Building a simple USB adapter for the Logitech Driving Force Shifter with Arduino
Arduino Team — June 30th, 2022
Logitech’s Driving Force Shifter is a very common piece of kit for those who enjoy racing games, as it connects to a Logitech Racing Wheel and allows the player to control their car in a more realistic fashion. However, this accessory’s DB-9 connector must be connected to a proprietary base within the racing wheel or else it fails to work. So as a way to circumvent this annoying problem, Parts Not Included’s Dave Madison created his own custom adapter, which translates the signals from the shifter into commands over a USB port on the host PC.
To begin this endeavor, Madison purchased a DB-9 connector with the rear leads exposed, and after quickly modifying them, plugged the X/Y axis wires into analog input pins and connected the binary reverse pin into a digital input pin on the Arduino Leonardo. In terms of software, this setup requires both the Arduino Joystick library and the Sim Racing library. The latter converts X/Y values into shifter positions in order to determine the current gear, while the former communicates with the host as an emulated HID device.
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