Krazy Chair ready for smarts!

Have all 3 legs insynch now so can demonstrate what my 3DOF is capable of insynchronicity. Total Heave on all 3 legs is only demonstrated with half of their transform distance.

Links go to your choice of video quality.

low quality:
http://www.extremevr.co.nz/media/shooter-sim.wmv

medium quality
http://www.extremevr.co.nz/media/shooter-sim1.wmv

Disregard FPS game interface as not acceleration data dependant.

Observation:
Definitely need to add limit switches on extremities. Have blown 5x 10amp fuses due to motorstall overcurrent on limit barriers as motor slightly over-running the potfeedback/motorcontrollers firmware rules to brake, slow or return back to 0, due to torque of motors. Possibly due to fast instant acceleration near the extremities and flex of mechanism too. Anyway a trap for beginners who think software rules alone will suffice. Factors such as a degrading or failing encoder/pot could cause motor damage or worse.

Evan

They move and rumble quite fast. Ok, with Daddy a little slower

What is the max power consumption of your actuators?

ego

hi ego

damn car seat weighs 25kg, so yeah instead of me losing weight I'll lose the seat! I'll look around for a nice light fibreglass job.... and maybe a harness might be good too.

power is 24V and motors are rated at nominal 7amps so 168 watts unless motor stall and then over 10amps as safety fuses rated at 10A each.

Basically like you, I can't wait for Thanos proportionate controller so I can start racing this thing. Me thinking a nice fat V8 as it rumbles like one already.!

should be good

Hi Evanf,

Your chair moves really fast! Cool! It will feel nice with bumps and crashes!

You must be patience with my new controller, its not the easiest thing to do and my free time is limited these days.

:cry: Not to mention that my computer's motherboard failed Tuesday night, and I'm without computer for several days. Just hope that I'll have it fixed by tommorow cause only on weekend I'll have much free time to test out the PWM motor control. As soon as I have something good I'll share some beta versions for you (and any other willing) to test it.

Thanos

Hi Thanos,

Yes I think it moves faast too! I am very pleased with the speed of the translations. I am looking forward to feeling the bumps and crashes.

I destroyed 2 pots today so will need to source heavier duty pots as the standard budget ones don't seem to handle the rapid movements.

I have plenty of patience, after all it has taken me months to get this far. But once you share a beta release with me, rest assured I will build it as fast as my spare time after work allows me! I have 1 week left of my holiday and already my wife has organised house and car maintenance routines for me so my time is already used up! But I am definitely taking time to upgrade my graphics card to a 7600 and adding 2GB more ram.

Sorry to hear about your meltdown, maybe it just was the right time to upgrade mobo and get ready for DX10?

Evan

My PC is 6 months old...relatively new, and already supports DX10!
Its a Core2Duo @2.16 with Geforce7600 and 2GB Ram. The mobo that failed was a Gigabyte DQ6! :cry:

Anyway I had to sent it back for replacement and it will take a few days. (My job is computer technician if you didn't already know!)

Thanos

Hey Evan,
Video looks great
looks like the 2 weeks off certainly has produced some good results!
Bet you are pleased.

CW

Hi CW,

Thanks for the comps, always good to receive positive words of encouragement!

Yes time off work was most welcome, I still have 1 week to go but wifey has me booked for handyman stuff. Weather has been great as well so very tempting to enjoy the sun while we can.

Yep I sure am pleased with the results so far, it's all very good to plan and postulate theory :idea: but when the actual tests confirm what you plan for... wow... what a feeling of satisfaction...and relief! :razz:

I can't wait to try out the chair on some racing car games once the Thanos/X-Sim solution all comes together.

How's your project coming along?

Hi Evan,

was checking out your chair just saw the videos. Wow! that thing is crazy fast. I am also working on a motion chair but moves slower because it is 12V I am kind of worried to throw 24V at the 12V motors but many seem to be doing it. Might wait first till all is finished before breaking it

I am also going for slower movement that does not shake the user to much with excessive speeds or at least in the first phase of my project.

50 lbs (25 kg) seems normal for a seat weight (mine is 65) If you seat is comfortable I would suggest keeping it cause that is not no heavey...but maybe that is to much stress on your mechanics?

To all the others that have asked me for picts video, a URL .....don't worry it's coming just need till Friday or so to tighten and update the site. The site will never be finsih entirely so might as well put it out there....so hold on just a little longer everyone....really excited to show some of the stuff I have been working on.


Regards Kyle

Thanks Kyle,

Yes I wanted to make it as extreme as poss given my low budget. At mo' I've reduced the power down to 12V so I can still use it without breaking the pots. I'm going to have to rethink how I've got them mounted. Funny how such a little mechanical thing like the mounting of a pot is turning into an issue. I could depower the movements in code I guess but simply removing the connection off 2 of the SLA cells is a real quick fix! At 12v my son can still feel the grunt but for me it just feels like a flightsim.

Re: over-voltage, if you troll through robotics sites you will see that it is a common practice to run 24v into a 12v motor. But then some of these robotic guys are fanatics and if they are competing or destroying each other I think they'd go to all measures to win!

Seat:
I'd like to get a fancy race seat so I have to justify it to my wife somehow! :wink:
The motors are capable of more power output but it is the tierod linkages and crank that seem to be taking the wear. I also note the amount of movement on the framing, I fear there could be some chassis twisting if I flog it hours on end...visions of a ford V8 with its front wheel lifting around a chicane comes to mind. My next frame will be made of light alloy so it will have to be designed by someone who knows more about mechanical design, fabrication and welding than I do!

Curious to know more about your Director/IO endeavours too. What do you design them for? Kiosk? Presentation? Training? And why Director?
I recall the days of MCI interface (I think thats what macromedia called it) but didn't realise they went to the extent of making a plugin for I/0 work. Is it a 3rd party plugin?

Evan

Evan,

Good to hear that 24V into 12V motors is possibly (might need that for surge and heave )

Director can control two cards EZIO and K8055 (with some limitations)

Flash can control K8055 (with alot of extra work)

Director used for interactive movie tracks with motion, TFS i-vibe technology and now game controller controller of the I/O cards which in turn run motors take in pot feedback.

I have used director for work, bu mostly for my interest lately. I use flash at work when we do interactive stuff...been slow on that stuff lately.

The answer to why director? is that it has a plugin (usually free) to anything you want and if not available you can write a new one in C++ (example control another brand of microcontroller that someone made)

I wish I knew C++ because I could do so much more...but oh well things will get there.

Director is very powerful, fast and simple. Adding a yaw turn in a movie is as simple as draging and dropping a yaw icon.

The game control isn't to bad it is just that I am using a plugin (xtra) for the joystick input and it currently support 1 stick which is a limit for using a yoke and a rudder pedals...but not a big deal...I mean x-sim I'm sure handles that kind of thing better.

The gaming app in director is very simple (possibly the simplist motion controller app I have seen)...but its limited and its not X-sim.

The truth is I shouldn't be de-bugging to much with the gaming app when X-sim is polished and supported by many. After seeing x-sim I am wanting to focus more on my FeelTracks and use the motion gaming app for testing and working out my system till it is X-sim ready

...you will probably enjoy a demo of all of it Tomorrow with the video and the whole site when I send the site URL

PS. The chair I use was hard to get justified by the wife as well

Regards,

Kyle

Hi Kyle,

Hey thanks for all that info, I stopped using Director by version 8 (used it since 4) and used to rely heavily on mpgxtra (mpg2 capable) and medialabs alphamania to give my interactive movies that extra edge.
Of course like any big name app once a 3rd party plugin gets popular the big app absorbs it into their new release as a standard feature. So by D8 I lost my edge coz everyone started using them without even knowing it and so I had to broaden my horizons and look for another. And along came Anark and the GUI is similar to Director and After effects so I was happy and the 3D component is awesome and can stream off the net. But I will revisit Director to have a look at this capability. Will these extra's you mention work in D8? I wish I knew how to code C++ as well!

As ego said previously, with decent PWM control you won't be juicing your motors with 24V continuously, have you any specs on your motors, it might tell you the nominal voltage, or even stall current or something you can work with. eg: On my linear actuator it tells me the max duty cycle time of...say..(I'd have to confirm exact figure) 2 minutes with 20 second breaks.

So where is this dubdubdub of yours?!

Evan,

here ya go


http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/the-feelfx-project---revealed-t604.html#5342

First post updated

Hi Evan,

With Thanos interface I do not experience any jitter at all. No matter if loaded or not, they move very smooth and accurate. (Well, after seperating the pot wires from the motor cables)

Currently I am uploading a short vid that shows the centering procedure of the interface and jacks.

Hi ego

With the gearheads there is no jitter when the motors are moving from point A to point B, only when holding a position. Your linear actuators are screw threads so if they stop you don't need to keep switching the H-Bridge to hold them static.

I saw your video, I am impressed with the speed of them without modification. How do they respond under load?

EvanF

Dear community,

I started to make a 3DOF motion chair like this. Almost every components are clear, till one, I do not know what it is
and where I can get.
It is the middle part of the construction with the spring (germ. Feder), which is holding the motion upper plattform.
Can somebody tell me, what it is and where can I get it ?

Thanks!