SimTools v3 Alpha (Questions, Answers, Fixes, Show & Tell)

Hi @yobuddy,

I've just noticed the JRK interfaces won't remember the assigned axis when I close and reopen the software. it remembers the device numbers and output rates. This happens with the original axis names and the changed ones.

Thanks, I'll test the JRK plugin and get back to you.

Regarding the crash detection, I think I understand but I thought the whole point is to try to protect the hardware from damage. If in a and b profiles you assign different pieces of hardware to the same motion and the max/min numbers relate to the max travel and a is set to +/-4 and b is set to +/-2 and the crash value is set to 5. The piece of hardware on the b profile has gone more than twice over the limit whereas on a it's only gone 25% over.

Hi yobuddy,
I've tried it but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

In your example a surge unit on set#1 with a max of 10 is fine with the crash max of 12 but another surge unit on set#2 with a max of 2 isn't going clip the force until the 12 max as well. Therefore I was suggesting a crash max for each of the sets 1, 2 and 3.

I'll check out the jump option as in reality I never want the sim to reach full travel and I was looking at doing the same with max. For example, our surge platform has about +/- 80mm of travel but in reality you only ever use about half that. The min/max value we set of about +/- 5 makes the motion feel right and when driving the car never gets near the 5 value. Therefore I could set the crash max at 4.5 and it should only be triggered by a crash but I'll have to try it out to see how it feels in realty.

I understand what you are saying. All I'm saying is if it is possible to assign the values to a set then different values could be applied to another set otherwise there will have to be a compromise on the value if you have 2 different actuators receiving the same info but with very different ranges of travel.

I'm sure what you have achieved with this as it is will be welcomed and for a lot of users could mean you can get rid of the escape button on the wheel

I understand, I think! I'll try jump but unfortunately the JRK plugin update as well as not fixing the missing axis setting when Simtools is restarted, seems to have broken the actual output. I get no motion at all but the virtual output shows it should be working. Is it possible for you to PM me the previous JRK plugin to try again?

When you posted the update in the repo, should it have updated my system automatically? anyway, I manually downloaded and dragged it into the home screen then I searched for the installation folder and the date stamps matched the update.

Another thing I've noticed when going to axis settings, the Flt boxes are all red but some smoothing has been set. If I click on one and the filter screen opens it shows the settings are there. I close the screen and then any axis with a filter applied is shown as orange. Should they be orange to show that some axis have filters applied?

Thanks.

Thanks for the v4 JRK update, it sorted the problem. Also I checked the location folder and it had updated it automatically and yes that's what it was set to in the options. I just thought there may have been some notification to say it had happened.

Before this update, I tried deleting the Simtools V3 installation and reloaded it so the axis names reverted to the original ones but the issue remained so perhaps it wasn't because I'd renamed the axis?

As I was up and running again I tried the crash detection and I have to say my concerns were a bit premature! What I was not taking into account was the speed and/or duration of the forces and the fact that motion platforms cannot match them. As I said, I run our surge platform at +/- 5 but having done a half hour test I ended up setting the crash limit at 10 and could probably go higher. You want to be able to feel light collisions but when you hit something harder the higher G means you just seem to bump into a cushion which is a very strange feeling as you brace yourself for a big impact.

It almost takes away the jeopardy of getting things wrong and the implications but its obviously massively beneficial to the platform.

Great work, thank you!

I think it might be subjective. I'm not sure yet what feeling you want but I set the slomo speed to 10% to see how it worked and that's where I felt I was walking into a cushion. I guess you probably want it to feel like as you say knocking into another car so you at least feel like you've hit something. I did try capturing the impact and it said 74G so there's a lot of head room. I guess I need to do some more testing to see what the forces are driving with other cars and having a few knocks and mixing higher slomo speeds into the mix. However, as I say, some people will want the force stopped completely and others may want to feel some impact.

As you say though you could give people an idea of where to start when setting it up as a ratio of the max/min numbers although all of our DOFs range from about +/- 2-7 so it may be there's a global number that will suffice.

The other thing to possibly consider is the axis limiting or overall intensity level and if that alters what you expect from the impact.

When you rename the axis, do these get saved so you can then send it to someone else along with the presets?

I'm looking forward to more testing!

im happy to test as well

I've tried upping the slomo to 100% and while the 10 limit was still OK on the 5 min/max tuning for surge it seems as a basic rule for me the crash max for each axis is better set to double whatever the tuning numbers are to give you a sense of a shunt without one axis excessively moving more than another which if you think about it makes sense. I've only tested some axis so far so need to try the different motions on the same axis. I've so far left the sampling at 3 but I'll test some more.

Regarding the axis renaming, as I said, I'd reloaded the software and only changed one name to try the JRK plugin which is now working fine. I tried today to change some others and for some it worked but for some reason 2a would change back after I pressed the Tab key or pressed Enter, After a few goes it stuck although you've said you will be looking at this.