final year project: 2DOF seat mover motion rig :)

Hi guys.

This is a copy of my x-sim thread, since it got marked as spam there
I don't know why though, they thought it is commercial or something.

I study Mechanical Engineering in Austria and I am here to share my project with you and may find some new ideas.

As the title suggest, I and two other students will build a Sim racing rig as our final year project,
which is quite a privilege in my opinion.

We split up the project into 3 parts:
Front part (Monitors, adjustable pedal and steering wheel position)
Rear part (Cylinders, PC, PSU etc.)
Design

I think this is quite interesting, since we have (of course) calculate all the joins, junctions etc. which doesn't
really happen normally.

It has to meet special requirements however, since it has to represent the school in the best possible way.
These are:
Easy to transport
as cheap as possible
light
good looking
realistic (may serve as a simulator for a driving school later)
Not wider than 90cm
reliable
Integrated PC

Until now, we were mostly planning and deciding which way to go.
In the end we decided to go with SCN5 Cylinders and an aluminum frame, since we were able to get a discount for educational purposes, and we have loads of aluminium profiles liing around at school.

I have already got a kardan universal joint for the seat, as well as steering links with "ball joints" for the cylinders.

Probably the biggest challenge is the programming, since we have to do it all our self.
We will use Assetto Corsa and pCars as software.

I am responsible for the rear part of the construction of the rear part so here is my progress.
Feel free to criticize.
UPDATES follow soon.

Best Regards
IJOJOI

Hello
What drives will be used..??

Hello,

What type of driver do you mean?
We are planning to run through a RS485 to the PC and.
However we haven't decided, if we should program it from the very start, or use a plugin/driver for it.

As this is our schoolproject, we are supposed to do as much as possible ourselfs.

If you are looking for the easy way, you can "just" download the X-Sim SCN5 Plugin and buy a converter+PSU for the cylinders
and run them that way, but that's not what we want to do

UPDATE on construction shortly
Best Regards

@IJOJOI , nice job there , if you need help getting SCn sorted, I believe @nclabs can advise.
Meanwhile I will pass you some coins so you can get a download package. So save your money buying a membership.
Dave.

Sounds like a cool school project for you guys.... should be fun.....but how are you going to figure out who's going to end up with the rig when all is said and done?

you should build the rig then run it with the simtools and get it to run right and feel right make it work then once your there with anything you need to alter if something don't feel right, you can then do all that then work on the software after you no what you need to aim for and how it should feel in general.


you are very lucky guys well done look forward to seeing the build and get youself a thread going for the build.

Thank you for the very kind feedback guys!
@bsft How kind!!! I will follow your request for sure.

1.) @Hobbs77 The rig is going to be owned by the school, since they pay for it

2.)@f1iceman, That what we were planning actually. I hope we will be able to achieve good results. I am very sorry for not updating, but I have to learn a lot at the moment.

As far as progress goes:

.)Study
We made a little Study with 10 participants, from 1.50 to 2.05m height. The result was quite astonishing. We wanted to mount the Pedals upside down and expected,
that shorter people would like to have their pedals higher, which was wrong.
It turned out, it was personal taste only. What we definitely figured out was, how far away the Pedals have to be in average, and how far we have to move them back and forth.

.)Construction/Design
As we need to have adjustable pedals, we wanted them to be adjustable as easy as possible.
I came up with the idea of using the seat rails of a car, and use a pull spring to pull it to the nearest position possible when the safety is released.
It can be released by pulling on a cable, while sitting (probably near the gear leaver for ergonomic reasons)
Furthermore, I made the whole profile assembly under the seat. I still have to calculate, if I need an enforcement at the kink.

So here are somePics
1) We had to make kind of a presentation, since "the day of open doors" is coming soon.


2.) The seat we are using (some measures) OMP RS form 1995


3.) The rails we are going to use from a "old" project.


4.) Pedal construction used for studies.


5.) Progress on the Pedal mount


6.) Some more measurements of the model (just approximately)


Best Regards!
Johannes

UPDATE!

We seem to encounter quite a view problems in terms of the SCN5 actuators...
Our shool can't buy them with a creditcard.
It turns out, the shool wants to pay the money after we have recieved the cylinders.

As a matter of fact Mirai Inter-Tech is not able to do this.
So we are quite in a bad position now, since we have to buy them as soon as possible.
Is there ANY way to get these Cylinders in EU or is there any alternative (FREX not included).

Any suggestions welcome

Best Regards

search allibaba there was some on there. but not sure how you go about it.
you could try simexperience.

you could prob try sort an accoun t out for the school and they ,might send them and invioce for them.
tbh i don't think anyone will send first before payment.
but look along getting an account but even then as anew customer you still might have to pay upfront costs on first orders nowadays.
but if its a school account you stand a better chance to having some creditabilty being the school having an account.
can only try them and see what happens.

@noorbeast
Where do you see the advantages of these?
How do you control these?

Best Regards

The Pololu JRK 12v12 controller and motor driver in one and 12v 200 watt big worm gear motors , 25:1 ratio gearbox on them, with a 65mm CTC lever running about 80 deg total movement can translate to 500 mm per second on a shoulder mount seat mover, loaded with a driver. SCN5 is about 150mm-200mm loaded with 5kg loaded. So good dc motor setup can be faster, stronger, quieter and cheaper to repair than SCN actuators.
They might take some more setup, it can be done.
I dont have many tools, a hand electric drill, a wood saw, a hand 100m disc angle grinder, and a $99 arc welder.
or build the frame is PVC pipe if welding is tricky.
Ive built all my sims from these tools. So I take it your schoolwork shop should have a few tools lying around.

UPDATE!
So here we are again, we decided to move away from the SCN5 actuators (on you request @bsft ) and will use such worm gear motors instead.
The question is which are the "best"...

I've put a lot of hours in research for the SCN5s, so I have to start all over again
First off, I need to find out, where to get these from. Then, how you control them, and how to fix them on our frame.

And of course I need to find out how to integrate those in the sim. A lot of stuff to do...

In terms of design, everything else is getting into shape, the rear part is almost finished, except the cylinders, same goes for the front section.
We are quite in a hurry, since we have to start builing in early Dec. so i need to get all the drawing for our workshop.

As you have already guessed, tools are not the problem. We will weld the crucial points of the frame in order to increase stability.

Bes regards!

@IJOJOI , look for something like this http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GEAR-MOT...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
fine for seat mover.
What controllers are you planning to use?

@bsft , as it seems, (after a little bit of research) these Pololu JRK 12v12 controllers seem to be quite feasible.

As a matter of fact, my teacher is sitting beside me, tyring to figure out how to program them
You seem to be the "expert" here how is this going to work?

EDIT:
Some more renderds


Best Regards
IJOJOI

noorbeast has covered most of it, anything else, just let me know
Dave.

@noorbeast @bsft , thank you very much!

To adress your points:
1.) JRKs: We are learning to program those in a few months time I think so, that will come in handy
2.) spledid work on the guide @bsft, we will see we are allowed to use X-Sim/Simtools though... Maybe we have do this on our own, I'll let you know.
3.) Thx for the advice for the heatsink, wouldn't have thought about that.
4.) I tried to move the universal joint as close as possible to the seat, but I can't get it any further in the current configuration. I'll maybe rework it.
5.) I probably enforce the frame where needed in order fix them properly.
6.) Hall sensors, interesting, we just learned about thouse , would have used potentiometers, but they could be a nice alternative in terms of reliability.

Finally a question for you guys.
Do you think we should consider to move the Pedals and the Wheelmount too?
How much does it add to immersion?
Is it too distracting while drving when only the seat moves?

Best regards
Johannes