New project

Hey everyone, I've been watching this site for a while and I finally decided to pull the trigger on my motion seat build! I am going to go with an Arduino/MotorMonster setup with two reclaimed wheelchair motors. This build will not be nearly as nice as others on this board due to financial limitations, but I will be building it to be upgraded piece by piece as I can. I will keep this thread updated as I go. Any and all advice is appreciated, as this is my first build of anything like this!

Step one: Wheelchair dissection!

Wow, they really build these things to last! I had to wrestle the entire frame apart to get down to the motors, but it was worth it since the chair was free. I also plan on using the seat from the chair to start out, as it is pretty comfortable and is not very heavy. This will be mounted on a 3/4" sheet of MDF via a CV joint as I have seen in other builds. I plan on doing a shoulder mount to the back of the seat. The chair motors are 30:1 gearing, so from what I understand that should be adequate.

Ah, dang edit limit. I forgot to add that the main use for this will be for iRacing, PCars, and Flight Simulator X. Hopefully down the road a PC version of Forza and the new Nascar game will work as well.

Thanks for the advice. I plan to shoulder mount to minimize the footprint. I will be going straight to a headset with trackir so I won't need to accommodate screens.

Update:

I wound up salvaging a PTO shaft and truck seat from the farm. These will serve nicely for hardware. At this point I am sitting at $15 for the project. All the parts are now gathered and I plan to start construction this week!

So this project has been in progress for a few months now, I figured it was time to share the functional product. I know that most of these are made out of steel, but I am no welder and I already had a lot of materials in my garage. This is definitely not up to par with some of the rigs out there, but I was able to build the entire thing for just over $100 (including the arduino and the Pololu VNH-5019). I hope you all enjoy it, and as you have seen in the forums I absolutely could not have done it without all of your help!!!!

I saw that some people had some different ideas about how to mount the pots. Since I have bolts in the center of the motor, I mounted 1/2" sockets on the ends and use that as my connection. There is no slack and it is not a permanent mount so it is easy to disassemble if I need to.

The original CV was loose, but I found a 3.5" PTO drive with a swappable U-joint that is rock solid and provides full range of motion.

The seat without the pedals attached was pretty fun to play around with FSX, but it was time to get real and add the fun parts!

The pedal base was by far the most technical piece. Getting the length and angle just right was a very interesting process. i can not imagine doing this with metal with all the trial and error.

Mounting the pedals. They are on tracks on the bottom of the seat so they are adjustable for leg length.

I connected the wheel straight to the pedal mount, so it will adjust with the pedals and allow maximum comfort.

Overall, the construction is very stable. I enforced everywhere with bolts going through wood with metal plates so it is very strong, yet not extremely heavy. Rather than a racing seat I am using a Peterbuilt truck seat, which provides great comfort with multiple adjustment options. I use this with a projector on the wall which I will post a video of soon

Thank you all again for your support! I will update this as I upgrade/modify the construction.

That is actually today's project. with me in it it is slightly front heavy which I am ok with. I figure if something fails and it falls, I'd rather fall forward than backwards

This is a rough vid, but you can see some of the motion ill be putting together a multicam view of it tomorrow.

Speaking of dialing things in, is there any way to run game engine and the smc3 tool at the same time?

Thanks! am I reading this correctly that you must have a 2 pc setup for this?

Also, ive run the tuning center on project cars, iracing, dirt rally, and Fsx. for Pcars and Iracing, I have to turn the levels down to about 30% to make it usable, yet in Dirt I barely get any movement even at 80/90%. FSX moves randomly in very small motions as well that do not match what my axis output testing shows. Ill post a shot of my tuning when I get it back up today.

Nice progress, but one thing i HAVE to point out, is your lever thickness....Imo your Way too thin gauge for a full frame and i forsee those twisting/bending in no time. I also have some fears of the Front end pedal section, but im sure you'll discover that when the time comes.


As per the profile tuning, Dont be worries, tuning comes with time in the rig and the software. There's lots to it in the end and you cant possibly expect to understand in on day 1. Follow Noor's advice with the links and you should be able to figure it out.

Haha, way ahead of you on the levers. I spent the time yesterday rebuilding the entire motor area and actually tripled up the bars on those levers. They are rock solid now. I also added a cross brace going to the other side of the motors as a third point to solidify the mounting.

no you can also use one pc for all

for ip use 127.0.0.1 or your pc ip
you have to use the UDP pass thru mode and when game is connected you will receive packages about 100


when i tried with two pc to do the same i could only see the light blue line and nothing else.give it a try you could be more lucky than me

there is another way you can monitor your motors, with this https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/simple-digital-scope-for-motion-sim-testing.5485/ but you need an arduino to do it

Why build a simulator if you can go racing in that wheelchair?? x)
Just a quick question, what psu's are you using?

Thanks

pics of the new supported motor setup ? Im still curious to see a Solid mounting solution. If you want a reference, Check out Milton's build in the link below. You'll need to flip the motor's over but at least they will be solidly mounted and not flex all over the place. I also have a pair of these motor's, just haven't gotten around to implementing them yet.

https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/cxc-simulator-racer-replica.7709/

Here is the photo of the reinforced mounting. The bottoms of these motors are flat, unlike some of the wheelchair motors out there, so it clamps down very well. There are two 3/8ths inch bolts through the inside and a steel bar running across the top to the third on the outside. There is also a bracket back on the motor that is screwed into the base. The plates are all screwed in to the factory holes on the motor. Based on about 4 hours of driving, I am confident that the 2x6 and 1" base will give before any of the hardware does. I am going to be putting together a multiangle view of some iRacing this week to share.

These motors are great if you have a couple lying around, just make sure you open them up and take out the brake if there is one installed. The brake is on by default unless you either remove it or put power to it to release it. They aren't terribly loud and have more than enough power, even running 12v. That project you linked was definitely a target to aim for, but with my current resources I wanted to start somewhere, I will definitely be upgrading it down the road, but for now it is doing its job and I look forward to turning many laps in it