FlyPT 6DOF/Stewart/Hexapod Interface for linear and rotating actuators

@Erik Green, should be close to chest high. Or mid section.

My rig is linear. COG near my butt.

Well, forget all about the difference between Simtool and MMF mode. The difference is due to the axis limiting in Simtools that is at 50% for me.

Sorry for the confusion.

That's EXACTLY what was wrong with mine! Lol, went into axis limits in Simtools and wouldn't you know it... At 50%!

Test it. If I put it more then 50%, it is useless as my rig stops moving when a force (in Simtools) goes over about 52%. Putting it a 50%, it gives all the range of the sampling to the moving range of the rig.

When I changed the axis limiting in SimTools to 100% it now moves the rig to the max limits set by FlyPTs interface!

It’s game or plugin dependent. It depends where the center of mass is situated inside the game.

For ex. While using xplane with a plugin which outputs the « motion platform stats » the center of rotation is always located in the cockpit between two pilots seats, 1 meter above the cockpit floor.

In this particular case, if you have an « on top » design, you leave the center of rotation at 0.

If you have a « sinked » design, you could try to make it lower accordingly to the sink offset.

The kinematic doesn’t know if your cockpit is « on top » or « sinked »

You have to determine, empirically, what is your best kinematic heave offset.

Depending if your design is « levers inside » or « levers outside » it can be positive or negative.

You can set it so your pitch is symmetrical in both directions.

Attention:

Once you choose softwarelly your « heave offset » you have to adjust manually the orientation of your sensors so the starting point angular position in the software perfectly match your real arm position

Some updates:



Just to show we can now create more sources and add them.
We can do the same for poses. Might get a video for that...

Going well, but bigBIG changes!

@hexpod, my levers are inside (see above pic) and my heave is more than enough for what I would ever need in both directions. My concern is roll which as @pmvcda stated is limited by my rig design

What do you mean by Kinematic offset? How far heave is in both directions? Say for instance my rig will heave 100mm upward but only 60mm downward with the levers set @o degree (horizontal), the offset would be 40mm? If I adjusted the angle in define hexapod to say 40 degrees (switching between degrees and mm) but you get my point, it would match my rig? Or am I completely wrong here?

Again, sorry to all in this thread as Im new and the lingo far surpasses my mediocre knowledge.



@pmvcda, your updates are interesting! Is this similar to SMC3Utils in where we can test out rigs/adjust motor speed etc?

No, it's not a replacement for SMC3Utils
SMC3Utils is a tool to tune PID and control the motors. It handles the hardware interface.

You make some confusion, because in my interface we have a PID adjustment, but that's just for my rig that uses BLDC motors.
To use it , you need hardware like mine.

The new version I'm showing in the videos, is kind of a SimTools replacement. It's a different approach/point of view. Well, it can use SimTools if you want to as source of data.[/USER]

Finally you nailed the test loops. That’s really useful.

Can one grab or buy it for testing ?

It's free for personal use
But I will put a donation button.

It's WIP, not good for testing right now.
What I show bellow is not final version. Far from it.
Mixing some poses: (bad frame rate?! but gives an idea)



Showing the mix of suspension travel and motion.
We generate a pose from the suspension travel.
And a pose with the motion cueing algorithm.
Now apply both to the rig.

Idea behind this is to fill the gaps on some games.
Like vibration related to speed in roller coaster...

Today I wanted to play Elite Dangerous, but when I tried to start Hexapode, it just did not open. I deleted the Last configuration and I had to redo the USB strings in the communication. Now, it refuse to load any configuration files. I went back in version and I get all the same. All my configuration files are rejected. I saved a new file and it can load it back, but not old files. If I want to play, I have to re-calibrate entirely.

This is the exemption I get.

Consultez la fin de ce message pour plus de détails sur l'appel du débogage
juste-à-temps (JIT) à la place de cette boîte de dialogue.

************** Texte de l'exception **************
System.FormatException: Le format de la chaîne d'entrée est incorrect.
à System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)
à System.Number.ParseDecimal(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
à System.Decimal.Parse(String s)
à FlyPT_Hexapod_Interface.Main.load()
à FlyPT_Hexapod_Interface.Main.loadFrom(String _fileName)
à FlyPT_Hexapod_Interface.Main.openFile_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem.OnClick(EventArgs e)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
à System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
à System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
à System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Can you post a file that works and one that is not working?

Sure.
I think it has to do with my computer deciding to change the USB port numbers. They are not the same from one file to the other.
Version 1.8.5. I can open last configuration but not Elite Dangerous.

Try to drag and drop them in the interface instead of using File->Open.
Seems that the problem is on the File->Open... That's a strange one!?

It doesn't crash when I drag and drop, but only a few parameters are updated. No range is updated.

Could it be a coma/dot conflict in the region preference? We use to have that problem with a french Maya. But, I did not change language or region preference since the last time I played.

Yes, that could be the problem.
I'm looking at it.

Me again. The dot/coma conflict is a serious lead, because I found out that since I have reset another computer, and put a french region on it, Windows should do the same for all my computers. Thankyou Windows to change our setting without our permission.