Showroom Barry's Racing Sim - IT'S ALIVE (with motorcycle capability (sometime in the future))

@Barry - Beefy!

M8 grub screws for the shafts.

I didn't get much done this weekend due to car problems and fixing cars for other people.

The motor mounts are welded and the shoulder mounts are done too. And I screwed in the inserts for the piece of wood which holds the steering wheel. I need to drill out the gearboxes slightly so I can use M8 bolts to mount them. One is done, just the other 2 need to be finished.

I'll try and get some pics up If I get a chance but it's nothing too exciting.

Lazy susan is mounted.
I've fitted the wheels for the traction loss to a piece of plywood to test fit them and see what the perfect height is. It looks like everything will line up pretty well. This weekend was the first time all the frames could be attached together. I think within the next couple of days I should be able to get it mocked up complete with the motors although I still need to make the levers.

Then it's on to wiring up the JRKs and PSUs properly with the motors to try and figure out where they all fit.

Flex couplers finally arrived.

Finally I managed to make some progress yesterday. Not much though. I cut my 2 steel plates for the traction loss mounts and base for the wheels to roll on. These will need to be sand blasted as they've got a good rusty scale on them. Then I'll drill the holes for the wheels to bolt on and weld them to the frame. it's all 5mm steel so it should be pretty solid. I just realised how many small crappy things I still need to do.

Things to do next:
Blast steel plates
Drill for traction control wheels
Weld plates to frames
Bore gearboxes for 8mm bolts
Cut potentiometer mounts
Bend potentiometer mounts
Have carbon rod end caps made
Cut levers for motors
Make traction loss motor mount
Make traction loss motor levers
Wire up 3rd power supply
Mount power supplies and JRK board
Make mount for inverted pedals

OK, so slow progress as usual but I finally managed to get the entire traction loss system completed. This is the first time it's all been together. Lots of work to do this week to try and get the hardware all finished.

Well done! You should be impatient to see it moving (as we are)!

Yes, of course but I'd like to have it completely finished before attaching all the electronics.
Hopefully I'm not too far away, although I still need to figure out the levers for the traction loss motor.

Levers are made up and ready for welding. I'll do these tomorrow as I ran out of time this evening.

Pedal Box almost finished. I'll explain how it mounts and adjusts in the next couple of posts. Whilst I would like to have a quick release system to adjust it, I'm thinking that it would be best to have nice solid fixings. It may take a few extra seconds to change the pedal distance but i'd rather it didn't rattle and flex.

Flexy pedals suck the big one.

OK, pedal box now has the inserts for the adjustable distances. I've just put in three threaded inserts on each side. 3 at the top, 3 at the bottom. Pedal box sits really solid. I'll just need to 'dress' it. I'll show pics when I get all that done. My friend also finished my carbon rod inserts so I was able to mock up the full 3 frame parts with motors for the first time. Next up is to work out the traction loss levers. I have a lot of measuring to do and i'm going to probably make them from wood to test the sizes and movement. Then when I work it out, I can use metal. I'll post up pics shortly.

Damn are those rods shiny. Looks awesome Barry.

Curious how did buddy insert those into the rods?

They're actually just top hat style inserts pressed in. They're about 1 inch deep with a neatly drilled 10mm hole in the middle. The threaded bar runs through the entire length of the carbon rods.

Ah now i get it. so a Fancy cover for the threaded rod.

Kind of but it's functional. It's so the carbon rod can be tensioned against the rod end with the nut at the bottom and to stop the threaded bar moving around inside the 19mm wide internal diameter too as it holds it dead centre.

Those rods look mint Barry,

I made a mount for the pots last night. Its just a fairly crude piece of bent steel but it fits well and works. I just need to make another 2. I also pressed split pins into the shafts to secure them in place. I then added a brace to the universal joint to stop the lateral twist in the top frame. I'll post up pics later.

I have a slight issues now which I will need to fix. My frame appears to have a 'bounce'. I have my traction loss wheels behind the seat/universal joint mount. The flex is between my traction loss wheels and the front pivot point.

I think moving the traction loss system would be a massive job. Should I add another caster wheel or roller in the middle of the frame to act as an intermediate stabiliser or should I just stiffer the frame with extra metal cross bracing? I'm not sure how this will affect the frame during gaming as I have no experience of this before.