SimHub wind simulator: fans that respond to speed
Last updated · SimHub 9.11.22
A SimHub wind simulator is one to three 12V fans pointed at you, driven from an Arduino Uno with an Adafruit Motor Shield V2, with fan speed following your car's speed in the game. Parts cost roughly €15 for a single fan and €20 for a dual-fan build. SimHub addresses the fans as Left, Centre and Right channels — up to twelve of them on an Arduino — and gives you separate idle and in-race behaviour, plus optional left/right curving and drafting effects where the game provides that data.
Wind is the cheapest convincing addition to a sim rig. It is not haptics — nothing vibrates — but speed is the one thing a static rig cannot communicate at all, and moving air fixes that more effectively than its cost suggests.
What you need
- An Arduino Uno (R3 — the R4 is not supported), or a Nano or Mega.
- An Adafruit Motor Shield V2, which stacks onto the Arduino and drives the fans from outputs M1–M4.
- 12V 3-pin fans. One is enough to feel; two gives you left/right.
- A 12V power supply for the fans. Not the Arduino's USB — see the power warning below.
- A USB cable that carries data, which is not the same thing as a USB cable.
Roughly €15 for a single-fan build and €20 for dual-fan, which is the whole reason this is worth doing before almost any other upgrade.
The shields are not marked + and −. Check with a voltmeter. This is called out in the official wiki and it is the most consequential thing on this page. Motor shield terminals are not polarity-labelled in the way you would expect, and guessing wrong can damage the shield, the fans or both. Confirm with a meter before you connect a supply.
On shield ratings, if you are thinking bigger. The Adafruit Motor Shield V2 is rated 1.7A continuous, 3A peak. That is fine for computer-case fans. For blowers or high-current fans, use a Monster Moto shield instead — exceeding a motor driver's rating is how they die, usually taking the fan controller with them.
Building it
Stack the motor shield on the Arduino
The Adafruit Motor Shield V2 sits directly on the Uno's headers. It has four motor outputs, M1 to M4 — one per fan.
Wire the fans to M1–M4, checking polarity with a meter
3-pin fans use two of the three wires for power; the third is the tachometer output and is not needed. Verify polarity with a voltmeter first — the terminals are not labelled.
Give the fans their own 12V supply
The fans do not run off the Arduino's USB power — a USB port supplies about 500mA and a fan wants considerably more. Connect the external supply's ground to the Arduino as well, but do not connect its 12V to the Arduino's 5V pin.
Flash the SimHub firmware with wind support enabled
Run SimHub's Arduino setup tool, give the device a unique name, tick the wind feature, assign pins so nothing collides, and upload. The full wizard is on the Arduino setup page.
Enable the Arduino in ShakeIt Wind
Open ShakeIt Wind → Output configuration and switch Arduino on. Until you do, the Wind profile tab has nothing to drive.
Assign the channels
Expand the Arduino entry and set Channel 1 to Left, Channel 2 to Centre, Channel 3 to Right — or whichever subset matches how many fans you built. Everything else stays Unused.
Tune the profile
Back on the Wind profile tab, set idle and speed-based behaviour. The controls are explained below.
Which hardware SimHub can drive
The Output configuration tab lists every supported wind device. As of 9.11.22 there are five, and this list is not published anywhere else:
- Arduino
- The DIY route, and what this guide builds. Up to twelve channels.
- HSimracing R'Fun Pro V2
- A commercial wind controller with native support.
- SymProjects Fan Controller
- Commercial, natively supported.
- Race Solutions Controller
- Commercial, natively supported.
- 3DRap Feeling Pro Wind
- Commercial, natively supported.
If your controller is not on that list, it is not natively supported — which in practice means it either presents itself as one of these, or it uses its own software instead of SimHub.
The twelve channels
Expanding the Arduino output reveals twelve channel slots. Each is set to Left, Centre, Right or Unused.
Twelve is far more than a wind setup needs, and that is the point — the channel count is generous because several fans can share a position. Four fans all set to Centre act as one large centre output, which is how people build a wall of air without a single enormous fan.
Positions, not fans, are what the Wind profile tab addresses. That is why left/right curving works: SimHub varies the balance between the Left and Right positions, whichever and however many fans are assigned to them.
Every control in the Wind profile tab
This is the tab you will actually spend time in, and none of it is documented anywhere. The screen splits into two independent sections, each with its own enable toggle.
- Profiles
- Across the top: a profile selector with Profiles manager, Edit profile, Clone profile and New profile. Profiles are per-game, so a rally car and a formula car can behave differently. Clone the default rather than editing it.
- Idle wind — when not in race
- A fixed fan speed for when you are sitting in menus or the pits. Idle wind power sets the level, and Target idle wind channels chooses which of Left, Centre and Right run. Most people leave this off; it is useful if you want airflow in a warm room regardless of what the car is doing.
- Speed based wind — when in race
- The main event. Speed based wind power range is a pair of values, not one: the low end is fan speed at a standstill and the high end is fan speed at maximum. The default 0–100 gives you the full sweep.
- Maximum vehicle speed
- What counts as "maximum". Automatic adjusts to the car's actual top speed, which is what you want in a game with mixed classes — otherwise a slow car never reaches full fan. Manual pins it to a fixed figure; the default is 200.
- Left/Right wind curving (when available)
- Shifts airflow between the left and right fans as the car turns, so a right-hand bend pushes more air to one side. The default intensity is 50.
- Drafting effect (when available)
- Reduces airflow when you are in another car's slipstream — the same drop in wind noise a real driver feels tucking in behind. Default intensity 50.
"When available" is doing real work in those two labels. Curving and drafting both need telemetry the game may not send. SimHub's own caveat applies here as everywhere: feature support varies with what each game provides. Enabling them costs nothing where the data is missing — they simply do not act.
The third tab, Controls, binds wind functions to buttons on your wheel or button box, so you can cut the fans mid-session without reaching for the keyboard.
Getting it to feel right
- Start with the range, not the gain. Set the speed-based power range to 0–100, drive, and see whether the top end is uncomfortable. Most people end up pulling the maximum down rather than pushing it up.
- Set a floor if the fans stall. Cheap fans do not start turning until they are driven reasonably hard, then jump. Raising the bottom of the range past their stall point makes the response smooth instead of stepped.
- Use Automatic maximum speed unless every car you drive has a similar top speed. On Manual, a slow car will never see full fan and a fast one will saturate early.
- Turn curving down before you turn it off. At 50 it is subtle; people who dislike it usually tried it at maximum.
- Fan noise is part of the effect. Unlike shakers, you are meant to hear this — it is what wind sounds like. Do not chase silence.
On PWM whine, which is the one genuine annoyance: it comes from the frequency the shield switches the fans at. Either change the PWM frequency, or use fans designed for PWM control, which handle it properly by design.
Common questions
How much does a SimHub wind simulator cost to build?
Roughly €15 for a single fan and €20 for a dual-fan setup — an Arduino Uno, an Adafruit Motor Shield V2, one or two 12V fans and a power supply. It is the cheapest meaningful upgrade on a static rig.
How many fans can SimHub drive?
Twelve channels are available on an Arduino output, each assigned to Left, Centre or Right. In practice one to three fans is normal; the extra channels exist so several fans can share a position and act as one larger output.
Do I need the Adafruit Motor Shield specifically?
It is what the official wiki documents, and it is rated 1.7A continuous and 3A peak — enough for computer-case fans. For blowers or high-current fans, use a Monster Moto shield instead. Exceeding a driver's rating destroys it.
Why is my wind simulator making a whining noise?
PWM switching frequency. Either change the PWM frequency in the firmware configuration, or use fans designed for PWM control, which are built to be driven this way and do not whine.
Does wind work in every game?
Speed-based wind works anywhere SimHub gets a speed reading, which is nearly everywhere. Left/right curving and the drafting effect are labelled "when available" because they need telemetry a given game may not provide — where it is missing, they simply do not act.
Can I use my existing case fans?
Yes, and most builds do. 12V 3-pin computer fans are exactly what this drives. The third pin is a tachometer output and is not needed. Larger fans move more air at lower speed, which is both quieter and more convincing than a small fan run hard.
Does the wind simulator need the paid licence?
No, and it is the subsystem that benefits least from it. The licence raises hardware update rates from 10FPS to 60FPS, which matters for sharp transients — fan speed changes slowly by nature, so ten updates a second is plenty.
Sources
Related guides
SimHub is developed independently by Wotever and is not affiliated with oesimracing. This page was checked against SimHub 9.11.22 on 4 August 2026; where the interface has moved on since, the version stamp tells you how far. More on what SimHub is and what it costs.