Real race cars commonly have toggle switches for many functions, and by having a combination of both one-way and two-way toggle switches you can map various functions more intuitively. Premium boxes will utilize push buttons with a perceivable amount of travel, and a certain heavy-duty feel to them, while more moderately priced units will have a lighter and less realistic feel. Push buttons are the easiest types of controls to use and can be mapped to functions you often use like lap times, fuel, tyres, etc. Buttons, switches and encodersĪs I touched on earlier, there are not only buttons to assign functions to on a button box, but also a few types of switches and knobs which may leave you wondering what jobs are assigned to each type of control, so below I’ve gone through some of the main mechanism categories to elaborate a bit further how each of them can benefit your gameplay. Once you become accustomed to which button controls which function, it will become second nature to change your brake bias, camera mode, or anti-roll bar settings to name but a few. iRacing button mapping options screen – there are hundreds of mappable functions availableĪnother great thing about button boxes is how tactile and life-like they feel, which is especially beneficial for sim racers who like to wear gloves. Therefore, having a separate device that is always in the same place (think muscle memory) that can be used across all your sim racing software, is just a really nice and convenient piece of kit to have. In any case, trying to hit an exact button on a keyboard in the heat of the moment during a race is very tricky. If that’s the case then you’ll be looking to either build or buy a button box.įor titles like iRacing, Factor, Assetto Corsa, and others, there are a lot of different functions you can map to a button box. And some hardcore sim racers want to build an authentic cockpit, with start / stop buttons, brake bias adjustment, and so on. That’s all well and good if you only want to race in one discipline such as Formula 1, since F1 rims have all the necessary buttons on them that you could need given the sheer complexity of Formula one cars.īut what happens when you go from an F1 car to a vehicle that uses an oval wheel rim for example, and your oval wheel rim doesn’t have the same buttons on it? Essentially you no longer have the ability to control the car in the same way you did with the F1 rim. Why you should buy a button boxĪt this point, you might be thinking it’s a bit unnecessary to buy a button box if you already have a steering wheel with a bunch of buttons on it. Regardless, in essence, a sim racing button box is a control panel that plugs into your PC via USB as a separate USB game controller device allowing you to bind all those buttons and switches to a driving simulator and ultimately have more control over your car, without having to mess around with keyboards or in-game menu options while driving. NEW: Race Deck XL LED from Apex Engineering (use 5%OFF discount code at checkout) In this guide, I’m going to explain why you might also want to get a button box if you don’t already have one, and I’ll show you some great examples of both pre-built units and a DIY solution in case you’re handy with a soldering iron.īefore anything else, for those of you that maybe don’t know what a button box is, as the name implies it is a box with buttons on it but to be technical, really it should be called a rotary encoder, toggle switch, and button box because they are not solely comprised of buttons, they offer a mixture of these three things or possibly more. Last updated: June 5th, 2023 Featured image: Apex Button Box Horizontal Mount V2Įven though many sim racing wheels have a comprehensive selection of buttons and rotary encoders on them, I still use a button box because it makes the entire sim experience more graceful, and perhaps more importantly, it just feels more authentic.
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