DIY Linear Actuator design

Progress report and a nice one for a change , well once again thanks to @SeatTime and Ian at BFF my monster is performing properly again , i underestimated the G forces the Sim sees during an F1 run and so fingers crossed now i have a realistic value the sim has just done 45mins Test Run ( yeah yeah its auto pilot mode but hey its good for testing ) and only drops to hold were self inflicted ....

Yeeeee haaaaa baby back in the game .... Relief or what ,..

and Better Still im cranking up the PID values and she's taking it Current has gone up to circa 30 Amp Peaks under heavy heavy breaking on each actuator i noticed the sabertooths did seem to shut down after 10 mins so Panic ... But i used the house fan on to cool the controllers down and they did the 45 min stint without issue Phew Phew Phew i have been running them without fans ( not cleaver) but thats cos they did not seem warm enough for that to have been an issue during those tests.. 3 x 80 mm Pc fans bought via my pal ebay so they will be fitted when they arrive

Nice one matey you're getting there

Yes, that 18 - Crash G level is from my F1 car setup. Let the fun begin.

Brilliant work mate !!!!!

Ok its been over a week whats going on good buddy ? What have you broken !! Only joking.

I'm getting mine dialed in now I had all my axis setup wrong which I was kinda doing from my old one but the actuators are different in the way they are mounted and move and I can tell you its frikkin awesome it puts my old wormgear 6DOF to shame !! I been pushing it pretty darn hard in DirtRally and I'm blown away its just so good.

Best thing is I haven't had to fix anything for at least about 12 hours of testing. I think I'm finally getting there.

Can someone please advise as to where you are getting some of the open rail parts from as I cannot seem to find them in the UK or are you getting them made? Also what motors has anyone used in these?

Thanks

i got my open rail bits form ooznest uk Parvalux PM90 motors may be harder to find now but their are alternatives found by other members cheers

Hi @SilentChill still here good buddy Plastic took a bigger hit than expected Xmas and bloody Price of CV1 still high LOL so looks like delayed Xmas present to self deal ( Bummer) She is still in one piece and now fans have been added the controllers don't seem to shut down
Just changing and redoing some tf the Get it running bits to make them more robust , Got Dirt Rally , aerofly, And Now FSX steam Edition so that should be my full sim set sorted ( no roller coaster yet though as I don't believe Ians BFF Software) has that version yet ..

Great to hear your baby survived joe public LOL we tend to know whats what with theses so are a wee but more careful Joe Public will not use that finesse , so as you found out they are the best ones to test the systems .. we see bank notes they see more power arrrrggggghhhhh lol looking forward to a cracking sim fuelled new Year and off Course my next Addition in the form of a CV1 :-0 cheers good buddy

Just catching up on this thread and wanted to say great work and thanks for sharing all your CAD drawings, you've made this about as easy as possible for anyone to build and the end results looking great. fast, smooth and detailed motion.

Bit of a choker but I think I may have to ditch my AC build for this approach as all the EMI issues I have with AC power and VFD's has beaten me. Hopefully I can sell the garbox/motors and VFD's and get more than enough money back to build an actuator rig. Using DC power will make things so much easier.

thanks again, hopefully ill be joining the UK club in the not to distant future, and look forward to the updates.

by@paulg100

I have been dreaming about 6dof for more year than I can admit to ask Thanos LOL but @SeatTime really kicked off the possibility by coming up with a laymans decent spec / speed/power & cost effective linear actuator I really just jumped on the band wagon he started rolling.
Feel free to tweak my plans to suit ,as they are not meant to be exclusive and as I always say their are many ways to get to the same objective just by adding your own slant on things ...check out the various incarnations of the base design here on this forum alone to see what I mean.. if you do finally opt to reconfigure you lets face it very nice and well thought out setup

Maybe so @wannabeaflyer2 , but there is no denying that you also put in allot of work in drawing up those plans to make it easier for people to reproduce something similar, take the credit were credit is due. I have to do that at work, so I hate doing it for my personal projects - rather be building .

Damm Guys , I almost missed it LOL , am I right in saying SIMTOOLS V2 is now released ,,,that being the case chrismas just got extended and the plastic will be bent on last time now that's a present worth waiting for

WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU @wannabeaflyer2 ??!?!?!?!

are you still alive ?

Hi @SilentChill yeah the old gits still alive , saving for my oculus and changing out some of the temporary parts in the actuators , re configed the electronics so just waiting for bits to be made ( like the universal Joint mounting plates

not long now and I'll have it all back up and running. oi stop shifting the goal post LOL im only just getting to the rift stage and now your onto Openwheel direct drive steering wot you think I am mad o money LOL..

Great stuff my man as Arnie would say " I'll be Back "

Hahaha don't say I'm moving the goal posts lol look at what that @SeatTime is upto ffs no way we can catch up to him lol

Glad your doing and not dead

It's all money money money, I need new pedals now they are on my list next. Followed by proper handbrake and finally a Hshifter but I can live with what I have.

Once you set it up good assetto corsa is just amazing and hard at the same time.

Have you got your rift yet ?

rift will be ordered from Currys LOL gonna plump for the buy now pay later deal seeing as how im gonna need a graphics card update as well cant go too mad so it will be a GTX1060 6meg jobby , mind you that will be after Vegas trip in april so lets just say moneys a wee bit tight at Mo but the planed back in the game time will be may .. not stressing just means a small delay .. I check in everyday here mate as you guys never cease to amaze ... should be back to contributing soon Crew

Good to hear matey, these things do start to suck money out of you lol I would deffo stretch to a 1070 at least just to future proof a little if your not buying till May you can see if nVidia release new cards as they normally announce somewhere around early spring.

Trip to Vegas nice don't be gambling all your money away lol

Next for me is a new platform frame, the old wooden frame is starting to creak a little too much lol and then pedals and hshifter and handbrake lolol big ol' money pit

guys, my actuators are a little be wobeling, like the ballscrew is not straight (but it is..), I beleive this is due from play in the upper linear bearing igus and the fact that the end of the ballscrew is not fixed but wobeling into the 25mm rod ...

It is not that bad, but during high speed movement the entire actuator vibrate due to rotational imbalance ...

Any thought ?

EDIT : Ok I think I need to do that (see pic)

There close up pictures of them in my build thread somewhere

I just noticed that wanabeaflyer changer the linear bearing in the latest design ...

Rework needed, but in the mean time first configuration is OK in simtools, I just need to test with a game now.

I will try a video asap