actuators fire, but no movement.

I am so close to making this work the way it should. I can get it to work just fine if I use direct joystick input. When I try to use x-plane 8.4 with the plugin I cannot make it move. I can hear the actuators firing like they should, but it does not seem that the air is getting sent to the cylinders. I still m getting Potentiomiters incorrect, even though I have swaped the +5V and ground. Could this all be related to the potentiomiter input? I know I am getting good readings off them as I can see them respond in the Velleman demo software.

Any ideas?

OK, something must be wrong. In the regestry under force profiler there is no 'K8055'. There is 'InterfaceMatrix'. Under InterfaceMatrix it says 'Standard RnR USB interface'. Is that correct? I don't see any kind of position data like 117 or 128 there at all. Would you like me to send you the whol regestry x-sim key to look at? To me it looks like it is not saving the settings to the regestry correctly.

I have tried reversing them, but either way I still get the message. I have physicaly move the pots, and I have also changed the +5v and ground, but still get the message. I will play with it some more when I get home tonight. Thanks for your help, we will get this figured out yet.

OK, after trying it some more tonight I still am not any closer. I run the force profiler, set it for K8055, and say no to the joystick question. When I run the auto clibration it says that the y axis is incorrect. I swapped the +5 and the ground, run the calibration again and it says something like not enough motion on Y axis or something to that effect.

I also checked the Regestry again, and there is no settings for the K8055. I uninstalled the program and deleted the regestry. Re-installed and configured, but still got the same results.

Could it be a bad potentiomiter, even though I can get good readings from it with a volt meter, and the Velleman demo software?

Well with a meter I am measuring 0-5 out of both of them. I am getting full travel on the chair as well. They pots are the original pots that came on the chair, I think they are 100ohm slider type. I will stop to an electronics store tonight and pick up some new pots, they are not too expensive. How do you hook up the round type pot to the chair? Just in case I can't get the slider type.

Its hardly possible to use a round type pot. The travel lenght of the control-rods is imho too long to make them compatible. But afaik Renoboss tried to use some.

OK, good news and bad news. I was able to get 1 100K dial (round type) pot and hook it up. Then Force Profiler said that the X did not move enough. So I put a round pot I had on it, diffret size, not sure of the ohm rating. Anyway, i moved them to thier full positions and NO ERRORS!!!! So my pots must be bad or something. Now the regestry reads 0-247 for 1 and 0-114 for the other. I can get a second one so they match. Now, figuring out how to mount them to get good travel from the push rods.

Hey Andrew,

Does your RnR work, yet?

Imho you'd better try to find some slider type pots instead of the round ones. Easier to assemble.

regards

The wife was sick this weekend, so I was on Kid duty, but I did have a little time to play with it. I did some more troubleshooting and found the problem to be in only 1 pot. I tore the pot down and found a broken connection on the board. I was able to repair it with a conductive circiut repair pen. After some more playing i was able to get it to calibrate and respond to both Pots. I ran x-plan and now and getting both X and Y axis properly. The left/right X movement does not seem to be enough, but I am sure that is just a setting. I need to play with the speeds a little as well. But it looks like I am on the right track. Now I need to build the enclosure. Any ideas for a lightweight material? I was thinking corrigated plastic board.

Andrew

Well, I actualy used it tonight. I can see that I need to have an enclosure of some kind. Also, one more question. I seem to be getting more left than right for some reason, even with a re-calibration.

Any ideas?

Hi,

nice to hear that you have went a step forward!

Do you alredy tried to calibrate the control rods that are connected to the pots?
Just movement or movement and pot values?
Please post your question a little clearer in order to make it easier for us to respond.

regards

Hey Andrew,

Generally, it is very helpfull for others if a feedback to solutions is given. So, please could we get a feedback from you if the control-rod calibration solved your problem ?

regards

No, not yet. It is a minor problem, among others that I am working through. I adjusted the control rods, and re-ccalibrated, but it still tends to bias to the left. In other words when I attempt to use it in x-plane, it will ove left with only slight on screen movement, but it takes a lot of right turn to get the chair to move just a little to the right.

If I can locate my Digital camera I willtake some pictures of it today. I built a nice box that I moved the compressor, vellman card, and actuators into. It reduces the noise by a lot.

Andrew

Perhaps it helps to check if your joystick is calibrated well.

You could use dxtweak for this purpose
http://www.wingmanteam.com/files/Tools/ ... Tweak2.exe

Are you sure that your pots are ok? I remember you fixed one of them

regards

Perhaps you have a lightweight flatpanel screnn instead of a heavy CRT mounted.

But of course, this enlightens the strange movement behaviour a lot.
Im looking forward to see some pics and by chance a vid from your setup

I still can't locate my digital camera. As soon as I find it I will send some pictures.

I think I figured part of the problem, but it will be tomorrow before I can change it. I have the the joysick and pedals mounted to a board. After looking at it, the joystick is off center to the right, so I get less throw to the right. Once I get it centered better I think it should be OK.

I think I have a good plan for the enclosure, but it will be another week or so before I get it together.

Andrew

what material do you want to use? GRP?

I found the camera and took some pictures, not I can't get them to transfer for some reason. Working on it.

I want it to be light weight, so that it moves with the simulator. I was going to use some corrogated plastic, but I have found a lightweght plastic used for lining bathroom walls that may work well. I am going to build a frame around it with 1X1 wood, then put the plastic around it. Planning on giving it a curved top like a glider cockpit. Of corse it is all in my head at this point.

Andrew

Do you have some news concerning your RnR for us?

regards