Sim racing is becoming increasingly popular and one of the most immersive ways to have a realistic racing experience is by adding more experience to your sim. As a sim racer, speaking for myself, you are always looking for more experience and perfection to make your sim experience even more realistic. This is very addictive and fun! You can think of ambient lighting, bass shakers for extra vibration and of course adding a sim racing wind simulator.

With a wind sim you get a pleasant breeze of (driving wind) cooling in the heat of the battle on the track ? Cool right? In this article I will explain you in simple steps how to make your own DIY wind sim for your sim rig! And believe me, this is surprisingly easy with the right knowledge and tools!

What is a sim racing wind simulator?

Before we start building, we will explain what a wind simulator is and what they are used for. Wind simulators are used by sim racers to create a super realistic and immersive racing experience by generating dynamic wind effects. This will take your gaming experience to an even higher level! Do you want this too? Then there are two options:

The quickest and easiest way is to buy a ready-made wind sim. Personally, I find these quite pricey and making your own is a lot more fun and satisfying. Between ? 250 and ? 450 euros you have a plug-in wind sim with which you can get started right away. Examples are those of AlphaWindSim Whether the Hyperwind from EPLAB sim racing. Are you a handy do-it-yourselfer? Then choose to make your own wind sim. How to do that I explain in the detailed step-by-step plan below.

Sim racing wind simulator supplies

Before we start building, we need parts. You can easily order these online. Do you have your own 3D printer? Fantastic! This makes the making a lot easier. If you don't have this, then you will have to order this from a local print shop or opt for existing off-the-shelf solutions. I will include these in the list below. The list of supplies:

• 1x Arduino Uno rev3.
• 1x Motorshield v2 for Arduino Uno. Notice: watch carefully which model you buy. Not every model is suitable for driving motors.
• 1x USB Type A/B cable.
• 2x 120mm 4000 rpm pc fans 12v. View on Amazon or Aliexpress.
• 2x flexible universal car intake air tube. These are available in multiple colors. Order them at your local auto parts store or online at Aliexpress or Amazon.
• 1x Power supply 12volt 3.4A.
• SimHub software. Download this software for free.
• Wind Sim parts (3D print) at AMstudio. For a small amount you support this project. Tip: check out the Wind Sim Mount from Treq.
• Optional: arduino case (3D print) to attach your arduino uno in for security.

Building your own DIY sim racing wind simulator

As with my previous project, the building your own button box, before building my own sim racing wind simulator I took inspiration and followed the roadmap from AMstudio. In addition, Will Ford from Boosted Media also has a super clear video tutorial. In this article, I will take you step by step how you can make your own DIY sim racing wind simulator.

Step 1: Attaching Arduino Uno and Motorshield

Let's kick it off simply. Carefully remove the Arduino Uno and the Motorshield from the packaging. Be careful not to damage the pins on the Motorshield, they bend and damage quickly. Next, snap the Motorshield on top of the Arduino Uno. Done! On to step 2.

Step 2: Remove sweater and connect power adapter

Remove the sweater from the Motorshield. We no longer need this one since we are using power from the external power supply. The sweater is usually a yellow pin (1). The Arduino Uno uses power from the usb port connection.

Then cut off the connector on the end of the power supply. You won't need this one anymore. Then strip the wires and connect them to the connector on the Motorshield (2). Look carefully what is positive and negative. If you connect them wrong, you will notice that your Motorshield goes to Mars with a bang? And that is a shame ! I speak from experience ?

Step 3: Build the wind sim mount and attach the pc fans

Since I do not have a 3D printer, I opted to go with an existing solution: the Treq Wind Sim Mount. This is highly recommended! This set is affordable and immediately gives you all the supplies you need to mount the wind sim to your rig. The set is available in 120 and 140mm, depending on what size pc fan you have. The most common size is 120mm.

Am I purely positive then? Well, no. The disadvantage of this Treq Wind Sim Mount is that it is not "suitable" for such a flexible air hose. In other words, the wind sim was not originally intended for connecting an air hose. So this did not fit and duck tape had to come into play here. Not a very nice solution, but functional. Fortunately, they took my feedback to heart and are working on a solution.

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Update 1: Treq has listened to my feedback and let me know that they are working on custom diffusers so that this air hose does fit on the wind mount! Super cool. Soon I will receive the first version of this and will update this post ?

Update 2: The new diffusers are in and come standard as of now!

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Follow Treq's instructions, or any other solution you chose, and use the screws to attach the pc fan to the wind sim mount. The end result will look like the one below!

Cut the connector from the fans. If all goes well, you now have two or three wires. Strip off the end and mark the positive and negative wire. You will need these to connect to the Motorshield.

Would you like to purchase the Treq Wind Sim Mount? Then get now 5% discount (Also on other Treq products!) What do you need to do to do this? Follow me on Instagram (@simracinghub.co.uk), send me a DM and you will receive the discount code from me ?

Step 4: Connect the PC fans to the Motorshield

Now connect the positive and negative wires to motor 1 and motor 2. This is clearly marked on the motorshield and can hardly be missed. The module you have to connect the wires in consists of 5 connections: positive - negative - ground - negative - positive (from left to right). Channel or fan 1 is left, channel 2 is for the right fan.

I myself had some trouble figuring out which was the positive and negative wire. A digital multimeter or this article can help you with this.

All the cables of the fans and the power supply are now connected. You are now finished building your wind simulator! Fast forward to step 5 for configuring SimHub.

Step 5: Attach the flexible air hose and mount your wind sim on your simulator

Grab your flexible car air hose, it looks like in the picture below. The standard diamater of these hoses is 76mm. The hoses are available in many colors. I chose the blue variant. It fits best with my sim rig. Remove the colored cap on one side of both hoses. You will not need it anymore, but keep it in a safe place.

Then attach the air hose to the attachment made in step 3. You can already mount the wind sim to your sim rig. Where you want to mount it is up to you. In any case, make sure that the air hose is facing your face. I placed it in the left and right corner just below the wheelbase mount. I attached the fans to my rig behind my triple screen setup.

Step 6: Connect the Arduino Uno to your PC and install and configure SimHub

Check once more that all the fans and the power supply are connected correctly. If this is the case then connect the Arduino Uno to your PC with the usb port and click the plug of the power supply into the socket. Now that all the hardware is connected, it's time to set up the software.

Download and install the program SimHub. Once this program is installed open it and in the left menu navigate to 'Settings' > 'Plugins' and find and select the 'shake it' plugin. Then go to 'Arduino' and in the navigation at the top click on 'My Hardware'.

Use the Setup Tool to configure your Arduino and Motorshield. Name your wind simulator and then scroll down and select the 'Shake it Adafruit Motorshield v2'. Change the 0 to a 1 and set the PWM to 1600.

From the right menu, select the appropriate Arduino Com Port and board type (Arduino Uno) and click 'Upload to Arduino'. Wait this process for a while and voilà, you have successfully configured your Arduino board.

Tip: Do you already have several Arduino hardware connected to your PC? Then disconnect them for a while so as not to disturb the installation of your wind sim. This will prevent you from accidentally uploading a wrong sketch ?

Close the window and navigate to the 'ShakeIt' tab on the left side of the SimHub interface and turn the module Speed 'on'. You can test and experiment with the settings, but for now I recommend keeping the default values. Click on 'test' to test if the fans start spinning.

Set the speed volume to 100%. Next, click on 'Motors Output' at the top and turn on the 'Arduino Motors and fans' toggle. Now scroll down to 'Speed' and turn on the channels you have your fans connected to. Is that motor 1 and 2? Then select channel 1 and 2. That's it! Now go to the last step ?

Step 7: Start your favorite sim and enjoy!

Congratulations!!! You have now built your own DIY sim racing wind simulator ? Quickly fire up your favorite game, hit the asphalt and enjoy this immense experience that will make your racing experience even more realistic and intense.

DIY Wind Sim video tutorial

In addition to the step-by-step guide above, be sure to check out the video tutorials below from AMstudio and Boosted Media. They take you step-by-step through creating your diy wind sim.

Sim racing DIY

Want more DIY projects? Then check out the articles below:

• Make Your Own DIY Button Box In These 8 Simple Steps!
• Making a DIY Sim Racing Roof: Here's how to do it! (9 Steps)
• Convert Your Old iPhone To A Sim Racing Dashboard
• DIY sim rig building? Here are the pros and cons!

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