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Jerky/Jittery/Shaky motion on main PC

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by Flexor111, Mar 10, 2021.

  1. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Hello everyone,

    I've been currently building a 2dof rig for quite a while now, but unfortunately came across a hurdle with my main PC. The motion is not linear, it's very jerky. For some reason everything works fine on my laptop. I've read a few posts with similar issues and still haven't found a fix. Here are some things I tried doing to no avail:
    • Ground isolating my windshield wiper motors
    • Replacing my MM shield with another one
    • Replacing MM shield with two BTS7960
    • Replacing my Arduino Uno
    • Adding chokes on motor power lines
    • Replacing potentiometers with hall effect sensors
    • Replacing cables with ones with shielding
    • Replacing server power supply with a car battery
    • Soldering cables directly to the Arduino
    • Adding gas dampeners
    • Trying different USB ports
    • Removing every other USB device
    • Removing my GPU and running my PC with integrated graphics
    • Connecting my PC power supply to a different outlet
    • Reinstalling SMC3 and SimTools
    • Running the .Net framework fix utility
    The next thing i'll do is try yet another PC and switch my PC's PSU later. Everything seems fine in SMC3.

    Attached Files:

  2. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, Motion platform
    If it works OK in SMC3, then you have successfully tested most of your hardware. Is it also jerky in-game? Also are your simtools interface settings correct?
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  3. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Yes it's very jerky in game. When I try it out in LFS as soon as my car spawns in the whole motion rig jumps scratching my wood panels ;(. Here are two videos, one in SMC3 displaying a sinusoidal signal and in SimTools when i slowly move the sway slider from -20 to +20. You can imagine how much it jumps when slam the slider from one side to another.



    Edit i forgot about my SimTools setting:

    Attached Files:

  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    The videos need to be made public on YouTube, they are currently private so can't be seen.

    It is generally not a good idea to use filters until the main motion profile is fully sorted. Filters should be regarded as the final tweaks, once everything else is sorted, see the tips here: https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/steps-to-create-a-motion-profile.228/

    Can you please include the Tuning Center settings.
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  5. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Ah, yes I forgot about that, they should be up now :).
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Can we also see the settings for the Default profile, as that is what is used for Output Testing.
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  7. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Here are my Tuning Center and Default profile settings. Also I added the filters since I had nothing to lose. They did make the motors less audible.

    Attached Files:

  8. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Looks like you need to capture the Max/Min TC values, including for surge, then tweak from there. I would expect most of those values will be much lower. It is not unusual to use a larger Min than Max for surge, to simulate gear changes, but yours are excessive. Leave that gear change tweaking until last.

    So to recap, the Default profile is what Output Testing uses, don't use filters for now and check the motion again in Output Testing with sensible default Axis Assignment values.

    Do follow the tuning tips, including capturing TC values: https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/steps-to-create-a-motion-profile.228/
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  9. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Ok, I'll reinstall SimTools and start from scratch following the tips in FAQ section. Once I get that sorted I'll keep you posted.
  10. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    Alright, so I did as I said but stopped at configuring the GameEngine Interface settings and went ahead and tested my (a) Axis output before configuring DOF settings. It shakes just as violently as before. It doesn't matter if I connect my filter or not.

    Attached Files:

  11. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, Motion platform
    Why are you using com port 6 in SMC3, but com port 5 in Simtools? They should be the same....please set Simtools interface to com port 6.
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  12. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    I just switched the ports when I was plugging in my Arduino. It makes no difference what port I use whether I plug it in my front USB ports or directly to my motherboard. I changed it back to 5 and once again everything seems to work fine in SMC3, but in SimTools it shakes.

    Edit: Sorry but I can't change it back to port 6 since I reconnected my USB cables in different slots. There are two USB 2.0 slots which I haven't tested so I'm going to do that now.

    Edit 2: I checked the USB 2.0 slots and as I suspected there is no difference. It seems it doesn't matter which USB port I use.

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Mar 11, 2021
  13. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
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  14. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, Arduino, 6DOF
    i had a similar problem but with my sim wheel

    it turned out the usb was overloaded with too much data

    I intalled a pci usb card and there are now 2 x usb lines - works fine now

    what other usb devices do you have ?
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  15. Flexor111

    Flexor111 New Member

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    YES! This finally worked! To be more exact changing my language settings to english completely fixed the shake issue! Runs like a dream now. I can't believe after almost giving up on this project I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. :D A very big thank you to everyone who helped me with this problem and thank you noorbeast for fixing it! :cheers
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