Just started my 6DOF Rig

Hi there, i just started to work on my 6DOF rif.

i bought the main frame stuff from xxpelle a while ago from here.

it contains the motors and the control stiuff in a PC Case, all parts screwed.

i just startet to redo all the stuff with welded steel squaretubes.

the lower part is already welded and i want to bolt the motors to the corners as far as possible.

what do you think, is it better for the lever arms to point outwards or inwards ?

in the middle i want to add a wooden floor to put in all the control stuff from the PC Case with direct soldered wirings to avoid any plugged connection (these connections causes problems on my tests with the as is situation)

i want to cover it all up with some perforated aluminum sheet or so. the seat frame i didnt start yet stay tuned ! ;D

small update Frame-part now painted black and wooden bottom installed + all motors attached.

seat placed only for size comparison



next step: welding the lever arms for the motors. attach it and make a wooden mockup frame for the seat.
then do a small game test and if it works i will order the steel square tubes and put all electronic stuff onto the wooden floor.

small update. i finished the lever arms for the motors. because there is no finished stuff to buy anywhere i did them by myself.
i welded some steel plates to adjusting-rings and drill several holes in it to get different lever hights.

its not welded very pretty, i got only a electrode welder but it will do the job ;D painted black. done

what type of motors and gearbox do you use ?

i bought everything used from a user here so: Motors:
DC 24V 120W 5D120GN-RV30
Gearbox Ratio 1:50

works well, i think it its good enough for my "low budget" sim ;D

Update, just hammered a wooden frame together for testing (and yeah it works - it holds also my weight )



now, testing the movements and if the rods are not colide with any other parts ..if yes i have to alter the angles of the upper frame a bit. if its all final i order the steel square tubes to make it right

i have a question. i have everytime movements in the motors - even the rig stands still .... that causes motor noises and heat. i set already the dead zone to 10. this helps a bit

these are my actual settings .... maybe someone has a tweak ? why does the motor wants to correct something ?

i got hall sensors on all 6 motors and the mechanical gap is minimal maybe too much cable connections and stuff ? there are many connections and plugs ( i want to remove as much as possible of these with direct wirings )

set pwmmin to Zero

pwmmax to 255

set fpid to 1

set ks to zero

set kp to zero

use the sine wave and slowly increase kp till it moves correctly

Hi Gadget, thanks for the hint! i will try it later ;D great community here !!!

i noticed that the motors getting relatively warm/hot under load , does anybody use active fan cooling to bring them a bit down ?

What motor drivers do you use ? You may need to use a shorter lever arm to give the motors an easier time

I use 3x
SABERTOOTH 2X32 - should be good
I dont want to Shorten the Arms they are already relatively short. Maybe I can try the second hole in the Arms.

The original Arms from prevoius owner seems to be longer than mine

120w is not a lot of power for a 6dof - do you have a clamp meter to measure the current on the motors

yeah i know could be stronger. but it works and the pevious owner says also its "ok" ;D so for the first try it will be fine.

a bit strange is the label on the motors .... it says "120W - 24V and 10A" .... but then it must be 240 Watt, right ?

24x10 = 240 ... ?! unfortunately i have no clamp meter just a normal Voltmeter

the PSU i have is a bit oversized its 3 x 1000Watts

Edit: also important ... i just want to make everything as light as possible and also i am not very heavy ;D just about 70 Kg and i think about to add some gas dampers between the rods like for the DOFReality thing to reduce the load on the lever arms

Current state. Wood frame, Just for measurements and testing. Quick and dirty works well so far. My New moza r9 wheelbase will arrive tomorrow.

Update for today: top frame is finished - everything is welded together in steel. - not very pretty but it works :-D for tests mounted.

the front frame will be done in aluminum profiles to hold the pedals and the wheel, etc.

must be painted black and need caps for the open tubes etc....


front frame -> something like this

open to do's: put every electronical stuff into the lower frame, make a hood.
maybe adding active cooling to the motors

Looking really good. I am just starting to collect together all the kit ready to start my first 6dof rig. I had in mind a very similar design to you. I was taken with the design on the dof reality H6. It is almost identical to your build. It might be helpful

yes thats true, i wanted a really compact one. but sturdy, thats why i do the main frames in welded steel- not bolted and the front in light weight aluminum . the dofreality looks very wobbly

I think your right about that. I also noticed some pics showing it with gas struts fitted and some without. Every time I read about gas struts fitted they never seem to get a positive response. The comments usually mention that this would just limit the movement rather assist, which seems to makes sense to me.

the gas dampers --yeah i think about it to reduce the load on the motors but i read also it smoothes everything out.
the pre-owner of my parts build a kind of air dampers for the center of the rig with some air bellows to reduce the load. maybe he has more weight as i have

and as i see it now ... the load seems okay for my system even i got "only" 120Watt motors its an option i cann add every time to the rig

iam about 70 kilogramms and i estimate the load or the upper frame with wheelbase and pedals round about 35 kilogramms so 6x 120watt motors must handle about 100-110 Kg .... maybe more because of the leverforces

some air bellows! That's a new one on me
It will be interesting to see how your motors get on. 50:1 gearbox is definitely the way forward. My project is running on a bit of a smaller budget I'm afraid, I have pairs of invacare wheelchair motors with gearboxes, some at 32:1 with 300watts and some with 26:1 with 350w. Hopefully it will be OK. Time will tell for both of us I think .
Can I ask what size and thickness your box section metal base frame and upper section are made from? I have zero welding knowledge but am going to try to source the materials soon. On a steep learning curve, as ever. It's the only way to live

yeah kind of experimental this is the threat and everything is shown:

https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/my-diy-6dof-built-with-standard-parts.13504/

i was happy that he sell all the "lower" parts to me for a very good pricetag .... he has a new project with an "inifinity yaw" plattform - very interesting

maybe i can swapout the motors in the future to some stronger ones .... in the meanwhil ei will stick to the ones i have mh different wattage and gearbox ratio is difficult to sync, isnt it ?

i am more concerned about the durability of the gear boxes, the preowner has problems with brocken theet in the boxes ... maybe of weight overload ? i dont know ;D

the steel are seel square tubes i ordered cutted with the right angles in a steel shop.

nothing special , only normal steel ! - must be cheap lower frame 70x40x3 mm , upper frame 40x30x2 MM Square Tubes, the Arms that holdes the Struts are in 80x40x2 mm

please convert it to inch by yourself

iam not good in welding and i have only a low budget electrode welder but i got the job done with it