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3DOF seat mover - your opinion!?

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by Thirsty, Aug 7, 2016.

  1. Thirsty

    Thirsty Member

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    Although I just finished my conventional seat mover/RTL motion rig I got pretty excited about this one:



    It wouldn't be too difficult to replace my Simx-style seat mover with this system so I'd have RTL on top of this.

    The two reasons why I like it so much are:
    - provides extra DOF, i.e. heave
    - with this system it would be possible to lift the pivot point right to the level you're sitting on and that means no changes in the distance to the pedals
    - it would be possible to use my rig with rather minor modifications

    Here the (potential ) issues the way I see it:
    - it looks like that this system may have issues coping with lateral forces from operating the brake pedal (the HE Ultimates go up to 130kg - I'm at about 50kg, but may increase later)
    - noise level - one more actuator, so more noise

    What do you think?
    Can you use these DC motors for a system like this?
    Maybe tilting these actuators inwards provides lateral stability for high pedal forces. DC motors would solve the noise issue. Obviously the actuators have to be able to cope with the weight of driver and seat.
    Lateral stability is the biggest issue in my eyes though.

    Cheers
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2016
  2. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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  3. Thirsty

    Thirsty Member

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    Thank you. As much as I like having the pedals attached to the seat it's too hard for me to implement this into my existing rig.
    So it seems like I have to scrap this idea.
    I put more thought into this 'Tri-Motion' concept shown in that video and it seems I got to put that thing into the too-hard basket as well.
    The video doesn't show much so I find it a bit difficult to assess. However, the way I see it the actuators have to be fixed on a flexible mount, either on the actuator side, or on the rod-end side. That's just because the distances between the mounting points are varying and that would cause stress on the actuators. Flexible mounting points would make this thing unstable...so, no option.
    No heave for me then :-(
  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    In the link I posted there are other approaches to heave than moving the whole rig. You can add heave via @SeatTime's seat plate to pretty much any design.
  5. Thirsty

    Thirsty Member

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    Yes, it's possible to add that to my rig as well.
    I just started another thread trying to get a better idea how motion software is working. I'm using the simx controller and SCN5's, never used Simtools.
    I don't even know if simcommander can handle this additional DOF.
    My rig is very similar to the simx seat mover configuration. With that configuration the seat would tilt backwards or forwards when the heave actuator is activated.
    Is it possible to get the pitch&roll actuators to compensate for that in Simtools?
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Best not confuse things between multiple threads, I answered your question in my response in your other thread: https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...options-which-one-is-better.8907/#post-111973
  7. Thirsty

    Thirsty Member

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    Yeah, I just thought it's better to split this up as one matter is about Simtools and the other about this 'Tri-Motion' concept. Thanks for your help mate :)
  8. stevemontuno

    stevemontuno Active Member

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    That Tri-Motion rig looks amazing but i reckon the sound of those actuators would drive me insane ,,
    • Agree Agree x 1
  9. Thirsty

    Thirsty Member

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    Yeah, I'm with you...really does seem to be very noisy.
    There are rubbers between the actuators and the seat frame to allow for the necessary movement of the actuators when the frame is tilting.
    Here an iso showing it: http://www.frex.com/motion//
    It seems there will be quite a bit of horizontal movement as a result of high pedal forces on the brake. The other drawback is the system is pretty high (vertical distance between actuator mounting points at the bottom and the seat). That causes changes in the distance to the pedals as well.
    All that makes it a no-option for me.
    You may think I'm crazy, but I'm looking at changing the seat mover setup. The idea is building a new seat mover frame with a different configuration of the actuators.
    I'm designing a frame where there's one actuator solely for roll and the other one solely for pitch movement. So in the end the rig will be still a 3dof, but it will be a lot more solid. That thing won't have this U-joint under the seat.
    For that I'd like to change from Simcommander to Simtools. I want to change the jaw actuator from SCN5-010-150 to SCN6-040-150. Then I want to use two of my SCN5-010-150 for the seat mover frame.
    It seems it is not too difficult operating the SCN5/6's with Simtools...I'm still trying to get my head around how that works. I would hope it's not necessary building a new controller or something like that.
    So I want to just use the rig as it is and at the same time build the new seat mover frame and when that's done I'll install some mounting plates on my rig and finally swop.
    The good thing is, it would be very easy to change back if I wanted to for whatever reason.