Has this idea been tried yet?

A motion platform holding the seat, wheel and pedals, mounted on a pivot point, but using only 2 motors in the front 2 corners to control motion? All the ones I have seen online seem to used 4 motors, one in each corner.

BTW is there a place thread on the site that shows all the different types of setups? Thanks

jim

Your talking like a DBOX setup. ?

I mean a rectangular slab with the seat, pedals and wheel mounted to it, balanced on a pivot point (universal joint), then motion controlled by 2 actuators located on the front 2 corners only.

If the frame is mounted on a pivot point then there is no reason to use 4 motors - this 2 motor design is quite common, either front or back mounted.

I've only seen ones mounted on the back, usually near the top of the seat.

I was thinking that with the motors mounted at the front, there would be a long distance between the center of gravity pivot point, and the motor mounts, creating a lot of fulcrum length. You could move the platform easier than with rear mounted ones. Can anyone post a link of a platform like this here? I have not seen one yet. Thanks.

jim

@bsft, post ya video of ya footmover please, same concept, beware you end up with little pitch and massive roll too.

@eaorobbie , @jimmcquade

Yes it had big roll, because the motors were narrow together, but no problem, just needed a profile fix. Otherwise, spacing out the motors more than the 450mm they were at and have them say 600mm apart would shorten the original 19 deg of angle on roll and about 7 deg angle on pitch.
http://www.xsimulator.net/community...placement-sim-updated-photos-19-11-2013.3822/
heres some videos

Hope that helps.
Cheers, David.

I built a foot motor mount sim ages ago that was very successful.
Link is further down the page.
The design overcame the need for shoulder mount because of space saving reasons.

Agree with bsft, also understand that the closer you can drive near the centre of gravity, or above the less stress there will be on the motors (also tracks better). It is why you see allot of rigs being driven near the top of the seat backrest.

@jimmcquade , heres a thread of my builds, I have invited others to also add a pic of theirs for a quick reference point of sim build types
http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/different-2dof-sim-builds-feel-free-to-add-designs.5624/

Thanks so much for the help guys. I have been wanting to buy/build a simulator for about 2 years now, and I am glad I found this place. I like to build and modify things, so I have decided this will be my next big project.

I have never used a motion simulator before, but I recently found out that VRX simulators has their main office about 5 minutes from where I live (http://www.vrx.ca/). I'm going to drop by next week to try out their rigs. I couldn't possibly buy one, buy I guess it would be a good idea to try out one before I start designing my own.

I have a couple of questions I would like some opinions on, as far as what type of rig to make. I want the rig mainly for iracing. I rarely play any other games, except for DCS A-10. I'd like the rig to use house power, and be as immersive as possible for iracing. I am not so interested in getting banged around, but would like to feel the pitch and roll of the track, and acceleration. I'd want the monitors to be static as well. I'm assuming having the pedals and wheel move with the seat would give me best feel for the game?

Thanks again for the help

jim

Remember 240v can kill. Not recommend for newbie.

If you go down the 240v path just beware, not discouraging the building of them but from my research certain regulations govern the building of them, specially if plugging into a government's power grid.

Ah no having the wheels and pedals all move is like playing on an '80's arcade machine, look at on board camera shots of a driver in a real race car, nothing like everything moving. But for flight yes need to make it all move. Sorry mixing the two doesn't result in impressive movement, where a lot of commercial units get it wrong, spoken to many full time race drivers and believe it or not a good seatmover is preferred by them , as they feel it represents more accurately to whats going on in a car.

We use 110v in Canada, but I understand what you mean. So as far as seat movers go, I have very limited space behind my seated position, so it would be best if the motors/actuators were beside or at the front area of the seat. On the width, I have lots of room.

So... is it better to use actuators or motors considering I want to plug into the wall outlet, and having them mounted near the front of the seat? I don't mind paying for quality either, as long as it has a long life. Thanks

jim

I can suggest a seat mover where motors are at front.
http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/desk-racer-2dof.5326/

This is as about as compact as it gets
The Pololu JRK control boards and motors http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GEAR-MOT...LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51bd392f00&_uhb=1 have been found to be excellent in quality in motion and lasting strength.
Thats in 12v
for 110v, I think you need to look at arduino or K8055, code written for it, inverters, AC motors.
I doubt you will find a 110v actuator that I know of.
The nearest thing I could think of for a desk racer design is a SCN6
Otherwise, motors will do fine.
One thing you need to consider is how heavy you are yourself.
The desk racer is rated to 110kg passenger with 8 kg seat as well.
As for Robs point on real life videos, heres a good one, watch the driver in the corner of the video get tossed around

Although only from my perspective, the foot motor sim I built was really good even though it was a full frame. The long distance from the pivot , 700mm , gave me short sharp jolts motion and sufficiently gave good pitch feeling on a short throw on the motors. As said, the frame had big roll, but a profile sort fixed that no problem.

@Nick Moxley , you are in Canada, are you anywhere near Victoria BC?

I live just outside of Victoria, near the ferry terminal. In the hills outside of a town called Sidney. Have you visited here?

So for these DC rigs, do you have a big car battery with a charger hooked up to it to run it?

either
I have 2 sims, so one one I run a 12v 32 amp PSU in parallel with a 330CCA battery,
and on the desk racer I run 12v 40 amps PSU x 2 (one for each motor).

sorry to sound dumb, but I dont quite understand what you mean......