Search the Community

Alex's thread discussion has got me thinking whether this may interest people if I stick it on here. It's a bit of a long-term project of mine while I save up for a sequential gearbox, but a large part of the cost of the final kit would be taken up by the gearlever and the gear position indicator - Sadev prices certainly are rather ridiculous, well over a grand for both when I can quite easily make them a hell of a load cheaper. Here's the sort of things.... I've got a friend who has a 5-axis CNC machine who is happy to do the stick, and I might even do the indicator box in aluminium eventually (he wants some bits for his guys to practice setting up for). The gear position indicator does not need to be anything fancy - a single digit as above, and I would want it to automatically adjust brightness depending upon daytime or nightime operation (bright in the day; dimmer of an evening). All configurable and microprocessor controlled, so I'll write the code myself - pretty basic stuff at this level to be honest (I've actually already breadboarded a basic version a long time ago when I first got into Microcontrollers - video . So it will just be formalising this a little. I'll show use of CADSoft Eagle to design the electronic circuit and the board, Delcam PowerShape for the 3D modelling, and if it's economically viable I might even get the PCB's properly fabricated (problem here is economies of scale - I'd probably need to make a good 5 or 10 of them and sell the remainder to make it worth my while, so I might just protoboard or etch a single board if need be). Might be a slow project this one... I'm in no rush, as the gearbox costs a fortune it's unlikely I'll be getting it this year, but if I can get these bits out of the way it'll save me a good portion of the cost!