My 2dof project for $200 and NO welding (+$100 for Traction Loss + $200 for G-seat)

Hey Armpit! thank you for all your help, and also for sharing the joy of a finished build

@Qlittles it would be nice to see a video of your great work running

I'm out of town at the moment, and so won't be able to post (though I do have a video of my kids riding the roller-coaster. .. maybe I'll upload that later). My rig may be one of the cheaper builds, and probably the ugliest-- I can't really call it "great", but it's still my baby.

Great Joob men!!
it wold be nice to see a video, I am thinking to made one for be but i think that is to dificult.

Here is the video of my kid riding the roller-coaster. Fast forward to 0:40 where the action begins, and turn down the volume (because of the screaming ).

Hey you can do it! And if you ever need help, people on this site will help, including me

Qlittles hey man pat your, self on the back.You said it's not pretty but for $200.00 dollars who cares its certainly doing the job.
just look at the joy your sons having and I bet you certainly get your share.

Final Reflection

I finally got traction-loss to work (I’m not sure how I did it. I did the virtual output on simtools and changed the resolution of the monitor, and it magically kicked in.), and I have been playing with the rig for a few weeks now. Here are my final thoughts on the project.

Fears and Worries

Here is the list of things I was not sure of at the beginning that produced worry/anxiety/fear:

1. Is the Wheelchair Motor strong enough to move me for traction loss? I worried because I was using 12v of power on a 24v motor, which I think means that the power output is diminished (as well as the speed. The motor had a peak 1200w, with 200w continuous. My power supply was 550w. Was 550w enough? Also, as mentioned before, it took a good amount of force to move my rig.
   
   
2. The Monster Moto board’s peak amperage is 30A at 12v. My power supply is 550w, and the motor itself can take 1200w total (with 24v). If there was not enough power to move the rig with me sitting on it, would the MM board fry as it tries to draw more than 360w (30a x 12v) from the power supply? The MM boards are placed right under my legs, and I have the VR headset on… I hope I notice the flame roasting my legs...
   
   
3. How would I connect the pots to the motors? I wasn’t sure how I could connect the pots correctly, as I didn’t have couplers. Even the screws that I glued to the motor did not turn straight and wobbled. I was thinking of using J&B Weld putty to secure the wobbly screw and the pots, and that was not a perfect science. Would eye-balling it be enough? I could easily imagine the pots breaking or disengaging.
   
   
4. The motors were pretty loud when I was testing them. I would hate each turn accompanied by loud whines.
   
   
5. Programming the Arduino boards. I haven’t programed since High School..

Resolution

Here are the corresponding solutions/answers:

1. The Wheelchair Motor ended up being much more stronger than I had thought. In the SMC3 Utility, I was able to control how much power goes to the motor. It is set at 80/255, which is less than ⅓ of the total power, and it moves me effortlessly.
   
   
2. The Monster Moto board heat sink is cool to the touch because I’m guessing that not much power is going through it and because it is not being used much.
   
   
3. The screw wobbles a little, and I didn’t do a good job of securing the pots perfectly… so they wobble as they spin. However, everything works fine, and nothing has broken.
   
   
4. Overall, many things are loud including the server PSU. Since I have the Rift headset on while I’m driving, the sound coming from the rig is minimized including the motor stall sound. In the end, I can’t hear the wiper motor sound.
   
   
5. Setting up the Arduino boards was the easiest part -- I just followed the instructions, and everything worked the first time!

What I would have done differently

• As mentioned, I would have placed the wiper motors to the back of my rig rather than the front. This would have saved me time and $$
  
  
• The wheelchair motor is super powerful. I would have made the motor arm longer so that the amount of traverse for traction loss would be greater.
  
  
• I bought a ¼ titanium drill bit… I should have bought a cobalt one, as cobalt is much better for my purposes
  
  
• I should have bought wires for electronic breadboards. I had to salvage wires from a dead PSU and solder on the end pins, which took a lot of time… a few bucks would have solved the problem.
  
  
• I should have spent more time planning
  
  
• I should have voiced my worries/questions on the forums

Was Traction-Loss worth it?

Since I just got the Traction-Loss Control to work, I haven’t had much time testing it out in real runs. I don’t notice it much, but I don’t know if that is because I have to tweak the settings, or because I need to push more power to the motors. Since Yaw was working well and powerful enough, I think it’s more of a software thing.

However, I’ll chime in concerning the effort and money spent. As you know, my 2dof costed me about $200, and the Traction Loss costing me about $100. The effect I get from the 2dof is fantastic, and well worth $200 and the labor. Traction Loss costed me half of the $200 (+ equivalent labor), and I'm not sure if the final result would be as impressive as half the 2dof. It took a lot of work making the bottom base and securing the motor for the Traction Loss, making the build taxing and difficult at times. So was it worth it? It's a toss-up for now. Maybe more work with the settings will push me towards a conviction.


The END?

I already want to improve my rig, but as for the initial goal set out on this forum, the finish line has been crossed! Maybe I'll do further reflection if there are notable things to say, but for now, I’m done Thank you to all those who have helped and urged me on in small and big ways

Question: What roller coaster game is that? Looks cool. Are you planning to release build plans at some time?

Question: What roller coaster game are your kids playing? Are you considering releasing build plans anytime soon?

Hello! sorry this is so late of a response- the roller coaster game is called NoLimits 2. As for the build plans, I don't really have one, and I actually wouldn't recommend that you go with my build, as the design has some mistakes (for example, I should have attached the motors at the back of the seat instead of the front).

I built a H-shifter for my simulation rig. Inspired from this: http://hackadayarchive.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=327
Mine too costed less than $20, and it feels really fantastic (though the stick range from left to right is too wide).

I had a heim joint left over from my simulation project, so I used that as the base for the shifter:



Then, I built the top using left-over wood

Next, I installed switches on the under side of the top face. The picture shows only 4, but I installed all 6

Wired up and put together with the bottom part, it looks like this from the side:

Then, I placed cabinet door holder thingys on the top of the face.

The stick snaps into place while depressing the switch on the bottom. Also, since I'm using is heim joint on the bottom of the stick, the stick feels really solid and connected.
Here is a picture of it on the side:

The stick is solid, but rough on my hands. I thought about buying a knob online, but considering the price and the wait time, I decided to get a mini alcohol bottle like this:

This is not the exact one I got. Mine had less shape. First, I wanted to just stick the metal stick through the top, but realized that it didn't fit. My option was to either saw the head off, or somehow cut the glass top enough to get a wide opening.

I researched online, and found a method where I would burn a string to get cut the glass. At first, it didn't seem to work, but when I started sawing it, it just came off

After I got the metal stick inside, I had to secure it to the center of the base (of the bottle) so that the metal stick wouldn't move around. I went to my local playground and stole a palm-full of sand. I put the sand in the bottle, and put some drops of superglue into the sand. I waited 10 seconds and then put the metal stick in, but the superglue already hardened a bit. I was able to get the metal stick half-way into the sand. It was secure and in the center!

ok, there is some sand grains here and there...

I bought a knock-off Arduino Leonardo board, installed all the wires on it, and programmed it with Assetto Corsa. Here is the final picture of my $20 H-shifter!

Project Reflections:
- The width play of the stick is too wide. I think if I used the cutting board like the original Hackaday one, I could have limited the width. However, I'm now used to the width, and am able to shift gears without problems.
- The custom glass knob I made feels really great! It doesn't feel cheap and plastic. I think maybe a metal one would even feel better, but I wasn't sure how I was going to secure it on a non-standard stick.
- Shifting feels really great, and it can take a beating when I'm driving in a frenzy.

It's been a while. I recently built a G-seat for my 2dof + traction loss. At first, I started with 2 motors for the seat-belt (the picture shows the final product). It made a huge difference in the immersion for at least 2 reasons. 1) It glued me to the seat (as I wasn't really using the seat-belts before), and 2) the pull from the back felt compelling because of the force it applied on my body. Because it was compelling, I decided to do additional upgrades to make a semi-full G-seat. Here is a picture of the belt harness tensioners on the back of my seat:

I added 2 more motors inside for the pneumatic method following Xxpelle's build here:
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/pneumatic-g-seat.314/




These two bladders inflate the blue bags on the left and right of my thighs on the seat: