Showroom New 2dof build for Oculus Rift (flight and racing sims)

Starting a new 2dof build for use with Oculus Rift for driving and flight sims. But some history...

12 months ago built a static sim rig for driving and flying simulators for use with Oculus Rift. The rig was constructed out of timber and a car seat from a wreckers. Installed four Dayton tranducer pucks running off two 12v car amps stored under the seat. All from ebay. Very cheap to build (timber from an unused cubby house) and has worked really well. Some photos attached.

Looking for the next challenge and level of immersion so hence I am here.

Went to the wreckers yesterday and found a Kia Optima leather seat in perfect condition. A bit heavy but very comfy. Also found a tail shaft for the universal joint off a Mitsubishi SUV. Purchased some 50mm x 25mm (2mm thick) rectangle tubing and two plates. Started welding up the frame (need some more practice at welding) and fitted the plates to the universal joint. Some photos attached.

Next few weeks is to keep building the frame and do some more research on the electronics/motor side of things. It is all new to me. Plan at this stage is 12v worm motors with JKR controllers (advice from someone elses build) and undecided on PSU

With the frame is it better that the arms from the motors are shoulder high or attached to the underside of the seat? I have seen both designs on this forum and was not sure what the best design is. Need to decide this before finishing up the frame. Thanks

Old Rig

Old rig

Seat from wreckers

Donor car
Old rig

Universal joint and plate (seat base in background)

The seat frame base complete. 6mm plate with M10 (10mm) bolts to connect u joint to the frame tubing.
Next step is working out base of the rig and dimensions to ensure the motor rods connect at optimal angle to seat shoulder back area.
Thanks for advice from user who mentioned using round tube to roll the seat on to find the balance point. Worked well.

http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/m_alexandra30?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754
$15 each seemed like ok value an all appear to be working.




Changing from a 2dof to a 2dof + traction control. Rough design plan below.




2 of these orders (3rd for traction control once I am confident in getting the two seat mover motors operational).

Worm Drive Motor 12V/24V 200W, 180 RPM, 20Nm Torque





Lazy susan ordered (305mm) for the base frame - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/221253053402 ($26)


4x of these ordered to attach to the top frame.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/282153061414?rmvSB=true


Plan is to design and build for 2dof + traction and then buy the third JRK and motor at a later date once normal 2dof is all set up and working ok.

Next week or so plan to finish welding up frames.

Part of the frame supporting the chair complete.

Some photos of the base completed. The traction loss movement is set up on the lazy susan and two wheels near the rear. Movement is balanced and smooth. Using yellow tongue flooring that is very rigid.






Photo of the seat. Put in two M10 130mm bolts drilled into the seat frame so no movement in any of the supports that will have the connecting motor arms attached to.



Question: Starting to figure out how to connect the motor to the arms. The motion dynamic motors I have fit a 1/2 inch threaded rod perfectly (the 12mm rod was too loose). What do people generally use as the piece of metal from the threaded rod to the tie rod end. (photo attached circled in yellow for the piece I am trying to explain) photo example from @noorbeast post (https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/dx-compact-simulator.5866/page-3)

Some photos of the base and swivel movement.




Building the option to change between a full frame mover and seat mover.
Bolts on and off under the seat and the seat can be moved to adjust the pivot point as required.



Rough idea of how to connect the rods to the seat and the motor. Is it best to have the lever on the outside of the rig or inside. I guess the pots need protecting by having on the inside but it seems the angle will be greater if the rod is on the outside so less movement/articulation?

MOTOR MOUNTS

Photos of bracket to mount the motor to the base.
6m 75mm size bolts through two brackets and the motor. The brackets are bolted onto the frame with M12 bolts and some m6 50mm bolts through the yellow tongue. Brackets from Bunnings.









Next to cut the threaded rod and attach lever arms with bolts as suggested by Nick Moxley here. - https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...tor-shaft-to-rod-end-joint.10861/#post-140441

I was planning to cut about 20cm length to allow enough room for the bolts, lever arm and pots on the other end.

POT SELECTION

Pot selection - I have been reading through this thread https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/how-to-choose-potentiometer.238/ and https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/how-to-choose-potentiometer.8251/

and the consensus seems to be these TT Electronics 6127V1A180L.5FS

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=987-1392-ND

along with a coupler similar to this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3pc.../1636922680.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.rghwGK.

Will these both work with a 12mm shaft JRK setup?



Thanks.

12m welding nuts welded onto steel pole to make adjustable length arms of the threaded rod to connect to the tie rod ends and the seat .

Base of the seat to support pedals, wheels etc.

Waiting on tie rod ends to arrive to connect motors to seat.

looking forward to see your work finished and running。

Adding supports to the frame for joystick, throttle, steering wheel and gear shift.


25mm square tube sliding onto 2omm square tube to telescope for adjustments. m6 tap and some adjustable clamping handle screws from ebay to secure in desired position. This should make it easy to get in and out of the seat.


JRKs arrived and tested.


Took apart and cleaned up an old shaw pc case, added some 120mm fans and drilled some more holes for ventilation to put in the psu and motor controllers. Still working out how best to put everything in the case to ensure heat is not a problem.





Trying to source source some large pcb terminal blocks for the jrk to take 10 awg. The only ones I can find were a link on this forum to ebay UK ended up being about $12 delivered for two. Any find a cheaper option local to Australia? Have not been into Jaycar yet but online they don't seem to stock.

Still waiting on tie rod ends to finish off the frame, connect motor arms, re balance seat.

The rose joints arrived so connected up the motor arms. The nuts on the motor levers have not been welded yet as I think I will need to make some adjustments.

I had to raise the height of the motors so the levers were not hitting the base. All connected using M12 bolts and M12 threaded rod.

I also welded the threaded rod to the top of the chair mount as it was flexing under load.

It will be interesting with how fast it runs when all connected. I am concerned about the weight. It is over engineered at the expense of weight.








Attached the stands for the steering wheel, gear shift and HOTAS.

Still waiting on the couplings to be able to connect the pots but have started creating brackets using strapping like most seem to use.

Painted and in its new home. Will get it moving first then bolt on the frame at the front as space is a bit tight. Re ordered the couplings as the others I think were lost somewhere en-route from China. The platform is ready for 3dof but will start by getting 2dof working first


Connect all the electrics up over the coming weeks. Hopefully it will all fit in the PC case.


Ended up getting an Anet A8 3d printer ($199) ebay and that has been very useful in finishing up the build. Would recommend as I think has saved me buying quite a few things and with all the other things I have printed on it not related to this build was a good investment.

Connected up and it works!!!

Thanks to everyone on this site for sharing their wisdom, knowledge and experience. I am still waiting on motor couplings but as they were the only thing missing I 3d printed some and they are holding steady (so far) to allow the initial configuration with JRK utility and some profiles in LFS. Hopefully the proper ones will arrive by the end of the week.

Some photos of how it all looks










And a link to a very short 12 sec video of it in action (not tuned at all). I will post a better video once tuned correctly.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jawqvzu95qo3zg0/20171122_122144.mp4?dl=0

No major issues setting it up apart from one of the pins (feedback pin) on the JRK pushing the solder on the bottom out causing errors, figuring out how to centre the pot (I forgot they are 180 degree) and did not realise they needed to be centred before configuring in the JRK utility. All solved with the help of articles already published on this site

Next will be starting the JRK configuration again from scratch now I have a basic idea of what I am doing. The lever arms need to be adjusted. Install motor couplings when they arrive and getting to know how Simtools works and creating some profiles. Hitting a wall in-game LFS is now scary. I am glad I have two estop switches that kill power to the JRKs!

Maybe in the new year, once I understand it all then will connect up traction loss motor (the platform has already been built to support this and is pre wired to just connect the motor up)