Lalancelot's Rigs Experimentations

Hello everyone.
I have started a new job since the 10 of June as a Technical Artist at Ubisoft Sherbrook and I worked closer from home now. But that forced me to take a decision about my simulator rig. Do I keep it at it's current place that is 400 miles from me, or do I make the painful decision to move everything back at my main house (it's my girlfriend house, but you get the point).
I chose the later:


I wasn't able to bring everything back in one trip, so I had to go back weeks later to bring back the rest of the simulator.

Now, I should have pretty much everything I need to rebuild my simulator... except maybe for space.

Pierre.

SimulatorTV! Episode 7: The traveling electronics.



Pierre.

Hello everyone!
The structure is under construction.


Pierre.

The structure is pretty much done.






Pierre.

Haha great video.

I feel a bit uneasy about that cantilevered single plate holding the bearings for the ballscrew. You might want to look into attaching that to more stuff. Some simple sheet metal to the motor plate would be easy and strengthen that area a lot.

I don't worry too much about it.
In my design, I put 2 wheels on each side of the back plate. On the side of the bearing, the wheels are under the pulling force downward from the structure. So they will be pushed against the back plate. There is also wheels on the other side and those wheels are higher than the pulling down force, so they will be pull against the back plate. Those wheels should do most of the heavy lifting and hold on off the back aluminum plate, which is well screwed to the wood. That ball bearing can only move up and down. I also bought some climbing stretchable cable to see if it would help the system. But I'm not there yet.

The attachment between the structure and the actuator changed too (demonstrated in episode 9), making it more strong.

So, everything should go fine (hopefully).
Pierre.

I like the wooden frame. You can easily add more struts and braces if necessary.

And I agree with @cfischer that ball nuts are not designed to take sideward torque (bending the screw). Even very small misalignments of 0.1mm can cause wear-out and damage. I'd recomend adding linear bearings.

The carabiner and chain link suspension are also not a good idea, I think. Of course you need some compensation for the distance change of the actuator joints (where the upper hook is) when pitch & roll movements take place. But a hinge that has freedom only in one direction would be better than a chain or rope that could move in two directions. You don't want the rig to swing uncontrollably or oscillate in the yaw axis.

We did it like this:

The two radial ball bearings and the lower hinge axis could be replaced by a single ball joint.

You make me doubt my design. I could be doing the bigest mistake with it. At the same time, it should work. I guess I'll have to risk many dollars trying it. It's a leap of faith, just like when I construct a carbon fiber structure out of tube. I had no idea if it would hold my weight.

Your design isn't that bad at all. I think it just needs some small modifications. You don't need all the expensive parts we used.

To solve the swing problem you simply could replace the chain links with another triangle:
(sheet metal or wooden board)
And I'd add another pair of rollers so thet the big aluminium part holding the ball nut can't tilt due to sideward or upward forces. Ball bearings for inline skates are dirt cheap...

Unfortunately, I really doubt that I can fit other wheels into the part. There is not enough space the way it is made.
I'll look into the triangle support.
I may end up leave it just like this, just to see. Then, I will swear because of my stupidity.

Pierre.

Amazing undertaking, will be watching with interest.