My wheel mover and 2dof Hyper project.

OK, so here's a very rough diagram of what I'm planning (at this stage) to do. I have a mate of mine who will put together the frame for me, so I'll be showing him this to give him some idea of what I want. It's obviously very simplified (no connectors or mounts for the motors shown etc), but if anyone sees anything here that they think will be a problem with the layout please let me know.

I did have the thought of whether I should also add traction loss, but figure that can be added later by just adding another layer to the frame (I may still do it, will discuss with my mate first).

Ah, OK, so that the point of rotation is as high as possible, that makes sense (to prevent it swaying around as it moves), and yeah, will have to determine cog once I have it put back together again, thanks.

I've done a bit more work on the designs, put the top down view to scale, tweaked a few things on the 2dof layout and added a 3dof layout as an option, again, if anyone sees anything that might cause me an issue on the layout please let me know.

I thought it might be useful to tilt the rear motors in a few degrees to match the angle of the linkage rod, is that a smart move?



The top down view of the 3dof has items that are covered from the top in blue. I've drawn the wheels in just as skate wheels for now, I've seen others show concern of nylon wheels flat spotting over time, I'm keen to hear what people's experience has been on that and about other options for wheels that have worked well for others.

I placed wheels at the front as well as rear (angled on the radius of a circle from the pivot point) to try to reduce stress on the front joint as the weight above it tilts from side to side, good idea or bad?

Quick question if anyone can help me, is there a quick and easy way to view the serial data that simtools outputs (I'm writing the Arduino code I need and to run a stepper, and it'd help me get my head around it if I was able to see the data I have to work with)?

You can watch the Live Axis in the Game Engine Under Axis Testing....tho you require some solid Tuning center #'s for that to work properly...so In reality motion data is just #'s till you have something to reference to said #'s.

Thanks for the response Nick, yeah, what I'm hoping to see is the format of those numbers, how the actual numbers look as they come out of Simtools as serial data.

Hi, I'm wondering if I can ask a quick question? I've had my application for a free simtools license rejected, I assume because this thread doesn't show enough effort in my project. Is that something that I can have reassessed once I have more to show, or is it something that you only get one shot at?

Thanks,

Peter.

OK, no worries, thanks noorbeast.

Here's a quick video of my first test of the 1dof code to run a stepper with an Arduino (using the AccelStepper library) through Simtools (surge only, I want to move the wheel back and forward based on acceleration) using LFS. Thanks again to youddy for helping me solve the problem with getting Simtools working properly on my PC.

Please ignore the terrible mouse driving, I'm still rebuilding my rig. Pleased with how it's working, seeing this I'd like to think it'll be pretty effective at moving the wheel back and forward and giving me a sense of movement.

I'll post the final Arduino sketch tomorrow if anyone is interested in it.

man, nice procect, just consider that you will need nice strong motors, considering that you will need to move the whole sim: the driver and the wood body.

- if you whant to get into trouble ant your desing stage, maybe you could consider, move only the seat inside the wood body, and allow then add the 3rd dof to move the whole sim.

in that way you will need less power and your motors will be less stressed, and... some guys here have reported that a seat mover is more acurated than moving the whole thing.

- just an opinion
- grate wood body i will definitly Watch your Thread

best regards
fer

you designed the wood body or you bught it?

(it is super good lucking)

fer

Thanks for the comments ferlash. It's difficult, I love my Hyper, and want to keep it, and a seat mover isn't possible with it (no space to move the seat within the frame, it's a very tight fit). I plan to use the Motion Dynamics motors, which I hope will get me there given that I only want small movements (as I'm using VR) and the mount points will be (especially longitudinally) quite a long way away from the pivot point (which should reduce the force needed to make those movements). I'm considering whether I get a 1:50 gearbox for them, we'll see once I test it, until then it's really hard to know isn't it?

The motor in the video above is only going to be moving the wheel back and forward, not the whole rig, so I'm hoping it'll be sufficient for that?

I built it, didn't design it. It's a Hyper http://www.hyperstimulator.com/2013web/
which, when I got it (almost 20 years ago) could be bought as a set of plans on paper and a pack of bolts to put it together. I cut out the mdf, painted it and assembled it, since then I've added the aftermarket wheel, pedals, transducers and blowers (and hopefully soon to be motion).

Expensive. Mine was second hand, but last I looked a new one was around $2700 US. If I was buying a wheel these days I'd go OSW, but in the days that I bought it it was really the best option available. If you're really keen on one you might find a good deal on one second hand, they pop up every now and then.

Not out to knock the OPS build, but that 'squeak' has always kept me away from steppers, as it would drive me mad- imagine 2/3 or even 6 of these all squeaking away at the same time on a ridged frame sim (which can even amplify the motor noise) . Just something for other members to consider.

Yeah, it is noisy, but I run a Rift with headphones, and I'm running dual Seaflo blowers, to be honest, I can't imagine I'll hear it at all once I'm racing with it. I did seriously consider going with an RC servo instead, but figured this would be a better option from the point of view of strength. Still not sure if I made the right decision on that or not, but I'm hoping this will both be strong enough, and will not bother me too much from a noise point of view.

Brother, are you still working on your project?