Aim Formula Wheel - Use buttons for shifting?

[RussMcB]

I have an Aim Formula Wheel and will be mounting an electric shifter soon. Can I use two of the available green buttons (TF1, TF2) for up and down shifting?

I notice Aim sells paddles for the their Formula Wheel, but I'm hoping that doesn't mean the buttons can't be used for that purpose.

Thank you.

Russ

[lowside67]

You can, you’ll just need to wire accordingly from the pins associated with those buttons. You might want to double check whether your shifter is expecting 12V or ground to actuate shifts and verify that the same comes when the buttons are pressed.

-Mark

[Jamesbe]

Which version of wheel? They are all different. Pretty sure the V2 is hardwired to gnd and it's limited to a few milliamps. So the answer is depends.

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[jchracer]

The Aim wheel I used had all 4 switches wired to a common ground. I would imagine you would need to open the wheel and rewire the switches to make them compatible for use as shift buttons. You may want to think about where the buttons are located on the wheel. JMO but I would not want to make the reach for the button on a regular basis just to make a shift.

[RussMcB]

Which version of wheel? They are all different. Pretty sure the V2 is hardwired to gnd and it's limited to a few milliamps. So the answer is depends.

I have the original, V1 version.

The electric shifter I plan to use is this one:

https://www.translogicusa.com/powershifters.php

I wonder if using relays would help.

[RussMcB]

<snip> ... . You may want to think about where the buttons are located on the wheel. JMO but I would not want to make the reach for the button on a regular basis just to make a shift.

It seems like it will be fairly comfortable to use the top two green buttons for shifting up (right side) and down (left button).

[lowside67]

Here is the pin out for the V1 AIM wheel:
https://www.aim-sportline.com/downlo...SW_101_eng.pdf

It appears that as discussed, the buttons will complete a circuit to ground. If your shifter requires a +12V signal to actuate a shift, then a pair of relays would work for this purpose since you could use the ground provided by the steering wheel to complete the relay trigger circuit which then provides +12V to the shifter input.

-Mark

[mikey]

Agree, you should be able to do it Russ. I would play with the wheel a lot though in the garage and imagine trying to shift using the green buttons at the top as you suggested while turning the wheel left and right. I would not hover my thumb over the buttons, I would try going from normal grip to rapid thumb movement to the button and ensure it was comfortable enough. Might be fine, not sure.