Kermit Kong's 6DOF Project

great build....
i have done the same build from your post but i put the kill switch and relays after the capacitor ... will it affect the circuit or its ok ??

hey,

After the capacitor means between capacitor and motor-driver board ? if so, thats also fine.

Do you think the jerking is a limitation of the motor or because of the Arduino and analog to digital resolution. If it is the Arduino you can add an external adc with 16bit resolution for less than $10.

Hi @Hoddem

I’m still checking what the problem with jerking is.
Could also a sensitivity issue (too sensitive) .
Is difficult to move the actuator very little by the simtools and the by the game. When I’m in the testing tool from kangaroo, I can move very precisely.

I also found that kangaroo module has problems with the center (half input value = middle position) but only if I use scaling like units65536=4096 (simtools output setting). In this case most of the actuators are off- center and the scaling are not linear to the end position.
I found a solution:
No scaling commands in the simtools output setting. But additionally i changed the units inside kangaroo to 65536=5000mV

In this case the full 16bit range will be used. And I had no more issues with non-linearity and off-center issues.

But I still have the problem that I can’t control small steps via the game, maybe this is a problem with the elite dangerous plugin only. Maybe @SilentChill have in idea here.
I whish simtools have a possibility to control the sensitivity (logarithmic vise), to have better control, a kind of mixer function to map a non-linear curve to the travel length. Maybe @value1 or @yobuddy have in idea here. I found that my joystick setup has this kind of feature but I can’t use it because this setup tool changed the HID-name of the device and this is incompatible to the elite dangerous ( device not found) then.

Hi guys,

I made a small recording to show the motor axis during test with the sine wave simtools plugin.

It is a smallest step size which can be controlled
It’s about 12to16 steps per motor axis rotation.
See this short video

this is my next project if I get time!

@kermitkong Maybe you could share all of your describe settings and your simtools settings and I can take a look and try to see what is going on. The scaling function should produce the same results whether you call it in simtools or in the units tab of describe.

Hi guys,

i realized, that i missed some filter and smoothing functions in SimTools which give my actuators a smoother reaction.
i made a separate Tool, which take all meaningfull axis-values from SimTools via UDP, it is a quick hack, i will check it how does it work and will give feedback to anybody who is interested.

Hi @kermitkong

Really nice work with your linear actuators, can't wait to see your rig up and running!! I have been toying with upgrading my 4DOF to a 6DOF with linear actuators.
One of my biggest gripes is the non-linear motion of motors/gearbox's and that Simtools doesn't have a way of out putting a non-linear curve. I'm still running simtools 2.0.0 and planing to upgrade to 2.2.5 later today.
The Image of the filter and smoothing functions above, is this a tool you have made yourself?
I very interested to know, it appears that with this tool you can apply a non linear curve to each motion.
Is this correct?

Hi @MWB

Yes, I made this small extra APP to give a non-linear effect to each of the DOF.
So I collect all the 6DOF before this is processed by the internal 6DOF-mixer via UDP into my APP. Then I add the filter function to each of the DOF (e.g. ROLL) and route this to my own 6DOF Mixer to generate the motor output values. In my case sabertooth serial command compatible.

This works absolutely nice, now I have a smoothness around low values without loosing the dynamic range to the limits.
And in elite dangerous the feeing is fantastic, is absolut a real movement feeling ,not to heavy around low changes and with anough BANG for higher changes.

I can share my APP if anybody interested....

That’s Fantastic @kermitkong, really nice work. I would be very interested in giving it a go, if your happy to share your app. I’m also using the Sabertooth. Do you also have some basic instructions?

Hi @MWB

I’m traveling to China for two weeks from today on. Give me some time to explain how you have to install the tool and how you connect the tool to simtools. I will provide some pictures ASAP. And of course will share to tools with the community.

-Kermit

Thanks @kermitkong

I’m back from China, and @SilentChill updated the plugin right in time

So I will test everting tonight and will let you know how it works.

If it works, I will post the tool here to the forum, with a quick how-to-use-it Info.

Thanks @kermitkong thats great!! will this only work with Elite Dangerous?

Should be work with any game which use a 6DOF setup, which has the sabertooth/kangaroox2 interface.

what if game doesn't use 6DOF setup?

Will work too, but only support then the # of DOF‘s which come from the game.

kewl
and did you think about vibration like in controller?
it would be huge for shot in fly game, or car crash, or...
i saw years ago something home made
it's all about flywheel
something like this
http : // digg com / video / diy-gamer-chair
?

one more thing
if game support 4 of 6 DOF's, which one will works?
or 3 of 6?
could you control it by your app or something?