New 6dof project now 4dof !!

I have been thinking about this for a while. First planned on a 3dof but with the framework and pivot and such I decided to just bite the bullet and do a 6dof unit. I will use 6 - 200w gear motors for power. I have lots of project posts to read and equipment to gather. Let the fun begin!!!

IMO and from my own experience/testing, 200W motors are not powerful enough for a 6DOF. If you can at all afford it, save your money and go the Thanos Controller + AC servo route.

The motors I am looking at are rated as 200w continuous and 1200w peak. I hope they will do the job. Not looking for a ton of throw.

Ok, that looks a bit better 'industrial' grade. I guess you acquired then cheap as by the time you add a quality motor driver and power supply setup my comment still stands. All the best for your project.

Thanks. I picked up all the motors for well under $200.00 for the lot. Still unsettled on motor drivers and power supplies.

For info, @SilentChill used a similar industrial rated motor/gearbox in his first 6DOF. May be prudent to search for that thread as he has since moved on to brushless/ballscrew. Also as you got those industrial motors quite cheap, may be advisable to check the motor brushes and gearbox for wear, or maybe do a service on them before you move on too far. Too much play in the gearbox will cause horrible tracking.

Well after way too much thinking, researching, and seeing how much math is needed to get a 6dof working correctly, I have made the decision to build a 4dof rig instead. I think I will base my design on the dofReality H3 and add surge to the system.

It's funny that I can rewire a car, trouble shoot an electro mechanical pinball machine from the 60's with a 4 foot long schematic, but don't have a clue about audrinos, code, programming or the like. This is going to be a long learning curve for my old mind to tackle.

The checkbook came out this week and I have more supplies heading this way,
Thrustmaster 300 wheel and pedals
TT Electronics 6127V1A180L.5FS hall sensors
MDDS30 motor drives
Arduino uno controllers

I have quite a bit of steel and hardware on hand so I need to get off my butt and start building this rig.

Got most of my parts in to start construction. Made brackets to mount the pitch, roll motors to the base. Started the frame work for the seat and stuff to be mounted to. Welded on an old u-jount I had laying around. It is on a sliding sleeve so I can adjust balance as needed. The frame is made out of 2x2 posts from county street signs that my neighbor gave me long ago. I never knew how small the Arduino controller was! The MDDS30 motor driver unit looks fairly stout.

Due to my frugal (friends say cheap) ways, I am using a seat from a '49 Ford Anglia I redid a few years ago.

Got part of the traction loss framework put together. Also started working on printing the hall sensor mounts.

Got the two frames put together and mounted the pitch, roll motors.

As I learn about Ardunios and sketches and stuff I realize that there is no code for the MDDS30 driver for our sims. Luckily I only bought one that I can use on another project. Two Sabertooth 2x32's are on the way!!!!!!

I got shamed into installing a "real" seat on the rig. Had to adjust the location of the U-Joint to get things balanced correctly. I am almost ready to hook up the electronics and do some testing. Hope to make lots of progress today.

1200w from your motors is quite a bit

what is the gearbox ratio in them ? are they wheelchair motors ?

how many amps can your motor drivers supply ?

i suggest you rethink about a 6dof - i did a 2dof first and ended up going 6dof eventually ?

how many motors do you have in total ? is there a make / part number ?

Jazzy wheel chair units. Gearbox is 30 to 1. 1200W is locked rotor. As my thread states I am doing a 4 DOF first. I will get it running 2DOF then 3, then 4. 6DOF is way down the road.

I never get done all I want to do in a day. The linkage is made and the hall sensors are mounted.

More frustrating days as I try to get my head around Arduino, Simtools, Sketches, and Utilities. After some mild carnage due to my stupidity, I finally have SMC3 Utility making the motors move. It really is quite straight forward once I got the mind to understand!! Now to try and wrap my head around Interfaces, Axis assignments, Limits and tuning.