Started 2DOF SCN5 Platform for FlightSim FSX

Re: Type of Platform for Flight Sim FSX ?

I guess he will for sure...lets bet...


@toktiny
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Hi there,

Many thanks for your replies.
My SCN5,s arrived this morning from Mirai Inter Tech and I only ordered them last Thursday !They seem to be a most efficient company. Also all of my 40mm Box Aluminium arrived so now it is time to roll up the sleevs and get going !

Ecoexpress I believe you know where those connectors are available perhaps you might let me know ?

Kind regards

Toni

Hi there,

Well I have completed my platform and you can see some photos below. I am sure that I may have to adjust a few small things but I will have to get it up and running first. One small thing that I noticed was that the rod ends in the brackets seem to be quite free to move left and right on the free space in the brackets so I put some spacers on ether side to prevent too much freedom, is this OK ?

Now comes the part that I mentioned in an earlier post that I need all the help that I can get. The construction of the platform to suit my cockpit setup did not present too much of a problem but as they say over here I am now into electronics and in Indian Country for me !! I have compiled a proposed wiring diagram below which I have derived from the SCN5 Hardware thread named Using Dyadies SCN5 servo linear actuators with X-Sim which you have directed me to in previous post. Would be most grateful if you could confirm that I am correct in my learning from this section as I have read it about ten times. As regards fitting a Kill Switch and some 2.2kOhm resistors if you recommend this I can add it to the circuit .

Assuming that you give me the OK to carry on with this wiring can I presume that before I switch anything on I should load up the X-Sim software ? As you know the platform is for main use with Flightsim FSX and I have read your section on profiles for different uses. Could you give me a little guidance on the best combination of settings to achieve the best results for a Flightsim ? and most important how to initally set up the software.

Sincere thanks in anticipation.

Toni

Hi Rene

Perhaps you might have a look at my wiring as I am caught in a limbo situation at the moment.

Many thanks

Toni

Hi Rene,

Many thanks for your reply and will do as you suggested.

Toni

Hi Rene,

I got my Motion Platform switched on today but I am afraid that I did not get a squeak out of it, I mean no movement at all. I will explain what I did as I feel that I may be leaving out something in the setup which is causing this.

From the Video Details on X-SIM installation I carried out the following and everything seemed to react as it should have :

1. Press “Force Profiler” on opening screen.
2. Select “Math Setup” and then select “Add Axis”
3. Set up axis No.1 for “Left Actuator Math”
4. Set up axis No.2 for “Right Actuator Math”
5. Select “Outut 1: 1 Gforce”
6. Change maximum from 2 to 1000
7. Go to ” Sender Input 21” and change “Indensity of this value to the axis” to 80%
8. Repeat items 5,6 and 7 for Right Actuator
9. Press “Output Setup”
10. Go to Left and Right Actuator Position ( I did nothing here as I did not know what to do )
11. Go and press “ Force Sender “ Icon on main Screen
12. Go to “Settings” and then to “Manage Network Cluster”
13. View setup of left and right actuators
14. Number “127.0.0.1” should be seen.
15. Go to “Official Developer Phisic Plug In”
16. Go to “Test Plug In”
17. Press “All slider Auto Move”
18. Next “Try Send Data”
19. A Graph appeared at the bottom of the Screen.
20. Press “Input Setup”
21. Slider 1,2,3,4 now showed readings of various figures.
22. Graph on bottom now showed moving with scale of 1000 and with 20% off top and bottom.

Now all of the above showed up on screen and performed as I thaught it should. I then went to Force Sender and selected the Flight Sim Profile, came back to Force-Profiler and pressed START. IT changed to a flashing STOP. The seat on the top of screen started to rock,the Synaptrix icon started a flashing movement and the Transmitter icon on the extreme right showed signals been sent out and 127.0.0.1 under it. The game FSX started up and I thaught I was in business but I am afraid ther was no response from the actuators, as dead as doornails !!

I repeated this several times and even though the software gave me the impression that everything was going fine the actuators would not perform or show life of any sort.

I feel as I have said above that there is something that I should do which I am not doing and would be most grateful if this could be pointed out to me.

My thanks in anticipation.

Toni

Just to add to my previous mail I would like to add a few things that might make it a little easier to determine my problem.

1. If I move the seat when the actuators are switched off they will allow the seat to have some movement ,however when I switch on the actuators the seat seems to be locked in whatever position they were in prior to switching on, in other words the actuators are locked. Is this the normal way that they operate ?

2. On the Force-Profiler screen there is a No.192.168.1.6 as you will see from details below. What does this refer to and is it the right number that should be there ?

3. I have the leads from the Daventech USB-RS486 going to two free USB inputs on the PC. Is this correct ? From details below I think that this is referred to from PC details as shown below USB Serial Port (COM 3) and USB Serial Port (COM4). Should there be a ref. to this shown in the X-Sim software ?

Hope this info. may be of some use to locate problem.

Toni

Can anyone help !!! I dont like calling on Rene for help all the time.I got two hours sleep last night and have tried everything I have read in the forum with no success.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Toni

Hi Rene,

My aplogies for bothering you again but I have discovered that nether of the SCN5,s are being detected by the Force-Profiler. Idiscovered this when I found that they were not been shown in the “Interface Settings” section under “All outputs of found interfaces”.

By using the “debugmode” I followed the sequence of directions in the Force-Profiler at the start of the program where it looks for information from the SCN5’s to detect and establish there presence and this is what I came up with.

It obviosly scans all the available COM Ports and as I said in my previous post COM 3 and COM 4 had been set up in my PC to handle the platform. Now it went through the scanning like this :

1. “Try to scan SCN5 #0 on COM 3”
2. “Response from SCN5 #0 on COM 3”
3. “Response is not correct from SCN5 #0 on COM 3”

4. “Try to scan SCN5 #1 on COM 3”
5. “Response from SCN5 #1 on COM 3”
6. “Response is not correct from SCN5 #1 on COM 3”

This cotinued until SCN #15 on COM 3 and then moved onto exactly the same procedure for COM 4 with the same results.

By the way it scanned COM 1 as well but it was slightly different as follows ;

1. “Try to scan SCN5 #0 on COM 1”
2. “No Response from SCN5 #0 on COM 1” (Obviosly it knows that COM 1 is not to be used)

This was repeated until SCN #15 with the same answers.

The only thing that I can take from this is that COM 3 and COM 4 have been set up correctly for use with the platform but that the informatiom that Force-Profiler is getting is not what it is looking for. I have checked the wiring a dozen times but it is exactly as I showed you in a previous post.Have you any idea as to how I can correct this ?

Kind regards

Toni

Hi Rene,

I feel pretty miserable that I have to depend on help to get this platform up and running with at least some movement out of it. I hope you can understand that I have had everything up and ready to go (as I thaught !!) since saturday morning and this is monday night ( I only stopped for meals !! ) and I am still as I was. Is there any chance you could give me your most appreciated help to get over this hurdle ?

Again my sincere thanks in anticipation

Toni

HI Toni i dont have the scn Setup so not much help, just wanted to say dont give up on the guys, they will answer. somethimes other things keep em away so frustration set's in, you have done a lot of work and spent the bucks so really your just at the last stage, they always come good and you'll see it was worth it .. not much consolation for the effort and grief the system seems to be giving you but as with most things here , it will be minor'sh and the payback for when its running will be a monster hang in there boyo Excellent work and progress, just my 2 cents worth ..

ANY OFFERS AT ALL !!!

Did you try to connect the USB converters to an on-board USB hub? External USB hubs or hubs in the front panel of pc housings may cause trouble.

I guess you have tried to switch the RS485 wires already, like Sirnoname proposed?

Sometimes a re-install of the the X-Sim software does the fix as well.

Are you using an updated Devantech driver?

Regards
Christian

My sincere thanks for your reply.

I was a little nervous to change any wires as sirnoname suggested exchange A/B (+ve/-ve) and I was not sure which wires he referred to so I asked for a clarification of this.

Now in your mail you said the RS485's which I have done and BINGO both the SCN5's are being detected by the Force Profiler and after the program starts both of the SCN5's withdraw to there lowest position slowly and then with a jump come up to the half way position.Thats what it says in the manual they should do ,is that right ? Thats the first movement I have seen from them so I am delighted.

I followed sirnoname's step by step profiler configuration as follows ;

1. Insure SCN5 is detected and displayed
2. Start the sender application and select the test plugin.
3. Let move the test slider 21 in auto mode
4. Press try connect button

5. Go to the math setup and insert a axis
6. Insert a gforce with effect 21 and automode
7. Now there must be drawn a sawtooth line ( A Sawtooth line was drawn in graph )

8. Go to ouput setup and to Synaptrix IO
7. Choose axis and a SCN5 as direct output ( I have my two Actuators axis named as Left Side Math and Right Side Math so I chose Left Side Math and then as a Direct Input there was a choice of three 1.Position Out 2. Acceleration and 3. Speed out. I chose the first one and then repeated the same for Right Side Math Did I do right here ?

9. Press the start button

I Proceeded then to load FSX and everything was going as I thaught it should, however, the flight created no movements from the platform. I closed everything down and repeated from start to finish several times but still no movement.

Now I examined the Input SetUp while FSX was in flight and all of the Yoke movements were been shown changing values and also ther were four commands listed on the FSUIPC Help Screen which comes up on screen and all of the changes in values of these were shown as they happened.

Game in Action / Detection of Sender Box was ticked

In the Output Setup I noticed that there were three identical sets of options available, it looked to me as if they were triplicated, is this normal ?

I use two Daventech USB 485's with left SCN5 going to COM3 and right SCN5 going to COM4. The ID for both is 0. Does this make any difference ?

I feel at this point that everthing is almost working but that I have omitted something that I should have done in the software setup or else I did it wrong. As far as I can make out the X-SIM is picking up all the information from the controls but it is just not been relayed to the platform.

My thanks in anticipation.

Toni

Yes, it is the calibration procedure during startup.

It wont be easy for you now, as there is no SCN5 movemtent profile for flight sims ready so far. Let's see if I can help...

Do you know which FSUIPC effects you want to use to move the seat, already? You can either use xyz position data or accelleration data.
Using both together is possible as well, but requires more experience. You should choose from both options for now.

Let me know when you have determined the required effect numbers...

regards

Did you copy the FSUIPC plugin out of the XSim other stuff folder into the matching plugin folder in the FSX directtory?
And if so, did you selected the FSX plugin in the Force-Profiler?

If everything works correct on the input side, you should see alot more changing values in the XSim Input window than the yoke axes.

regards

I have a motion profile for this type of setup. It's not the best, but it might be a good starting point for you..... It uses some custom outputs I made from FSUIPC.

Let me know if you are interested.