SimuCUBE announced

Tero Kontkanen, one of the guys behind Granite Devices (GD), has announced a few days ago a new revolutionary device which would ease a lot new DIY DD mounts and developments. For those who do not know yet about Direct Drive steering wheels, these are the most advanced and reliable FFB to emulate real life racing conditions. And therefore are the perfect choice for professional teams and experienced drivers. Among DD wheels you maybe have heard OSW, SS2 or AccuForce.

This time GD has combined all needed elements in one device:

• IONI servo
• IONI cube
• PSU
• STM32F4 HID
• Regenerative resistor
• USB and pedals/shifters connectors

It comes within friendly enclosure to cover all the electronics and a compact design.

Tero has also announced that an open source alternative to MMOS firmware will be available soon and he plans to build a great community around it. Indiegogo in March, estimate shipping by May or early June.

Aside from this, with the new year there was a firmware IONI update: 1.4.0 which seems to bring a lot of new things:

Improvements

• IONI Pro HC model maximum output current in AC/BLDC/Stepper modes increased to 25A (was 23A)
• Re-implemented torque controller using 32 bit floating point arithmetics instead of integer arithmetics (at least theoretical precision improvement)
• DC motor mode no longer requires parallel connection of drive output phases if current is at most 50% of drive’s maximum output current capability (sensitivity of overcurrent fault with Fault ID 440219 is greatly reduced).

Fixes

• Changed limit switch polarity: earlier limit switches needed to be normally open (NO), while drive specifications say that they are normally closed type (NC). Now limit switchers are NC (switch conducting -> motion allowed, switch open -> motion stops).
• Fix an issue where AC/BLDC motor initialization could become incorrectly phased when Hall sensors are enabled
• Address an issue where torque was 5% lower than setpoint with TBW parameter value of 4700 Hz

Be careful this time, it is a significant release with big changes.