5in DDU For Sim Racing

Hey everyone, this is my first attempt at creating a DDU for my sim racing setup. I have the mounting holes on the case attached directly to my Simagic alpha mini wheelbase. I’m sure you can adjust the extension arms to mount to other bases if you’d like. The parts listed below are the minimum needed to assemble. I used a couple of extra M2 bolts with a few holes drilled into the back of the case to mount the display driver board so it’s not loose. I have the Arduino unit just tucked into the back of the DDU. I plan to eventually make a mount for it but got too excited and wanted to assembly everything and get it working.

This DDU uses a 5in 1080P LCD display that I found on aliexpress, along with a 144 count WS2812B led strip that us cut into 2x strips of 9 and 1 strip of 15 for the side and top LEDs respectively. Please see below for the parts list and some assembly guidelines. Do note that depending on how accurate your printer is with measurements, you may need to increase the scale of the print by a few percent. I didn’t have to but my screw holes were a little tight, so I ran my drill through them to loosen them up a tad bit.

-----Parts Needed-----

• 5in LCD Display ~$30 https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805988614671.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.e0e81802CEhFMT&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
• WS2812B 1 Meter 144 LED Strip IP30 ~$6.50 https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806774918877.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.11.5e761802kCkWqI&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
• Arduino Nano V3 ~$17 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KGVDXZY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• Double Sided Tape ~$18 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098XGZ1H4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
• Screws
  • x4 M4x30 (To hold the case together)
  • x2 M8x10-15 (Screw bottom part of extension to wheel base)
  • x2 M8x30 (To attach top extension arm to DDU case)
• Cables/Adapters (potentially not needed depending on how you wire everything)
  • Micro HDMI à HDMI Adapter
  • USB C à USB A
  • USB Micro à USB A
• Soldering Equipment (Soldering iron, wires (18awg) flux, solder, etc.)
• The 3 3D printed parts front, back and extension arms

-----Printing-----

I used PLA Plus, 15% infill for the back, and 100% infill for the front and extension arm. No supports needed. 

-----Assembly-----

Assembly is fairly straightforward. After printing the back part of the case you’ll want to place your led strips in the raised areas around the case. Do not remove the adhesive yet from the LED strips, just place them in to get a measurement for the wire length you’ll need to attach the strips together. I used 18awg wires, not my best soldering skills but I was impatient. After soldering the strips together and the leading strip to the Arduino board (using the ground, 5v and D4 pin) I would hook up the Arduino to your pc and using simhub, program the Arduino, and validate the led’s do what you want them to before removing the adhesive and mounting them to their location. 

Once LED strips are installed it’s the tedious manner of applying the double sided tape to the CLD, trimming off the excess while not damaging the connector, DO NOT NICK THE CONNECTOR WHEN TRIMMING, ask me how I know… and mounting it to the front case. After LCD is mounted to the front, it should be as simple as attaching the front and back together with screws, plugging things in, and you’re off to the races. I have both the Ardunio and power for the lcd hooked up to a powered anker usb hub, working great so far. And the LCD video input hooked up from the mini hdmi to an adapter, then a hdmi to display port cable plugged into my GPU.

Using simhub you can setup the ddu lcd however you’d like, I’m using the wonderful LovelyDashboard for mine, credit to the creator who is amazing https://github.com/Lovely-Sim-Racing/lovely-dashboard

I’ve also attached the step files for the models. I used Fusion 360 to create these and am more that willing to help the community so if you’d like these files in another format for your modeling software of choice, just let me know 😊 I fully support remixing and adjustments.