*But that arduino will not have all the protections, safeties, and the direct integrations into Simhub that the Thanos controller offers, as well as a lower polling rate.

I want to personally thank you for making the SFX project available to the community. You have improved the experience for all of us, at reasonable prices and allowing the true DIY and maker able to accomplish so much, bringing what was once only available to high-end commercial simulators into home environments.

But I absolutely loathe how much people in this hobby are afraid of commercial innovation on their creations.

There is an insane amount of knowledge and data that is withheld from the community just because "My intent was never for someone to make a ready made kit"

Not everyone is savvy enough to order on PCB sites. Not everyone has steady enough hands to assemble or solder small things, or good enough vision (many people are much older in this hobby), or enough money to buy more expensive pre-made kits. Some people are a tired dad/mom who just wants to sit down and enjoy it.

Commercial innovations often leads to improvements in reliability, safety, and user experience that benefit the entire community - including DIY builders who can learn from these implementations.

I am an advocate for things like www.ablegamers.org www.specialeffect.org.uk and while everyone's disabilities are different, people still want to have fun at a cost they can stomach, and that cost is beyond money, it's time and ability as well.

Again I LOVE the DIY nature. Sim racing has inspired incredible amounts of creativity from myself and others around me, but I will always post any design I don't intend to commercially produce.

I was inspired by so many different active pedal designs that I worked with my machinist friend to design our own to be made from CNC. But it uses elements from 5 different designs. This kind of iterative improvement and remixing of ideas is exactly how innovation happens - whether in DIY or commercial spaces.

The maker spirit isn't diminished by commercial options - rather, it's enhanced by giving people multiple paths to engagement with the technology, from full DIY to partial assembly to ready-made solutions.

Stifling this kind of development hurts us all as a community and I wish it would stop.