Euro Truck Simualtor 2 Dash Board

No, Lego hasn't fallen away from me, a new project has gripped me that I've devoted hours and hours to, the plan was to build a fully functioning dash board for ETS2. The idea started roughly a year ago, it was 9 sheets of paper taped together, covering my Lego desk, it was completely empty at that time, I now have two desks, one for Legos, and the other for this project. When I say fully functioning dash I mean Full pedals, shifter, steering wheel, and switch panels. Fig 1. Is what this project started as, a plywood shell. the top shelf was originally designed to hold my laptop and printer, I soon realized that with my laptop on the top shelf I was straining myself to see it properly, so the top came off, the stereo was moved from the bottom shelf onto a shelf under my desk this was roughly mid-October.

 

Fig 1.

Fig 2.

Black Friday came and with it brought a brand new 32 inch Samsung smart tv which is connected via an HDMI cable to my laptop, I have to say it was one of my better decisions for this dash so far, now onto the guts of this build. Now at first it may seems like a build that one could never accomplish, but it's actually very simple once you have all your needed parts together. the first part that were going to start with is the Pro Gauge Controller, It's a small circuit board no bigger then an open hand that makes all the magic happens. The board is simple to hook up, if all your connecting lines are long enough so you don't have to work in a confined space it may take all of 3 minutes to connect. A power connector and separate USB connecter can be found at one end of the board, the other end of the board has all necessary connectors for your gauges. A 12 volt, ground, RPM, SPEED, and 6 other terminals provide plenty of possibilities for your setup. The pro gauge controller is not limited to ETS2 its also compatible with ATS, and a variety of other games listed HERE. The next step in the process is your gauge choices, you can use any gauge you please, there are hundreds of gauges on the market available, I went with VDO Vision Chrome gauges, I felt these gauges gave the truckiest feeling,  The VDO gauges are the best gauge as their faces are clear and crisp to read, when backlit at night they're not overly bright, I purchased my gauges from Raneys chrome, in Ocala Florida, they were the best dealer price wise, shipping usually takes two to three weeks as gauges are made to order. Another reason the VDO gauges were my number one choice is that you can easily purchase them without senders, you receive only the gauge with makes wiring your dash and placing your gauges wherever you want them a complete breeze. 

Fig 3.

Fig 4.

Fig 3. Shows the wiring completed for the gauges, it looks like chaos because it is, but its organized chaos that I'm somewhat able to understand. The most important part of the entire dash is case cooling, I purchased two fans to mount in the case, one on each end in a push pull configuration. The lightbulbs in the gauges do produce some heat as they're incandescent bulbs not LEDs. That is the only buildup of heat that I've noticed in my dash so far. If your dash gets to warm inside even with case fans, find a small desk fan that you can place inside and face blowing towards the gauges to cool them, works like a charm. In Fig 4. Were able to see the prefabricated switch panel that I currently have installed, it's to the right of the steering wheel. From the looks of their website it seems that the Cessna 1010 panel has been discontinued, so I would recommend either the 1015 or the 2620, 

!!!DO NOT BUY THE XPLANE VERSION!!!

!!!BUY THE FSX VERSION!!!

I've never played in X plane before, but its seems that it uses a button configuration that differs from others games, if you purchase the X plane the toggles switches will not work correctly. The FSX version works like normal toggle switches. This applies for the switch array that will fill the top rectangle. The hole for the panel needs to be cut roughly 3/4" smaller than the listed dimensions. You can use any gauge wire you please for this project, I recommend 18~22 gauge as it will easily fit in pro gauge terminals. Once you have all this setup it's all down to calibrating your gauges, instructions for that can be found on the Pro Gauges product page. In this Google Drive you can find my work in progress pictures.