It moves, time to start.

Ok, so over the weakend I got my arduino and servos working, but haven't tuned yet. I stole some of my sons legos to make a mock-up, and played with it a little bit, but I am confident now I can make a go of it. Not sure what direction to take yet. Would eventualy like to take this. and put it in this, to make this. I'm planning on starting smaller with a motion chair and working my way up. I have some 1/8hp reversible 115vac motors with drives that I would like to make linear actuators with, but the drives have pots to close the loop, so I need figure out how to give feedback to arduino instead of drives. The drives are highly configurable, so I'm sure I can. If I cant I will look into reversing relays with ard relay shield. got to go kids fighting in bathtub. more to come.

My drives take 4-20ma/0-5v or a 0-10v signal, the drives/motors came out of large building automation valve actuators(30inch pipe). The drives have pots so you can program the drive where to stop the motor, and end switches are the mechanical safety limits. As of right now I can not run the drives with out the pots hooked up, which is a problem because I want to close the loop at the arduino not the drive. I will get a hold of engineering support for the boards tomarrow, if I cant get it to work, I am thinking about using relays. Any reason that wouldn't work? I am planning on using these motors with a ballscrew linear actuator setup(yes I have access to a mill and lathe). If I go the relay route should I use arduino relay shield, or jrk 21v3. I know ard would be cheaper, but I am no good with code(or haven't invested the time anyways. would rather build, than type) Do your plugin downloads expire after your week, month, or year expires, or are they yours forever. Thanks for your time reading my rambling.The boy is pumped about flying with dad in his very own motion sim!

noorbeast, thanks for reply and info. I know it would be a huge undertaking for the full cockpit, thats why I would start with a motion seat and hopefully someday go big. When I built the simpit a couple of years ago, I beefed it up with motion in mind, but I used a crane scale and it came in at 400lbs. I knew that killed any chance for a simple motion platform(which is why I gave up on the motion dream). I bought the fuselage in November with the idea to make a fiberglass mold of the front cockpit(not the whole thing)and make a tree fort out of the real fuselage. I don't have a set budget for the big project. Just a big dream, but being a refrigeration mechanic and a farmer, shit seams to come together. By the way I don't know much about the boards yet, but the actuator manufacture gave me the phone number to the people who build the boards for them. hopefully they can shed some light on things since I service about 30 of these units at $6000 a piece. the ones I acquired had bent shafts due to frozen water in the pipes(not my fault). If I cant get the boards to jive, what do you think about the relay idea?

photos didnt show up for me here

I'm sorry bsft I don't know why you can't see them. I couldn't figure how to do it from my I phone, so I downloaded to laptop and then drag and drop to forum. Can I add photos from my I phone?

That's odd, I cant see them one my phone(which I could earlier), but I can see them on my lap top. I didn't do anything to the original post. Sorry guys I'll see what I can do tomarrow.

All pics show fine here.
Good luck with the 1:1 project!

Thanks guys, figured out where I went wrong. Drag, drop pic in post, then drag and drop from bottom to post, instead of just clicking on thumbnail or full size. I'm slowly learning.

ok photos show up, so what exactly are you planning to motion? the old airplane or part of the current sim you have?

I would like to do the current flight sim, but like I said before I know weight is a problem. I am working on 115v actuators, which would make that possible. I have an aces2 replica that I built over the winter, and been waiting for it to get warm so I can fiberglass the back and pan. I think the ACES2 would make a good first, seat only, 2dof/wiper project. the real fuselage is a project for down the road to work on it with my son.

You don't need a lathe to make ball screw actuators, (below picture of one I'm putting together now after load testing a prototype) although it would be handy for some parts - feedback couplings etc - although you can normally find something close. Unfortunately just using relays to control motors for a sim is not that practical, due to the motor control loop (PID) requirements. As such Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) are normally used to control AC motors (have a read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_drive ). This all becomes quite expensive, so its success depends on your budget. Agree that it is better to start with a simple seatmover, learn what is practically required and move on from there. Also just something to think about - if your motor already has a pot connected to it and can move through 180 degrees and has the torque (gearbox already fitted?), then just attach a arm to it and use that to move the sim - actuator not required (KISS).

Roger that, if its just a seat, maybe stick it on a frame like this

Hey Seat, thanks for the reply. Your ballscrew looks great. Im going to purchase my screws off ebay. Can't even compare making them to buying. Did a mill retro from leadscrew to ballscrew with ebay ones, and they worked great. The lathe just comes in handy for bushing and other parts like you said. The relays were a thought, with an arduino and a relay shield wouldn't that close the loop at the arduino and still utilize feedback from a pot. I work with vfds on a regular basis(just condemned one on a 150hp motor yesterday to the tune of $3800, cha-ching) I have access to all sizes of vfds, the problem is they are all 3 phase to 3 phase. The motors that I have now are assembled in 4000in/lb valve actuators, which is great but they take 30sec to move 90 degrees and that's too slow, unless you just smoked a lot of weed, then maybe it's too fast. So I'm looking into caniblizing the actuators for the motors and boards. I actually do have a pair of wipers motors to use for my first chair mover, I got them a couple of years ago and already fitted them with pots before I got discouraged with my arduino and shelved the project. I will keep you guys posted with what direction I take.

Looks great! That's what I had in mind, for my first