Later Additions

Since building my frame, I've made a few additions. These include:

Monitor shade
Lighted keyboard
MOMO pedal pads
Bass shakers (twice -- the second set is for stereo)
LED lighting for amp volume knobs
3D glasses
TrackIR
LCD panel below monitor screen
Button box and gear display
Fans
Sound deadening

Monitor Shade

The monitor shade was made from corrugated cardboard painted flat black to reduce glare. I priced monitor shades and found that a suitable one cost about $75 US. I made my own at no additional cost from stuff I had lying around. A monitor shade does more than just reduce glare. It adds to the immersion because it shuts out the outside world.

A little cardboard and paint saves a lot of money!

Lighted Keyboard

When I originally bought my computer, I ordered it with a black keyboard to match the case. It looked cool, but I like to race in low light, and it was impossible to read. Enter the lighted keyboard. This particular one, a Saitek Eclipse, has keys backlit in blue. It also has a switch to turn it off for night racing. Big improvement.

Saitek lighted keyboard.

MOMO Pedal Pads

The stock BRD Speed7 pedal pads are fine, but they look a little dull. I replaced them with MOMO Superturismo brushed aluminum pads.

MOMO pedal pads add a cool look. The pedal on the far left is a dead pedal (foot rest).

LED Lighting For Amplifier Volume Knobs

Another problem with racing in low room light is the inability to see the volume knobs on the amps. I solved this problem by using white LEDs to light each individual knob. An LED also lights the watch stuck on my monitor bezel so I know what time it is. The LEDs light their intended targets without adding much ambient light.

LEDs illuminate amp volume knobs and wristwatch on monitor.

The LEDs are all connected in parallel and are powered by an old 9 volt AC adapter I had lying around. The LEDs have shrink tubing over them to act as a shade, and are held in place by tie wraps. Below is a schematic.

Schematic for LED lighting.

3D Glasses

One of my main complaints with racing simulations is the lack of a good sense of speed. Aside from the seat-of-the-pants feeling, depth perception and peripheral vision contribute greatly to a sense of speed. 3D glasses won't give you peripheral vision, but depth perception is no longer a problem. They also give me an increased awareness of yaw, so I can sense when the car starts to spin a little better. I use wireless LCD shutter glasses made by eDimensional. They work with most games, a notable exception being Richard Burns Rally. GPL, NR2003, F1C, GTR, GTL and rFactor all work flawlessly.

There are two main drawbacks to 3D shutter glasses. The first is refresh rate. The glasses effectively cut your vertical refresh rate in half, so you need a video card and monitor that can do at least 120 Hz vertical refresh rate. That will give you an effective rate of 60 Hz, which is the minimum for me to avoid flickering. The second drawback is framerate. The computer and video card need to work harder to draw twice as many frames. Using 3D glasses will cut your framerate by about 25-50%, so if your computer is already struggling, 3D glasses are probably not for you.

eDimensional 3D glasses.

I mounted the IR transmitter on the right side of the monitor about halfway up. It's high enough so my hands don't get in the way, but not so high that the monitor shade gets in the way.

The IR transmitter for the 3D glasses. It's the black thing with the white eyes on the right side of the monitor.

TrackIR

TrackIR is an infrared headtracking controller. It tracks the movements of your head so you can look around in a game just by moving your head. It works in racing games, flight simulators, and first person shooters. In racing games, it's useful for looking ahead to an apex, checking your side mirrors, and seeing if there is anyone next to you as you approach your braking point. It works by tracking three reflective targets on a metal clip that you attach to a baseball cap.

The TrackIR infrared transmitter mounted on my monitor shade. The TrackIR's three feet fit into holes I punched in the monitor shade.

TrackIR transmitter mounted on top of the monitor shade.

The TrackIR's reflector clipped onto a baseball cap.

TrackIR reflector on a baseball cap.

Cooling

The bass shakers are rated to a maximum frequency of 100 Hz. If they are fed higher frequencies, they get very hot. I set the crossover frequency of the sub amps to 160 Hz to get more of the higher rev engine noise. To keep the shakers from burning up, I put a small equipment fan on each pair. There is also a fan on the sub amps, and another on the Klipsch amp.

Fan cooling a pair of shakers.

Subwoofer fan (lower right) and bulb for inflatable lumbar support.

Fan cooling Klipsch amp.

Sound Deadening

When I moved my cockpit to another much smaller room, the echoes were annoying. I put some mattress pads on the wall to cut down on the reverberation. It's not pretty, but it works.

Sound deadening foam on front and side walls.

Sound deadening foam on the rear wall.