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6 DOF from scratch

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by Pierre Lalancette, Dec 18, 2016.

  1. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Right into my face! The situation is under control now.
  2. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Christmas again!

    IMG_1417.JPG

    My saberthoot with less related article. Facial replacement for the Vive, and wireless connecter for a xbox gamepad for PC.
    IMG_1418.JPG

    Santa Clause is telling me that there may be a long time before the next shipment. As they say: No money, no candy. My sweet tooth will go on ration for some time.

    IMG_1419.JPG
    • Like Like x 3
  3. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Hello everyone.

    I tried to make some movement with a small motor connected to some gears and a 10 turns 10k pot. I tried to make it move with SMC3 driver for my arduino Uno. I did the tutorial, followed the steps. The Arduino seems to be connected as it flashed all the way. The sabertooth 2x60 turns it fan on power up and stopped it every times. When following the SMC3 tutorial`s 25 points, I got stuck on 2 of them:

    SMC3-SPS Sabertooth Packet Serial PID motor driver w/SoftStart

    Point 8: Make sure you choose Uno or Mega and to set the comport number.
    Where can I make sure it use Uno?

    Point 16: Click the ON/OFF button for motor 1 to ON.
    It does not stay at ON. It switch right back to OFF. Probably the serial time out. So I tried to set it off by connecting pin 11 to ground. Did not change a thing. I am stuck there, with no movement.

    My second attempt was to use XPID_simtool_3.13. With some help and a few change, I could get it to compile and send it to my Arduino Uno. I made the wiring and try to communicate with it using sim tool. But since there is not much indication on how to use it, it turn out a complete failure. Not even some led flashing on my Arduino during axis manipulations. Even less any motor action.

    I tested my motor at the end, in case. Still working.

    I did sense some small move in the motor once ore twice with SMC3 at start up. But nothing controlled.

    DSCF0001.JPG
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2018
  4. insanegr

    insanegr !N$@n€

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    see the following pics to change borad and port in the arduino IDE
    board.png port.png


    SMC3 has a feature that disables motor when they are out their limits.pot has to be inside the limit zone to be enabled again otherwise they will remain off
    • Informative Informative x 1
  5. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Ok, in the Arduino program. I was searching in the sketche. It was set correctly.

    Out of the pot jurisdiction. It does make sense. Will check this weekend. I had set it to the middle (5 turns out of 10). There must be a place to set the pot's value and if it is linear or logarithmic?
  6. insanegr

    insanegr !N$@n€

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    the only file you have to change com port is in the SMC3Utils.ini
    as far as i know we don't have to change anything in the sketch for the pots and i don't think there is a need for logarithmic pots as we want linear feedback.
    PETER PAN can help you to be sure if pots are working ok :p
  7. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    It work, and no, it has nothing to do with Peter Pan.
    It hit me when I was looking at other potentiometer. The pin out is not always the same. All diagram shows the output coming from the center. It was not the same for my pot. Now, I can make it move smc3 utility software.
    I tried with simtool, but it did not work. It's late. I will look into it later.
  8. speedy

    speedy Well-Known Member

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  9. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    This capacitors thing sounds good to add to power a simulator. I read that SilentChill use a car battery with its power. I do have convert myself to believe in pc power supply as I bought 6 of them to run my future rig. Those are all the things I keep in mind as possible solutions, and I use this thread to keep them handy when I'll need to find them back quickly.
    • Like Like x 1
  10. xytras

    xytras Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    The server PSU tend to shut down when they get some back-emf but apart from that those you bought should do it. The sabertooth are great but I decided against them because they are just too expensive. Though I should shut up because one of my IMS-1 just burned. Next IMS-2C get some extra TVS diodes. I wouldn´t love to see 180 bucks controller burning though ;-) The IMS-2C are about 15 USD.
    I bought the PSU before the motors as well and looking back I must say that was a mistake because it is pretty difficult here to get decent motors for a good price. So now you have to look for 12V motors that will do the job. I switched over to 24V because the first motors I tried were winch motors which went straight back to the cartons once I found out how loud they are. Then I turned over to 24V wheelchair motors they do the job but are getting pretty hot after 5-10 minutes and refuse work then. Now I got some 24V / 90Nm / 20Nm wormgear motors. So the lesson I learned is to watch out for the right motors and leave the money there.
  11. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    Yes, I regret that I buy psu's already when I read about people switching to DEL power supply. Still, they were only 15 CAD each. For a starter kit, I thing it should do the job for a decent price.
    Put the money into the motor. Noted. @adgun suggested AMPFLOW motors, and his occupation is Mechanic. So, I take his advise quite seriously. But I am still in the scaled down testing.
    I'm slowly getting closer to a full size actuator build, which scares me a bit. I am not the best manual guy. But if it was easy, everybody would have a simulator already.
  12. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    When budget don't seems to be a problem in simulation building:

    • Like Like x 2
    • Agree Agree x 1
  13. RandomCoder

    RandomCoder Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that they use a large ladder to access the cockpit? Why not just lower it to ground level, maybe they haven't thought of that? :D
    I work with Kuka, Kawasaki and Fanuc robots but the maximum payload the largest could handle is 40kg.
    The robot in the video above is a beast!
  14. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    LOL
    The first joint don`t seem to turn that much. Maybe it can`t.
  15. speedy

    speedy Well-Known Member

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    Last edited: Mar 20, 2017
  16. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I finally got it working with Simtool. I had forgotten to put the Output-Type to Binary. It works great. It is so fun to see the motor follow my bad driving in Live For Speed.
    Now, I will try miniature actuators.
    Getting closer to a ball joint shaft and a full size motor.
    • Winner Winner x 1
  17. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Ok, I understand linear actuator principle now.
    Next step... Miniature or full size? Money will probably decide.
    • Like Like x 1
  18. SilentChill

    SilentChill Problem Maker

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    If your gonna waste money you may aswell build a full size one and then at least you only need 5 more :D
  19. Pierre Lalancette

    Pierre Lalancette Sir Lalancelot Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Um... I am so easy to influence. Big motor, full scale, oh dear. Did not expect to get here so fast, with so little knowledge.
    Talking of knowledge, can someone tell me what are those stand for?
    -Fpid
    -Kp
    -Ki
    -Kd
    -Ks
    -PWMrev
    Now, Ball screw. Those are quite a mystery to me. If anyone has advise for those, I am all ears. From 3 builds I saw here, they were all using 500 mm rods. I guess 500 mm is almost a standard. Support bearing bloc? Bearing? Friction?
    I like the idea of geared motor. The length of the actuator is reduced quite a lot.
    So many decisions...
  20. speedy

    speedy Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    The first and the second posts in the SMC3 Arduino 3DOF are VIP " very important post" to understand ...
    https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...3dof-motor-driver-and-windows-utilities.4957/

    then look here for adjusting PID ...
    https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/2-dof-project.9808/page-2#post-127512
    • Informative Informative x 1
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2017