Peacemakers 6dof Unicorn Build

I'm glad your liking the new servo drives! i've been watching your youtube vids and it looks great! I know the extra cost was something i wasn't looking forward to but i guess that's the cost to try and get a more robust system. Just hope the new motors arrive when the fiance is at work hahaha. Worst case is if i start causing myself headaches i can always just buy 4 new ball screws and go to a 4dof setup like you've done.
As for mains power, definitely understand the risks. My other rig still dealt with it and if anything this is a bit safer than my last setup lol.

What have you used to mount your servo drives? i've been trying to find a nice rack to mount them in but cant find anything?

Cheers Thanos! I see that clearly now.. for some reason when researching this months ago i had 400mm stuck in my head for some unknown reason haha. Thats good to know.

Getting ready for a bench test as we speak. wish me luck haha

Its Alive!!!

Hi @Peacemaker105 loving your progress , keep up good work , i bought a 9u rack via amazon see attached pick cost about £60.00 and its big enough for me to fit 6 servo Drivers when the time comes , at the moment i have 4 drivers but will be buying another 2 soon ( post xmas bank account depletion recovery mode )

I'm liking the look of the new actuators. What made you decide to ditch your aluminum extrusions and go with the new cylinder design?

Literally just pdated First post just now explaining this haha. In Short, the new motor servo combo eliminates the need for limit switches, potentiometers and custom wiring, its now plug and play. Which in turn doesnt need all the bulk and can be designed slimmer and neater. its basically half the width and depth now and dust resistant.

Cheers for that,that cabinet looks perfect and they pretty cheap on ebay!
Tell me about it! i'm going on a 3 week cruise in a few days and a wedding in 8 months to pay for still and just want to order 5 more motors already haha. Might have to sell a few shares and order them a week before im back so they're waiting for me to arrive home

You got to protect the star of the show

Hi,

all really love your actuator design, how do you fix here :



and what are the both axis ? just round steel or alu ? what diameter ?


Thanks

Hey mate, updated the first post earlier with all the details on the design with links etc. Its 8mm Alu tube with 2mm wall, drilled and tapped to M5 thread the tube is slightly shorter than the PVC so you can screw tight and pull the end plates tight against the tube to stop it spinning. I think in my final design it will print a keyway at each end and cut out a notch on the tube to also assist, or put a hole in the side with a 2.5mm brass insert and drill a hole through tube and fix it that way. either will work and just give a bit more security in case they loosen over time.

Ok thanks a lot, I really love your design, I tried to made one inspired by :

Nice work mate! I like it. I initially had 4 rods also but thought i'd try get away with 2 and minimise materials haha. Time will tell i guess. So your picking up the 4 holes on the Igus bearing? i did think about doing that. might have a play around with that actually but from memory the holes in the linear bearing are 4mm clearance and i'll need to drill them to 5mm clearance, then i'd probably need to get socket head cap screws instead of hex bolts due to wall clearance but if i invert the linear bearing that could work.
Initially wanted to invert it and use it as an end stop but i hacksawed them and they're all different lengths. I use to think the Thanos controller calibrated both lower and upper end stops which would have given each actuator a different length. But now i understand you just set the length yourself i could actually invert them no worries and use them as hard stops, just set max stroke to the actuator with the lowest clearance. if that all makes sense..

Little update. All actuators assembled today. Hopefully I tightened all the bolts haha. Here they are in all their glory..



Tomorrow I will be mounting my new pillow ball base plates. So the idea is they will allow the actuators to rotate a little bit in certain movements. Similar to the PT Actuator uni joints but at about 1/15 of the cost haha. Hope they work as intended.. (EDIT: they didn't work as expected, so i've just bolted them to the pillow balls and bolted the Nut down on to the frame to stop them moving.. work good for getting the universal joint lined up though haha)
Then the next thing will be to assemble. I'm also currently installing the servo drivers into a 12U server case so looks like my weekend is going to be a busy one.
I'll update some more as progress happens.


EDIT: The pillow ball mounts didn't work as expected, they counteract the uni joint. So i have since put a nut on the other side and bolted them down to the frame on the nut. So they can't rotate or swivel on the ball joint. Still came in handy for aligning the unijoint with the angle of the actuator before clamping tight

Well shes all back together now and looking pretty sleek. Pretty stoked. I will be more stoked if it works haha.


I also finished the cabinet today! So much tidier than my previous jungle of wires haha.



Now I was silly and thought I had ordered 6 db25 cables but I only ordered one dammit! No local shops sell a male to male cable.. I'm so impatient and want to test it out and now 5 measily cables are stopping me from doing so. Oh well.. I might just go to Jaycar (like radioshack) and make my own cables perhaps..

It's Alive!!

Few things though.. not sure what axis order i should use to get the rig the move the right way.. when i input surge it goes side to side on and angle rather than forward and back like the 3d viewer.. i changed the axis string a few times and it seemed to keep doing the same.. not sure whats going on. I have set my actuators up in the same order FlyPT uses in the diagram. hmmm.
Off to bed now, hopefully test some game inputs tomorrow.

Whouaww! It is stunning! I think that with your actuators with those servomotors and the thanos control board you have the best Price/Doability/Efficiency for a motion device. I'm ready to build a 6dof if it is your way!! It finelly seems me doable after month of research.

Cheers mate but still a long way to go to prove itself yet I think if i could change anything i would go 600mm ballscrews. maybe 10mm pitch as a 500mm only has a real 350mm travel, plus get some extra speed with higher pitch. Also will probably fork out for slightly better ballscrews and not go so cheap as a couple are a bit sloppy. $40 China tolerances haha. But it's finally looking up!

Heres a human test for you all



Now to tune up a driving profile tonight and give some racing a go tomorrow.

Righto after hours of testing I finally got a lap in.. and then my camera battery went flat haha so here you go! Special thanks to Coops for the amazing profile and Thanos and Flypt for the obvious!! I'm in sim heaven right now!! Its So smooth and fluent and I can't stress enough how much adrenalin I was carrying after this test . Thank you all.

Mounted a screen yesterday. Now i can plug in my main PC and more easily sit in the rig and tune stuff on the fly and game in higher frame rates.
If anyones interested, It's a Kogan 34" ultrawide 3440x1440 @ 144hz. Spec sheet seems good. Keen to give her a whirl soon.

I used all the steel i had left, laying around so it could do with perhaps center brace. But hopefully will do for now and a bit of testing

Looks great. Well done. I'm thinking of a do over myself with more room around the seat like yours.

I was looking at the video and noticed a lot of slack in the bottom uni joint.
I think you will get a big improvement road vibration/rumble strip feel if you swap it with something much tighter.

Cheers, Wow, Good eyes! haha

Yes the trial with these pillow ball mounts didn't quite work as i had planned. i thought it would help with certain yaw and sway movements and avoid the unijoints binding and putting strain on the actuator but under fast movements they free spin a bit. obviously only as much as the upper Rose joint allows but yeah i didn't anticipate that kind of behaviour when thinking it through. If i did the same setup at each end of the actuator it would work but yeah, oh well. The cost of R&D lol. I have a simple fix in mind, just put a bolt on the other size of the bearing and then tighten it down to the base. No more Z axis rotation.

You thinking of a larger upper platform? i still gotta makeup mounts for keyboard holder and joystick etc.. i will soon be feeling a little more cramped i think once i get carried away and load her up with more crap haha