Showroom DX - Compact Simulator

My planned trip to pick up some parts and building materials on Monday did not eventuate, but I am going to town this Saturday through to next Monday, so will pick up what I need then. As a result there is only minor activity this week.

I did dismantled the base to finalise the motor mounts and added the new 6mm aluminium base plate to replace the temporary perspex. The base plate is mounted low to keep the center of gravity as low as possible and for aesthetics, as the server PSUs will not protrude over the top of the frame. I took some photos of the internal bracing for the motors while I had the frame apart, but as luck would have it I managed to break my little camera while I had it in my pocket. So I will have to find a SD card reader or just wait until the next time I pull the frame apart to grab some shots.

I have started mocking up where the pedal mount will go, but need some materials to actually fabricate it.

As far as the pivot point goes I have worked out one for a seat shaker mode without control/pedal mounts. The flight balance point seems to be a convenient uni joint width forward of that. I will have to wait until I have completed the pedal mount and my TA (brother in-law) returns from Western Australia to check it. The racing balance point is going to be a good bit forward from that because of the weight of the Clubsport pedals and wheel and means I will likely need to trim the quasi surge plate under the seat for more clearance.

My 40kg servos for the quasi surge system turned up today. Gotta say I was impressed with the metal packaging cases they came in!

The billet servo horns and rods have also been delivered but I can't do much about mounting them until the pedal mount and associated balance point are done, as those have implications for the servo placement and connections to the quasi surge plate under the seat.

I provided the link to the servos in the post @ferslash and yes they would be ideal for a Gseat...they have their own built in heat sink and are also pretty fast (0.18 sec) and beefy little things, including metal gears.

Mine is an experiment in creating a quasi surge sensation and I will start with 2 and add more if needed.

I will be making quick release HOTAS options for both center and side joystick mounts, though I will mainly use the lift up center one. The side posts are already in place and connected to the quasi surge plate for side HOTAS mounts. I have yet to design the side mounts plates, but in addition to HOTAS they will include start/kill switches, digital temperature controls and a mount point for an Android tablet.

A little more progress after my supply shopping trip over the last 3 days.

I built the extension and supports for the pedal box.




I then went and built the pedal box which is a bit of a compromise as the Clubsport pedals are narrower but higher than the Saitek pedals. So, the Clubsport pedals are a perfect fit height wise:



And the Saitek pedals are a perfect fit width wise but are a little loose height wise:



My TA (brother in law) is back from Western Australia but is busy until later in the week, so I won't be able to set the center post and pivot points until then. I still need to trim 20mm of the bottom of pedal brace plates then make up the overlapping side brace plates, though it is already pretty sturdy as it is.

Thanks @ferslash and @Nick Moxley.

I am about to do the positioning of the pivot post and uni joint. The basic setup of the servos will come after that. I suspect I will need to trim the quasi surge plate that the servos will need to connect to, so I can give the post a bit more room. The balance point for the Clubsport pedals and wheel is a long way forward of the ones for flight and the original seat shaker mode, which is for when the control/pedal post is removed.

There is still a very long way to go but I will do a better summary once its finished, including dimensions. Basically the base is 500mm x 500mm made from 50mm aluminum box ends and 2x 50x50mm angle, reinforced inside with 40x40x 6mm aluminum angle for motors and aluminum spacer tubes for bolts, with 50x25mm inner rails which support the pivot post.

The pivot post is 40x40mm, but I will have to check what the pivot height is as the post is somewhat recessed on the support rails. 25x25mm angle is used to secure the post to the support rails.

The suspended base under the frame is 480x380x 6mm aluminum plate, the quasi surge plate is also 6mm aluminum on linear rail bearings. The seat base plate is 380x280x 5mm aluminum plate, which bolts to the substantial existing seat frame in multiple places. The control/pedal mounts are 40mm box aluminum with 6mm reinforcement plates. The pedal frame is 40x40x 6mm aluminum angle ends with 50x3mm flat side joiners, which sandwich the aluminum checker plate sheet.

Once I get the post/pivot sorted and start on the electricals I will be able to take plenty of photos with the seat removed, which will give a much better idea of how it all goes together, including the servos and quasi surge plate. Until then here are the pictures I rescued from my broken camera showing inside the frame and a couple of others to show the control and pedal mounts.

Inner reinforcements:



Base plate and anti-vibration feet. There are 2 more feet to be fitted and they will attach to to center mount post. I need to position the post before I know where to drill the base plate for them:



Frame, you can see one of the center post brackets for the extra anti-vibration feet:




Quasi surge plate and linear rails:



Control mount, the whole wheel/shifter assembly detaches with 2 quick release screws and the post folds down for the center mounted joystick, which again attaches with 2 quick release screws:



Pedal mount:

My DX Racer sim has been back in bits while I cut out the surge plate to clear the post/pivot in racing mode. I then made a new reinforcing plate to attach the horizontal control/pedal supports. I took the chance to grab some more pictures of the various 'components' that now make up the DX Racer.

Here is the substantial built-in metal frame of the seat:



And here are the component bits, the base, the subwoofer post/pivot, the seat base plate and surge table with new reinforced mount, the front bar with billet connector posts, the black side Hotas mount posts, the control bar with pivot mount and pedal tray:



The DX Racer can be put into 3 different modes, as a seat shaker with Hotas, a flight mode and racing mode. Because of the hefty Clubsport and Warthog controls the balance point for each mode turns out to be a substantial 65mm apart. The seat base plate is drilled for each mode. The base rails are yet to be drilled.

I suspect it will spend the majority of its time in flight mode, as I expect I could get away with tilting the seat back a bit for short race sessions without moving the post, though it would put some strain on the motors. There would be no problem with lighter pedals and wheel but I am not about to give up the Clubsport controls, they may be heavy but they are great.

These pictures give you and idea of just how far forward the race mode pivot point is, with the flight point being near the middle of the base and the seat shaker point being a further 65mm toward the back.





The next job is making up the connecting rods, which will be 15mm solid aluminum rods with M10 heim joints. All credit to my TA Donny for coming up with this idea so we could drill the rods for tapping...take a 100mm block of timber and drill 15mm hole to hold the rod at 90 degrees while drilling.

Thanks @Matth.Gyver @Scratch @bsft and @Pit

That video is still a long way off and seems even further on days like today.

Most of the day was used doing fiddly little modifications for minute clearance around the post in the race position, including realigning and remounting the linear rails. In doing so I managed to dislodge some of the ball bearings from one of the linear mounts when the quasi surge plate went off the rails. After rounding them all up among the endless aluminium shavings, no easy task, it then took an hour to get the ball bearings back in their plastic race.

We did manage to drill the aluminium leavers and when I went to tap them I realised my metric set only went up to M8 and I needed M10, so that got put aside and will have to wait, as I am helping out mates doing concrete for a shed tomorrow.

I am so glad I lashed out a whole $69 for the Ozito drill press at the start of the project, it has been used and abused in all manner of ways for this project and just keeps on going. This is how we drilled the solid aluminium leavers:

I don't envy you @Pit, doing everything well by hand takes both time and patience. I can't drill straight by hand to save my life!

Yes I got the drill press on special at Bunnings (large hardware chain) and an Ozito welder for $99, which works better than my mates $400 CIG welder that I initially borrowed. @bsft is right, sometimes the cheap stuff is all that is needed and I am more than impressed with the performance of my 'bargains'. If they died tomorrow then I have already had my moneys worth out of them.