Low cost 2DOF/3DOF/6DOF motion simulator - DOF REALITY

Hi Marco,

Its not difficult to set one of these rigs up. I had no idea when I bought my P3 rig and I have managed to resolve my issues as I have gone along.

I wouldnt say the rig is completely plug and play but I had my trig up and running within one hour of finishing building it.

I would suggest that you do have some basic understanding of which way to hold a spanner. Hardest thing for me was understanding the firmware/software side of it. Im more mechanical and I dont really understand computers oter than building them. When it comes to lifting the hood of a computer, I sort of lose it. But I have got by.

The P3 is a better rig if its within your budget. Motors are more powerful.

Im sure you have read the DofReality threads. What is important about the P3 rig is balance. Spend time getting the rig balanced from front to back and side to side with you sat in the rig, and things will go a lot smoother. I really cant emphasise this enough.

Anyway, good luck. DofReality are based in the Ukraine so take that into consideration when it comes to shipping etc, other than that, I hope your purchase is as pleasurable for you as it has been for me.

Please dont hesitate to ask any questions.

Andy

Thank you Andy for the reply and feedback!

I am still not certain if buying the h3 or the p3. The price difference is $2200 vs $3000 (including shipping)
I am wondering if I should go for this 800 dollars more or wait and upgrade in the future to better motors.
Also, Igor said that at some point there will be a modular upgrade for the p3 and h3 to obtain 6 dof

I am thinking also to use the car racing seat/p3 or h3 's station, as my desktop PC chair. What do u think about that? Igor said there would be no issues with that.

Also I read that it is not compatible with consoles. Is it that way to all the car racing rigs even using cronusmax plus?

Do u know if there is a way for the balancing to avoid using 2 people but just maybe using books on the sides or something to keep the seat lifted while balancing?

Also, could you please measure for me the lenght of the p3 ,

from the tip of the pedals at the front of the rig,

to the longest point on the back of the rig

and

to the longest point of the chair on the back

Also how much does it measure the widest width on the whole rig?

Marco,

Let me try and cover some of your questions:

"I am wondering if I should go for this 800 dollars more or wait and upgrade in the future to better motors.
Also, Igor said that at some point there will be a modular upgrade for the p3 and h3 to obtain 6 dof"

If you can afford it, go for the P3 with the more powerful motors. The weakest part of the DofReality design is that the rig needs to be balanced. If it's out of balance the motors struggle to move the seat. I suspect you will have to be even more balanced with the H3 design.

"I am thinking also to use the car racing seat/p3 or h3 's station, as my desktop PC chair. What do u think about that? Igor said there would be no issues with that."

The way a normal desk chair mounts to the sigle pedestal is unlikely to align with the seat mounting holes in the frame. However it wond be difficult to attach the seat to the frame somehow and may give a little more flexibility for mounting to achieve the balance. I think the bigger issue may be with the recline. If you have a proper recining car seat then the balance can be fine tuned by reclining the seat a little. A desk chair tends not to have that feature, but if your proposed seat does have recline then great.

"Also I read that it is not compatible with consoles. Is it that way to all the car racing rigs even using cronusmax plus?"

Sorry, can't comment. I don't have a console.

"Do you know if there is a way for the balancing to avoid using 2 people but just maybe using books on the sides or something to keep the seat lifted while balancing?"

I'm sure there are all sorts of ways however when you disconnect the seat from the pushrods, the seat can go anywhere and I wouldn't recommend disconnecting without somebody else around. I've got myself in a little trouble when I have disconnected the seat from the motors and I have hod of the seat. Being free to move on the universal joint under the seat does mean the seat can, and will go where it wants and not necessarily where you want it to go.


As for dimensions, I'll measure mine up this evening (I'm at work now) and come back to you however its all very dependent on the size of the seat, the size of the pedals and how tall you are. Obviously, the taller you are the further you will have to move your seat back and your pedals forward. Balance left to right is dependent on and accessories you may be mounting (shifters, keyboards etc).

Hello everybody! I’m new here and considering getting a 3DOF solution to replace my current static DD wheel setup. I’ve got a few questions regarding the DOF Reality’s 3DOF product and hope someone’s able to help me out and answer these to make my purchase-decision-making easier.

First I was looking into purchasing only a 2dof solution (Next Level V3) because I thought it would be the only solution I could fit to my small space located underneath the stairs (width 95cm / 3.12feet & length 2,5metres / 8.2 feet ). Now I have really started considering DOF Reality’s 3DOF solution basically for the same price.

1. I would like to know the measurments (exact width and approximate length with pedals) for the 3DOF solution with the rear slide.

2. On top the width measure, what might be your guess about the minimal extra space needed on the sides of the rig to allow the chair to roll sideways the amount you’ve found enough/satosfactory for (VR) sim racing?

3. I’m using Oculus and therefore would like to know what people find the best solution for movement cancelling so I can look around inside the car normally while driving just like when not in a motion rig? Where do I attach the sensor and if it should be covered, what happens to the capability of looking around and resetting the view?

4. Is there a possibility to use the software provided (or some other) to use the rig’s rear slide motor outside a game while on windows destop to easily slide the seat for example far left in order to make accessing seat easier directly from behind the seat? The reason I'm asking is because like I mentioned, my space is limited and I have walls on both sides of my space and therefore this would make accessing the seat so much easier after firing up the pc before starting to race.

5. I have a DD wheel (SW20), Heusinkweld Pro pedals, and a couple of shifters, handbrakes, etc. so based on this information and my gear’s weight, should I consider getting the more expensive pro version over the consumer model ? Do you think the pro’s motors work better for VR as well or can you even notice a speed difference between the two models?

Thanks already beforehand for helping a fellow racer out!

[QUOTE="
As for dimensions, I'll measure mine up this evening (I'm at work now) and come back to you however its all very dependent on the size of the seat, the size of the pedals and how tall you are. Obviously, the taller you are the further you will have to move your seat back and your pedals forward. Balance left to right is dependent on and accessories you may be mounting (shifters, keyboards etc).[/QUOTE]


DofRelity P3 rig is about 1500 x 850

Pretty much all motion will be within that footprint.

Hi Andy!

Thank you for the reply!

I do not think I was clear about the question of using the rig for seating at my pc.

Practically I want to use the p3 (with the car seat I would mount on it) as a my PC chair. Can I use the p3 to sit /as a sit chair for my PC?
Would it break?

Also I have kids homes that would probably stand on the car seat of the p3 and do all sort of things. Would that break the p3?

Thanks again!

DofRelity P3 rig is about 1500 x 850

Pretty much all motion will be within that footprint.[/QUOTE]

Is that dimension in cm or mm?

Also, I am 1.78cm tall.
How tall are you?

Hi Marco, I get what you are saying.

Of course you could use the rig seat as your pc seat however you won't have a table for a keyboard and mouse.

I use a flexible tablet mount to hold a Logitech wireless keyboard with a track-pad. It's acceptable for sim racing because you are only using the keyboard every now and again, but I would suggest that your wheel is just going to get in the way for normal computing activities.

I doubt the P3 rig would be damaged by your kids however there are more wires hanging around and the control box for the motion rig which could result in slips, trips and falls (sorry, sounding very 'health and safety'). When not in use, the seat doesn't move a lot. It does move due to slack in the motors gearboxes (worm drives), but really not a lot.

Bear in mind, the DofReality rig doesn't come with a seat so you can get whatever seat is child proof. But the rig will survive I'm sure.

As for sizes, yest they were in mm 1,5m x .85m

I'm 5ft 7" (not sure what that is in m, about 1.7m I think). I presume you are 1.78m (about 5ft 10") because 1.78cm is a little to small for sim racing . So you are about 3 inches taller. Wont be an issue for you. Just make sure you have seat runners and a reclining seat so you can fine tune the balance of the rig.

Andy

GlacierMonkeyRacing

1. I would like to know the measurments (exact width and approximate length with pedals) for the 3DOF solution with the rear slide.

Aprox 1500mm x 800mm. That size is based on the 3Dof with traction loss. The frame width is wider.
But a persons height islikely to change the overall length of the rig. Taller people will need more space obviously. I guess a persons height will extend the distance from the pivot point to the end of the pedals. There would be some increase from the pivot point to the back of the seat but that is probably quite a small change in length.

2. On top the width measure, what might be your guess about the minimal extra space needed on the sides of the rig to allow the chair to roll sideways the amount you’ve found enough/satosfactory for (VR) sim racing?

As said above, with the 3Dof then the seat will pretty much fit within that 800mm. Dependent on seat width of course. I suspect if you consider a meter width as the widest, you wont go far wrong.

3. I’m using Oculus and therefore would like to know what people find the best solution for movement cancelling so I can look around inside the car normally while driving just like when not in a motion rig? Where do I attach the sensor and if it should be covered, what happens to the capability of looking around and resetting the view?

Sorry, cant help on that, but I dont hear people complaining.

4. Is there a possibility to use the software provided (or some other) to use the rig’s rear slide motor outside a game while on windows destop to easily slide the seat for example far left in order to make accessing seat easier directly from behind the seat? The reason I'm asking is because like I mentioned, my space is limited and I have walls on both sides of my space and therefore this would make accessing the seat so much easier after firing up the pc before starting to race.

Hey, nothings impossible but I would suggest you are adding a level of complexity that isn't really required. You would have to motorize the seat runner. It adds weight, it adds complexity and it wouldn't really give you any more than a standard set of seat runners.

5. I have a DD wheel (SW20), Heusinkweld Pro pedals, and a couple of shifters, handbrakes, etc. so based on this information and my gear’s weight, should I consider getting the more expensive pro version over the consumer model ? Do you think the pro’s motors work better for VR as well or can you even notice a speed difference between the two models?

I guess the pro model is going to be a better option for you. If the rig is ballanced correctly, then equipment weight shouldnt be too much of an issue but DofReality would be better at answering that. I have the ECCI wheel (which is pretty heavy), HPP pedals and two Thrustmaster shifters with a few extra metalwork and my rig has no issues once balanced. Your biggest issue will be the mounting of the DD wheel on the wheel plate. While I'm sure it's strong enough, that DD wheel torque may give some problems.

Hope my responses help a little

Thanks Andy for your replies!

In my #4 question, I was referring to figuring out if there's a possibility to move the seat with the software provided while not being playing? Due my limited space (walls on both sides of the rig & seat, the width of the space is 95cm), I would like to access the seating position more easily by moving the seat to e.g. as far left as the the rear slide allows it to move. Accessing rig would happen basically directly from behind the seat and due walls being close on both sides, moving the seat e.g. 10cm sideways would greatly ease up hopping on the seat.

Hope this clarified what I meant and hopefully someone's able to provide information about the software and if it's possible to move the seat with the rear slide motor while not in a game? Thanks!

I presume you mean the traction loss motor when you say rear slide motor.

I think I understand what you are trying to say. If you purchased the 3 Dof rig with traction loss then you could I suppose manually rotate the traction loss fully one way and then cut the power (there is a feature for manual test of all the axes). That may give you some extra space. If you combined that with pushing the seat as far back as possible (on seat runners) and perhaps manually setting the roll axis hard over as well, then you may get some extra room to get in and out of the rig.

But 950mm is pretty tight. I'm sure its possible if you are not some big guy (is it politically incorrect to say 'fat bloke'?)

If you went with the 2Dof then the width of the rig is limited by the width of the seat. I'm not sure but the with of the 2Dof frame is probably less than 600mm.

Andy

Big thanks, Andy!

Yeah i know my limited space is a bit of a turnoff and sort of a obstacle, but at least I'm skinny and limber enough to probably overcome that

At this point 3dof will definitely be my choice as long as I can make sure beforehand placing the order, that I'm able to manually rotate the seat with the traction loss motor using the software. If there is the king a feature for manual test of all axes like you mentioned, then I would assume this kind of seat movement before sitting down is possible and relatively easy to pull off?!

If you're able to test this out for me, I would greatly appreciate it

Yes you definitely can manually move the traction loss. Its part of the testing procedure.

But start looking for as narrow a seat as you can because that will give you as much space as you can. Which part of the world are you in. If you are in the UK or the US then start looking at seats for Caterham 7 style seats (very narrow, not carbon fiber specials). You may pay a little more for those types of seat but it will make your little problem a little easier.

Thank you Andy once more for clarifying that the movement of the rear slide/seat can be done using the softwares's manual testing procedure, which I assume is quite quick&easy to pull off, if it comes down to me needing to pull the procedure off every time when hopping on and off the rig.

Yeah I recently upgraded my former GT Omega RS8 seat to a more comfortable a surprisingly narrower Sparco R100 model due my original plan of getting only a 2dof solution. Therefore the seat I currently own should be one of the narrowest seats available and I got a brand new one dirt cheap for 100€ from Finland where I currently live

Well I think I'm pretty close placing the order then to get to Professional model.

Ps. Are the possible additional installation holes for e.g. HE pedals, DD-wheel and other equipment (TH8A shifter, Heusinkveld shifter and Fanatec handbrake) something I should request before placing the order, or are the default holes and additional holders/plates provided good enough for attaching all kinds of goods to the righ other products than the common TM and Logitech gear?

Pps. I sure hope the previously mentioned defects regarding i.e. the plastic rolls/wheels and the possibly poor pedal plate welding have been resolved because I feel even the HE Pro's 50kg brake pressure seems at times a bit low after testing the Ultimate version!

When you put your order in just specify that you want the large wheel plate (for more room to add things) and the completely undrilled pedal plate.

This means you can fit the gear where you want without existing holes getting in the way.

Your multiple shifters and handbrake may be a bit of a problem. Speak to Igor and tell him exactly what you want and Im sure DofReality will try to help. Otherwise, like me, once you have the rig, you work out what else you need and modify/add bits accordingly.

For the pedal plate I mounted a couple of lengths of 20/20 aluminium extrusion so I was able to adjust the three individual pedals as it suited me and in theory, allow me to adjust for 2 pedal or 3 pedal use as required.

While the DofReality rig is a designed piece of kit you just assemble, I still see the rig as a bit of a DIY system that you can easily modify to suit your needs. If you are interested I can show you some of the slight alterations I have made to make it better for me.

As for the defects, DofReality do seem to be updating the design to cater for the known failures. I guess as more people buy them, then there are more potential faults and DofReality are able to come up with a good solution. I do think my rig was one of the earlier rigs and the roller problems and welding issues do seem to be improving. I dont really hear of many faults these days.

But I would suggest you tell DofReality what kit you have and ask for them to ensure the main central rib is strengthened and the replacement solid rollers are fitted.

If you have Discord, pm me your Discord ID and then we can talk a little easier if you have any other questions or issues during the install.

Alternatively, just keep asking questions here..

I have helped one or two new owners of the DofReality rig, through a few issues they have had, setting up the software, understanding the build, that sort of thing. It does help to be handy and know which end to hod a spanner and how to drill a hole. How hands on are you?

Andy

I am confused in why it is so hard to set the rig up. I thought it would have been consistent for anyone, while instead it seems based on personal preference and playing with the setup.
Also the motions/movements that the rig does, are they close to reality or are they unreal?

I live in USA.
Isn't there a list of seats compatible with this rig?

One of your posts and my response has for some reason moved to 'New Member With Some Questions'

Marco, it's not hard to set up the rig but you want to set your rig up the way you want it to feel. A rig is going to feel different dependent on the equipment you bolt onto it. A G27 wheel and pedal set is going to weigh very differently to a high end wheel and pedal set so it needs adjustment for that. Then add to the fact this rig is there to improve the immersion. What you want to feel to make it feel how you want it to feel (if you get my drift) is very subjective.

That's part of the fun of the DofReality rig. You tailor it to suit you.

A motion rig can never simulate 2g round a corner. All it can do is give the user a feel that there are g forces acting on the user. How he or she interprets that feel is, as I say subjective. Add to that different cars (or aircraft, if you are using the rig as a flight sim) and different driving styles and you have so many parameters that need to be tweaked. What a motion rig does is fool you into thinking the feelings you are feeling are actually the feelings you would feel if you were in that situation. But lets face it, very few of us will drive round Spa and even fewer of us will drive round Spa in a Williams FW14. And none of us will ever drive round the 1967 Monaco circuit in a Lotus 49. The motion rig is there to give cues so you are immersed. The way I have set up my rig may be a mile of what it actually feels like to drive a specific car on a specific piece of road (real or imaginary).


I have never seen a list of compatible seats. Lets face it, there must be thousands of seats out there and some people may have specific needs. I doubt DofReality would spent their time collating a list of seats. Giving the seat mounting dimensions would help I suppose. I suspect you will have no end of choice of seat since you live in the US. Saying that, I know nothing of sim seat choice and availability in such a big country.

Hi Noorbeast.

Makes sense what you say, sort of.

Marco was asking specific questions about the DofReality rig and not generically about any motion rig.

Because DofReality don't seem to be very active on this thread unless a specific question is asked of them (and I'm not suggesting that is wrong), I do try to address questions relating to my experiences building and operating a DofReality P3 rig.

Generally speaking, I feel interested parties find themselves at this thread because they are interested in purchasing.

However you are a moderator and I'm happy to go with the flow.

Andy