Start of a Joyrider Based Simulator

Hi Guys,

This is the start of a project thread for my Joyrider design simulator. The design of the simulator is based heavily on Thanos's Joyrider but will be made out of much studier parts. I will also be using Thanos's AVR and H-brdige to drive the motors.

Obviously building the Joyrider out of studier/heavier parts means that I might need a more powerfull H-bridge / motor combination. (I'm hoping R-eng's HPMhb-150A (High powered H-bridge) will be ready in time ). I will be using a 24 monitor and G25 wheel/pedals as the simulator will be mainly used for driving games.


I spent most of Sunday building the frame. Here are some pics of the progress so far 8)








Everything is fully adjustable at this stage so the height and width of the simulator can be tweaked as it progresses.

The next step is to start work on the inner frame which will include the seat and control mounts. Have been searching ebay for a cheap bucket seat .

I've started creating a shopping lists of parts for the AVR which I will order from Farnell soon.

So what do you guys think so far? Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Cheers,
Simon

Looks good so far. Any updates yet?

Hi Simon,

You need more sideways support... Doesn't look enough to me!!!

And its good idea to start building the inner cockpit frame around the bucket seat dimensions. Also try to balance things not only in horizontal but also in vertical manner, since with rotation you will get more mass offset...!

Thanos

Hi Guys,

The simulator is progressing well and I have even made a start on the AVR and H-bridge electronics.

Here you can see I have started work on the inner frame. The angle of the foot support and screen support will need changing and also the seat is only resting in place at the moment.

In response to your question Thanos, the sideways support is more than enough. The base is very very solid as the metal work is so strong!


Here is the almost complete AVR electronics and the H-bridge which is ready to be etched.

Its my first time making PCB's at home and the've turned out quite well using the Iron on method.
I'm hoping the DSMhb will be powerful enough to drive some 180Watt motors that I have my eye on.


Simon

Update

Bit of a progress update for you guys. Have recently had some time to work on the simulator a bit more and things are coming along nicely!

Thanos's AMC and Hbridge have been fulled assembled and tested.
Here is the box for the electronics:

And inside...


Both motor mounts have been constructed. For the Roll axis motor I have mounted it differently to Thanos's original Joyrider. This arrangement seems to work well although at the extremes of the motor travel the tension in the belt becomes looser and the motor starts to slip. I'm currently working on a fix for this. Does anyone have any other ideas?


Here are some more pictures:




Next thing to do is to mount the pedals and steering wheel and then I can find the perfect balance point for the simulator.

Simon

To get rid of the belt slack, use some sort of adjustable tensioner.

Frakks idea is still going through my mind even though the bungie cords are working for me. Have you tried either one yet? pm me and I can email you detailed images if you need them.

mario

Today I had my first proper ride in the simulator! I was having issues with the belt slipping under quick changes of direction so I have decided to get rid of the belts and use chains intead 8) . The results are much better now.

I think I now have a problem with Thano's H-bridge circuit. One of the motor outputs gives nice smooth movements, but the other output causes the motor to be very jerky and overshoot. What could be causing this?

There is still lots of fine tuning to go but here is a quick video so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ukltGtmsP8


Thanks for the suggestions on fixing the slack in the belt. I'm using a horizontal bungee cord to keep the chain tight and it seems to be working well!

Simon

Well I have fixed the motor problem. It turns out the AMC had forgotten the KP settings for the motors and one was set to 3 while the other was set to 25! I'm not sure how this happened but it works nicely now.

I'll work on getting another video up when I've sorted out my x-sim profile settings.

Simon

Good job!

Looking forward to a video with improved kp settings.

regards

Just a small update on the simulator.

I've attached some pictures of the new chain setup. This has greatly improved the performance of the sim as there is absolutely no belt slippage now .




Here you can see my bungy chain tentioner:



I've also strengthened the top mount for the pitch motor assembly:



Bank motor with hosepipe connection to potentiometer



And finally a new video of the sim in action running Live For Speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV63GigxdiA

Thanks for the update!

But unfortunatly the motion profile in the video is horrible. Do you know how to gather the max values for effects?
You have to clear the max value, then check the auto max detectionbox, then go on track, and perform a full throttle start, and after that a full brake. The important thing is, to make no collision during this process, as it would falsify the correct max values. After that, uncheck the auto max detection box. Now you have the max value for accelleration braking.
( repeat the same thing with lateral and vertical effects later)
I'd suppose to start with longitudial (acceleration/brake) effects only at first, and add more effects one by one then.
When the gas pedal is fully pressed, your seat should be go back almost the full movement range, and when pressing the brake hardly, the seat should incline almost fully forward.

Try this please, and post another video update here, to see if you got it right.

Regards

Thanks for replying. For the max and min values I've just been picking numbers at random that felt OK. I'll give it a try using the auto max detection and post back my findings.

SimonUK quite liked your simulator, good idea to use bicycle chains, does not have the slip, the engines also seem quite strong, the simulator itself is pretty fast, congratulations.

Egoexpress,

I have just tried your method of using the auto set max. However, now the seat hardly moves back at all. I seem to get a larger range of movements when I choose a much lower value than the auto max setting chooses for me.

I've had more luck with a profile I have made for Dirt 2. It feels much more realistic than LFS and Rfactor.

Heres a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXQx8Dui7RI

Make sure that you don't crash when recording the maximum values or they will be so high that there is almost no movement.

Hi Simon.

Great Motion Sim you have there.
How much stronger than an average wipermotors are the motors you used in your setup?

Bernard, I made sure I did not crash and just accelerated flat out and then braked to a stop in a straight line.

Madmajor, the motors are 180Watts, 12V DC and are used for golf trollys. They seem to draw about 10amps when changing directions quickly. I'm not sure how this compares to a wiper motor.

Nice Work,

Looks great, what kind or motors did u use, looks like they were meant to have the pulleys attached. Also could u show a closeup of how the Pots were attached to the motor ?

Thanx, Looks great, av8tr