My first go to build a 2DOF

while i really appreciate your effort to help me i dont think were on the same page here, i got one set running really nice except for some fine tuning the PID settings and maybe the motor settings, but the MIN and MAX are set and it will go wherever i want it to go within that range, but that is with one JRK.
Added another video for you to see i understand how it works and that i got it to work, but when i connect the same wiring, the same motor and the same pot to the other JRK it just doesnt work.
No matter how i set up the Range in the software, it still only sees the upper range of the pot, so setting a MIN and MAX is actually impossible as the values wont go beneath that 2800 or 2900 u see in the first video. that faulty JRK sees 80% of pot travel as the same value in the software. no matter how i set it up.
Like i said in my last post, i clicked load default setting and turn the pot to see the values and for this type of test i dont even need to set the PID settings as the motor doesnt have to turn to test the feedback signal

Ok, my mistake.
Did you post this info on the pololu forum as well?

haha no problem, your trying to help and thats very nice.
No didnt post it yet, first want to take out the JRK that had a small fire and take some pics

got it out and something shorted on the board, still works though, just wont power up with USB alone.
Will add this into the thread on the Polulu forums and just wait and see if they know what happend.
So now i have JRK with issues, and one JRK thats burned but works ok. lol

3 weeks have gone by and i finally received my 2 new JRK's in the mail. did some thoroughly testing with these 2 units and i can finally say i got 2 working sets.
Once i knew this part of the build worked like it should i continued welding up the frame and mounted the motors for the first time, it didnt take long to realize my knees were going to hit the steering wheel when the seat was going to move so i made some adjustments to the frame and repositioned the wheel and pedals, the wheel was a bit on the low side to begin with so i just extended the tubes to get the wheel to the desired height, i now have a few centimeters to spare and the wheel perfeclty overlaps the ingame steeringwheel so it really "looks" like your in the car, i also tilted the wheel back a few degrees more then it allready was to get a more natural feel.
Once i determined the "zero" position of the seat and frame i welded up the arms and cut the the tie rod ends to fit.
The pedal position was also still a temporary solution as i didnt know the ammount of movement this frame was going to have and i didnt want to risk the pedals hitting the frame on the first test, so after the seat and wheel were in place i made some small cuts in the tubes that hold up the pedals and lowered everything so the driving position feels more like a real car instead of laying down the whole time haha.
Also finished up most of the welding so the frame is basically done, im still working on some pieces that make the pedal assembly slide backwards and forwards (last pictures) it will be spindle driven and has to be sturdy but also smooth as silk so its probably going to take
me a few hours to get it right but im hoping to get everything done this week and spraypaint the frame next Saturday.
Once the frame is painted its going to be closed off with wood and the finished off with some black fabric you see in the trunk of some cars, dont know how its called but ill bet that looks really nice and "car like" hahaha.
Anyways, heres some pics and ill keep you guys updated. thnxs

Looks good man. Sounds like you have a plan.
As for that black fabric stuff in the boot if a car. I think its called "carpet". Probably molded

It is always nice to see new designs, looking forward to see it moving!

Time for another update,

Got the frame all welded up, including the sliders to adjust the pedals backwards and forwards, sadly it doesnt slide as smooth as i wanted it to be but it still works pretty good, the plan was that i could adjust the pedals by hand but after welding all the parts it just doesnt slide as easy anymore, i was pretty carefull how to weld everything in place, tried to minimize the risk of parts pulling and bending because of the heat but i guess i didnt try hard enough haha, ah well, it adjusts fine with a spanner so i still call it a succes .
Then it was time to set up the motors and pots and see if i could get Simtools to communicate with the JRK's, setting everything up took me a few hours, had some issue's where the Jrk software reported one motor was running in the wrong direction but then after switching it arround it still didnt work ok, dont really know what i did to fix it but after setting up the pots for the third or fourth time it suddenly worked.
Played with the settings all night and for now im pretty happy with the speed and movement of the seat, theres offcourse still enough room for improvements but i will get to that when this thing is painted and reassembled.
The movement of the seat is allready pretty good, but the horizontal arms where the motors connect to the seat are a bit to long, i need about 90 to 100 degrees on the motors to get the frame to the desired angles so im going to shorten them by a few centimeter to get a bit more range in the seat.
The JRK's are set up pretty mild, 300%DC, 300%ACC and 20A and this is more then enough to drive this so im pretty pleased with the results so far.

I started building my own handbrake to attach to the seat, the games i played up until now didnt require a handbrake but i would like to play some rally games in the near future and then a handbrake is kinda important haha.
I could just buy and connect the Fanatec handbrake to my wheel and be done with it but i really like to build my own stuff so i looked up some pics of rallycar interiors to get some idea's and just started building my own version of it.
Just finished up the lever part of the handbrake and im about to start working on the base but im not really sure which route im going to take for feedback to the computer, i could use a simple momentary on/off switch but ive also seen DIY handbrakes where they used a potentiometer.
So my question is, do games allow a variable input for the handbrake or should i just use a simple switch and set up the switch point with some springs? and if i use a potentiometer, how do i link that to my computer?
I know i could set up an arduino for that but thats way to complicated just to have one more variable input, i was thinking to either "hack" in the Fanatec wheel and use the original handbrake connector for the input or buy and hack up a flight controller joystick and use that board and pots to make it work, the last is probably a better idea and also pretty fail proof to make so if i dont hear any better idea's in the next 24 hours im going to buy me a joystick haha.

yeah, went out and bought a flight joystick with 3 axis, before dismanteling i checked to see if the games i play recognized the inputs of the joystick and they did so that was pretty sweet.
Measured the pots inside the joystick and they are all 10K ohm so i ordered some slide potentiometers to use with my handbrake, i could use one of the rotating pots that came with the joystck but that means the pot is going to stick out the side of the handbrake and i dont want that, a sliding pot is going to be mounted on the inside and that looks better and is a bit safer for the pot itself.
I'm not really a christmas kind of guy so instead of doing nothing and waisting a few hours watching home alone 2 for the 20th time i worked on the handbrake again haha, got the thing done for about 80% now and im pretty pleased with it. the spring inside is allready spot on for the base feel and i will be adding a shock from a 1:5 RC car for a bit of damping so im hoping it will feel absolutly perfect when its done.
Theres also going to be a second spring inside that can either assist or relief the main spring so the tension on the lever is going to be adjustable, the switch point for the normal on/off switch is also going to be adjustable so it can be set-up in any way i want.
Im currently working on some rubber end stops so the lever doesnt hit metal on metal when you let it go and pull it hard but i forgot my phone so i cant take any pictures yet but its going to look pretty sweet when its all done if i may say so myself, amazingly i can fit the switch, potentiometer, end stops and springs in one assembly that is going to look "factory", is very reliable and very easy to work on so i couldnt be happyer.
More updates soon