X-Plane 11 6DOF motion platform

Been away so long it will feel like starting all over again , but best thing is watching you guys develop you projects and nice to be able to learn new ways of upgrading my own project , I am trying to incorporate some of the ( Make that lots ) of the ideas you guys have since come up with , so Im back and hopefully going to be adding to the ideas pool we have here.. Keep up the great work , if its one thing I have learnt that has stuck and its, there are many ways to achieve the Goal were after and with each new Project comes another way of thinking, Have to upgrade my Graphics card since my oculus arrived so funds diverted but Metal Plates M4 x 75 x 75 Pre-cut ordered from e-bay just before I read this LOL so i'll be welding soon as well

Getting towards completing a milestone in the build which is to finish cutting and drilling the mounting plates. The template I created with Fusion 360 and cut on the Epilog laser has worked out very well. It still took nearly 2 hours to drill all the pilot holes. I screwed the template to a chipboard base which held it firm

Carefull with cheap pots, doesn't end well ..

I switched back to expensive one .. Vishay 536-1-1-103
18€ ... but the blue ones had to much force to be tunred rapidly and died very quickly (keep the emergency stop close ..)

@baykah
Thanks for the advice. I ordered six from element14 for $18.50AUS each posted

awesome just awsome

Finally, the plum motor couplers arrived. I also had to buy another six of the 75mm square washers (need two per actuator) and some brackets and M16 nuts for those massive diodes.

...and yes the couplers were the right size for both the motor shaft and the end of the lead screw

I am still waiting for the 80mm hole saw for the aluminum plate that holds the motor (need a cut out for the fan). So in the mean time I began to wire up a test jig to test SMC3 on the Sabertooth 2x60. The photo shows the Uno clone, Sabertooth 2x60, 100A diode, isolating switch, 60A breaker and a relay for the panic/emergency shut off circuit. The links for all of these parts are on page 1

It was a lot of fun getting the Aduino Uno and Sabertooth wired up driving the motor One of my Unos was DOA which caused a lot of wasted time trying to figure out why things were not working. I uploaded my first video to my new YouTube channel showing the test setup:

Very nice movie, transparent and helpful thanks !

This drilling business takes a very long time I spent another hour or so drilling the M5 and M6 holes this morning.

I thought I would see how the cheap eBay hole saw would handle the aluminium. Quite well thank you very much, however, the plate was almost too hot to touch when I finished - but the hole saw was cool and looked like it had barely been used. Even at 30mm diameter this is an enormous load on the pedestal drill and it stalled often. I might try another one tomorrow and see if it is any better. It is most likely the belt slipping.

Hello awesome job I am watching very closely, only one complaint your work area/shop is way to clean you need to make a mess to the point you can't find what you just put down ha ha or is that just my workshop????

@SixDegreesOfFlight try using a little WD40 whilst drilling aluminium. It will help reduce the load on the pillar drill and prolong the life of the holesaw.

@RandomCoder
OK thank you. The 80mm hole saw arrived today so I am going to give it a shot tomorrow with WD40

Took nearly an hour and half in the end to cut all six plates with the 80mm hole saw through the 6mm aluminium plate - that was mostly taken up with clamping and screwing each piece to make sure things were safe. The $14 eBay hole saw was excellent value and took everything in its stride. I used RP7 as I didn't have any WD40 left. Each plate was really really hot at the end of each cut which took around 3 mins. The lubricant simply evaporated when I sprayed it on but I am sure it did have some positive effect.

...And is better for your ears.

Milestone reached...all the holes are now drilled I still need to file the larger holes but really happy I have reached this stage.

The bottom plate needs to have one of the 75mm square steel washers welded to the u-joint to prevent it from twisting. I will spot weld it when I get to the upper frame. So the u-joint needs one of these square washers at either end

Coming along nicely , great to see another Linear actuator project come to life , its a great learning journey ..very nice work for posting

@wannabeaflyer2
Thank you for your encouragement it means a lot to me

My angle grinder and I became re-acquainted today and spent some quality time cutting up the M8 and M12 threaded rod. Things you think will only take 10 mins or so become quite laborious and time consuming when everything is multiplied by six!