Anyone using RevBurner? Here's a little review of it.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by The_Grunt, Jan 8, 2016.

  1. The_Grunt

    The_Grunt Well-Known Member

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    I got mine today finally and it is quite cool addon to your virtual cockpit, I must say. If you don't know what it is, here is the manufacturers description:

    http://www.symprojects.com/shop/rev-burner/

    So in short, it is a small controller board which allows you to connect a real car tachometer to your PC with USB cable. Controller has connections for attaching the rev counter (12V, ground and data signal connectors). Controller board communicates with the PC and sim using SymProjects SimDash software, which has plugins for all the major sims and many other "lighter" car games, such as DiRT and Codemasters F1 series.

    Here are couple of photos of my setup, sorry for the poor quality:

    [​IMG]

    I just quickly attached the board to the back of my tachometer using two sided tape patches. I will place the controller in a separate switch box later on (if I bother :p). On the top of the board you can see the three connectors for the tachometer and in the bottom a MiniUSB cable for PC connection and one for 5V power supply. Controller board regulates the voltage to 12V which is used by cars and thus real life tachometers. You can't use 24V diesel tachometers, which is the voltage of the electric systems of many older diesel cars and still used by most if not all heavy trucks and so on.

    [​IMG]

    Here is the front of my tachometer. It is a cheapo tacho from replacement parts store, but does the job well enough. You can change the color of the backlighting (clear white is also available, so far I prefer that light blue in the picture). For the RevBurner, you need to calibrate the tacho with the SimDash software. It is a breeze, but takes few minutes while you set the rev levels in the software.

    Rev counter is really cool accessory and helps tremendously, if you are using realistic FOVs and can't see the virtual information display or rev counter and you don't want all the HUD stuff on the screen. It is true, that you don't watch the meter that much when racing, just glance it once in a while or so, but the best part of this cheapo tacho definitely is the large red shift light you can see on top left (It looks bigger in the picture than it really is; rev counter is 120mm in diameter and light around 40mm) Those faint R3E virtual lights really don't bother anymore :p You of course need to calibrate the redline for every car using those two buttons with arrow markers. It only takes a couple of seconds to set it. I'll make a list for myself on the word document of the redline levels of each car gradually when driving them in different sims, so it will be easy peasy to change them before you hop in the cockpit.

    So here it is. I can highly recommend RevBurner. It is affordable and does exactly what it needs to do. If you want it, all you need to get besides the board is some aftermarket tachometer (or remove one from your car) and you are good to go. And if you are wondering, no, you don't need to solder anything. Even a blind monkey could setup the RevBurner.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 8, 2016
  2. Dave R

    Dave R Well-Known Member

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    That is super cool. Thanks for sharing
     
  3. matteman

    matteman Well-Known Member

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    Yeah was I was using rev burner to run a Tacho with shift light, however after upgrading to Win10 i could not get the software to work anymore.
     
  4. The_Grunt

    The_Grunt Well-Known Member

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    I have Windows 10 and it works just fine. Have you downloaded the latest version of the SimDash?
     
  5. Mich Angel

    Mich Angel Well-Known Member

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    That look awesome :D
     
  6. matteman

    matteman Well-Known Member

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    Yeah mate I did. I also tried running it in compatibility mode. No Luck.
    the board is probably 5 year old, so maybe it died.
    Anywho thanks for the suggestion.
    Cheers !