Showroom The STAG Sim Rig

I've finally made enough progress to share that I've been working on a motion rig. I started last year with some steel and a cross joint I had lying around my shop.



I used the passenger seat from my car, and got a t300 Alcantara with the t3pa pedals. I used a TV and two old 18" monitors to make a cheapie triple screen setup:


That with a DIY h pattern shinter kept me entertained for most of a year. Then I stayed down the rabbit hole. I picked up an Oculus Rift and started ordering motion components: power supplies, knockoff Arduino Uno, a couple of knockoff Motor Monsters, and some 25:1 DC motors from pgsaw.
I used some information from RacingMat to convert my brake pedal to a load cell:



Pretty awesome upgrade for less than $10.

I then stiffened up the seat frame and welded up the motor mounts:


The only thing I've done that's out of the ordinary is that I used ride height sensors for my position feedback rather than pots or rotary hall effect sensors. The have a 5v signal that is pretty stable and is designed to cover only a 90 degree sweep. Also means I don't have to add couplers or make a linkage since they're already there.

Wired up and ready to go...


...and a bad Arduino and a few bad Motor Monster Shields later it holds up the seat and responds to smc3 utils commands.

I did put copper RAM heat sinks and an 8" fan on the MM Shields, and they seem to stay pretty cool. We'll see if that's still the case when I'm hammering around Sebring in a GT3 car

I'm in the process of getting the kill switch and some other buttons mounted. Hopefully I'm driving by next weekend.

Thanks again to the whole community. It's been a blast so far, and this place is an awesome resource.

I'll definitely do that. In the meantime, I'm a little concerned about the amount of lash in my gearboxes. I'm afraid I won't have as much precision as I'd like at small amplitudes (which I think is where I'll spend my time since I'll be using a rift most of the time). Anybody have the same experience with the pgsaw 25:1 boxes?

Well, I got it working today, but smc3 is shutting my right side motor off pretty early in every session. I think I'll have to replace another MM.

My play is a good bit more than what you show there, noorbeast. I'll throw up a video next time I'm out there.

Thanks for your continued support!

Try the 2 MM per motor ,,that should solve your motor shutdown issue ,,, worked for me anyways,.
https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...bridge-60a-continuous-and-120a-peak-12v.6537/

Also you could try lowering your KP & PWMmax settings in smc3 ,,, depending what levels your running at the moment.

I checked two other MMs this afternoon, and they both acted the same way. I think I had a bad connection between the Arduino and the right side position sensor. I fixed it right when my kid woke up from her nap, so I haven't tested it in game yet.

Hopefully tonight!

Well, it was simpler than I thought. I had the max limit and clip input set too close together so my right side motor (with its high lash) was going out of range and shutting down. It was happening for short enough duration that it wasn't displaying on the graph. Anyway, it works! My wheel wasn't playing nice with LFS, and I haven't hooked the Rift up yet, but it works!



Wahoo!

Still curious if anyone had any suggestions for this:



Thanks again!

Unfortunately I haven't really seen a good way to deal with normal backlash, short of switching to ballscrew driven linear actuators. Is it significantly more lash than the left motor? They should be identical.

The right side is about twice as big as the left. I'll probably take the gearbox apart and see if there's anything obvious that was misassembled.

Can you put a video of the other engine? I have game in two engines but one has a little more, you start the little use? I at the picas hours of use I had the free game, I think the new gears do not fit well and that is why there is no game in both directions, eroding the teeth that play but the normal game begins, I hope it does not go any further As in yours, your engine has a lot of play, it could be shaft connecting problem with the gear

Well, I took the right side gearbox and found there was quite a bit of axial play in the worm gear. I shimmed the backside bearing and it's now about the same as the left side. It's still bigger than I'd like, but it's probably about all I can expect considering the cost and intended use of the motors and gearboxes. I got the rift hooked up earlier this week, and I've been having a lot of fun playing with it.



I still need to do some tuning, but I'm super impressed with both the smc3 sketch and the simtools 2.1 software. Thanks again to everyone involved in their developments.

After 45 minutes of continuous use, the heat sinks are cool to the touch and the power supply fans aren't running. I can probably thank my 8" fan for that. The headphones mask the noise well enough that it doesn't bother me at all. All in all, I'm pleased with the result. I'll try to post a video or at least some pics of the finished (ha) product.