2dof - another in da' house ;)

If it is easy for you to buy I would try a 470 ohm resistor and see what happens there. Your PSU might be fine as many will shut down due to the high current drain if you connect the motor directly to the power supply. Once you have a MM connected and a PWM signal is controlling the motor output the initial current drain is far less and in most cases will not trip the PSU. If I was you I would wait for your new moto monster before making further decisions..

When you get your new one make sure you connect everything, do not leave any pots out of the circuit and make sure they are attached to the motor shaft.

The reason your motor works whilst in line with the current meter is because the meter itself appears as a resistive load on the power supply and not as mutch of a short circuit.

That's what I'll do. Thx guys, now I understand what is happening here. I will wait for the new MM, menwhile mod my PSU. I will return here when new part arrive.

And here I am again! long long time ago in a galaxy far far... echm, no wait. This is different story I'm happy, because yesterday i recived my new MM. Last one seemed to be broken and now I can confirm it for sure. Made some tests withe the new one, and this time everything works fine as described here by RufusDufus. I tested "more power" option that Pit gave us here.

Next step is to wait for another MM from China ;( (Why it takes so much time!?) and to find a pivot for my cockpit. I bought one (for BMW) used from Internet, but it turned out that is immposible to weld. I need next one made of steel.

Meanwhile I wasn't seating idely. I'm proudly to present my protoype of pedal set. I was working on it since a year, but have not much time for this. It's fourth prototype and I'm quite glad of it, but some things still need to be redone. I made small photo session and design the prospect like it was commercial product, but of course it is not... at least not for now Everything for fun!

I've got right now hydraulic pedal breke moded with t500rs pedals. I use copy of willwood slave cylinder and for master cylineder I use part from Landrover. As USB controller I use Derek's 12bit controller. I have also connected there two button boxes, sequential shifter and hand brake, so it's quite universal thing. Hydraulic brake is the best what You can have.

The project form previous thread was designed as a cheap alternative for hydraulic systems in simracing. It will also cooperate with Derek's 12bit controllers. Cylinder is made for quads. It's only prototype and I'm not sure all the parts I've used.

OK I'm back with some news!

Today I had time and tried new stuff that arrived some time ago. As some of you can remember my MM was damaged and my project has stopped.

Here is my today try:



but... during my motors were working I decided to check voltages. When I was closeing the probe (I dont know how is end of multimeter wire called) there went some spark between my motor connector, probe and the case (case is made of steel). Arduino was touching the case with the usb connector so it went broken ;/ Windows can see it on the right COM but there is no more any communication.

Today I bought two new Arduinos and I need to find the case made of plastick.

Tommorow I'm going to made the mechanical part od new seat so I'll bring more pictures.

New plastick controller box is ready but I'll show it later. Now, I'd like to post some pictures from my cousins workshop. There was only 2 hours that we could spend so this is only the beginning.











And this is how my cockpit looks now, at least for few weeks ;/ :



I will keep You informed.

Hello. Today I can show You my new electronics in the new box made of plastic. There is no cover on the pictures, but I've got it with 12cm fan mounted. Later I will show You my construction with motors. I need to gather up more pictures.

And here You can see how my motors were mounted:

Can You tell me how I should set the PWMmax parameter in the SMC3 Utility? Motor starts to run with this set to 30. Max is 255. If my motors are 200W should I set it to 200 or 190 with some margin?

It would be great if somebody with motors like mine give some screenshot with smc3 utility window to show how parameters are set. I understand that this may not work well for me, but could be nice start to tweak.

Update:

Today I can show You some movement! But first things first. Take a look at few photos:







and how I attached the pots (for the test I'm using the cheapest ones, but later there comes these: http://www.tme.eu/pl/details/pot2218m-10k/potencjometry-wieloobrotowe-drutowe/sr-passives/)






And some movies with and without the pots:





Next step is to tuning the paramteres through SMC3 Utility and I started it already. I've got nice results but two things bother me:

1. Sometimes, when I go over Kp=400 and Pwmax >160 my PSU shuts down during some dynamic movements like when I hit some wall (I use 12V, 57,3A Dell PSU)

2. Sometimes when I'm driving one motor (and always the same one) goes over the range and soft is shutting him down. I need to start Utility to wake him up. Strange, because I set the movement range to sway 40%, surge 40% and heave 20%.

Here is my utility at the moment:


of course these settings are the same for both motors.

I've read that I can use some capacitors as well on the MM input. Is bigger the better value? Someone wrote about 4700uF, but if bigger is better and can help I would look for it. And am I right that I need to solder it to the + and - on MM input?

Can You help me with these problems because I stucked and cant go further ;/

You are using 300W motors, isn't it? If both are moving the demand of current is rather high so the PSU "thinks" there could be a short circuit - and shuts down. Or the the demand of power is too high and it shuts down.

Driving by what? By using the potentiometer? By using SMC3? Please make screenshots/take videos or photos of what you are doing.

There is nothing to do.

BTW you are testing without seat and driver on it? The movings are way too heavy and the amplitude is too big. You can only tune your settings WHEN the seat is assembled on the platform und you are sitting on it. IMO the KP value is too high, reduce to 300 and "softer" your game engine tuning center settings then a little bit. From there step by step to the optimum - we call it incrementalism

Thx Pit for Your replay.

I have 2 200W motors (with max 23,8A) so my PSU should hold it. You said "Or the the demand of power is too high and it shuts down." I was hoping the capacitors should solve this issue, but I understood that they won't. So I have two ways - to buy next PSU or decrease the power in SMC3 utility?

I have made all the test with me onboard. I know there is no chair yet, but for me was no problem to sit on the platform.

You also ask about what driving I mean. I mean driving the car in sim. Yes I use SCM3 soft, simtools enable, turn on the game and start crusing on the track. Platform works properly, but after some amount of time one motor is down and the lever is in direction that shoudn't be... goes too far. Maybe I could make a movie later.

here is the picture:


I don't understand this: "The movings are way too heavy and the amplitude is too big". You wrote in relation to my videos? What does it mean "too heavy" - platform goes too far?

Today I'll try Kp at 300 and to lower the Pwmax.

First test your PSU only with one motor (the other is off), f.eg. while driving a game. Then check the 2. motor, the first is off. If both works, the PSU is too weak or is shutting down due to security reasons.

Check your wirings, somewhere could be a loose connection. I mean CHECK it very well, sometimes it seems to be well connected or soldered but it is not.

The moves are too big, you do not need so big moves using a seat shaker. You will agree, less is sometimes more...

OK, thx again. I will make more tests and let You know the results.

Sadly I dont have enough time for test, but I'm still thinking about next move G-Seat is my direction. I'm not convinced to use 4 motors, but only 2 for my back. I want to use my racing seat and cut two holes in there.

Can anyone tell me how to use 4 motors with simtools, please? I use SCM3 for now, but it can run only 3 motors. Do I need two Arduinos or just one?

@gorzasty you can connect up to 6 interfaces with simtools IE you can use two arduinos(interfaces) and there will be 4 more free and as you are using SMC3 you can drive 6 motors with two arduinos

@insanegr thx. Now I understand, but in my case I can connect only one motor to one MM, because of te power - 200W each. So I have to use two arduinos and 4 MM to use 4 motors and SMC3 soft.

nice compliments