6 DOF from scratch

I'll send you some duck tape and Canadian hockey stick for your new design, that way it will never break again!

LOL! Yeah, that's the way to do it!

Just start over lol

fix it - start swapping parts till you find the problem

3 choices:
-Contact the dealer of the probable broken part. Which is not a bad advise.
-Start over. I would not expect otherwise from you SilentChill.
-Swapping part. It`s almost less trouble to do the first two choice because of the configuraton of the build. I will consider it anyway. I could get at least a new arduino. They are not that expensive and can be used for other projects if it was not the problem.

Thanks guys.

on a more serious note,
1- find the exact problem. I guess you have more than 1 sabertooth, swap it with another one to see if it power on. I don't know how the saber work but I guess there is a powerlight on it and it shouldn't require an Arduino to have that light ON and just require actual power to it. (I guess ?).
1.5 - Sabertooth can be connected to computer I think, check if it is still possible to connect.
2- once sure that 1 of the saber is defective, contact the dealer and see what / if they can do something about it.

Ok being serius now, I had one of my 2x60 die on me and i just need to do a hard reset on it but I cant for the life of me remember how ??? I think maybe @BlazinH might know I'm sure he told me how to do it .

The sabertooths are pretty indestructable unless you can see damage or something burnt out its pretty much going to be ok and just needs resetting

Resetting a Sabertooth? Okay, that's new. It does make sens since the last time I used it (3 months ago) it was working fine. It has no reason to die like this, unless a surge it had on start or something. There was no warning, spark, smoke or anything. I will look into this.

Switching part is not my first choice as they are fixe under a handfull of wires and I'll end up redoing everything (Silentchill suggestion). If I can avoid playing with wiring that are working, it will make me feel better. But, I may end up having no choice than do it.

Anyone know how to reset the EEPROM ON Sabertooth 2x60 ?

A TTL converter... Do they mean the ttl 7400 serie Texas Instrument chip I used to have on my protoboard in the '80? LOL, everytime I touch that sim, I need to learn something new.

It seems we can use an arduino to do the conversion. I will look into this:
https://microcontrollerslab.com/ard...ut if you have arduino,as a USB TTL converter.

I have remove the sabertooth and the arduino, but it turned out to be harder than expected. On screw didn't want to turn and 3 wires got stuck and broke into the connectors. The cat is there... Because I could not get rid of her!



So the thing got more heat than I expected. The soldering I did to each ends of the wires probably got hot and melted down into the connectors.

Then, I tried to communicate with it using the methods explain in the link from my previous post. It never responded, but neither did the good one I disconnected too. So, I have no idea if it works.

I need to reconnect the bad one to the good connection and see if it works. The more I test, the more it goes into the redo it all option.

Okay. I exchanged the 2 sabertooth, and it's still working.
So, putting back all the code into the arduino that I messed up to end up failing communicating with the sabertooth. It looks ok as it loaded everything back and communicated with smc3.
All I need to do now is to reconnect those wires and make sure all COM are in the right order.
I might end up not redoing everything after all... Yet.

i Had to do a reset to one of my sabertooth... i had put an external battery charger while the batteries were still connected to the 2x60. i guess it didnt like it. and it died.
i was told by dimension engineering to do a reseat.. which the reset was easy, as long as u have the TTL converter..

after the reset, my 2x60 started to work again


WOWOW weee... i cant believe your sabertooth melted the solder...

The connectors look strange. As if they got wet and moldy or something like this. It could also be corrosion from excess soldering flux.
Its also not good idea to solder the ends of a wire if you are going to use a screw terminal. The solder will move under the pressure of the screw leaving you with a bad connection. Best practice is to use a ferrule.

Yes, maybe I put way to much soldering flux from the start. Ferrule (in french Virole, I learned 2 words today) is a good idea that I did not have at the time, and still don't so far. I put the wire directly this time, with no soldering, to see how that will work.

Anyway, working on the electronic under the platform was a pain in the... knees! Man, my poor kneen. I know now that my sim needs to have a major reset soon (by soon, I mean when I'll have money, which won't be soon).

I have ideas for a new kind of design. But for now, I want to test motion cancellation with my new 3d printed holder. That's skedulled for tomorrow (after setting up VR, Mover... etc).

Those soldered wires in your Sabertooth terminal block looks like a 'cold joint' - too little and even too much heat plus the wrong flux can cause this (also clean off any excess flux) It should form as one solid mass and look all shiny when finished (Many moons ago I did the NASA soldering course in the RAAF (HRHS) - taught me a little bit about soldering). I soldered mine and used it for a few years thrashing my stewart platform and later G systems with no issues. Ferrules are a good idea, but as I wanted to fit the maximum size cable they were not a option and to try and push a big un-soldered high current high-core count cable into those closely spaced terminal blocks would have been risky. I would look at your soldering tools and Technic, as a poor soldering joint is still a poor soldering joint even into a ferrule.

In regard to your rig - had similar issues especially trying to get some of my older and not so flexible friends into the stewart platform and even the G-sim , so for that and other reasons, bit the bullet and moved to a whole different setup - low parked height/open cockpit. Even using 800mm ballscrews, when parked, my new rig will be a comfortable distance off the ground to enter and exit easily.

Always use crimped wiring for high current power lines. If the wiring is not correct AWG rating , solder will melt...

My wires are not set up correctly for sure. I got your advises a little bit too late (4 years). But I have no intention to run it for years now. I will have to do a complete rewiring, putting the power away from the rig a a comfortable serviceable position. I'm only concern about longueur high voltage wires that may heat up. But one thing for sure, I do not want to work on it under the platform like I just did.

The other question is do I just redo the electronics, or do I try crazy design idea.
Jugging by my wallet, it will be a simple revision.
So far, it's back online.

I tested the motion cancellation with my new support and it worked pretty fine with Pitools. I tested Elite and Corsa and both gave me great result. But, it was getting in my way for the controls, so, I will move it to the top of the seat and find a way to secure it tightly.

I did a bit of Dirt Rally, but the calibration was of and it made me a bit dizzy. Next thing on the to do list.

Just a thought:

High voltage (220v) allows more power through smaller awg wires, with no heating. Its part because AC is rotating leaving less friction on the copper of the wire, than DC that has huge drag.

No 220V available in that part of the basement. Unless I remove the heating system... no.