Need help on my real car project: Alfa Spyder

Hello to everyone,

before posting this thread, I searched and read countless pages from members. I am a lot informed about simulators by your way....but of course I have to improve myself with your helps.

I am owning a little PS3 game center and I want to put 1 or 2 motion simulator for PC.
My prior project is to transform a real sports car to a simulator. For that I am planning to buy a 96 Alfa Romeo Spider.
I am planning to use G27 steering and pedals but I will make a connection to original Alfa steering wheel and pedals. The original shifter will be replace by Thrustmaster TH8 manuel shifter. 3 big Led screen on front of the car, having game sound from upgraded stereo of the car will complete the details.

I will remove the suspensions and fix the actuators (with custom made adapters) to the place of the suspensions. The car weight is 1370KG, I am planning to remove the engine, transmission, radiator and everything that will be unnecessary on simulator. Like this I realize that the weight will be reduce to approximately 1000Kg . In my project the wheels will stay on ground, the chassis will have the motion.
Thus, wheels and swing arms weight will be decreased this way and approx. 200Kg less weight on chassis.
I spoke with a local manufacturer of actuator who are producing custom spec on demand.
So I have no worry to find the actuator that I will need. But of course there is a problem...these actuators have servo or step motor configuration that I don't know the wiring diagram right now.

I am planning to use G27 steering and pedals but I will make a connection to original Alfa steering wheel and pedals. The original shifter will be replace by Thrustmaster TH8 manuel shifter. 3 big Led screen on front of the car, having game sound from upgraded stereo of the car will complete the details.

So...regarding my questions...I will be pleased if you can aswer me as detailed as you can.

1- What Hardware should I use (Arduino? JRK? MonsterMoto?..ect..)
2- What will be the setup for 4actuator on each wheel on simtools?
3- What should I use for coding?
4- What will be the important things that comes to your mind that I must take care?

Thank you in advance

Using actuators you will fail for sure. Such a high weight needs so strong motors. If AC is not your favorite power source only winches can lift such a weight (or other commercial parts which cost tons of bucks).

hydraulics minimum.
Or big AC motors, arduino or K8055 and inverters.
Get ready to spend BIG dollars
And how are you going to get it around?
what must you do to take care? mmmmmm . big insurance policy

The main thing you will need is very deep pockets, all the best with your project.

Hi!

I have two remarks on your project
1/ If the sheels stay in contact with the ground, you will get very poor tilt/inclination...
and simulators uses inclinaison changes to mimic the inertia forces

in your real car on the road, you have small tilt but the curbs or acceleration induce forces on your body, inner guts, flesh pressure...
in simulator, you can only rely on inclination's acceleration: too small inclination=too weak forces

you will end with a very expensive toy like a moving children's carousel ...but not a simulator!

2/ G27 would be toyish inside your real car (small diameter, small torque), rather use a DIY direct drive sterring wheel!
http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/rfr-steering-wheel-direct-drive-by-racingmat.6309/

Hi,
thanks to everyone for their opinion.
The simulator that I want to built is something like that
I agree with "RacingMat" for poor tilt/inclination but this is not for professionals...this will be something as children's carousel as he said but much better... for adults players....this will be for show and rent use.
Concerning the actuators, you can see a technical sheet attached. The EMS32 model has 4410N (450Kg) for Fx load and 500mm/s of speed. The length and stroke is long but they can produce a custom dimension. So the chassis of the car without wheels and swing arms weight will be approximately between 800Kg and 1000Kg. Each actuator have to loaded approximately between 200Kg and 250Kg I think. I am not sure but these actuators have to be sufficient.
My budget for motion parts is $4000 ...if someone else have another idea to let this real car motion...an easiest and cheapest way please let me know, I will appreciate.
One more thing, the G27 is simple and cheap ready to go steering set. The steering wheel is small diameter but I will not use as it is, I will connect it to the original steering of Alfa as they did on the video.

I can work on pneumatics, hydraulics or AC motors but I need someone who can track me for what I must buy and how to set them (codes, electrical wirings). Is there a hero?

I have not seen anyone leveraging some concepts they have on their lowriders.
I mean look at these absolutely ridiculous jumps of them cars:

Of course they are not close-loop but powerful and relatively cheap for sure!

Maybe time to look into that?

Oh I see what you want to build, you are looking at this the wrong way, all you need to do is replace the current suspension dampeners with actuators,while keeping the car springs, way less power would be required - I would also disconnect the sway bars if fitted.

SeatTime you are right, I am just thinking the same think...without moving the springs, the actuators will be less loaded and of course without swaybars.
For example we can tilt the chassis of a car only by lifting from on side of the fender or sitting on. We are not spending much power to do that. A powerful actuator like EMS32 (on my previous attachment) can do much better tilting I guess.
I think that the mainly problem is to drive these step motorized actuators. One on each swing arm, what I will be the coding and what I need to use as hardware (Arduino or JRK).
Thanks

I still would recommend removing as much weight as you can from the car as its the inertia that you have to worry about not just the static weight of the car. You may then have to use different rated springs as the weight of the car decreases to keep the required static ride height. Unfortunately this will require lots of measurement/trial and error. You may be surprised with what size motors you can get away with. Cannot help you with code for steppers - don't use them, but I have seen Arduino drive steppers (although allot smaller then you require). Do you have to use steppers? - as I don't think you could build a motion system using commercial actuators, drivers, controllers and power suppliers anywhere close to your $4K budget. Even just one 60kg rated SCN-6 actuator is close to $1k delivered.

I have seen these systems in action and they do have allot of power, but they are so noisy...


Still love ball screw actuators as they are so efficient (around 90%). Just look at the math.

T = L P/5.65, where T = torque (lb-in.), L = screw lead (in.), and P = axial load, (lb).

@Mamati :
without power-assisted steering running on your real car, the steering will be incredibly stiff
and if you remove everything, you will get a loosy wheel

how will you get FFB on your real wheel??
a simulator without FFB steering wheel is poor...

@value1 : Whoah, I like the last car @5:30 in your video Thks

SeatTime,
No I don't have to use steppers, but the Electromechanical cylinder can work with stepper or servo motor only. So I have to choose one that will be the easiest. The mechanical part isn't difficult for me, I will solve it somehow. I am stuck on one subject; which type of electromechanical cylinder must use (stepper or servo powered) and how to control 4 of them (each on one swing arm) with simtool (which hardware and coding).

Racing Mat,
the wheels won't be twisted (as on the video) I will cancel the steering membranes and connect the G27 steering box directly to the original car steering...like that without stiffness, FFB will be received on the original steering wheel.

To summarize:
I am stuck on one subject; which type of electromechanical cylinder must use (stepper or servo powered) and how to control 4 of them (each on one swing arm) with Simtool (which hardware and coding).

Many thanks

A static / motion sim would absolutely be the best use of an Alfa Romeo I have ever seen. Putting in an engine and wheels on those things is a waste of time