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Gear motor accuracy

Discussion in 'Motor actuators and drivers' started by Chrisco, Aug 4, 2015.

  1. Chrisco

    Chrisco New Member

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    Hi everyone!

    I am about to build my own motion platform for a VR project at university:)
    When I read through the forum, I noticed most setups use gear motors.
    I guess it's a kind of a noob question, but how can you achieve the accuracy, needed for a proper simulation?
    As far as I understood, a simple gear motor can just be turned on or off, but you can't tell about it's position like you can with a stepper or servo? So how does it still work for your projects?
    What I'd like to build as part of my project is a platform, which can pull about 10-20 kg back and forth (and hold it).

    Any help or hardware suggestions will be highly appreciated :)
  2. RacingMat

    RacingMat Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    • Agree Agree x 1
  3. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Additionally gear motors are a cost effective way of achieving linear speeds of between 200-700 m/s.

    Hardware wise check out the FAQs, there is information ion on motor availability, potentiometers, Arduino/Motor Monsters and JRKs plus a whole lot more on just about all aspects of DIY sim building: http://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/
    • Agree Agree x 1
  4. Chrisco

    Chrisco New Member

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    Hey, thanks a lot for your answers! You're so fast!
    @ Mat: that was exactly what I was looking for! :)))
    @noorbeast : This is an awesome overview, thanks a lot, again.
  5. cadcam77

    cadcam77 New Member

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    Hi
    ac motor with frequency converter, is it a good choice?
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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  7. pedrono2

    pedrono2 New Member

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    to cadcam
    yes sir, it is the best choice...
  8. yeniuser

    yeniuser Member

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  9. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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  10. RacingMat

    RacingMat Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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  11. Kirk

    Kirk Member

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    I would look at Teensy.

    https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Encoder.html

    In particular, the Teensy 3.2, you can instansiate the code to handle LOTS of encoders all at very high speed, and the Teensy is just a board like Arduino: You solder some wires, voila (don't forget your pull-up resistors).

    With lots of inputs, you can use stops for auto-zeroing, and read all the positions via I2C or SPI into your Arduino.

    Edit: Forgot to mention, Teensy 3.2 is under $20 on Amazon, and you can get it cheaper than that if you look around. They are awesome devices, I have like 5 of them that are in various projects.
    • Informative Informative x 2