3D Printed 6DOF prototype with Arduino and Servo's

Hi, I am a new member from the Netherlands and looking for a way to contribute my project to this forum. I have learned a lot the last two weeks from this forum, so will put my progress on this site soon (hopefully today). This because I had realy trouble to figure out all the in's and out's of simulation projects etc. and want to help people like me who want to build their own simulator. (I plan to build a real scale model later)

I first build a prototype using my 3d printer with 6 servo's and a arduino, changed some code I found on this forum to suit my build. Yesterday it moved according to the output of the LFS game for the first time. Very exciting. At this point I am diving into all the settings of Simtools GameEngine and GameManager.
Before I forget, thanks to everyone who inspired me to get it this far. Credits to all members I learned from (I'll try to mention their names if I can remember them).
Every further feedback from members of this forum is welcome.

I've tried to upload a picture but can’t. This is probably because of the spam protection ?!

Ok, something about my inspiration: A couple of weeks ago I bought a HTC VIVE (Virtual Reality glasses) and tried it out with some demo’s. A friend of my plays ‘War Thunder’ on Steam. When I tried it with my VIVE on, the experience was overwhelming. For the first time, I could look around from my cockpit to the left and right etc. SUPER COOL. When I was a kid, I use to play a lot with Microsofts Flightsimulator, and had to buy powerful computers everytime ;-(
The disadvantage of flying with the HTC VIVE is that your eyes and body are not experiencing the same thing. This results in nausea. I have started to build my simulator chair to be able to experiment with the combination of my HTC VIVE and SimTools platform. (And to fly like real of course ;-) )

Here is a picture of my build so far.

Comments are welcome

I started with buying the servo's to get the right dimensions. I used to fly with radio controlled (rc) planes in the early 80’s. The model planes that where lying around in my cellar (with some great sentimental value) had some servo’s in them but they were really outdated so decided to bought 6 new ones from banggood. I can’t remember the exact address but here is an example

From that info I modelled a base-plate and platform based on this design.

I also used the dimensions from the arduino uno board.

The .stl files from the base-plate and platform are attached.

Wow, this blows away my old wood and wire Stewart prototype. Great work!

Thanks for your attention.

Follow-up:
After mounting the six servo's to the base-plate:

(seen from the back)
The numbering of the servo's is (clockwise):
left-back = servo 1 (axis 1) signal-pin connected to pin 3 arduino
left-middle = servo 2 (axis 2) signal-pin is connected to pin 5 arduino
left-front = servo 3 (axis 3) signal-pin is connected to pin 6 arduino
right-front = servo 4 (axis 4) signal-pin is connected to pin 9 arduino
right-middle = servo 5 (axis 5) signal-pin is connected to pin 10 arduino
right-back = servo 6 (axis 6) signal-pin is connected to pin 11 arduino


(Tip - Zoom in to look at the numbers on the red-stickers)
I will explain this later.
I have connected the base-plate with the platform with ball-and-socket-joints:


I purchased these via a ‘local’ rc-reseller very known in the Netherlands : https://www.toemen.nl/ball-and-socket-joint-6mm-ball-6pcs-06027-p-14883.html

They are not the best, because they are all plastic, but (I think) cheap.

I have used the supplied servo arms, some M3 nuts and bolts and a threaded-rod m4 (6 x 12 cm), to make the connection between base-plate and platform (and the ball-end-socket-joints).

After that I wanted to add some realism to my prototype ;-) and printed a chair that I found at : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32318 I changed it a little bit. You can find the changed .stl file in the attachment if you want it to print it yourself.



After that I started with the firmware for the arduino (next post).

Hi NihonG, thanks for the compliment. For as far as I know there are no (regular) 3d printers that can print that big, unfortunately. I have build a couple of 3d printers (reprap style) and would love to print my full size simulator. As shown, (mentioned) I started with a scale-model. It’s working but not have a video. I’ll update that soon.

Hi Eric, beautiful plateform. I follow your work @+