2dof Seat Mover - Feedback Wanted

Having finished the kid's 2dof Flight Simulator (http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/2dof-cubby-house-flight-simulator.5992/#post-64148) I'm now moving on to creating one for myself to place in the man cave.

I've drawn up the following plans (on Google Sketchup) and would be very appreciative for any feedback about the idea - to ensure that nobody can see any gross mistakes - before I drop the saw onto the first piece of pipe.




It's a seat mover only - the screens, steering wheel and pedals won't move. The shifter and handbrake are attached to the seat base and will move with the seat.

It's being built as 3 components - the base (red), seat (blue) and front (yellow). The idea is that the front (yellow) piece - which holds the screens, wheel and pedals - will be able to move along the base so it's adjustable for different users.




The rectangles hanging off the side of the seat are to hold the shifter and the handbrake.



The odd dimensions for the middle piece - which holds the steering wheel and pedals - are to permit 30 degree angles which should be easier to cut.

They're colour coded to allow easier identification of the pieces on a cutting plan.



With these dimensions it will mean that the bottom of the connecting rods will end up around 800mm apart at the bottom and 550mm at the top.



The back of the seat sits 200mm from the back of the base which gives the connecting rods an angle of around 10 degrees looking from behind and 15 degrees looking from the side.

It would be appreciated if anyone could voice any glaring mistakes with this plan. I'd prefer to benefit from the experience of others, before I start cutting, rather than uncover mistakes after it's too late. All feedback welcomed. Thanks in advance.

looks fine here, just make sure you balance it right and put het pivot in the right balance point, then sit it forward an extra 10mm. This allows a little lean back on the motors, not too much, just a tad.
Otherwise, all looks good

Thanks bsft and noorbeast.

I should have mentioned that the pivot probably isn't in the right place on the drawings. I'll work out the balance point once the frames are built. I'll be sure to weld it forward of the balance point as suggested.

Noorbeast, it's pretty simple to cut down the T bar. Do you happen to know what angles are best for the connecting rods? I could use the program to easily work out the optimum length for the T bar if I knew what angles I should be aiming for. At the moment I've got 10 degrees looking from the back and 15 degrees looking from the side. Any idea what the optimum angles are?

If I cut the T down to 400mm it will get me 15 degrees looking from behind and somewhere around 14 degrees looking from the side.




Going down to 300mm will increase the angles to 18 degrees from behind and 16 degrees from the side.



I'm assuming the 300mm version isn't too extreme?

My seat mover was 15 deg back and 15 deg out to the side and it moved 135kg bloke no problem. I am only 85 kg

Thanks again noorbeast and bsft.

I've got to admit that a bit narrower would be better so I'll muck around with the width and the angles for a while and see what I can come up with.

I did have the motors facing inwards but it saved on tubing to have them facing out. I think I'd need to widen the base frame to have the motors facing inwards - even though the overall width would be thinner. This would mean I'd need another length of 50mm x 25mm - and would have a lot of waste. That said, I have already have plenty of waste in the 25mm x 25mm lengths so making it a bit longer won't be an issue.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll have a play and see what I end up with.

From memory, I think my t-bar was 450mm across and the base was 750mm. I dont remember exactly how far the motors or levers poked out

Just to complete the conversation ... I had another measure of the real-life seat and motors - which aren't exactly to scale in the model - and have decided to just cut down the T piece to 400mm and leave the rest of the frame alone. In real life this will give angles almost exactly 15 degrees from both directions and fits nicely in the available space. I think it's good enough to unleash the drop saw. Thanks again for the feedback!