The Mega Shifter was designed from the ground up to be reliable and flawless out of the box:

We are at the point where we have a working prototype and we need your help to reach the next level and begin production of our product.

We've spent the last couple of months designing, fabricating, and testing various setups to make the Mega Shifter the best possible product it can be. We believe that our current design is the most reliable product of its kind on the market.

It's USB 2.0 compatible and should work with PC running Windows XP or higher (Driver will be available at launch on our website). The production version will include an adapter so that you can attach the Mega Shifter knob to Logitech, Fanatech, or Thrustmaster shifters.

The Mega Shifter knob is an add-on product for the big rig simulations "American Truck Simulator" and "Euro Truck Simulator 2". It simulates the Range and Hi/Lo levers of an 18 speed Eaton/Fuller shift knob.

Risks and challenges

The first hurdle we had to overcome was deciding whether to make this out of real shift knobs or fabricate our own design. We initially were going to have our product injection molded. After weeks of CAD work, we had a design that we thought was perfect. We started shopping around at various injection molding shops and found out quickly that the costs would make it impossible to move forward in that direction.

The next step was to figure out a way to add switches into the Eaton/Fuller shift knobs. Due to limited space inside the knob itself, mechanical switches weren't practical. This left us deciding between reed switches or hall-effect sensors. Since the knob was going to be hooked up to 5 volt regulated power from the pc, hall sensors were the best choice.

Subsequently, we had to decide on a PIC Microchip controller or an Arduino micro controller. In the end, the Arduino board comes already integrated with a circuit board with all the connectors needed for our project, so we decided to use it in order to meet our production needs.

At this stage, we had to learn the ins and outs of Arduino sketches and write the C program that is the foundation of our product.

Then it was on to 3d printing the project cases. The first step was ordering and assembling a 3d printer. After a few weeks of experimenting, we discovered the best material and settings for our project box. Next it was back the to CAD program to design the project box. 3d printing proved to be interesting and a little frustrating at times, but it produced exactly what we were looking for.

In the end, it took several months to transform a rough idea into a working prototype, but it was well worth the effort involved.