Question What is the best DC motor for 2DOF rig?

Hello again, well, i've got my head around almost everything now, though i'm still bit confused about the DC motors.. i read almost all threads but nothing direct or specific so i'd like to know the following for my future 2DOF rig.
the recommended specifications :

* Wats
* Volts
* Amps
* Torque
* All important details so i know what to search for..

_____* i am planning to use Arduino and MonsterMoto Driver ( or BTS7960 if i didn't find MM )

thank you.

The MonsterMoto and other controllers/bridges have current limits so to some extent, that choice might be iterative as other aspects of your sim firm up. Same for motor choice and other design goals.

That said, my 2dof uses the same bridge chips as the MMs and the motors I used (pgsaw crab pot worm gear motors) pull 20-30A max in general. But things to keep in mind are gentle movements are less demanding with lower peak currents and the sharp, hard, fast motions require higher currents. Torque requirements are going to depend a lot on geometry and travel.

There are calculators that allow you to input your planned rig geometry and motor information that will give you more insight. The monkey see / monkey do routine worked well for me as I was building my own rig and dissecting other people’s rigs was really instructive and informative. As long as you stay close to other designs known to work, you should be good to just mimic what others did while you learn or to validate your own ideas.

Best recommendation would be to spend time in the build threads seeing what others did. Unfortunately you will be most qualified to build less conventional designs after you get all the experience and insight from building your own first rig. Behind the gaming/simming facade, these things are really pretty complicated automated industrial controls and take a bit to wrap your head around.

Bodine 42A3BEPM-E3 Hands down one of the most powerful 12v motors you can get.

• 12V Permanent magnet motor, max 23A
• Motor produces 1/4 HP, 310 inch-pounds of torque
• Sealed and fanless with aluminum housing
• Gearbox ratio 1:60 for shaft speed of 41 RPM
• Fully reversible

It is well worth the extra expense to get a Sabertooth 2x32 motor driver to put behind your Arduino.

I used these for years on both my 3DoF and my 6DoF simpits until I upgraded to 220v AC servo drives (SFX100).

thank you very much buddy for all the info.. i learned more things, i just wish if you suggest me some motor name that by your opinion is best of 2DOF rig? my brain learns things by comparison with other types, pretty much more than just reading..

thank you again.

thank you very much , man, that was helpful i appreciate it.. if you have any more advices about motors i'd be glad to hear.

You’re quite welcome.

As Noorbeast says, motor choice depends on sim design and geometry. For my rig I was able to use the pgsaw (Not the motor brand name - it’s the source. There’s a guy on ebay named pgsaw who sells them) 50:1 worm gear motors. Mine is a full-frame 2dof with rear-mounted motors. Details at my build link.

There are more reasons it’s hard to make recommendations. Availability and sourcing of various parts can depend a lot on location and we also don’t know how much money you want to spend. Some build some very righteous rigs with high end parts and some build with wood and scrounged parts.

2dof rigs are pretty simple but there are full-frame and seat movers and in general, full-frame rigs need more powerful motors since they are moving more mass. Similarly, if you are going to be racing you may want more powerful motors to better simulate bumps and curbs or whatever. Flying is generally smoother and slower and doesn’t need as powerful or fast motion. You want to have something in mind to know which way to go when you have choices.

There’s a lot of experience lurking here but to get specific and good/useful help, you will need to work through more of the design process. The best thing would be to look through the build threads and see what fits for you and what doesn’t. That will really narrow down the questions and choices. A lot of the 2dof rigs use the pgsaw motors. They have their own issues and even come in at least two gear ratios, but they are very popular. Many use the MonsterMoto bridges to drive them.

thank you man,, i've downloaded them and will use as soon as my RC rig get's complete

thanks a lot, yes i want car sim. with above average motors. i have all tools and metal and everything that i need in home or near home, only the motors are difficult to find, the reason i wanted to know which motors people are using is not to get 1:1 similar but just to know for which similar specifications to search for, now i have clearer vision thanks to your replays.. so thanks again.

A pair of wheelchair motors and gearboxes should do the job

Try and get some that are at least 400w each if not more

oh thanks man, that's great tip, that would save me long order times and money .. i should find some of these here

and thanks for the watt info, some said 70 or 100 is enough but idk i think that's too weak

Buy the most powerful motors you can find. If you check my build thread i am using 100a motor drivers that can take 200a for a short time

wow, i wish i can find anything close to that,,!
i am super motivated now as my RC build is going in the right direction will post about it in few minutes ..

I have used a little different motors and they are very strong. You can see here https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/simlab-gt2-to-2dof-conversion.13948/
Aliexpress search: https://es.aliexpress.com/wholesale...0520210541&origin=y&SearchText=250w+24v+75rpm

Some other users have also used them in their project and they were also satisfied.
The mounting points are a little different. Those motors are not worm drive (I actually like that because there is less back-lash but needs to be energized to maintain the position (easy with simtool)). Also when designing the electronics I would recommend to fused the motors for protection since they are expensive (i did mine).
Also pay attention to implement diode to avoid tripping the power supply (valid for any motor).
I am using IBT2 motor drivers which ar ok-ish, but a little more expensive alternative as i hear is much better alternative to those drivers https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/ibt-2-motor-controllers.15765/
IBT2 pwm drivers has a tendency to turn off under heavy load as you can also read in the forum in some posts.

thank you very much buddy, that was really helpful, appreciate it.

Hi sir, for motor should be worm gear selft locking?? Or can use worm gewr non selft locking sir??

I believe the bodine motors are a spurgear not self locking.
If a wormgearbox is self locking or not depends on his ratio, its got all to do with the tooth angle insite the gearbox, from i 50 and above they become self locking

Yes sir, that means I can use this worm gear dc motor that is not self-locking, right? because I'm afraid I'm going to break my bts7960 while maintaining the angle of the movement position, sir, because it's not self-locking. ok i will try it tomorrow. thanks again sir.

What is the best gear ratio for your motor? This is also a trade-off.

With a high ratio you can have self-locking and the motor can be smaller. I understand that the biggest advantage of self-locking is that the motion system is in fixed position when you turn off the power. If self-locking is necessary to relieve your motor driver then I think your motor driver is under-sized.

With a low gear ratio i.e. 25:1 you can create greater speeds and thereby simulate higher accelerations.
Provided your motor is powerful enough.