HORI HPS-83 ZeroForce Steering Wheel - are there any resources about the hardware

[M'cin]

I obtained a PSX controller from title. Deal is, that I'm interested in gaming history, backstory etc and thus I'm curious about the wheel, how it came to being, how was it advertised, had it any reviews, what's the gamer's opinion about the device etc. And I can't find ANYTHING in the web, not even a Youtube/Niconico video, a blog post, only few auctions and an Wikipedia entry stub with no source provided. I think the reason is a) late release better PS2 controllers were at the time b) overall poor quality aka noone gave a damn about the controller... which is awkward, as HORI has a solid reputation among gamers as a company that releases no duds.

Real question is - do you know anything about the controller? And If not, can you direct me to a place I should look into? I tried finding some Japanese message board, but it seems their internet is formed somehow different than western, message boards are scarce, and whenever i find something its geofenced. Well, I managed to find one site that didn't block me, but it is not gaming-related and noone replied.

And uh, other reason for my research is that my unit has a serious precision problems, to the point it's unplayable, and I'd be grateful if one lets me know if it's just worn off or it is a general problem with that model. I don't even hope for schematics or ifixit-style manual...

PS If you dare to lurk the web for info, you're likely to land on my own topics on other boards...

[nocash]

I would say that Hori has a reputation for having released some controllers that went into mass production - and also a lot of rather obscure stuff that didn't.

Did you find any games that seem to support that thing? I would assume that it's capable of mimmicking one or more of the better known standard racing controllers (like negCon, or Jogcon, or simply regular dual analog pads). I wouldn't be surprised if it's also having a special mode that works only with PS2 games or only with who knows which games (if any). There appears to be also something called Hori ZeroTech (whatever that is, it looks entirely different, more like a pistol with integrated fan that needs to be fired to start the race, or maybe it's compatible with ZeroForce?)

For the ifixit-style pages, they are essentially telling you to use a screwdriver and look inside. It would certainly help to know if it's using potentiometers, or free spinning optical sensors, or the like.

[M'cin]

Well it supports analog and negcon standards, and it generally works, just the precision of the wheel itself is uh, debatable. Or outright bad, I should say.

[nocash]

Well it supports analog and negcon standards, and it generally works

Ah, I thought information was the resource you were looking for.

just the precision of the wheel itself is uh, debatable. Or outright bad, I should say.

Then do the ifixit-style thing and take a screwdriver.

If it's analog pad/negcon compatible then appears to use potentiometers, and the rotation range is about 270 degrees?
And the same games are working fine when using a normal analog pad?

Potentiometer problems could be dirty contacts (like, it might occassionally happen to steer right when you turn left), or the wheel not being properly attached to the potentiometer (so the center position ends up being here or there).

[M'cin]

Well I do plan to fix it, just not being a DIY guy I tried to find as much info as possible. According to the box, the wheel turns 130 degrees both sides.

As for information, well, call me a history junkie, and the fact that I own something from well-regarded company that isn't even described in the internet just make me curious to find... everything. Mainly regarding the reputation and reviews, as this is what seems to be accesible.

[nocash]

I am afraid that I am also having a habit to investigate those things, like trying to document the most absurd controllers (like fishing controllers) in psxspx. So I would be also interested what is inside of your steering wheel (like any extra stuff like vibration motors or whatever).

Oh, a rundown on the function of the buttons & switches would be also interesting:

The buttons in the middle are all labeled and seem to be just same as on digital joypads?
But what are the two round buttons on the wheel, are that just dupes of two of the normal buttons?
And there seem to be levers underneath of the wheel, are that analog inputs equivalent to gas/brake pedals?
As far as I can see, this controller doesn't include actual foot pedals, or does it?
And the mimmicked ashtray in front right contains... mode switches?

[M'cin]

Well, the way it works is pretty simple. It supports NeGcon and Dual Shock/Analog. three mode-selection switches are on the bottom-right. going from top, first is for sensitivity, second is for key mapping (analog only) and the third is for analog/NeGcon.

Start from NeGcon - wheel turns, flaps on the back are for acceleration/brake, buttons on the wheel sides are for up and down, which seems to be often mapped to switch gears. When negcon is on, diode turns green.

For Analog. analog can be turned off via standard front button, And then wheel and flaps do nothing. in analog mode, we have three setups, one replicates NeGcon control scheme, the other two turns some settings from analog to digital. Do not remember exactly.

Front buttons just do what they are described to do. Sadly, they are so far away from the thumb, so not much comfy to reach for eg hand brake or camera change. were they better placed, I'd need not to disconnect the wheel to play digitally controlled games, as quality is fine enough. Flaps feel natural to use and respond accordingly, but I had an issue with wheel sensivity.

To sum it all, it's described on the box's back, but I did not use any translator, googling spoils the thrill of experimenting :>

But I did disassemble the thing and it looks like the plastic connecting the physical wheel mechanics with potentiometer got broken and if treating that with a bit of super glue coulped with epoxy will fix the thing, I'm in heaven. Sad nest is, that I cannot find where to physically disconnect wheel from the stand, I'm afraid it was a one-way latch somewhere. It's not needed for the fixing process, but the photo material will suffer on quality. Yes, I do plan to fully describe it later.

And no pedals included :<

[nocash]

Thanks for the descriptions! The broken plastic sounds fixable. It can be difficult to find the correct glue for different kinds plastic though. My favorite dirty trick is using a soldering iron instead of glue, and melt the edges of the broken piece, and then use some spare plastic parts from a recent case modding project and melt that onto the crack to make it more robust (if there is enough space to add extra plastic).

I am wondering how it could break. Broken potentiometer knobs aren't so uncommon, with a wheel-sized knob you could apply a lot of force to the tiny potentiometer axis, and - to prevent that - the case should include another larger axis that will absorb the force when trying to tilt the wheel, or when trying it rotate it beyond left- & right-most positions.

[M'cin]

Well,I treated it with Kropelka instant glue, and later epoxy which refuses to solidify, so maybe I used bad proportions... anyway, potentiometer itself seemed to be working during dry test, and does not seem hard to be replaced.

Foto-gallery https://we.tl/t-7zrKmkVTH6
Not a pro-quality, but should be enough as rough documentation, good enough so some smart guy make a schematics out of it.

To sum it up, heart of the wheel is some Hori proprietary chip, everything else is an "analog" electronic, as it seems. You put the black stick coming out of potentiometer into this transparent plastic thing. The 'thing' moves with the wheel, and thus the potentiometer. Needles to say, it looks like a place it was designed to get broken, as one could see you could easily design the outgoing part more solid, with more plastic, as there is a hell lot of place there. Springs are for turning wheel back to zero position, but you could imagine, that making max turn and releasing it turns it into a swinging state (please, adore thy pun!), no sort of return-resistor, like slow-falling toilet plank... The potentiometers are pretty standard, so you could plug flap cord into the wheel socket and it will recognize the input correctly.
As for the disassembly, there are three screws at the back of the wheel and I ***** hate whoever put them there. With little to no access, I spent whole hour unscrewing these, glad I did not scrubbed off the screw head... Which is, because, I could not detach the wheel from the plastic inside. My working hypothesis is that The transparent plastic is one-piece consisting a tube with round latch and the grip you see, and it got inserted into the wheel's metal tube and latched back when the material was hotter or by any means more elastic.

Back to history, if time allows i will look for reviews in JP gaming press as well as PC magazines of the day, as I have a feeling design might be from something else, rebranded by hori with PSX-compatible chip. This is because i look for an explanation why they bothered to release the device near PSX retirement.

Edit: adding to that, 3/4 screws are of the same kind, so this is nice.