Nearing the "end" of my 2 dof build, a 3D printer has been essential!

The idea of putting the weight of the fan off the platform is a great idea.

How can I find the hoses you used in the wind generator?

C.A.P. (Custom Automated Products) Lightproof Ducting with Clamps, 4-Inch by 25-Feet, Black by Hydrofarm
Link: http://a.co/2yeqxZf

Hey @Pierre Lalancette , @mariano68 - I came really close to ditching the hoses but I had already bought them. Hardware stores have 4" drain elbows that are smooth on the inside and would give much higher wind velocities. The corrugation of the hoses I used cause turbulence in the hoses and slow the wind. When I first got the hosing I left the wind generator on the floor for testing and used all the hose length in two pieces. Velocity was terrible. I trimmed it in half in length and tried it again and while much better, it still wasn't as good as when I had the flow straighteners mounted right on the fan exhausts. The lengths in the photo are less than a quarter of what they started out to be so may be good enough.

Mounting the wind generator on the front of the rig like it is now and putting the flow straighteners on drain elbows (POWERTEC 70105 4-Inch Elbow Dust Hose Connector by POWERTEC Link: http://a.co/eLEZLjz) and the elbows on the fan exhausts (like a pair of periscopes) would eliminate any weight at all on the moving frame but would increase the distance from the straighteners to my face when seated by around 18". However, @Avenga76 has a video where he is testing the effectiveness of the straighteners and gets lots of distance at close to full velocity. Movements on my rig aren't enough to change the wind direction to any noticeable extent if I upgrade to elbows and I still might do it. Having a smooth surface on the ID of the ducting really helps air flow.

Love it! I am finding as I tinker more and more, that 3D printers were pretty much invented for Sim builders

It's the subtle little things that make all the difference.

3D printed Oculus Unit Holder
3D printed sensor wall mounts
3D printed touch holders
3D printed keyboard mount
3D printed mouse clip
3D print cable clips

I love the idea of 3D printed motor arm covers. Great idea!

My printer is printing its little heart out right now on offset pedal plate mounts for my MFG Crosswind rudder pedals. Even with the stock offset plates, it's just slightly too wide to fit inside the frame of my top platform. Printing them dense with lots of support since they are going to take foot abuse but I think they should do fine. They are 2" tall to have the pedal plate clear the parallelogram frame but they should give me the clearance I need. No way I could have machined all this stuff and to have it done would have cost a fortune. It's also bailed me out when I do stupid stuff like make the pedal cubby for my motion frame narrower than the minimum width of my pedals by just a 1/2".

The image is upside down from how it will mount. The small surface at the top will mount to the stock pedal plate mount. The pedal plate will sit fairly square over the big end. It's a little tall at 2", but not that bad. It will just make the brake motion a bit more of a round over instead of a straight tilt. Shouldn't be too bad though.

Edit - Got the first one off the printer and can shorten it up to 2" tall and still have clearance so I did. Took it out of the midsection so the important dimensions could be left alone. Will have the final pieces tomorrow afternoon if all goes well.

And here is the final unit. My rudder pedals have a USB connector so they just plug and unplug. The G27 pedals needed a connector spliced in and a fixture to hold the connector in place. But you can see the rudder pedals now just barely clear the frame for the wheel mount. Next is the stick extension.

Haven’t tried these out yet but I can’t see it not being way better than the accordion tubing. I got the 4" drain elbows and they are great! I printed thin rings to fit on the ID of the fans, the elbows, and the flow straighteners for alignment, to adapt the minor ID differences, and add a bit of strength. Some electrical tape on the outside holds the parts together. I just taped the straighteners in place with a bit of tape to check clearance but now have those adapter rings printed to fit it all together. Will be driving today!

I bet wind speeds are back to straight-pipe levels now. Turns out I needed to do this anyway to make the wheel removable to make room for the flight stick. (The stick gets floor mounted but the wheel was in the way.) Had to get the straighteners off the shelf with the wheel.

I think the wind install is done now. I now have the space I need to finish the flight controls once some parts arrive today but for now it’s time to test. The accordion tubes were ok and solved some problems, but slowed the air down a lot. It wasn’t so bad with the tube lengths in the photos above but still wasn’t close to what I got with the straighteners taped directly to the fans. This should be as close as I can get with a right angle bend in the path.

The photo of the ring didn’t come out well since they are black, but they are just rings to adapt the minor ID differences between the parts. There is a ridge to keep the rings in proper position that gets captured between each part. I printed them in two pieces so if needed I could just trim the ends to get them to fit if too large in diameter. They fit fine so I could have printed them in one piece.

Edit - This works great! Lots of wind again! I like the corrugated tubing for ease of use but the smooth, large bore stuff really helps the air flow.

I keep having duh moments but the printer keeps coming to the rescue. When I worked out spaces for my MFG Crosswind pedals, I did it when the frame was at rest. Dumb. So I was looking at redesigning my pedal standoffs and printing new, or as an opportunity to have some fun with customization. Customization won. Printing now....

Pedals now fit and still comfortable. Braking is slightly harder to control but think that’s just getting used to it. Wheel is pushed forward out of the way, stick base slid into position and locked, extension and stick handle set in place. Ready for flight. I do need to make another extension that is two inches longer but that can come later. It’s all functional now so I can get tuning up for flight. Switching between flying and driving now just takes moments. Stick extension comes off, base pushes back under the seat, pedals swap out, wheel pulls into adjustable position and locks. Just about done. Don’t really mind the extra moment from the wheel being pushed forward during flight since flight is much more gentle and motion loads mostly lower. So many ways this could and all too frequently has gone wrong but being able to 3D print my way out has been very valuable.

Very Nice Zed

Lots of my designs happen this very way.... lol

I'm limited by the print volume and needed more pedal area than would fit my printer. The basic pedal I showed a render of is really too small for me and with the height of the adapter is not easy to control the brakes well.

So I redesigned to add bolt-on heel and toe pieces to the basic pedal to make them bigger to get better control. I also shortened up the standoff adapter which required notching the pedals a bit to accommodate the lower profile as well as some clearancing in the adapter to clear bolts on the toe brake assembly.

I use 3 each 1/4"-28 x 1.25" socket head cap screws to hold each heel/toe onto the main pedal body. I had bought a box of these for other stuff so that's the thread I molded in to these.

The stance with these adapters is a bit narrower than stock. As mentioned above, I needed the narrow stance to fit within my frame.

Still need a change to my stick extension to make it more comfortable, but today is a flying/tuning day.

Here are the files if anyone is curious. Width at the pedals is 15.5". I also included the original shorter style pedal that's in the render and the taller adapter but am not a fan. They are just there if you want them. I think the longer pedals do give more braking control and the pedal sitting lower and closer to the axis of brake rotation feels better.

Just awesome!

perfectionist!!Beautiful works

perfectionist!!Beautiful works

@Zed I'm trying to find your post with your 3d printed mounts for the arctic alpine fans/heatsink and how you mounted the jrs from the bottom tried forum search/some search engines various various, no luck, need to bookmark it. In addition, are you powering the fans themselves via the same high amp LED power supplies used for the motors or via a different means?

I think this might be the post you are looking for....
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/jrk-12v12-overheating.10327/#post-133655
But if not, then try searching for the word 'heat' and narrow the search to only 'zed', make sure to untick the checkbox for this forum only. There were a couple of other posts that might be what you are after but the link above has the design files.