6 DOF from scratch

Meeting Ski-Doo !!! For Winter time ...We have the best trails and Panoramic places !

Gracias, estuiardo espagnol en mi telephone. No say escribo, poqui poquito ablo. Me hablo Pedro!

Or we could do some quad, but the trails are not yet frozen an we would get caught in mud pools.

Or we could do simulators!

Prepare the money for your flight, because I lifted up the front of my seat, making the back screws supports squeal and crack, and I could play a full 2 hours without any discomfort. Such a small change with a few tie-wraps and all is good... For now.



The motion cancellation worked beautifully. But I have to find a better way to attach my controller as the support already cracked everywhere and I cannot charge it installed this way. I also need to test that cancellation with something more demanding like Dirt Rally.



Calibration you ask? I did not even got close to do anything.

LOL! Oh! Man. I was wondering what I was able to say with my super Espagnol. Now I know that it is about nothing. At least, it's better than my English.

Tried a new controller attachment today, but I could not test it yet.



Because I could not get the rig to move with Dirt Rally (even if I could play the game), and I could net get the suspension to work with Assetto Corsa (alway at the bottom).

It's time do change the rig image in Simtools.



Why is calibration so hard?
Too many software working together.

the beast is looking like a scorpion!
hopefully ill get into tweaking games and profiles.
unfortunately, i am still assembling.. im at the mercy of my coworker who is going to help me weld the top frame

but i was able to make progress in the wind simulator!
keep going @Pierre Lalancette !

I got Assetto Corsa running with all the stuff (suspension, movements, rmp, noise), and for a first calibration, I think it's quite good.
I made a movie, but I did not have the time to upload it.
Anyway, the overhead controller turned out to be shaking. I need a way to set it firmly on the body of the rig.
I understand now what poeple say about small vibrations not working with motion cancellation.
I was totally unable to start Dirt with motion cancellation, or rig movement.

At least, the new seat position is comfortable.

This is the video I had no time to post. As you can see, motion cancellation has hard time with small vibration.



So I try another position today for the motion cancellation controller. Firmly in place, it's seen by both lighthouse bases. Now, it's time to test.



I hope it won't be to intrusive of my personal space.

Yesterday, my friend came over to test my sim.

Is first impression was how good looking the sim was. Is was odd for me as I do not care much about the look. I guess that a nice working piece of mechanic looks good to any mechanical guy. He also said that the seat was really comfortable. He's the one who made me buy it.

We tested Assetto Corsa a lot. Since he's doing racing in real life, he could tell me how it compared. We tested with motion compensation, without, and all we could in the little time we had. He drove, and I was adjusting value alongside. A really productive way to do thing.

Dammit, the site lost half of my post...
Will have to write if again...

As I wrote before that got lost between two publicity, is that we tested cancellation and without.
He preferred without, as the drifting in the image was less distracting than the vibration at high speed. We also removed the noise value from Assetto, still to reduce vibration.

Also, the controller was not leveled, and rotation are not corrected. The horizon was too high, so we turned of the cancellation.

Pimax needs to incorporate rotation in the seat reset, and add a adjustable filter to remove the small vibration noise.

Still, my friend seamed to had good time.

i want to buy tickets to your 6dof ride! @Pierre Lalancette

If I make my get together and you can make it to the province of Quebec, you'll be welcome to joint.
No date set yet.

Last week was strange. It started smoothly with me playing Elite Dangerous at least 4h every day, mining Void Opal in asteroid fields, boosting my ship, visiting space engineers for extra boost and all. It was quite a blast and the simulator performed like a champ.

So, I decided it was time to add the shift gear to the rig. I first started to evaluate the hole I had to make. Soon, I realize it would be huge hand I could not put a joystick back on the plate. So, I did another plate instead.



I was only missing the clips to fix it to the frame, but I had no plastic left. So, I used the joystick attaches



Now, if I want to use the joystick, I just unclip the shift gear and clip the joystick (after printing the attaches).



Yet, I tested a new position for the motion cancellation controller. There, it's not invading my personal space. Unfortunately, it was unstable as it seams there ain't enough triggered sensor by the lighthouse base. The last position was way better (for the tracking). For now, I leave it off.



This is when I decide to invite my mechanical friend to test it. He's the one who designed the frame of my actuator based on my wood prototype. He drove it like he drives his car. I understand now why is car is always broken.



Indeed, he broke my simulator by pushing the limits, hitting walls in Assetto Corsa. As a result, 0ne of the attache at the end of the actuator popped out of its socket. The simulator felt on the other side and one carbon tube took the beating.



End of the session. I did not have time to present Elite. On the other side, the actuator felt and hit the computer. One of the structure tube had broke on the impact.



The limit switch trigger was broken too. But I had no plastic to print it again.



Ding-Dong, later that day, two day before Christmas. Perfect timing.



I had a few part left. Using my imagination and a lot of glue, I could repair my actuators.



Even though I could print the broken part, I decided to glue it back. It was simpler and should hold long enough.



The rig is back together. All forces as been tested. I didn't do a run yet, but I am confident it is good as new. I will ride it later, after Christmas, with a lot less intensity than my friend.

Happy Holiday to everyone!

Nice story but bad result you need to make sure all those critical components are nice and secure.

Are you actually up to full power yet ?

I was indeed. I still am.

The bad result came from using a more powerful car than the one for calibration. Trying to do 360 and hitting walls in series, not knowing in VR how bad it treated the rig.

If it wasn't for the top that came out, it would have probably been fine. But I let him be a little too rough with it. I would never treat my rig that hard. I have a better idea on how far I can push it.

I had played Elite the whole week, and it performed without a single problem at full power.

My other friend is coming back Friday and we will calibrate it for Assetto Corsa a bit more conservative, to say the least.

I am thinking about stronger carbon tubes, different attaches to the ball joints and platform. But until I get a budget for those parts, I secured all the possible failures I could think of.

Bottom end story, it was a bad manipulation of a powerful and possibly dangerous contraption.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt. Thanks to the safety panic buttons.

owe man
im sorry to hear of your 6dof incident.
im think to reduce the stroke of the actuators until i am fully competent of my setup.
depending on actuator position, i have seen my top frame traverse an actuator almost to a horizontal plane.

i saw everyone using 25mm OD x 23mm ID, i thought it was indeed "thin"..
i hope the 25mm OD x 20mm ID tubes that i use holds up when i begin to use the 6dof.

at this time i am building a base frame cover/ low table to cover the batteries & electronics in case the top frame fails.

hope to finish painting in the next 2 days so i can get a welder, and harden some joints and add joystick brackets..

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

hey @SilentChill , may i ask what does it mean for @Pierre Lalancette 's 6DoF to be "up to full power"?

He means that the power of the motor in SMC3 are at full (255). At first, I put the max power in SMC3 at 128 (half) to make sure I did not destroy my rig with such strong power.

I got too confident. I put them back at 255 and let someone push the rig quite hard (too hard).