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Trip's G-seat project (primarily for flight)

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by Trip Rodriguez, Nov 19, 2019.

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  1. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    I generally agree, but I've always got entrepreneurial aspirations floating around in the back of my head no matter what I'm working on. =D
  2. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, Motion platform
    Don't get me wrong, even with a full time job, I have had side business for as long as I can remember, with some of them doing very well (predominately software). Unfortunately I would not rate simulation equipment in that group.
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2020
  3. Trigen

    Trigen Active Member

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    Cool project you got here! Looking forward to seeing some of the end results when it goes into production. Ive been toying with the G vest myself and do have a plan for a G head system. As a compromise for quickly getting in and out of my rig im using my harness to simulate the Gs ands actually quite convincing with the wide belt. Like you i want 9g to hurt lol! I plan to add some extra straps going across my mid chest and perhaps an air system for the belly. Ive been testing the latter a bit and it aint bad. It also feels safer as the harness can produce so much torque it literally rips itself out of the attachment points.

    Another thing If it was not for racing i could actually give up my flaps due to the pressure of the harness pulling me down. I also have a back sway system which is also quite convincing when slamming the stick left and right. I dont have much of a sway on my my 3x SFX for fear of tipping over. It has happened haha. Its much better to have that in the seat itself.

    All of you guys give a lot of ideas and inspiration so i cant wait to see what you do next.
  4. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    Thanks for the reply @Trigen I'll have to look at your build as well. I have thoughts of using some air stuff too, but no idea how to build an air system until I look at the threads of some folks here.

    My project is sadly on hold for at least a few months while I deal with my father's estate, move back to my own house, and then build the room that will contain my simulator. I may build a CNC router first as well, which should aid in the construction of my simulator and other projects.

    I stopped by these forums because I again have my thoughts going to the possibility of driving my entire "heave elevator" with one motor instead of three. This will solve the problem of a malfunction setting my towers out of sync, and also allow me to add two channels to my G-seat which I very, very much wish to do. The compromise of limiting my G-seat to three motors has been an unhappy one, and has wasted quite a lot of my time in design.

    Is anyone here able to tell me whether a gear belt or chain drive setup might be appropriate to drive all three of the towers in my elevator design (with some modifications of course)?

    Note: For scale, this platform is around four feet wide, and the towers will move it up and down more than 1300mm with a 1500mm long 1610 ballscrew in each of these three steel towers. Any drive system for all three towers would have to be added at the bottom, not the top.

    Attached Files:

  5. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    After SeatTime's reply on his thread this is what I'm thinking:

    I had considered using a counterweight system so that the load of accelerating the platform up vs. down was closer to symmetrical. A counterweight system could also drastically reduce the torsion load that would result from driving the platform from just a single point along the perimeter. That along with the guide rails should be enough to make driving the sim with a single servo motor an option.

    Alternatively or supplementally, direct drive one actuator tower with a 1.8KW servomotor, and connect the other two ballscrews to the first using a gearbelt setup located at the bottom, essentially below the simulator as I have drawn it so far.
  6. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    @SeatTime @Thanos @Dirty Do you guys see any problem with me using this servo with Thanos AASD to use as a single motor for driving my "heave elevator"? The ballscrews I have are 1610. I could get a single larger ballscrew if needed.

    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32817083774.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.1b813c007PvtBh&mp=1

    The design I'm contemplating is similar to a forklift.

    The fantastic news about Dschadu's Motion Compensation solution for VR motion sims has got me thinking hard about my sim build despite the fact that it will be a while until I'm able to resume work.

    I'm thinking much harder about possible ways to build my long travel heave elevator using only one large servo motor.

    I'm looking at things like 2-post automotive lifts and forklifts and thinking that all I need is an adequately strong (and smooth) linear guide assembly and I can do this easily. This should actually simplify the construction a little bit as well.

    What I'd like to do is have the entire lift and lift guide assembly be at the back of the seat. This would also make it much easier to swap on different cockpits that I build in the future.

    I can also add a counterweight if needed so that the elevator actuator isn't "lifting" the entire weight (probably 700 pounds plus), but rather just accelerating the total weight of elevator and counterweight.
  7. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    May need a drawing of this new design to comment.
  8. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    @SeatTime Here you go, very rough drawing of the general design idea made just for you. ;)

    Attached Files:

  9. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Ok that is pretty much like how the commercial ones work and similar to how I am building mine, as the drive unit design really does not change - either driven from the side, or back as you have shown. I may end up testing both to see what works best. Note that the further you move the load away from the drive/support point the more the possibility of the rig bouncing/oscillating at changes of direction - that point + foundations and the rig in general needs to be very solid. I don't think that a single 16mm ball screw would be too happy taking all that load.
  10. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    I too was thinking I'd either need a bigger ballscrew or perhaps could use two of them, one on each side driven from a single motor.

    EDIT: After much internal debate I think I'll more or less go back to the original plan. The "Forklift" design would have quite a few benefits for me, but the additional engineering challenges and expense are probably not worth it.

    Is there a way I could drive three AASD servos using only one channel of the Thanos AMC-AASD?

    That would mostly ensure they are always working in unison, and leave two more channels open on the AMC for more separation of G-system channels.
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2020
  11. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    The motor certainly has plenty of torque, although not easy to manage a heavy rig from a single drive point. I will soon put my latest design iteration on my thread, which may give you some ideas.
  12. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    Just a quick update on my plans for this project, since there is no actual progress right now.

    Thanks to @Trigen pointing out how the lack of strong sustained heave G-cues that are a natural limitation of motion sims can cause massive false cues in certain aerobatic maneuvers I have made some preliminary plans for changing the design a little bit.

    The design change is based mostly on the idea of using some pitch angle on the simulator to enhance heave motion cues which was a technique I found effective when used conservatively on my old Stewart 6DOF.

    In order to add some real pitch to the simulator platform I intend to have the rearward side mounted actuator attachment points able to rotate, and to make the front actuator tower hinged at both the top and bottom so that it can move to allow for the change in geometry from tilting the platform.

    For pitch movement the front actuator will move down while both rear ones move up and vice versa. I will have to limit the maximum amount of pitch angle the sim tries to produce to somewhere around 15-20 degrees to avoid the geometry becoming problematic but this will be plenty.

    I could theoretically do the same for roll, but that comes with some complications so I think I'm going to just stick with the roll being "Bergison style" roll movement of the actual G-Seat assembly as in my last G-Seat drawings. If I decide I want "real" roll sometime later, I should be able to modify the sim platform rig rather than have to start over from scratch.


    In other news: Work continues on prepping my Dad's house for sale for at least a few more weeks. Nearly everything has been moved to my own house but until I have time to build shelves etc. and really figure out how to store everything properly I have zero shop space to work in. Hopefully this will be at least a little bit improved in the coming weeks as well, and with a little luck (which has been scarce lately!) I should be able to resume work on the sim by late fall. I hope to have it up and running by mid winter, but that depends largely on how I make out trying to create a usable shop space. I also have a bit of a problem in that I might not have a practical place to actually PUT the simulator for anywhere from a couple months to a year from now. Relative to thatI have to work on some planning and see how things work out over the next few weeks.

    If all goes well I'll be adding some square footage to my shop within the next year to resolve the shop space problem. I also hope to add a room to my home to have a good place to install the simulator. Those plans both pending, dependent on how things work out financially this Autumn.
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