Universal 6DoF Recessed Simulator

I'll also be doing a 3-Axis version. Can be upgraded to the 6-Axis of course.

So is this going to be a commercial venture? Nothing wrong with that if it is and I enjoy reading about your build, but you should be posting to the commercial area. https://www.xsimulator.net/community/forums/commercial-simulators-and-peripherie.52/

My apologies, yes on Friday it took that turn. Can a moderator perhaps move this one or do I start a new one?

If this project is going commercial, are you looking at kits, individual parts and pieces, or fully assembled rigs?

While I know it's not finished and we're mostly seeing renders so far, it's probably the best looking motion sim I've seen outside of the full commercial and military sims.

Hi

Thank you, I don't really consider it as commercial grade yet, there is still some maturing to be done, especially on the accessories. Right now it's only really available for DIY users and in 2 forms:
Type A - DIY self build kit for personal use.
Type B - Reseller kit / DIY self assembly kit for personal use.

Both kits basically have all the required mechanical parts, machined parts, assembled actuators, electronics (excluding batteries, requires 4 x 12V 45AH batteries) etc. but doesn't include any jigs, plans are provided in case a DIY user would like to have that kind of accuracy. With the Type A kit you have to glue the parts together and the kit can't be taken apart for easy packing and shipping.

Type B is a "DIY self assembly kit", which you can also get from me or from a reseller. Type B for resellers have to be built using jigs and a minimum order of 1 x 3-axis and 1 x 6-axis or 2 x 6-axis or 3 x 3-axis would qualify. If you don't have the capability to build the kit and you are not a reseller the Type B kit can also be ordered directly in which case it wouldn't require building(no gluing, no jigs etc.), just assembling.

As the product matures there will be a commercial offering with all the accessories, something more "plug and play", but it's not there yet.

I think we've been working on it for 3 and a half weeks, we're about 75% complete.

are you collaborating with @Thanos?
I see he had your linear actuators (old design) listed on his Kickstarter.





And not knowing they were yours, I did a search and came across your website.


http://www.robsonswiss.com/product/scorpion-blt800-linear-actuators/

Yes for actuations, there was a stage where the campaign appeared to stall a bit and I offered to provide some actuators at a good price if it would help the chances of success(which in the end certainly wasn't necessary) but I have committed fully to the belt drive style now, screws are easy and cheaper to design and make and they are great for high loads, but for low mass simulators that doesn't have that much weight to push around and 3000RPM rotation they just aren't a great choice... Efficiency goes down, inertia goes up etc. The original idea was to give the plans out for free with actuator sales but there is a lot of machining required so it ended up making more sense to offer a DIY kit rather than plans.

The site wasn't meant to be "findable" though and isn't meant to be used at this point while some ideas and layouts are still being tested, but eventually for kickstarter backers, when I have some videos up and are ready, we'll offer a discount coupon for a short period on the actuators, which will be a further 10% reduction over the initial 10% reduction offering planned.

Only in africa is a belt bether than a ballscrew

I don’t know if I could ever make a snide remark about a country or continent if I couldn't spell it properly. Please excuse my slow replies I’m quite busy right now.

You know I never thought we would make actuators, I was going to buy them, and I looked at the numbers and it doesn't work out. At first I thought it’s perhaps due to some designs using single phase AC motors which waste about 40% power, then I thought perhaps it's the motors that aren't truly 750W, if we look at the weight of some of the motors that are advertised at those power levels, they weigh 2.3kg, our BLDC motors are rated at just under 800W and weigh in at 4.3KG without the gearbox or brake. I then decided that I didn't like the inertia of the screw and it could have something to do with it and eventually I found some data on screw efficiencies and I guess it’s a matter of “all of the above”. I don’t think screws are bad, obviously and never said anything is better, that's pretty open ended, but just like everything else they aren't universally perfectly suited.

This has come up before and I didn't really want to get into a debate. The fact is people run numbers like “worm drives are 60% efficient”, “ball screws are 90% efficient”. The problem with those numbers are that they have conditions attached, what ratio’s and angles are we talking about? What loads, what speeds? Ball screws are 90% efficient at high load/low speeds only. Worm drives are X% at high load but will increase at low load and decrease again at high speed. Then we have to look at how much time the device is “at rest” to consider back-driving which comes into play in overall required motor size and system efficiency and at the end we also need consider the inertia and how it will affect the overall design. So a belt with a planetary box has 88% efficiency (well, the ones we use), the bearings have a similar friction coefficient to Teflon and the static load at the actuator on a 6DOF simulator is around 300N while the back-driving efficiency is high compared to screws and worms with the inertia exceptionally low. A 16/20mm ball screw with a 10mm pitch and a load of 300N, considering speeds of 3000rpm will have around 40% efficiency and not 90%, and the inertia in a 600mm stroke system at max RPM will be about the equivalent of a 26Kg load I think (can’t remember the exact numbers now).

Build what you are comfortable with, I’m quite happy with the route we are taking, if it doesn't work it doesn't work and we’ll adjust the theory, at this point it’s looking good theoretically and I have to follow that.

Ref:

I'm quite happy with the motors, so far so good, I didn't take many pics lately, just beenn really busy.

Wow looks very professional, any updates.

Because it is - it is a commercial venture .

Thank you. Only really boring updates, mainly along the lines of making jigs for better production, with a shift from one off to production units your jigs change a lot, so most of the efforts have been pushing in that direction, also along the lines of implementing a safety controller and working on packaging the electronics better, neater and again with proper safety. I think I'll have some nice video and image updates in 7-10 days when the parts start to come together.

Can't wait

Great build mate, really nice design, would love to try this type of rig with VR would be absolutely awesome. Best of luck with the build. Cheers AussieStig

Thank you AussieStig, with current progress it looks like assembly will start on the 15th.

T-3 days and counting....

I've redesigned some brackets to make them look better and increase stiffness. Getting there, it's a lot more work now but almost synchronised.