Showroom **RIP** - 6DOF project using 12v DC Motors, Sabertooth 2x60's (was MM's) and Arduinos + OSW

Hello everyone,

Today I start my second motion sim after my first very successful 3DOF sim.

I have made a little sketch, which took 3 weeks as I didn't know how to use sketchup but im getting there and at least I have something to show you all.



I will be using my current motors off my rig which have not had any problems over the past 9 months. I think I will be trying a 13cm CTC lever (15cm overall) if that is too long I will shorten it down.

Some of the parts I have already to get me going,

A few MM's keep me going
Powered USB Hub


12 x Ball Joints


6 x Flexible Shaft Couplers


6 x 360 Hall Effect Pots


6 of these bad boys

6 x 670w PSU's eeeeek


5 x Arduino Uno clones which I have not had any issues with so far.


I will be soon making my base which will be out of wood and the platform also will be out of wood, might sound crap and cheap but for weight reasons I'm gonna try and see what happens.

I will be using my G27 Steering Wheel , Pedals and Shifter and also my Saitek x52 HOTAS. There will be no screens as I will be using my Oculus Rift DK2.

Think I may just reuse the seat I have as it has the Transducers under it or I may splash out on a new lighter one, and connect the transducers straight to the platform.

I am still trying to do this as cheap as possible but hopefully it wont look as ugly as my first rig

Thats all for the moment and I will be back soon .

Amazing. Love your 3 dof rig. Can't wait to see this thing running!

Looking forward to seeing its progression. Good luck!

Very nice project ! I will follow it !!
Can you please give the link of where you buy your motors ?

I really love your videos with sketchup moving with Simtools, is that hard and do you need a special version ? Very amazing...
For me I think that with a 6 dof sway and surge are useless...

2 questions :
Why buying 360° pot or hall effect if you will mount them with no reduction ? You can buy directly 180°, it will be more precise.

Why 6 power supply and 5 Ards ?? You can easily use one of this power supply for 3 motors at least, and instead of bying 5 Uno, 1 Mega would be enough (even a chinese copy)...

Are you going to be mounting the DK2 tracking camera to the platform?

@Wanegain the motors I am using will still trip those psu's out if I put the power up to full in scn with a single motor on each.
Sway and surge are there and as good as any surge table that you may have seen.

www.transtecno.com are the motors manufacturer

The angle of the camera does not show how much it actually moves in that video.
I am using Ards because that's what I know how to use the same with the POTS it's just what I used before so I will use them again. 3 Ards for the motors and 1 for my fans and then u have a few more to do what I want with .

@noorbeast I using the latest 2015 version of sketchup I just had to suss out how to get it working with simtools which I can tell you was not that easy to start off with.

@tougemonster yes the camera will be mounted above the fans somewhere.

@noorbeast the socket.rb file which you create needs to go into the ruby folder inside the sketchup main install folder.

You don't need to move the socket.so file either and just use the one that is already installed.

Wonderful project, bravo!
Could you please tell me what tool Sketchup you realized the animation. Thank you.

Magnifique projet, bravo !
Pourriez-vous s'il vous plait m'indiquer avec quel outil de Sketchup vous avez réalisé l'animation. Merci.

Serious build going on here

Looking forward to the updates!

Nice, those motors must be pulling some power (hopefully not too much) and the price was right. Seems like you have everything ready to go. Look forward to seeing a working video in the near future.

Hi @SilentChill
would it be possible to let me have a copy of your sketch up drawing files and any files used for the motion,
I just want to experiment with the layout, especially the top moving platform using 3 mounting points.

regards Terry

It's started

I have myself , well ermmmm a hexagon lol

@telfel to be honest you would be better off just doing it from scratch as it's not easy to just move things around . The amount of moving and reconnecting you would have to do it would take longer .

The files you need are all in the tutorial and FAQ section

Not much progress but nearly finished the Base

Loving it! Have you seen this guys rig? Similar in size and design with yours.



I am 'well jel'!

I wonder if the motors I've used could be used for this sort of rig. Smolka 24vs?

@Leo Burton yes I have seen that video I have no idea if my motor s will work yet Im just hoping they will. Im afraid I cant give advise on your motors.

Hi @Leo Burton, @zigzag49 is building a 6 dof using same motors than yours. You can follow the thread here.
These motors are not as powerful as those of @SilentChill is obvious but it can work well if it meets all the theory calculated by @momoclic (very good and interesting work).
FYI, I am building a 4 dof with such engines. I will share all my work here when it will be done

Oooo new parcel arrived



Only weighs 6.7kg so should help a little.