Project Overview
Rapidly creating a USB steering wheel

This is an interactive steering wheel for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles using cardboard and a Makey Makey. This project took place within one week in February 2017.

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The Challenge
Make an interactive steering wheel within one week

  1. It must be built from an existing Chrysler 300 steering wheel.
  2. It must connect with our corporate PCs via USB.
  3. It must send keyboard strokes to interface with our HTML5 models’ JavaScript.

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Exploration
"What already exists?"
I gutted out the steering wheel to see what was inside. It turned out, the bus system for the printed circuit boards (PCBs) behind the steering wheel buttons was not as simple as I would’ve hoped.​

​During this time, I was also looking for existing solutions. I discovered a device called a Makey Makey. It was precisely what I needed: a small device that set up most of the software to act like a keyboard and was flexible enough to do whatever you needed with it. It looked promising. So, I bought one.

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The Solution
"use the Makey Makey and steering wheel but make everything else"

I determined that I would still need to make new PCBs for the hardware behind the buttons. I found that making a PCB would require lots of supplies and some experience with fabrication…things I didn’t have. So, I went to cardboard.

I made PCBs out of a piece of cardboard and metal wire from JoAnn Fabrics:
  1. I cut the cardboard in the shape of the existing PCB, including holes for the screws.
  2. I poked holes for the wire to loop through and make switches.
  3. I looped the wire through through the holes and connected the circuit to PCB buttons beneath the steering wheel buttons to push down and “click” tactically.
  4. I ensured it fit beneath the plastic steering wheel button enclosure.
  5. I did steps 1-4 for the other side of steering wheel buttons.

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Impact
5-figure investment in an advanced Panasonic steering wheel

This was the first USB steering wheel of its kind at FCA. My build proved the usefulness of keyboard inputs and a USB interface for prototyping our steering wheel interactions. FCA later asked Panasonic to build a more advanced steering wheel. They used my build as a model for how it could work.
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