DIY Linear Actuator design

I was able to open it, but there was only the main body, no gears.

Same here.

Hi @mazak515 I cant honestly say what the speed of my actuators were in the past . but I can say the feeling of acceleration and braking forces are quite sharp and that if they were any faster then the sim would be painful to drive rather than a pleasure .. still in reassembly mode ( lots of other stuff still detracting me form sim work ) but wont be long now till its back up and running . at that point I may try and get some decent speed data for you guys ...but seat of pants driving seemed to be great at the time and I was using only 2 x 12VDc server PSU's connected in parallel to give 120Amps output if needed with one 12 Volt car battery as additional Regen clamp ( my sabertooths have Regen resistors fitted so the battery is just backup and shares the load ..a lot of guys are using 6 12V PSU's and 6 Batteries so for all I know my system maybe underpowered ...it was working for me but then again I never got to the stage where I was really stressing the system ( Something to do with being crap driver LOL ) .. hope my ramblings help

Dear wannabeaflyer2,

First, grats to your design, its really amazing!
I just want to start my 6dof, and

I have downloaded your latest plans, it seems to be more simplier.
Is that still working well? Are there any moifications I shoud make?

I'm mostly using with flysims, so I'm planning to make it with 700mm travel, coz
the speed is not so important, but more heave an sway should be better.
What do you think, should it be ok with 700mm travelling?

I have a dilema about actuators. There is a belted diy version, like this:



Which shoul be better?

Thanx for the answers.

George,Hungary

@Hoddem

this design is scalable to and extent and based on @seatimes project and emulated by @SilentChill ,@Hoddem @SixDegreesOfFlight to name but a few, are generally best suited to typically 350 - 425 mm max travel ... its my belief ( don't quote me on this ) that any thing over that length would lead to issues with whip ( flexing of the 16mm ballscrew at speed) & the load on the moving section of the Actuator ( 25 - 30mm carbon fibre or steel tube Flexing due to only having single liner bearing support at the base when the unit is fully extended...

It may well be that dual linear bearing spaced at say 100-120mm apart may solve this but its just a theory on my part .. it may be worth going up to 20mm ballscrew ? but Size ,weight and cost kicks in ...yes its doable but I don't have the experience to give a truer answer,

keep promising that my sim will be up and running again soon , but its paraglider flying weather outside and im trying to get as much airtime as I can before winter kicks in LOL .

Cheers

@Hoddem,

Thanx for the suggestions, I also thinking about a longer ballscrew or maybe a wider rod/ballscrew. I'm also
thinking about replacing the carbon pole to metal. This PM90 motor is working with 12-48 v, so maybe with the stronger setup I can also work with 24v resulting almost the same speed with the longer travel.I have to make a proto of this and see how it tis working...

Any others suggestions?

Cheers,
George

Good Morning Mate. Excellent design. I've being following your Linear Actuator design for the past 2 weeks .
I'm going to build mine with a 1kw Servo motor for my 6DOF Simulator. Can I ask if you can send me the CAD files of the design in case I need to change something on for for the different motor. The attached files of your updated CAD drawings are PDF files Thanks Aussie

@wannabeaflyer2, do you believe your upper frame could be built out of 4040 aluminum profile? What do you think @SeatTime ?

Sorry, I won't know - have never used aluminium profile in building a sim.

hi @llluis there is no reason why 40x40 extrusion cant be used obviously the mating parts would need to be redesigned to suit and the weight may well be a bit cumbersome but the design as it was is adaptable so given the nature of thses actuator , as an experiment it could be done with so design changes .. cheers its all about mounting the ballscrew and allowing the ball screw nut free axial movement but minimal radial movement and provide some means of mounting the choosen feedbac and motor Options ..

Thanks for the reply @wannabeaflyer2, but I was actually talking about the actual upper frame of the platform, not the actuator.

I believe the 4040 aluminum would be lighter than the 25x25 steel tube but I don't know about rigidity.

But I think I'll just buy the welding machine and go with the steel.

Doh LOL sorry @llluis misunderstood the request , I have to sat in my past experience 40 x 40 extrusion can be used for the Platform structure but you will pay a price in terms of weight .. it will be a lot heaver than 25 x 25 square tubing and more weight means more inertia and load on the actuators of any system ..again this is just my opinion based on lets say past use of that 40 x 40
extrusion for work benches etc

Great, thanks! Your opinion is what I'm after!
I wrongly assumed that the 4040 alu extrusion would be lighter than the square hollow tubing.

I can't agree @wannabeaflyer2

@llluis it depends on the thinkness of the steel tubes. If you have 3 mm think walls, 1 m should weight 1,9 kg.
For a 40x40 Extrusion it depends on the form of them.
this one has for example just 1,3 kg/m
http://www.smt-montagetechnik.de/produkte/70.htm
You can also find values for the rigidity, but with the same weight, the 4040 extrusions should be more ridig.
there was a link somewhere in the forum where you can calculate the deflection of the extrusions and steel square tubings. i'll try to find it

@llluis here you go:
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/using-extruded-aluminum-for-a-6dof-project.9344/
In the first post are several links where you can choose the right extrusions and calculate the deflection Have fun

That's great, thank you very much.

I didn't open my welder box yet. If decide to go with alu, I can return the welder. LOL

Hi @My.stAr you may well be correct as my comments are only based on my build experience no Science behind but gut feel . I would mention that my steel square tube had a wall thickness of average 1.5mm so that's what I was referring to regarding weight penalty .. 3mm Tube would be another level an your correct in saying the extrusion would be comparable but you would also need to factor in all the brackets , Gussets , Corner Bracing and nuts -bolts -washers and connectors required .. these may not n the end be a major factor weight wise but something to be considered cost wise when dealing with Extrusion Assemblies .. Cheers guys ... I keep promising to kick my platform back into life and now its cold and wintery I have no excuse

here are some .stl files for the divider plates and top plate. the motor plate will fit the common e30-150 ampflow motor.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AmpFlow-E3...057792&hash=item1a390d9814:g:Y5sAAOSwsFpaJYOh

they are thicker for added strength for 3dprinting. also some of the holes in the bottom plate have been omitted due to the fact that i dont have my u-joints yet. I will post more parts as I need/create them. hope this helps some of you guys.

Again thanks a bunch @wannabeaflyer2

how many mm/sec are this style of actuator ?