Hi Trusty Thrusties, I wanted to share my 1month old budget build with a few hot fixes/improvements from past experiences, that im pretty chuffed about.
Any comments on how to improve the set up are highly welcomed.
Background: bought a g29 years ago and used it on a desk. Hated it. Felt clicky and unnatural to me and sold it within a month. Bought a well used T300 and playseat challenge combo and enjoyed that for a while until heating issues arose and the pedals would disconnect despite continuity testing and rewiring. Eventually gave up and quit.....that was 2 years ago.
Fast forward, itch started again and this time bought a new T300 RS GT but wanted to improve on as many deficits as possible....heating and FFB clipping, seat flex, and the brake on the t3pa was shite.
First, while still a few days old - I added a 2nd fan via spliced loom, mounted directly to the Motor. Drilled out the cover for additional ventilation. Worked like a charm. I run FFB on 6 and 7 and no clipping at all! Pics attached
Seat flex: higher ffb meant more flexing on the seat. Now I really like the PS Challenge....I find it very comfortable and prefer it to my sons solid rig. Found some reinforcement brackets on AliExpress and fitted two of them and its solid now. Im sure it could handle a DD up to 8nm easy.
With the brake, I tried a RC car shock with a 3D printed holder but it was still soft. I eventually bought a good condition T248 with solid rig for my sons and it came with much better T3PM pedals. I fitted an upgraded break spring which made a huge difference to the feel and added real progression to the brake. It was too stiff for my young sons so I took the set and gave them my new T3pa (with squash ball brake mod) and they loved it and the modded t3pm was night and day better for me.
I found a well constructed hydraulic dampener system on Aliexpress for the accelerator and worked like a treat to increase the feel.
Also found a great GT wheel at low cost again on Aliexpress and drastically improved my lap times (paired with the better pedals) and feel through the wheel itself.
I was pretty much done but was curious to see if I could improve the immersion via a butt kicker but the price was crazy and no stock in my country (South Africa).
Had a 10inch powered under seat sub that I was not using and was taken from a vehicle traded in. Used the TOSlink on the ps4 pro and converted to RCA out using a converter box. Used a 500w DC to AC converter to get 12v and ground to the sub and works like a charm! mounted to the base near the pedals and on the seat frame and now engine rumbles, gear jolts, curbs and crashes are felt through the pedals and the seat. Even added the remote gain to the seat so I can adjust it on the fly.
Just yesterday I found a TH8s shifter and had a spare gear new knob lying around so fitted that with a left side mount I got off Temu a few weeks ago. We drive on the right side of the road here in SA.....
Let me know what you think and if there's anything else I should add or improve on. For now im loving it and I play pretty casually so this is epic for me.
PS: may upgrade from a 32inch TV to 40inch but the 32 seems adequate for now. Limited by space....its next to my home office workspace.
