tinkercad for mounting of the fan to the rig itself.
The files are available on Thingiverse: Fan Shroud | Surface GoPro Mount | Fan Shroud | Arduino Box
I am very pleased with the results on the fan mount and the fan shroud. I love seeing end use 3d printed projects come to life!
Arduino Case
I looked around for something simple and functional an Arduino with the motor shield but couldn’t find anything. I ended up with a pretty standard arduino box and made a few tweaks. I also wanted a way to mount this to the rig so I added 2 screw hole tabs. I may modify this design in the future to give me a little more room since things are tight on the edges. As of right now, I’m fine with the existing design.
