Calabrese's Creative Streak

Long time, no posts :(
Here we go


I dropped out of school at the end of 2005.

The HSC just wasn't my thing. Instead, I went for an Electrotechnology Pre-Apprenticship test.
I got the results for it, thing is, the course starts halfway through March. So i've had alot of spare time to myself...

First thing i decided to do was some photoshopping.
I took some static shots of varius different things, change a variable, then took another photo. I then took it into photoshop and did some things.

Heres the first set of what i did, Here, here, here and here OR: (may need to copy/paste links)
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/SeeThru2.jpg
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/WalkThruCorollaSmall.jpg
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/WalkThruCorollaSmall2.jpg
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/Test2small.jpg


Once i had done those i thought to myself.. What else could i do?

I thought, what about video?
I started to record random shit, and i started with this, OR:
http://users.tpg.com.au/atoa/Heaven.wmv

Then this. OR:
http://users.tpg.com.au/atoa/Download2.wmv

I then did this and this because i wanted to OR:
http://users.tpg.com.au/atoa/Test1small.wmv
http://users.tpg.com.au/atoa/CalabreseViewSmall.wmv

Mind you, each of these videos were done in a matter of minutes. It was something that just popped into my head and i decided to do it.


After all this i decided to relax and play game. I'd heard some good reveiws about GT Legends and i decided to download the demo to try it out.
After playing it with my MOMO for about an hour or so, i thought to myself, 'this game is good, but it needs something... something my momo doesnt have'. Then it hit me, A CLUTCH!

So there i was, off to the shed with the intention of building a clutch.
I cut a peice of fibreboard, grab an old joysick, and some Cat5 and ribbon cables.
My old joystick just happened to have a throttle on the side of it, (just a slider you move up and down for flight sims) so i took that idea, and ran with it.

I extended the slider with Cat5 cabling (right amount of wires for the job) and soldered up all the joints.
Once done, i ended up with this, OR:
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/Throttle_Clutch.JPG

The problem was that the cat5 wiring is very rigid and snaps easily, so i ended up using an old IDE ribbon cable from the control, to a point where it would be better to join with the cat5 where it wouldnt be moving as much.

The next day, i started assembly. I wasnt going to do anything permanent as it was just something to do for fun, so i just grabbed an old peice of aluminium, cut it to size and bent it a little for a better feel.
I then mounted it onto the peice of wood i had cut and checked to see if it was swivelling ok.
All good so far.

Next thing was to connect the actual pedal to the slider.
I drilled a 1mm hole through the slider tab and did 2 holes of the same diameter on the pedal.
I then grabbed a peice of rigid steel wire and looped it through the hole on the pedal and slider.
Worked great.
One problem... It wont return!

Off the the peg basket i was.
Grabbed 2 pegs and pulled out the inner spring.
Drilled 4 holes next to eachother on the pedal to create a slot to accomodate the spring, and did the same on the wood at the bottom, and the same on the opposite side.

Fantastic!
Heres some pics of the clutch so far, remember that this is only a prototype, as to see if it would actually work. Here, and here. Or:
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/Prototype1.JPG
http://calabrese.sphosting.com/Prototype2.JPG

Next thing, In-Game testing and calibration.

1. GT Legends
This was fantastic, picked up the control straight away and configured itself properly
When i first played, the clutch was very high up and soft, so i just set the deadzone up a bit so it would engage quicker.
Results? All i could do was race with a big fat smile on my face! It was tops, especially in GT L where i could stall the car, and clutch start it while rolling down the hill again :P

2. Live For Speed S2
This game has to be my all time fav. Great cars, nice graphics, realistic handling and fantastic multiplayer action.
One problem with this game is that you cannot stall the car in the game. For some reason, even with the auto-clutch and all help 'off', when i stopped the car it would sit there with the clutch on.
Apart from this, the gaming exp. was great. Being able to slowly let the clutch slip and you drop down gear, or ride the clutch while accelerating up a hill was great fun.

I am actually about to rebuild the clutch tomorrow, ill start by actually attatching it to the side of my existing pedals, and probably having the clutch fulcrum 10-15 cm below the actual footrest. This way it will feel more realistic.

I also need to revise the springs. I need them to be strong and hard, even harder than the Brake on the momo pedals which can be tough to get to the floor.


And there we have it. About a weeks worth of creativity from my mind.

If theres anything you think i should do, or something that may help me out, please leave a comment so i know :)

I'll try keep posting about my progress on a few other projects i will start soon, but for the time being, Cheers.

Calabrese.