2 DOF flight sim

Hello to everyone. I'm following this forum from long time ago and many of the builds you guys do. My own simrig was inspired mainly in two users: scruck and one from the MSFS2020 forums. I started the construction last december trying to do that as most cheaper as possible but as early as I started I noticed that some of the crucial “things” in the structure couldn’t be done with the economy in mind. I finished it in april. And now, after six months, I'm "demolishing" and trying to transform it in a 3DOF with heave.

First of all, the materials I used:

Electric-Electronics

• 2 x 250W - 30Nm - 75rpm motors
• 2 x IBT-2
• 2 x 480W Power supply
• 1 x Arduino Uno
• 2 x Hall effect rotatory sensors
• Old Mini-ITX PC Case

Mechanical

• 1 x USB Hub
• 2 x laser cutted motor levers
• Some meters of 35x35mm squared steel tube
• Some pieces of plywood
• 2 meters of 80x80mm extruded aluminium bar

Software

• 
  
  
  • FlyPT Mover
  • SMC Utils
  • MSFS 2020

Other materials like cables, screws, peripherals etc

I builded the 600x600mm base with other partner but he abandoned this project after a while. The first intention was build a 2DOF for sim racing but after he gone I started to be a flight simer and I restart this build keeping in mind use it for flight simulator. The first problem was that that base was designed for move only the chair and I wanted to move all the structure so the first solution was elevate the structure to a point where the pedals don’t touch the floor when the structure moves forward. First error. The wheight was very far from the pivot point and the force were too much for the motors and electronics due to the lever effect. Furthermore the playwood that I used as structure floor was too flexible and when I push or pull the yoke the playwood blents.




The first tests was with a MDF levers and LFS demo.





Then I thought in build an iron/steel structure taking advantage of the frame of an old mattress. In this case I could take that frame and cut it, soldered it, and build a metallic structure in the workshop where I work. The problem with this kind of metal is that it is thin and it is painted so first I needed to remove the painted layer and then solder it but I have a very very poor skills soldering and that thin metal was a big problem.



Finally the iron levers arrive:



And some tests was done:





Finally I stop trying to do it by the cheapest way and spent some money to make a "well thinked alluminium structure". I changed the motor levers and soldered four legs to the base to raise it up and install the chair colser to the pivot point and the result was a very strong and balanced structure. Also I trashed the car seat (that was very very heavy) and install a office chair with a backet base. After some paint work the structure looks more professional.




At this point I started to think how to attach the Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo, the Thustmaster Sidestick and the pedals. The pedals was the easyest part to solve but I wanted a small desk to put on there the yoke and in the downside the throttle levers. For the Sidestick i designed a piece of playwood and then i attached it to the left armrest of the chair. Both the desk and the playwood was lined with blue leatherette.



When the whole build was mostly finished I was anxious to do the first tests and well, that was absolutely incredible, what a experience! After some tests I noticed that the chair was not well balanced and i did some adjustments to balance it.

After the build and tests I needed to disassemble all and transport it to the attic/garret where it would be placed to.

Then i already noticed the digusting feel of the backlash and I solved it installing two tracktion sprincs in the frontside of the base.



With some woodwork skills I also made a fake-blackbox to put in the electronics



And finally after the final test and adjustments with FlyPT mover I got it.






I wish you like it and help you to build your own sim rig if you If you haven't built it yet, I will help you as I can.

Very cool this 2DOF motion sim of yours I have a couple of questions if it's not a problem:
1. Could you please show or give the settings of the sinics in SMc3 utils?
2. Could you please share the settings file of FlyPtmover ?
3. how did you get such a setting of the motors that both arms are pointing to the center ( I don't know if it is understood what I am writing about).
4. What voltage do you supply the motors with 24V ? did you lower the voltage in order not to burn IBT2.


Greetings

Dzien dobry Attyla!

Thanks for your reply. I installed two 480W power supplies working independent for each motor. I didn't understand your third question.

Attached in .zip (can't upload the conf and .mover files) here are my settings files for SMC and FlyPT.

DEFINITIU.mover is my final FlyPT configuration, the best conf for me.
conf file is the smc configuration file
I also attach a screenshot of the smc configuration.

Cheers!

I've not yet started building my frame, and I'm curious as to the degrees of motion for pitch and roll.... what do you suspect is the greatest pitch and roll needed for regular GA aircraft in VR, and have you tried a combat sim like IL-2? I plan to use that on my rig as well and I'm wondering if the hard maneuvering would benefit from greater rotation?

Thanks for the reply and the configuration files.
I think I'm not very clever, I ran FlyPtmover with your configuration file, enabled SOURCE LOOP >Roll speed as the motion source and with the motors set as in the video below

the movement is correct ( when the left arm works up the right arm works down)
while when I turn the motor as in the second video

with the same motion source (Roll speed) for the motion sim the motion is incorrect both arms work up or down at the same time.
I can't reverse the power supply to the motor because then the motor arm when I turn on the power supply sets to maximum up and shuts down.
I am missing something in the configuration but can't understand what ?

Greetings

Update:
I replaced the hall sensor in one motor with a regular 10kOhm potentiometer , after changing the polarity of the power supply to the motor I had the same situation as on the hall sensor that is, when the power supply was turned on the arm swung to the maximum and shut down the motor due to exceeding the parameters.
In the second step I swapped the places of 5V and GND in the potentiometer and suddenly everything started to work correctly, the arm swings were in accordance with the movement set in SMC3 Utils. I connected the FlyPt mover program and after setting the roll motion the arms of both motors work alternately one up the other down.
Now the question is how to get the same effect using hall sensor ? its inputs are clearly marked 5V and GND can I connect them in reverse ? I am a total layman in electronics

I have the lever with two holes, one at 85 mm and other at 10,5 mm (distans from the shaft) and I was using the 85mm one. That makes a linear distance of 130mm for the angle of work. The motor levers are instlled at 450mm of distance to each other and it makes bout 16º for roll and the levers and the pivot point are at 380mm making about 19º for pitch. That, for VR, is more than enough, consider that in VR we don't need big angular movements to cheat the brain and, furthermore, if you build a structure and configure it to develope big movements the VR motion compensation will be mandatory.

I don't play combat games but in FS you can fly a caza and some acrobatic planes that makes big G forces and my structure moves like crazy, is funny but I don't like it too much, maybe configuring different FlyPT profiles for each kind of plane to resolve some exagerated movements will be the sweet spot.

I don't know what is happening, in my motion rig it was working properly but I never used the loop option in FPT, I configure the motors in SMC and then touch some configs (test-error) to find my sweet spot. My FPT configuration is based on the Roman Design one, you can find it in the MSFS forums, he shared it there (mine is he's config adapt to my own build). See if the motor config is properly configured in the actuators tab.

Cheers!

Thanks, I'd think the further the seat can pitch back, the more simulated "G's" you'd feel, but I also realize you need more motor strength, etc... I just wonder what that sweet spot is. While I haven't tried it in VR, I did just go to Disneyworld and was inspired by "Soarin'" and the Avatar ride... I tried to get an idea of how much the platforms were tilting but it was difficult to tell with almost no point of reference outside of the screen.