Sim rig - help choosing the right path

Hi everyone.

I was looking at the stage 4 simxperience, but before I throw down £6k (in the UK) on it and spend a week putting it together, I thought I should look at the DIY options.

My current thinking, is to get an Obutton Revolution, add butt kickers. Leave it at that for a while, then maybe a GS4 seat, and eventually swap out the Obutto for the simxperience set up.

However, if I can add DIY to the Obutto rig I'm sure it will much cheaper and a slower burn rate of my cash.

Is it possible to add a DIY motion set up to an Obutto? I'm very keen on the idea of rear traction control loss.

The rig will mainly be used for iRacing, however my wife is studying for her private pilots licence, so planex or similar would also be used. I can't see a motion rig adding much immersion for a flight sim, but I can see the GS4 seat adding something to it.

Either way, if I spin this as flight sim suitable as well, makes it an easier sell to my wife

I should point out, that if I can't make the Obutto into a motion rig in the future, then it may not be the right path for me so I might have to go down the sim experience stage 1 path and slowly upgrade it. DIY would be awesome if I don't end up losing too much money along the way.

Any help appreciated!

Martin

Hello Martin and welcome.
It should be possible to convert your existing rig to 2DOF balanced point with motion fairly well. A 3rd DOF of traction loss is also feasible, but I suggest start with a 2DOF first.
The first thing we need to see is photos of your existing rig, if you plan to have screens static (recommended) or moving, and any other goodies you may have on it that will affect overall weight.
Then we can suggest motors to run it, either 12v 200 watt big worm gears or 12v boat winch motors. All run by the famous Pololu JRK 12v12.
Cheers, David (motiondave)

Hi @Fezzek, save your money! I have a GTOmega race rig mounted on a platform, moved by large 12v DC motors as described by David giving 2dof motion for racing. I also have a Hotas system mounted for flying programs. They just require a different profile from racing. The motors are controlled by a JRK motor controller for each. I have absolutely no knowledge of electronics and I made this work with this fantastic motion software Simtools, with the information available on this site, and the extremely knowledgeable and friendly members of the forum. So far my build has cost around £1500. That's for seat, wheel and pedals all moving, and with a static screen. So nowhere near 6k and great movement. Good luck if you decide on diy.

Mike

Well, that's great news. It looks like the Obutto path doesn't mean I lose money in the long run and can build it up over time.

Dave - at the moment it is a blank canvas. I don't have the Obutto rig - but it will be pretty much standard Obutto Revolution. I need to finish my real life race car this month (minus engine) then I can get started on this.

The screens will be static, I can't imagine throwing them around and having the electronics like it too much. I like engineering projects, but it took me nearly 5 years to figure out everything I wanted/needed in my racing car before I bought a part. I'm very keen to do this without spending 5 years of my life learning a new science/discipline. Happy to cheat and learn from everyone else's experiences.

Martin

Overall weight... I think that is largely determined by the driver in my case. I'm a Clydesdale, not a Thoroughbred...

Martin

My rig has been improved heap since photo. Had an existing simul8or PVC rig design from the insidesimracing website and decided I wanted motion in the Rig so I designed a simple cheap seat mover frame and use Jrk12v12 with 12v 200W motors, I'm a feather weight and she throws me like a rag doll and sons a lot bigger than me , damit, and it does the same to him without a worry.

For use for flight you can remove the front deck which has the Wheel etc in it, and stand the frame separately, I have been using it lately to test the flight plugins for SimTools. I was surprised on how effective it was. Just needed two mounts on the side for flight stick and throttle and rudder pedals sit on the ground in front of you, all infront of my overhead projector and yea , not bad at all.

I do have most of the cad drawings needed to build the motion part if needed, welcome to copy or use as a base.

Does the whole rig move. In my case, the entire Obutto?

@Fezzek you would mount your static rig on a platform and place it all on a universal joint at the central pivot point. You then move the whole shebang with motors. Plenty of examples on the Forum. Get an idea of what you want, start a build thread, ask questions.
Mike.

as @AceOfSpies says, moving the whole thing is possible, but you need to take into account the weight if your frame with you on it. If needed, run 50:1 gearboxes (instead of 25:1) on shoulder mount setup to give you more power to move.