(Yet another) 3DOF motion rig with g-seat for DCS

Some (slow) progress over the week;

Finished the woodwork for the seat: side panels and headrest, including support.

Painted the wood parts.

Cut some pieces of foam for the first layer of cushioning.

Put the thing back together.

Next I'll add another layer of softer foam and try to make the textile finish. 4-point seatbelt has also arrived so hopefully that will be included as well in a few days.

that is looking extremely slick! Keep up the good work!

Thanks @Sielu !

And thanks also for the tip about glueing the fabric for the cushioning. I went ahead and did that. I used some mounting glue that doesn't dry instantly for the large surfaces, and then hot glue for the sides.

So here she is ! Some photos attached.

The fabric I chose is two-layer polyester mesh; it was available in dark olive color and I figured it could work here.

The ejection handle is still not connected to anything. I'm thinking of adding another Arduino to work as a HID keyboard or joystick to operate it. It'll also need some kind of lever mechanism to operate a push button when you pull the handle.

During testing I also noticed that the ball joints of the backrest g-flaps didn't allow enough movement. That caused stress on the seat when motors were trying to force it. I realized that I needed to change the solid L brackets to hinges. Now the flaps can move freely to almost any angle and, as a bonus, became also more silent. (Update 2023: I built a better solution; both ends of the rods moving the back flaps are connected to 3030 alu profile)

Stuff to be done:
- Testing and fine tuning motors and DCS game profile.
- Seat belt.
- Probably some mechanical tweaks.
- E-stop.
- Casing/walls around the cranks and other moving parts to protect fingers / toes.

Few photos of new advancements - getting close to finishing the seat:

1 & 4) The ejection handle turned out nice:
- 3d printed a simple lever that operates a small red push button
- used Unojoy (https://github.com/AlanChatham/UnoJoy) to turn my spare Arduino Uno into a USB game controller
- wired the button between one of the Arduino digital pins and ground
- plugged in Arduino via USB
- set the button to trigger ejection in DCS controls setup
- all done and it works !

2 & 3) Seat belt installed
- my apologies to the community for the bright green color ! (it appeared dark green in ebay photos..)
- I didn't think too much about the mounting points and just put them there; will have to test more to find the best position. The seatbelt also makes it a lot more difficult to check six, so you have to have them quite loose at the top.

--

Btw, just the headrest gives an unexpected extra feeling of immersion in VR: In DCS, when I lean forward and look over my shoulder, I can see the virtual seat's headrest. If I then move my head closer, I can physically bump my head against the headrest exactly where it is in the simulation. A small cue that tricks the brain to forget that you are watching a simulation - at least for a moment !

Looking forward to your next video.

Here's one . Cushioning is removed so you can see the g-flaps moving. The camera loses focus for a moment a few times, probably because of the telly.



New stuff since last post:
- put some protective walls around the base, made of bent steel mesh at the sides and polycarbonate at the back, held in place with just tape atm..
- installed the new gearbox; unfortunately it didn't help, but moving the faulty motor to the front removed the clicking nearly completely.
- PC upgrades (after replacing mobo and CPU, I had to wipe out the old Windows and had to install everything from scratch, so it took me a while to get to shoot some video)

to-do:
- E-stop: a spiral cable is in the mail and I've got 3 x 24V/40A car relays ready so will soon get that done
- Workbench caster wheels; the whole thing is super heavy, so needs wheels to move around
- Rubber furniture pads to the base so it doesn't damage the floor
- Get machined parts for motor mounts and cranks; the current quick & dirty DIY parts cause some unwanted play and twisting.
- Testing MSFS2020 and Dirt Rally

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Nice job, looks awesome! My motors just came in from China on Friday (took 2 and half months). I originally ordered 6 to make a 6 DOF but I'm pretty sure I'm going with a G-seat now. It would be cool to see some video of dirt rally. I plan on using mine mostly for racing/rally.

Thanks!

Great to hear that your kit has arrived -- happy building, looking forward to seeing your project come alive!

At this point, maybe a few words of caution for anyone considering building this kind of seat:

- There are many moving parts and several places into where you or someone else can accidentally stick their toes, fingers or hand during movement. The seat is essentially a 1 kW finger crusher unless you design it with enough safety enclosures, clearance and flexibility to prevent accidents. The cranks and the flaps have a lot of power and don't give mercy.

- I was dumb enough to have my fingers too close to a moving motor crank and lost half a fingernail. Blood was spilled, but finger is still intact. Even the nail grew back in a month or so. It could have been a lot worse. So don't be stupid like me.

- With that experience in mind, I mounted for example the panels on the sides of the moving flaps so that they can bend or rotate easily. So if someone's fingers end up between the flap and the panel, the panel can move out of the way.

- Always use fuses with your motors, even when just bench testing them. If for example a cable becomes loose or a pot gives a faulty signal, your motor can go out of control and move beyond its intended travel. Or some object or tool can be left in a wrong place, blocking the movement. A suitably chosen fuse will save the day and prevent mechanical damages or even a fire in such situations.

So if you are considering something like this, go for it and have fun building, it'll be great fun, but let's be careful out there

Small update:

I went ahead and ordered custom-made mounting brackets and cranks for the motors to make the system more rigid and to reduce small play / twisting of the base. These should also be safer for fingers than the previous setup (which was much like power scissors).

The aluminium parts were laser cut, which was cheaper than cnc milling. Let’s hope I didn’t forget anything important while drawing these.

Next I’ll smoothen the edges with a grinder, drill missing holes to the cranks and paint all parts black.

I’ll post further photos once I have the base back in working order.

After substantial sweating and swearing, the base is back together.

Now featuring tiltable wheels for easy movement when not in use.

next up is better housing for the electronics, e-stop + motor relays and a main switch.

Here's a long scribble of recent progress and tinkering.

1. Added the e-stop button
-- Uses 3 x automotive 24V 40A relays, one for each motor.
-- The relays are installed between motor controllers and motors, so the e-stop kills just the motors instantly and leaves everything else running.
-- It's a really useful addition, I press it every time I end a flight or leave the chair or when I have to fix something or if the sim movement becomes too bumpy. The button has a 1,5 m spiral cord so it can be moved around. (photo 1, on the white table next to the chair).

2. New setup for the electronics.
-- Adding the e-stop relays would increase the amount of wiring by quite a lot, so it was time to redo the whole electronics installation (Arduinos, motor controllers and relays + wiring between them).
-- The components are now sitting on two layers and covered by a steel mesh. (photo 2)
-- However, the amount of wiring going back and forth is still quite terrible and messy, so I'm thinking of separating the components into blade-like modules with plastic housings and wire terminals in the future. These could then be neatly placed next to each other much like components on a DIN rail.
-- What's more, the power supply was going to sit on the other side of the headrest pylon for a symmetric layout, but turns out it was too close to one of the Hall sensors and caused interference. I'll probably have to set it up as an external power adapter with a cord and a plug connector for the seat, much like a laptop power adapter etc. It's probably a good idea in any case to separate the 230 VAC side from the seat completely this way.

3. New pedals, center stick and extension - and a mishap (photo 1 & 6)
-- To make the most of the sim I invested in new pedals and a 10 cm extension for the Warthog stick.
-- The seat was also designed to have room for center stick, so I used some leftover parts of aluminium bar to build a mount for that.
-- Installing the pedals was quite simple, I sawed a sheet of plywood to hold them.
-- Installing the extension should've been even simpler. But despite instructions, while adjusting it I managed to over tighten the extension and broke the Warthog gimbals . A critical internal plastic part called the "articulation sphere" cracked and nearly split in half. This resulted in a large drift on the X axis of the joystick and flying became impossible. A major disaster. The seat was otherwise just finished and I was going to actually get use it again and a new stick would cost another few hundred euros.
(-- I've had the Warthog since 2013 so maybe it had already got some wear before, who knows)
-- After reading online forums on how to fix the broken part or how to get a replacement part, I came across a project about 3D printable DIY gimbals + ball bearings to replace the Warthog's ones (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4550666). It looked like a cheap, feasible and interesting undertaking so I gave it a go. All I needed to get were the Tamiya ball bearings and some fine sand paper.
-- It took a bit of sanding and several rounds of assembling/disassembling the Warthog base to get it right, but the end result is a buttery smooth Warthog stick with virtually no center detent, play or deadzone. Way better than the original one and works fine with the extension too.
-- Also notice the fully adjustable plywood+aluminium installation for the pedals and stick on a Reebok stepper board It's great because it's heavy enough to stay in place by itself and you can step on it when getting in and out from the seat. And you can just lift the parts away without any tools if a family member feels like exercising.

4. Haptic vibration effect / reused Woojer Edge vest (photos 3, 4 & 5)
-- Before I built the motion sim I tried using a second hand Woojer Edge vest for increased immersion in VR flying. It's a haptic vest with stereo effect and connects directly to PC via USB or Bluetooth. It worked ok together with Simshaker for Aviators + Sound Module software.
-- While building the seat I didn't think about the vest or its dimensions. I tried it on a couple of times after the seat was ready, but the shape of the vest's lower back made it very uncomfortable to wear on the g-seat, so it was abandoned, collecting dust on the shelf.
-- I tried to sell it on a few online marketplaces with no luck. Finally the Woojer went out of warranty now in August. So, now it would get a new life inside the motion sim
-- The vest was easy to open with zippers, everything was neatly attached with velcro and all of the wiring was with connectors, so taking everything out was simple. Only its round UI unit with USB and charging connectors and push buttons had to be cut out with a knife, as it was tightly glued to the fabric.
-- The vest came with 6 small round transducers; I've so far placed two on the back g-flaps and two on the bottom g-flaps, by cutting round holes in the cushioning. Installing it was dead simple, just reconnected the wires and included battery to the Woojer control box.
-- The last two transducers I might attach on the Warthog stick pylon and the pedals later to see if that can provide some slight feedback via the controls.
-- The effect is not very powerful (probably nowhere near a buttkicker or some other sofa shaker), as the transducers are quite small and are meant to be tightly pressed against the user with the vest's straps, but it's enough to feel some vibration of the plane's engines / stalls etc. The Simshaker software has a lot of adjustments that can be played with to increase the effect or to emphasize certain effects, so I'm positive I can improve the effect a bit further.
-- Overall, it's a nice addition. I'm happy to have use for the Woojer finally, and didn't have to spend extra €€€ on a Buttkicker system.

What's next, I finished 3D printing a new set of gears for the Hall sensors; same gear ratio 50:20 but double the number of teeth. I'll see if I can reduce some motor noise and have a smaller deadzone with them.

I'm also tuning my Simtools profile and considering adding electromechanical limit switches for the motors, as sometimes one or two of the motors reaches the SMC3 clip limits and turns off, or sometimes (less often) the center point where motors should return to has drifted away for some reason.

Hi HCEE,
really nice work, and more aesthetic. Could you tell me where you bought your engines please. I'm on a 2 dof but I plan to make a 3 dof soon. Thank you in advance

Thanks @Kenshiro27

I bough the motors from Alibaba, from a company named "Shenzhen City Da Ke Motor" / "KSTONEMOTOR". The contact person Kenny was very helpful, also with troubleshooting a small issue in one of the motors. Webpage: https:// dakemotor . en . alibaba . com/

Motor type I went with:
"Dc Motor 300W Worm Gear Motor Gearbox 200W 24V 12V Worm Gear Motor With Speed"
- Voltage(V): 24V
- Double shaft,
- Output Power:300W,
- Speed of Revolution:60RPM
- Ratio: 50:1

Hi HCEE, Thank you for this very precise answer.

300W is therefore sufficient because on the site I almost always see 400w

Here's a more recent photo of the current state of this machine.

- New fixture for stick and pedals; both can be moved along the frame to adjust distance
- Racing wheel stand with pedals elevated by a bit
- A real Buttkicker now under the seat
- The rods moving the back flaps now attached to pieces of 3030 alu profile for easy adjustment and better angle
- Extra layer of foam under the butt..
- Varjo Aero VR headset (I found it second-hand - an amazing headset with eye tracking for MSFS And DCS)

Next up will be a new video.

The latest addition to my rig: DIY VPforce Controls FFB joystick / Rhino clone (photo attached, with some screws still loose).
- Highly recommended for flight simmers - DCS has direct support for FFB effects, including helicopter force trim. For MSFS 2020 there's an external tool that generates FFB effects based on telemetry.
- I got the VPforce DIY kit that includes the (free) software, a control board and two motors and built it from mostly off-the-shelf parts (credits to Tarkin at VPforce Discord for the aluminium box design). Some 3d printing is involved (the large pulleys).

P.s. In case someone in interested in building a life-size simulator seat like mine, I've included a pptx file (zipped) with some images and drawings that I used for deciding the dimensions. Unfortunately I don't have any detailed plans for the the seat parts as I built it step by step in place (through much trial and error) rather than planning everything beforehand.

Latest pics - I finally had some time to tidy up the mancave.

Pedals and ffb stick now mounted on a customised Next Level Racing wheelstand. It's easy to remove the flight gear and put wheel and car pedals on for racing sims.

Hi @noorbeast, sure, here you go - some further info:

The VPforce RHINO is a commercial FFB joystick developed and sold by a Lithuanian guy that goes by the nickname Walmis: https://vpforce.eu

The basic concept is that there are two stepper motors, one for x axis and one for y axis. The motors are connected to a gimbal system through two belt-driven pulleys.

The stepper motors provide both positional tracking (with built-in encoders) and force feedback effects, including g-forces, trim, damping, air flow on control surfaces etc.

The VPforce RHINO works natively with DCS's ffb effects. For MSFS 2020 there's an additional app that generates ffb effects based on sim telemetry data.

The device comes without a grip. It's directly compatible with at least TM and Virpil grips. Some other makes can be connected with an adapter.

RHINO connects to PC with a USB cable, and uses an external power supply.

The system also includes a configuration software that allows adjusting forces (spring, damping, periodic effects, etc etc...) and provides diagnostics.

Because of high demand, there's a waiting list for the RHINO sticks.

- Walmis however sells also DIY kits for those who don't want to wait. The DIY kit contains two motors, a control board and access to the software. There are three motor sizes to choose from.
- In addition, there are already DIY projects to add VPforce ffb to pedals, yoke controls and helicopter collective.

I bought the DIY kit and based my version on a mechanical design by a Discord user named Tarkin.
- I've included a rough drawing of the mechanical concept.

I've connected my TM Warthog grip on the base mechanically, but I haven't connected the wire to the VPforce board for buttons and switches; instead, the grip is still wired to the Warthog base. This allows me to use the DCS aircraft-specific TM macros by Home Fries ("DCS World TARGET profile for TM Cougar and Warthog + MFDs"), without having to map the buttons myself.
- with the big extension and a heavy TM grip (made of metal), my version currently has quite much leverage, so I would almost need the bigger motors. I might try making the extension smaller.

What's neat is that I have two pots on the base, and can use the VPforce software to select what they do. Currently they are working as controls for X and Y axis trims.

- It's possible also to build a clone of the original RHINO. There are complete clone designs available on GitHub, with files for 3d printing the gimbals and the body, as well as parts lists (for example https://github.com/protomaker964/Rhino-FFB-Clone-3D_Printed)

To learn more, I recommend joining the VPforce Discord, there's a FAQ and you can see a lot of different DIY builds and contact Walmis himself. The link is available at https://vpforce.eu. I'm also happy to tell more.