Pod Racer/Car Racer

My name is Rudy Horak, I am a student at Lake Region State College where I am majoring in simulation. We have a monster truck simulator cabinet and are looking for ways to put motion on it. I saw where people used wiper motors to move their simulators, we are leaning to using winch motors because our cabinet weights over 900 pounds. Due to a misunderstanding with this site admin I lost all of my coins including the ones before I was accused of spam. I am hoping that we can work things out because there is no better site or software that is better then Sim Tools. I hope this time around I can find more great people that can assist with our project, like all the answers I got when I got banned. I can't read the responses and the community was very supportive despite that I posted too many questions and comments. I will be graduating this December and hope to have something built. We have already ordered the winch motors. For now, I would like to just ask some questions and get some guidance on our project.

Does anyone use any type of drawing software to beta test their creation or is it shooting from the hip?

Sim Tools comes with one plug in, what is it?

When I start Sim Tools it's telling me that it is running but, I cannot get to the screen where you can configure this.

Thanks for your time, I am hoping with some help my team and I can make an awesome simulator. If you can please answer the questions above for a good start to our project.

Noorbeast and anyone else, while we are waiting for the hardware to be purchased I think I would like to try to do the simulation using Sketchup and the plug in. This is a great article. I've installed simtools and when I launch game manager and game engine I get "sim tools is already running". In other words I can't get to the control screen shown above. Please advice on what I am doing wrong.

Its automatically minimised to taskbar

Thanks for replying to my post. The task bar or what? Are we talking about the start menu or explorer? I see them in the task by the clock but, I can't do anything with them. What is the right way to launch it?

@Rudolf Jan Horak Once you launch both SimTools programs they get minimised to task bar by the clock click the show hidden icons arrow (windows 10) then double click both game engine and game manager and it will open on your desktop

Here are pictures of the cabinet that we are starting with. This was an old monster truck simulator. It had a long rectangle behind it and the front piece, shown here would be able to move. We did not get the computer or anything else with it
.

Here is what we are working with. The cabinet is great but very heavy. I am very excited to share and to hopefully complete it by December. Any coin donation is welcome as we progress. The next post will show our parts list.

I knew it could not be too hard. Thanks for the help. I think this will get us started. I appreciate the input and look forward to more as we progress with our project.

Parts List
2x 8.99 17.98 USB extender
4x 25.00 100 Wheels (for F16) MACS Devils lake store
4x 71.92 287.68 Winches
10x 14.99 149.9 Moto Monster Controlers
2x 9.96 19.92 Arduino
4x 9.60 38.4 el wire
1x 30.35 30.35 Thrustmaster T flight stick http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3Y34277&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-PC Gaming Accessories (Joystick - Game Pad - etc.)-_-9SIA1UH3Y34277&gclid=CK_f1YqP-84CFY-EaQodaoEFUQ&gclsrc=aw.ds
1x 58.22 58.22 Warning Sign http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail...gclid=CNORk8yB-84CFYWGaQodhD4PUQ&gclsrc=aw.ds
1x 8.34 8.34 All LED Momentary Push Buttons https://www.amazon.com/Ulincos®-Momentary-Button-Suitable-Mounting/dp/B01I9KDUC2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472839635&sr=8-2&keywords=blue LED momentary button
1x 6.98 6.98 Momentary Boost Button https://www.amazon.com/Frentaly®-Round-Momentary-Botton-Switch/dp/B015CY8WJ4/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1472839787&sr=8-31&keywords=LED momentary switch
1x 4.11 4.11 Red Momentary Push Buttons https://www.amazon.com/uxcell®-Square-Momentary-Button-Switch/dp/B00AKX87Y8/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1472841439&sr=8-24&keywords=push buttons
4x 6.48 25.92 LED Button Pigtails https://www.amazon.com/Ulincos®-Momentary-Button-Suitable-Mounting/dp/B01I9KDUC2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472839635&sr=8-2&keywords=blue LED momentary button
2x 7.99 15.98 LED Buttons https://www.amazon.com/Support-Light-Button-Switch-Socket/dp/B00YS25358/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472842175&sr=8-1&keywords=Angels Eye Blue LED button
1x 29.00 29 Fog Machine https://www.amazon.com/Eliminator-Lighting-Machines-EF-400-Machine/dp/B0006M59M6
2x 11.49 22.98 Power Strip https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-6-Outlet-Surge-Protector-2-Pack/dp/B014EKQ5AA/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1473434389&sr=8-7&keywords=surge protector
3x 16.99 50.97 Potentomoiters

Here is our planned shopping list. I will modify it as we go along. The "x" indicates the quantity. I am looking for any input. The final plan for this platform is to turn this into a pod racer based on the game Star Wars - Race Revenge for PS2. This may change based on what can be done with the Simsoft software. Right now it looks like the only plug in that could be used is the "joystick" one which I am guessing will move the platform based on the movement of the joystick. Thoughts, opinions, or ideas?

I am sure that you are right, because you have been right with everything else so far. So, as an alternative, I downloaded a bunch of other stuff from the site. I am curious if you or anyone else multipurpose their home built sims? What I mean is to have more than one game per simulator. So, I have a lot of plug ins downloaded along with the program. What is the best way to test it? When you built yours, did you do a small model, did you use Sketchup, or did you just start building.

Update: So, I downloaded the joystick plug in as well as lots of other plug ins, you can probably see that on the chart. Now, I want to use this project forum for tips on making the pod racer a reality. Does the Aurduino need to have the motor controller attached to do testing? Is there any software that the Aurduino needs or does it all come from the Simtools?

This weekend I am looking at installing a game or two on the computer with the Simtools. I want to use the "testing with mouse guide" to see if I can get this thing to give me some responses to the game. This will be followed up with the joystick mod.

Yeah the joystick plugin is a great addition to simtools for sure.

Thanks @Daguru! I think the only problem I will have it that it will only show the motion of the stick. This weekend I plan to get the software to work with some game. The joystick works and installs differently than other mods? I was looking at the mods and it does not look too complex to write. I just wonder why does it send you to that one website and also why do I have to have internet access for simtools at the very first launch. I am new at all this so, I welcome all inputs.

Rudy

Project update: After downloading the plugins, I installed them using the Game Manager. I then performed the initial "Default" setup using one Arduino. Our setup will be one Arduino and two motors. With the Arduino plugged in I ran the "test motion with mouse" and it worked. The Moto monsters are expected to come in soon. My questions for this portion:

Can you run the Moto Monsters without a load (the motors)?

While waiting for the motors to come in I want to try to use a volt meter to register any changes when doing the "mouse test". After that I want to configure it for the Live for Speed demo.