DIY Linear Actuator design

If the meter mas a MAX HOLD function it should give you a much more accurate reading of current spikes.

If you check the video I think there is a part with max hold enabled.

Hi mate have you tried recording the diagnostics tab in describe I got some huge AMPS showing one peaked at 137amps which is way too high lol

If yours is that low it means my rig must just be way way way to heavy

Hi @SilentChill will have a look to see how I can get logging from describe later and post the results , My Platform is Not that light and the actuators should be capable of handling yours , like I may have mentioned I'm sure I'm Kicking towards 150KG all up mass with my big butt seated , but really now need to put some longer run times to see how it performs ( my short test times may not be indicative of the issues your highlighting ) ....... Oh Oh did I mention Hang In there Boyo it will come good

I am hanging in dude (just)

Heave you want to be testing that's what eats the power all 6 motors all hard reversing at the same time when at the bottom of the stroke, the further down you go say 75% of the axis and then a sharp move straight back up. Its easy to record in describe just run the diagnostic utility press record and name a file name and thats it. You can do it for all 3 sabertooths if you have 3 describes running.

Yours maybe be spot on and its just I'm underestimating how heavy my platform really is especially on reverses, here comes my amazing maths lol something like the speed of the rig going down and then the force to stop the rig and then the upwards lift its alot of weight when you think about or is it force I dont know, its not just say 30kg its that multiplied by all the other factors. Hmmm whos good at maths I can tag in

I have set the power set to a low 180 and the heave set to a pathetic 5% of axis and I can just about get a stage done in Dirt Rally. I need more speed on the actuators though, it deffo feels better than my old worm gears but I need more POWER !! lol

Reversing motors is work with G,s
1G is gravety from zero to 10 meter sec in one second
Actuator speed is 300mm sec.
0,3m/10m\=0,03
So it takes 0,03 second to accelarate your actuator from zero to topspeed with 1G
With 30kg on actuator you need 60kg force to accelarate with 1G
With 0,015 second you work wih 2G and need 90kg of force
Hope this helps
Ps. Accel and decel. are the same
It takes 0,06 second to go from full forward to full reverse with 1G

@wannabeaflyer2
Thanks for the detailed list on the electrical parts needed. I'm about to start collecting them along the lead screw and motors to start soon.

It might be a good chance now, I just seen the AMC is on sale:
http://motionsim.blogspot.com/2016/11/black-friday-and-cyber-monday-offer.html

Keep up the amazing work!

@wannabeaflyer2 : What did you use as potentiometer ?

Would it be better to add small teflon pad between 20x60rail and the ballscress mount ?, I noticed in one of your video that there is play between those part, maybe it could also limit noise

Hi Guys like the idea of the Teflon strip @baykah I have to mention that i have hearing problem, so not had a issue so far with noise other than that which seems inherent in this design, the system noise, is i suspect because of the speed and rapid direction changes at which the ball screws are now working . im not sure if these bearings were meant to be vertically loaded so I suspect that's why they sound louder than my CNC router .. time will tell on that score but I reckon the machine would have shaken me to bits by then LOL .. I am today actually building another actuator to do some tests on my other Dimension engineering controllers & Kangaroo cards. using an optical encoder (never hurts to have options as they say )

I have the gear so may as well revisit this test again .. another Forum member is having some success with this and I'd like to find out where I went wrong, when I first tried this on my earlier attempt at using 24V electric wheelchair motors and gearboxes to build a 6dof platform ...

very happy with my current 6 dof sim and the performance is getting better. so as the guys say I really need to turn it up to th e max now to see how much it can or cant handle ...me scared ! lol dam right :-0

But want my rift first ...

Hi !

I red that you have some hearing issues, I will have the chance to give feedback on noise of the actuators.

Did you find time to look for your CAD files ?, i'm about to start redesigning in scketchup your part from your drawing to print the first parts.
I allready got 1 ballscrew, rail are on their way, motor should be here before end of the year ..

What potentiometer did you use ?

Thanks !

Hi @baykah I am using 10K wire wound pots , cant say how long they will last but they will be cheap to replace when that day comes , optical encoders would be the way to go , and I will be starting testing soon the extra actuator for this is all but assembled so should be able to start soon, now all I have to do is dig out the info I had created the first time I tried to use encoders and the DE kangaroo device...

for what its worth i'll put any info here .. cheers guys

Hi @wannabeaflyer2 , it's all gone very quiet either your playing too much or things have gone drastically wrong

Hows the rig working ? Have you got it on full power yet ?

I should have my 2x60's tomorrow so I can finally get mine going again.

Hi @SilentChill still here good buddy and in one piece , been trying to get the rumble effect that seem to be way to soft on my system, and been messing with the PID ( function ) ..finally bought Dirt rally just to test this out but cant even get into single player mode cos the mouse keeps vanishing when I try to select menus in dirt rally , I sometime loose the mouse cursor in PC and asseta corsa so not sure what's going on there , I have selected Mouse always on top but for some reason in these game it vanishes or is very erratic in full screen mode Bugger ..

Other than that new actuator assembled for Optical encoder tests and finding out bloody tweaking the system software is a pain LOL...

Goona take the Plung over xmas and buy GTX1060 Grahics card and On credit it will have to be the Oculus CV1 lol..

what graphics card are you using ?

I Have a GTX 980TI, seems to be okay with everything so far I bought it late as I thought the 10 series wouldnt be out for ages and then 2 weeks later they announced them grrrrrr typical.

Can you just not use the Dpad for in game menus as thats all I use ?

lol im in the same boat now with the rift, kinnda hoping to latch onto a xmas deal somewhere, one last question where did you get yours from the rift ?

general shout out , does anyone see the price dropping a wee bit any time soon ?

I had mine pre ordered at launch. They had it £100 off on black friday but dont know if they will reduce it again after xmas or not. I am getting the touch controllers for xmas

No mate, I don't have the room really

Hi guys !

Thank again for your drawings, it is looking good for the first one !

I think it's time for me to start my own thread !