Hoddem's Aluminum Rig V2 (3-DOF, SFX, VR)

hey mate!
absolutely insane work you did there.
so clean and solid.

please post a video of this simulator in action.

good
How are your progress?

Hey guys,
I promise I am still going strong on the simulator, but just like many I have had some significant life changes lately. I will get pictures up soon, but I got my monitor done, stream deck installed and transducers mounted. Look for a picture dump soon.

Went through all what you have posted, lots of cool stuff done! I can only encourage keep on going and I will be waiting for next pics dump

good

I hope the changes are for the better

we can't wait to see your work

Greetings

Teaser update, I have been neglecting the CAD model for a while now. I am almost caught up minus the shifter/hand brake and some other small details.




If you want to checkout the full 3d model I have it posted on grabcad.

https://grabcad.com/library/racing-simulator-2020-1

Hoping to get real pictures up soon

Hi. Can you please share those stls for seat angle spacers and mounts for your logitech keyboard? TNX

@iLLuac4

Attached, Keep in mind that I had to use two different height spacers to get my seat level because the bracket was installed incorrectly from the factory. Pick the spacer set you want and then use your slicer to create a mirrored copy.

TNX

Well I said I had a bunch of pics to drop and I'm finally getting around to doing it.

First up is my stream deck housing.

I looked at a few different designs on thingiverse and none of them really fit the bill so I decided to model my own.



I sourced the required hardware, mostly 4-40 screws and a few 8020 extrusion parts.



The main case has tabs that are attached with 4 long screws.





The stream deck has a lip that will sit on the top of the case edge and nest inside a channel on the bezel. the cord will go out the back of the case through one of the slots.





Lots of hardware, its definitely not going anywhere.


The swivel mount design was copied directly from an 8020 adjustable angle joint.


Here it is installed on the rig.




I am pretty happy with the results, It is rock solid and should be awesome for setting up sim sessions.

Next up I finished mounting all 4 corner transducers. This ended up being a bit more of a project then I planned. In the original configuration the front transducers hit the vertical extrusion for the pedal tray. I ended up removing the pedal tray and then moving the extrusion back about a half an inch.

I am using a 4 hole gusset to get the transducer out a little further.


Originally I was using a 8020 brand extrusion cover as a spacer, but I changed to a custom one that covers the entire length of extrusion.








The rear transducers are sitting as close to the actuator as possible along the main rail.

These 4 transducers will simulate the tires, I will probably add a few more later for engine vibrations and other effects. Right now I am thinking of mounting 1 or 2 to the seat itself and maybe one under the pedals.

6 Point harness mounting.
I struggled with this one, but in the end I think I have a pretty good setup.

Shoulder straps are mounted to the rear cross member with eye bolts. I still have lots of adjustment, but they do need to be adjusted in the seat whenever the seat position changes.



Side straps are mounted to the rear seat bracket bolts. Again lots of adjustment in the seat and they don't need to be adjusted when the seat position changes.



This is where it got a little complicated. I originally mounted the sub strap to the frame, but it was pretty clear that that wouldn't work because any time I changed seat positions the sub strap needed to be adjusted. I also tried mounting it to the same rear seat bracket bolts, but it ended up being too short and had some funky angles and twists.

I decided to make some cross members that would mount across the lower mounting bolts on the seat bracket.

I found some steel conduit and proceeded to pinch it into the shape I wanted with a vice.



A couple of holes later and I had a pretty nice cross member.



My original plan was to put the cross member on the rear mounting bolts and just go from there to the seat.



The strap ended up being too long so I added a second cross member and strung the strap from the rear around the front and through the seat.




Again, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I have the sub strap at the maximum length and it is about perfect if not a little too long for me (6' 210lbs) so It should fit most of the guys I plan to have in the sim.

The seat is back on now, I have probably put it on and taken it off 10 times now so I hope I am done.

Touch Screen

As I said in a previous post I picked up a pretty nice 13" commercial touch screen for next to nothing. My plan is to have it front and center on the rig just for navigation outside of VR.

First hing I did was make some 3d printed locating brackets. These are probably overkill, but they should help stabilize the monitor during motion and use.



Next I had to get the spacing just right so the monitor would sit flush with the front of the wheel deck extrusion and could attach to vertical extrusions from the rear.

I made a 3d printed spacer.



I used 4 corner brackets with some long hardware as a makeshift monitor mount.



Next I added my two pieces of extrusion. These will attach to the wheel deck extrusion.



Finally I attached It to the wheel deck. I used corner brackets, but at some point I will use hidden fasteners for this.



I didn't get a good picture, but I did add my switch box from the old simulator on top.


I will need to trim down the vertical extrusions to get the switch box right on top of the monitor and also remake the switch box to bring it out about 3/8" to be flush with the monitor.

Shifter and Ebrake

Not much here, This assembly came directly off of my old rig. I did decide to change the mounting system slightly to give me both forward/back adjustment as well as up/down.

I had to cut a new piece of extrusion and mount it to the existing shifter plate.


Then I mounted the whole assembly to the side of the main beam using two 4 hole corner brackets.





again it seems to work fine.

Here is where I am at now.





I think I have almost everything mechanically done and am ready to move onto the electronics side.

Unfortunately I need to move this thing from the basement out to the garage which will require a good portion of it to be disassembled. I have that on the docked for this weekend and as soon as it is out there I will start on the wiring.

Congrats, looks really clean and neat!

great job. well done

Very beautiful rig Hoddem.

Its amazing how easy it is to lose months on this project. In the last update I had just finished assembling the frame in the basement. Not long after my last post I decided I couldn't go much further without moving my rig to the garage, so I began the process of disassembling the rig.

I kept it as intact as possible, I even left the actuators on. After a lot of coaxing I was able to get my wife to help me carry the frame out to the garage.



With a clean workspace I began reassembling my rig in its new home. I picked up a 4x6 horse stall mat from tractor supply to use as my base which I think looks pretty nice.



While I had it apart I took the opportunity to fix a few things. I wasn't happy with the way the touch screen monitor was mounted so I modified the cross beam to allow for hidden fasteners to be used. I also trimmed the supports for the monitor to close the gap between the control box and the monitor.








There were a few other small things that I fixed, but I didn't get pictures.

I hooked up what I could to do some testing and ran into several issues. first up my steering wheel wasn't responding and after some trouble shooting I could only figure it was the slip ring not working. so I pulled the steering assembly out and disassembled it. The way it is assembled I have to de-solder the small pcb in the quick disconnect.



Some quick testing with a multi meter and I had no continuity on the 5v pin of the usb connection. I carefully removed the shrink sheathing and found the break in the wire.



I soldered the wires back together and covered them with heatsrink. A quick test with my computers showed that everything was back working and I was happy I didn't need to buy a new slip ring.



My next problem was that I wasn't getting any response from my usb devices inside my control box and after several minutes of playing around I noticed that I was getting a spark every time I connected my usb hub to my pc. Somehow my powered hub failed and I had power on the ground side of the connector. At his point I assumed that everything connected to that hub was now fried, mainly my OSW controller. That is about where I gave up, which was a real bummer because I had just renewed my iracing subscription for 3 months. and never even turned a lap.

To Be Continued