H-pattern shifter
The mechanism for an H-pattern shifter to pair with the sim wheel, 3D printed apart from the threaded shaft and bolts. The electronics are planned but not yet added.
A working H-pattern mechanism from a printer and a very short parts list.
- Role
- Design and build
- Tools
- SOLIDWORKS, FDM printing
- Planned electronics
- Arduino Uno, Hall effect sensor, 2 limit switches
A manual car needs a real lever
The sim wheel had no way to shift like a manual car, so the rig needed a real H-pattern lever beside it.
I also wanted it to stay simple: few purchased parts, nothing that needed a custom order, and everything else cheap to reprint if a part needed to change.
A stack of simple printed parts
I took the design through two versions in SOLIDWORKS. The lever rides on a threaded shaft through a printed rocker, which moves it through an H-pattern gate plate.
Two center brackets, four corner posts and their spacers stack the mechanism into a stiff body about the size of a 100 mm cube, with the knob standing well above it for a proper throw.
Printed, apart from the shaft and bolts
Everything structural came off the printer, from the brackets and gate to the rocker and the knob. The only purchased mechanical parts are the threaded shaft and the bolts.
What I built is the mechanism, not the finished product. The electronics aren't modeled or installed yet, but the plan is set and just as short a list: an Arduino Uno, a Hall effect sensor, and two limit switches salvaged from an Ender 3.
The mechanism works, electronics next
The mechanism is assembled and the lever throws through the gate. Once the electronics go in, the Hall effect sensor and limit switches will give the Arduino what it needs to detect which gear is selected.
The result is a compact mechanism that pairs with the wheel, in a body about the size of a 100 mm cube, and any printed part can simply be reprinted if it needs to change.
Parts list
- Center bracket× 2
- Center rocker
- H-pattern gate
- Threaded shift shaft
- Corner post× 4
- Shift knob
- Post spacer× 4
- Corner stiffener
- Shaft carrier
