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My DIY 6DOF - 80/20 - AMC - Clearpath Servos

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by Nisch, Jun 4, 2019.

  1. SilentChill

    SilentChill Problem Maker

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Arduino, Motion platform, 6DOF
    I was wrong about the speed it looks great :) Those levers obviously made it easily fast enough
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  2. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I actually literally just got back from FedEx returning a whole new set of gearboxes that I bought fearing the speed issue. I dropped another $2k into them, but thankfully Automation Direct has their 30-day policy.

    I am shocked how much force that platform can produce in addition to the speed. Adding the 4 point harness helped a lot with not feeling like it's going to throw me out, but also the addition of FlyPT's filters make a huge difference. Looks like the 80:1 gearboxes will stay in place for now. I still have yet to see how the platform reacts to flying. I got P3D installed last night. I watched your stormy landing the other day and it has me excited for the VR and flight. I still can increase my heave/way/surge rougly +/- 50mm, but I'm liking where it's at for now. Without the filters and the surge set up, I could easily see myself hurting my neck in racing games, lol
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  3. SilentChill

    SilentChill Problem Maker

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    Yes gotta be careful ,I gave myself whiplash on Assetto Nords in a old Porsche was painful

    It's really hard to fly and try to use the cockpit controls when its bouncing around so much I do need to make the motion a little smoother.

    Enjoy it I can tell your gonna love it :D
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  4. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Absolutely the lever length plays a big role. Over 30 will be very fast. I have 20.
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  5. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Very promising. Great setup !
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  6. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    Nice job on your rig :thumbs. To be honest though to me it still looks a little slow and that its what I would call floating with what appears to be latency issues. But it could also be that its just not the motion I'm expecting due to using motion cueing vs. direct motion output from a game.
  7. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    I have the intensity turned way down for one and I have the filters on pretty heavy and just easing back off of them. I found that to be easier than going the other way. The suspension on the iRacing trucks is pretty light, which also might be the floating you're seeing. When I get into an F1 car, it's super snappy. I'll see if I can get some videos this weekend.
  8. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    Yeah that explains a lot. I was looking at the track and the rig moving and didn't pay much attention to what kind of vehicle it might be. Also it looks like you're using yaw motion for traction loss? Something looks off there but some may be the camera angle.
  9. Razvan

    Razvan Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Wow. That's really specific. Thanks for the info, that will help a lot.
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  10. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    What is your max acceleration value inside your sevo ? Maybe you can bring it down for more fluidity... It was not easy to find a sweet spot for me between the P on the controller and the servo accel
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  11. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    I'd have to break it open and check. I wanted to wait on changing the servo stuff until u got everything mounted so I can see how it reacts before I slow it down.
  12. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Got all three monitors mounted, flight controls added and moved it into the corner where it will reside. Still have more tweaking to do, but it's getting much better.

    20190622_181835.jpg

    20190622_200210.jpg

    20190622_200159.jpg





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  13. BM114

    BM114 New Member

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    @Nisch
    I love the way your build looks coming together. It looks like you settled on the 56C style clearpath motors and what look like aluminum worm drive gearboxes from automation direct?

    If you don't mind sharing, I'd be interested in the total cost of the build if you have it calculated.
    I was looking at a combo of the clearpath NEMA 34 style or brother gearmotor for a design of my own and it really does just come out to be quite expensive.

    Thanks!
  14. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    I was afraid someone was going to ask that......

    I haven't totaled it up yet, but I can give you a breakdown:

    Clearpath Servos $800 x 6 = $4800
    80:1 Gearboxes: $300 x 6 = $1800
    220v wiring (subpanel to outlets) ~$700
    Various steel and aluminum components: ~$300
    80/20 cost (including cockpit): ~ $1300
    AMC1280USB: $350

    So not including the computer/monitors/wheels/pedals/shifters, etc., it comes in a bit over $9000. That doesn't include shipping, which can vary where you are. I also had some extra 80/20 laying around, so that number would increase. If I had to do it again, I would build the whole thing out of steel and only do the cockpit out of 80/20,which would have been about $300-$400 worth of extruded aluminum. The aluminum extrusion isn't all that bad, but the hardware is where it gets expensive. The t-nuts and 5/16" bolts alone cost me over $200. Some of the brackets I used were $10 a piece and use either 6 or 12 of them, so it adds up really quick.

    Now that @Thanos came out with his newer AMC, the Chinese servos are a more economical option where the servos run about $300 a piece and planetary gearboxes are about $250 a piece, so that would cut the costs there.

    Much like my racecar builds, I tend to go a little overboard and try to do it in ways that haven't been done before. The use of 80/20 allowed me to get my head wrapped around changing dimensions and wasn't nearly as final as if I were to TIG weld all the steel pieces together. The use of the servos allowed for very precise movements and the motors are insanely powerful, which granted me flexibility on what I wanted to do with the cockpit and didn't have to worry about adding weight.
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  15. BM114

    BM114 New Member

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    Thanks for the reply Nisch. I had a similar build designed and estimated for a linear actuator setup for about $8k using the nema 34 size clearpath servos.

    I was considering switching to the lever arm actuation in hopes of dropping that price down a bit. I'm even looking at some NEMA 34 closed loop steppers and a 50:1 gearbox from China to test for feasibility.

    Could you provide your center-to-center distance if you don't mind? I don't think I saw your lever arm dimensions posted. I was designing mine with 150mm and having an experienced opinion is very valuable. I just don't want to go too short and end up with low angles on my yaw, pitch, and roll.

    Thanks again!
  16. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    My levers are 160mm CTC made from aluminum.

    I originally thought I wanted crazy +/- 30 degree angles, which the platform will nearly do (limited to 28 degrees in some directions), but that's just too much IMO now having experienced it. If you design the platform to give you +/- 20 degrees, it's more than sufficient. In the FlyPT plugin, I'm only using +/- 15 degrees and that's plenty to make me a little nervous when it's turned up.
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  17. Nisch

    Nisch Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Worked on getting the servos tuned a little better. Found a "deadband" setting in the Clearpath MSP software. The default is set to 500 counts. I reduced it to 0 counts as well as slowing the acceleration to the next setting. This got rid of all the jerky movements with slower games like Prepar3d and Elite Horizons. The settings and filters in @pmvcda 's plugin and FlyPT Mover are fantastic and easy to use. Spent about 6 hours flying scenarios today in P3D. Motion compensation is the next on my list
    Here is a test since we've sequence that I used to tweak the servo settings.



    And here is the girlfriend flying around in P3D
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  18. Dirty

    Dirty Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    Hey @Nisch, :)

    Nice build! I'm going to swap my Clearpath MCVC for MCPV Servos and would love to hear from you how the calibration routine is working? Do you home against a hard stop or are you using endstop switches? Does the rig need to be recalibrated every time you power it up, or will it keep its calibration?

    Could you tell me a little bit about that?

    Cheers,... Dirty :)
  19. hexpod

    hexpod http://heXpod.xyz

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    The most important in my setup was the right RAS delay vs acceleration.

    I would definitely spend time to play with it.

    I set the RAS at 40 ms and was able to increase the acceleration to a crazy 40.000 RPM/SS making the motion stable and smooth.

    More about the feature here:

  20. Dirty

    Dirty Well-Known Member Gold Contributor

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    That's a very good video! I think more people should try to understand exactly that:
    Bildschirmfoto 2019-10-04 um 22.37.32.png

    In the thread on my software I talk about these very curves and the calculations are actually already in Nutkicker :)
    FlyPT_Mover has them too, if you select the right filters for the right DOF :thumbs So, even simple BLDC motors will get a certain amount of jerk- and jerk-derivative smoothing.

    As far as I understood, the deadband should be set to zero for motion simulation.

    Prost,... Dirty :cheers
    (it's Oktoberfest!)
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