Universal 6DoF Recessed Simulator

Maybe with this design, but with a normal actuator with all the motor and bearings at the bottom, there is hardly any weight at all at the top.

Hopefully you mean love

I think placement will always be dictated by the actuator design more than anything else.

I've been working on the details of the steering wheel some more, it's more or less complete, with some fine tuning necessary before machining starts, but good enough to get an idea of where it's going. Pity the MiGe connectors that came with the motor are 90 degree bends, straight would have worked better but we'll work something out.
12 buttons
Up and down shift
2 x Taper analog shifter paddles (also 2 digital buttons)
4 x rotary encoders
3 x 10 position rotary switches
100N Electromagnetic quick release
4.3" Nextion LCD

Lovely design!
I have a question though. If the wheel is quick release which I'm presuming it is because of the magnetic chuck. How are you making the electrical connections to all the buttons and LCD panel?

@RobsonSwiss - heck of a build! Very impressive!

@RandomCoder - I'm curious too!

A slip ring, I haven't done USB via a slipring yet, so it will be interesting to see how well it works. Luckily the bandwidth is extremely low so hopefully no problems.

For the buttons I'll use: https://opensimhardware.wordpress.com/pedal-button-controller/ which looks perfect for this type of wheel. I have a few STM32F103 dev boards laying around but I might consider using one of my own boards with a F3 if space is an issue. Nextion through Arduino Nano 3 via Simhub with a small stripped 4 port USB hub.

I love the design and clearly you have put a lot of thought into it. Will you be powering everything from the USB 5V or do you have other plans?

did i understand right? you would actually making a nice sterring wheel???

wooo.

- consider how you would mount the wheel to the rig, if you are thinking about a single pole to hold it to the "rig ground" it is super unconfortable if it passes throw your legs, and also, a single pole to the ground tend to shake (maybe not with your design) but a shaking wheel is a deal braker, consier mounting it holded by at least two suports... but... obdiusly you are the man!

keep posting

fer

Thank you, yes the electromagnets are rated at 6V so we'll get decent performance at 5V. But I think we will struggle if there is a USB hub upstream that isn't powered. I think in total the wheel needs about 8 or 9 watts but it's fairly simple to jack in more amps if needed.

Thank you, I've already ordered the material, it's about 1-2 days of machining. When I get a couple of days free where it won't interfere with the rest of the sim development I'll machine it, but I'll probably need to make a few more changes in the meantime to the design, the production concept is quite similar to my rifle so I don't think it will be difficult, just a bit time consuming with the contoured sections.

If you look at the previous images of the simulator, it attaches to the side beams. If it does vibrate a bit we can add cross beams on the sides to stiffen it up. But hopefully that is not necessary, thank you for the suggestion.

I am using a USB slipring from senring.com combined with a quick disconnect to eliminate all of the cables. It is designed for the job and works really well, but its not cheap and it is pretty large
https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...seat-shaker-to-aluminum-rig.9708/#post-126093

It can be done and by the looks of your design you will do whatever it takes, Nice Work

Thank you and a nice rig. The cost is probably not the biggest concern for me but getting them here is difficult and it's getting annoying trying to bring things in with all the red tape. I'll do a simple 4 copper ring track with tracking groves on one side with spring loaded dual brass or copper wires on the other, if it doesn't work I'll have to get one of those, hopefully it works though.

I'll take some more pics on Sunday of the progress, I think we'll be about 80% complete by then.
In the meantime the steering wheel and pedals arrived .

The fact you just say "oh ya ill just make a slipRing " Is pretty amazin dude, Keep it up. This is one Fabulous project you got going.

May i ask for some pictures of your work shop or what all toys (machines) you have to play with ? Im sure everyone would enjoy seeing.

Keep it up.

Thank you, I didn't mean to trivialise it though, I've only done something with carbon brushes before so I'm not even sure it will work, probably 50/50... It's not particularly fancy, we mainly do small mass production parts.

I started down the path of building my own slip ring, but stopped when I realized how much noise is generated using diy methods. If I would have had my 3d printer at the time (or a machine shop) I'm sure I would have gone that route though. When I talked with the application engineer at senring.com, I asked about a few lower cost slip rings that they had and they steered me away from them for USB, they either were too noisy or couldn't handle the RPM's I was giving them.

If you look at what simxperence did with the accuforce, they initially started shipping them with slip rings but soon removed them because of all the problems customers were having with the connection dropping out. It looks like they are now shipping the accuforce V2 with a new and improved slip ring though, so they must have figured it out.

take a look at @Avenga76 thread for some pictures of the accuforce slip ring
http://www.isrtv.com/forums/topic/1...cuforce-diy-2-dof-motion-gs-4-simvibe/?page=7

I started with the typical cord from the wheel to the rig and had to get rid of it because my kids kept spinning the wheel a billion times in the same direction until the cord either broke or was so stretched it could no longer coil up. I also had a few moments where I would lose the wheel for one reason or another and it would spin so violently the cord would rip out and become a spinning whip of death. Now that I have the QD with the integrated electronics I can't even imagine going back.

Is there a reason you are not using a Blue Tooth interface?

The Accuforce V2 doesn't come with a slip ring. My AF V1 was one of the original beta wheels. They upgraded the slip ring twice before giving up on the idea. Mine shipped with the 1.01 slip ring, they then brought out a 1.02 to try to fix it, then finally the 1.03 that you see in my build thread. That worked a lot better but still not perfect. It worked better for their I²C connection they use for their button boxes, but not as well for USB. Mine is still working okay, I mostly use an external DSD shifter and button box, as my favourite wheel is a little 280mm wheel with no buttons or shifters. I do get the odd drop out with my Fanatec F1 converted wheel, but my Momo Mod.30 with AF button box works fine all the time.

Halfway through the run of the AF V1 they pulled the slip ring and went back to coiled cable, now the AF V2 is coiled cable only.

My bad, I was looking at the accuforce "your way" customizable steering system and they still have it listed as-
Integrated slip rings ensure long life and great electrical contact while providing for infinite wheel rotation
http://simxperience.com/products/accessories/accuforcesteering/accuforcesteeringsystem.aspx

I see the listing for the V2 pro does not have the slip ring listed

I looked at it and even went as far as working out a wireless power system, but in the end it was just easier to go the slip ring route. probably much more expensive, but it just works.

Yeah, that it is a typo on SimXperiences part, I think they just copied it over from the old V1 description. The "Your way" AF V2 doesn't even have a quick release and the old slip ring was in the quick release housing.

I am using the accuforce quick release housing with the the integrated 6 wire circuit board. for the money it is a pretty good deal even without having an accuforce system. The last one I ordered they had to dig up a circuit board for me so I don't know that they have many or any of the circuit boards left.

It is a little bit of a concern, I am worried about getting enough pressure on the system to maintain a strong signal, I will try a few tricks and if it doesn't end up working go through the long journey of importing one... So far overall progress is good and I think we will be done soon. So I'll get to the steering wheel and pedals then.