Showroom 2 DOf motion Sim on a Budget

Well I have a bit of a drama. Got the base all sorted out. Took the rig inside for a test run .Everything worked fine. Unplugged the arduino from the usb to make some changes and finish up up chair. I thought cool, i will be on the finished project and gaming any second.I went to plug in the boards and bang, nothing at all. I had made no changes to the software, my computer wont recognize the arduino board.It powers up the yellow L led and power led light up .I have tried another computer and the same thing , nothing.I have trolled forums for the past 2 days looking for the problem and how to fix it. Anyone got any ideas, I am so close to having it done and now i have been stopped in my tracks.

Please some one help me..

Regards Simon

all of the above.No chance of shorting it, tried new USB cable.Tried different USB port .Nothing shows up in the device manager .I just unplugged it and went to plug it back in and nothing.I am at my wits end. GRRRR!

I have read and looked on websites for hours ,I have tried everything and still no go.

@Pit , do you have any ideas?

Yep. Done it all. I have spent 2 days on it.Even did a system restore. I tried it on another computer and had the same issue."Me thinks its rooted"

I just bit the bullet and bought another card.

I have welded the motors onto the frame. Do I need to electrically isolate the motors as the polarity will change with direction? Not sure if this may be a factor. I tested the unit and it seemed to work fine.

as long as each motor is earth isolated, very important to do with wipers, as they tend to be ground to the casing of the motor, then its ok.

Yes, listen to @bsft, have you at any point open the wiper motors and isolated earth / ground?
I was looking through the project and didn't saw you mention doing it.

This can really make problems when wipers are not isolated, it is a dirty job, not simple for starters but it must be done.

@headbangersball Thanks to @eaorobbie

thanx. I will have a look

I think i have sorted it out. I no longer have continuity between the active / neutral wire and the body of the motor whereas before i did.Thanks for the heads up.

Here is the latest up date.

Made a rectangle base about 1mtr long and 490 wide.Then I found the center for the CV mounting.To assure the mounts will be strong enough. I welded 2 sections of 50 x 25 x 1.6mm RHS together and then drilled a 22mm hole in the center.How i didn't take off my fingers I don't know. I was a little difficult. I then drilled 4 holes in plate 3mm thick to act as a compensating plate and spread the load across the RHS. I then placed the shaft though the hole and sandwiched the plate on the top and bottom of the RHS and welded them into place



Next was the ladder at the back for the struts. I used some threaded rod to work out the overall rod length required.( to be replaced by gas struts later) I then used M8 connector nuts and inserted them into the frame and bolted from both sides. This is much stronger than just welding a nut to the RHS.



I realized the cams i made were not going to be strong enough so, I re engineered them with 5mm plate.You were right Nick Moxley..I also welded a M8 bolt to the set up and extended the pot mount bracket out a bit further while i was at it. This made it a bit easier for adjustment of the coupler .Leveled it all up and connected the struts, then gave it all a lick of paint.


Next i will mount the transformer and circuit boards but, first i need to cut and screw down an MDF floor on the base. I will get to that in the next couple of days.

I ordered a new Arduino card, should be here in the next few days.I have also isolated the 2 motors as per above post so, I hope i should be done in the next week or so.

Keep you posted
Regards Simon

looks good, but I am a bit concerned as to how close those rear arms are. Usually with rear shoulder mount, they are at least the width of the seat at the back of the top.
That and Id suggest turning the motors around the other way so they angle out more at the sides.
Still, give it a run and fix it later if need be.

Yeah.I was going to go that way but,I was worried about clearance issues because I wasnt sure about how far the seat would pitch and roll.I will see how it goes.Nothing a grinder and welder can't fix.

copy that
My old foot motor sim had 45mm CTC levers on it and motors were spaced 450mm apart , so it was more like 225mm from centre point of where pivot was, but pivot was 700mm from motors.
So sway was 17 deg total shwing and surge 7 deg total boot.

Here is the latest. It has been a while but, I have gone through a massive design change and reconfigure over the past few week. I ditched the con rod idea and went for a more compact design.


Old Design New Design


I lost the braces from the rear of the frame , moved the motors to the outside of the base.This let me lean the seat right back and use its full travel of adjustment. My kids like to use the chair too. This was always in the design plan. I then totally changed how the trim pots work and upgraded them to a better quality potentiometer. I stripped down the gears of the motors and replaced the shaft with an M10 threaded rod. Before I was having issues with the welds breaking from the cam and shaft.


Old Shaft New stronger set up

I used 2 M10 nuts to sandwich the cam to the shaft and I did the same with the gear.I actually had to use an M10 nut cut in half due to clearance and contact issues with the gear and worm drive.I then moved the pots to the other side. I tapped a M6 thread in the M10 shaft and used a small piece of M6 rod and a brass coupler to connect the trim pot.


Then I lined up the bracket and the pot to the motor and screwed it down to the customwood Heaps easier than trying to weld a bracket to the motor mount and getting it to line up. This way makes it a lot easier the adjust the pot and also pull apart if required.



I got it all working and now i must consider a seat belt. It is a bit more violent than i thought it would be. I will just need to tune it up and limit the axis in simtools for now. It has a lot more travel than i thought it would.

I thought i would put in a pic of my other toy too, just cause it looks cool

Keep you posted

Simon

When I did a test run it almost threw my wife across the lounge room. Me and the kids thought it was funny, she didn't.