Sfx100 addition to static rig

Hi all
Been around for a while, lurking in the shadows. Had several iterations of rigs from welded tube, wood and now a mix match of 8020.
Mainly in VR, but sometimes play strategy games or chill out with arcade games, ATS or the likes.
Was going wiper motor initially but then jumped in the sfx bandwagon. But just as I had saved for the motors and was about to donate - the project has been closed, so have decided to go with the @Thanos controller and Simtools. So now more saving, as an extra expense and my GTX1080 bit the dust so decided to update my ageing 6600k to a 9700k and a 2070S

some photos and I’ll update this as I go. I also need to finish my rig cave and some further tidying of the mess

So whilst saving funds for motors I stumbled across a thread here with someone converting their 2dof wiper motor system to belt tensioners with the SMC system.
This inspired me to to do this as I have a couple of wiper linkages laying around at work, a couple of unos from old projects as well as an IBT-2.
So I have ordered some Hall effect pots and another Ibt, I will scrounge an old 800CCA battery from work and hook up to an old PSU and see if I can fry something, or break my ribs!
I’ll post some pics and so on as I progress

Be careful with the wiper motors, they have worm gearboxes, and usually they hold position when not powered... If the h-bridge get fried you might have trouble freeing yourself from a fully tightened seatbelt

Thanks for the thought, but I have made sure mine are able to be moved under load, and I will have a sacrificial force limiter that will break to avoid injury or in case it fails in a loaded state.

Good thoughts to remember tho!

So, have a collection of parts now that I can start putting together:

I have a Subaru wiper motor and a BMW Wiper motor; plan is have one on each shoulder strap. Hopefully I can get another matching motor and have 2 the same, but in the meantime it'll do.
BMW wiper assembly

I’ll be using Mode2 in SMC for the driver as I have a couple of IBT2s laying around. My new Hall effect pots arrived today and I’ll use a breadboard shield to test the motor controls etc

And for power my initial plan is to use an old psu connected in parallel with a 800CCA car battery - the psu maintaining 12v with the battery able to supply the big amps if needed. Eventually I’ll change the psu to a proper battery charger/maintainer but I’m using what I have laying around for now.

So today I wired up my Arduino, Driver, pot and motor. Now to test them in the coming days (awaiting my warranty replacement monitor) and design and print the pot mount and a mount for the Uno and driver.

Designed and printed an adaptor from the 17mm nut on the wiper motor to the 6mm pot shaft today. Printed in ABS. Will secure on the pot shaft with a grub screw and on the wiper motor nut with a bit of hot glue.
As I'm using less than 180 deg of movement, and the Hall sensor pot doesn't have an end stop no chance of damage
Need to get the motor final mounted before glueing. Also have a mount for the pot to the wiper body.

Attached is the .stl of the 17mm nut to pot shaft in case anyone finds it useful

So here is a pic of my pot mounting solution all up and done (except for the bolt & nut holding the 2 parts of the mount together)


Down side is I tested the electronics today - as soon as I hooked up the motor power the Arduino started smoking! I have double checked the wiring and it seems to be correct so maybe the IBT is bad. But who knows. I'll look at it more another time as I HATE wiring!! Good news is the Arduino seems to still communicate with the PC so hopefully...... I didn't let all the smoke out

It's Alive!!

So, redid my wiring with some better quality Dupont leads instead of the soldered wiring I had (as my existing Dupont wires were crap - only 1 in about 8 had connectivity!)

Found out that Arduinos don't like being powered by 12v as well as the USB, hence the smoke (I've only used Arduinos stand alone after being programmed so hence the dual connection) but it seems I can't have let it all out as it still works

Was getting worried for a bit as with the Kp @ 400 and PWMMax @ 255 there was still no movement. So I rechecked and rechecked and rechecked the wiring and continuity and was about to decide the IBT was dead. But bumped the Kp to 450 and it moved! Below is a short video celebrating my success - and yes, at the end my wife of 15 years does ask me how excited I am!

Just a question for staff - I applied for a DIY licence and was advised that my project did not meet the criteria as complete DIY -- that's fine as I have built the SFX from another open source plan but intend on using Thanos' controller to have 1 less software running once funds allow.
My question is which licence type do I need to buy then - DIY or Commercial?

Thanks for the reply @noorbeast
I got 2 emails declining wit different reasons so it was a bit confusing. I also didn’t realize that the harness tensioner was not covered under a free DIY licence - thanks for clearing that up.

Just to be clear, not upset or anything, was just trying to clarify what I needed to purchase for the harness tensioner that will be ok to use for the rest of the rig later on. Thanks for clarifying that I’m ok with the DIY licence

Oh, I see.
Thanks for replying, I do appreciate it. I will mount it all up soon and have a play in LFS and post my results or failures

So it works! Photos attached of it all up and running - no video as I can't drive and film! Working in LFS - needs tuning, but I'll get there in games I'll actually use
As a Q tho - as soon as I start SimCommander, GameManager crashes with a .NET exception - How do i make the 2 play nice? I have an Accuforce wheel and simvibe and I would like to keep it

So I now have a DIY licence, and have registered it. (Says DIY on the sides)
I have downloaded some plugins and installed them as per the manual and had the appropriate message saying all OK.
But in AXIS assignments in the Game Engine I do not have any other games except LFS. And in Game Manager I only have LFS. I have read, and reread the manual and had a search of the forum. I have also rebooted the PC and played all games I patched and rechecked incase they needed to be run first - no dice.
I have tried with antivirus and firewalls also turned off - no change.

What have I missed??

Have indeed - says DIY on the sides of Game Engine and Game Manager instead of DEMO

Yes, installed the plugins via drag-n-drop with Simtools closed.
No, the plugins do not appear in the above folder. Watching the [Simtools] folder when i do the drag and drop a "temp" folder is created for a moment then goes away. nothing else changes.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Simtools v2.5.1 and repeated with no change