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Question Formula Style gSeat

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by UAlberta Formula SAE, Sep 6, 2018.

  1. UAlberta Formula SAE

    UAlberta Formula SAE New Member

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    I'm a member of the University of Alberta's Formula SAE team where we design and build a formula-style racecar every year to compete at international competitions.

    This year I'm converting one of our old chassis into a simulator and looking for some feedback.

    Here is the aluminium seat from last year's car:

    20180905_153934.jpg

    20180905_154252.jpg

    20180905_154307.jpg

    The black part is a foam liner for our smaller drivers - I am not planning on using it.

    @SeatTime suggested that we start out simple (and hopefully cheap lol) with a gSeat (P.S. @SeatTime I would love to hear your thoughts on this idea since you seem to be the gSeat master around here :D).

    My thought is 6 servos to independently actuate the following parts of the seat (please excuse the awful photoshopping):

    20180905_154307_modified.jpg

    20180905_154252_modified.jpg

    Because these are the side portions of the seat, hopefully the servos won't need to be too big to be effective.

    A few questions:
    • Many different sized people could be trying this - what effect will this have on the effectiveness of the gSeat. Is there an easy way to adjust the seat for driver size on the fly? This will hopefully be used at promotional events so anyone from a kid to a large adult might try it...
    • Because the seat is aluminium, my thought is that we'll add hinges to enable actuation - could pinching be an issue? could this be mitigated by a thin layer of cloth or something? I'd love to hear other solutions or suggestions
    Thanks all!

    P.S. if anybody is interested in seeing this build happen and has coins to spare - I would hugely appreciate donations (for a download package) - it's difficult posting lots when I'm so new to sim rigs haha :thumbs
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2018
  2. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Your dead right, a paddle setup like that would need to be fitted to the driver for a decent effect, which is why most are more behind the driver which unfortunately puts more load on the servos - need more, or bigger servos. For something that is to be used/thrashed by the public with a variety of different sizes and your budget is not that big. I would go even simpler with just some servo controlled harnesses. They can jump in adjust to size as in a real race car and off they go with no issue with overloading the system with heavy drivers. I have many customers who have no motion, but VR, DD wheel and servo controlled harness and they love it. Good VR makes allot of things possible.
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  3. UAlberta Formula SAE

    UAlberta Formula SAE New Member

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    Thank you @SeatTime ! That totally makes sense - I see what you mean about the paddles being behind making for a better experience for multiple people.

    I'm currently looking into getting something like Takata's drift harnesses. All of our team's old harnesses are 6-points and have difficult to use latching mechanisms (some of our drivers even have issues when doing egress drills).

    Hopefully as parts of the simulator start to come together, we'll be more attractive to bigger sponsors which might allow for bigger servos on a gSeat and eventually a full motion platform.

    VR is definitely in the cards!! I'm glad to hear it can be so effective :)
  4. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    And if you find the cash for a DD wheel, Fanatecs Direct Drive wheel looks the goods.

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  5. UAlberta Formula SAE

    UAlberta Formula SAE New Member

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    That wheel looks incredible! And it would be nice to get a plug-and-play wheel. Our team isn't huge so making everything ourselves in any sort of reasonable timeframe isn't realistic (unfortunately).

    Do you happen to know how their DD wheels compare to the cheaper CSL wheels? I've never actually used a DD wheel - should maybe try to find one locally that somebody will let me play with haha.

    I feel like I read somewhere about really good DD wheels having the chance of braking thumbs if you hit a wall. Do you think that could realistically happen with Fanatec's wheels? Doesn't matter much for having our team practice on the sim but I would hate to hurt someone from the public that we are showing the rig off to :confused: (I assume a non-DD wheel would never have the thumb breaking issue?)

    I've seen some info on this elsewhere but more opinions are never a bad thing :thumbs

    Do DD wheels also make it easier to adjust lock-to-lock? Because for our car, lock-to-lock is something like 180 degrees... Maybe setting that up could even prevent thumb-breaking?

    Sorry, could almost start a new thread with this :p

    Cheers!
  6. UAlberta Formula SAE

    UAlberta Formula SAE New Member

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    @SeatTime what do you think about an actuating head-rest? I feel like it would either be cool or weird... Might have to do some tests with that (unless you have already?)
  7. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    The Podium is not released yet, but there are videos available on the web which compare other Wheels. I have a DD wheel (20Nm) but never run it on high - great accuracy/precision and no clipping. Can be adjusted to ensure no broken fingers if required. Most good wheels can be adjusted lock to lock.
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  8. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    No haven't tried that, but I do have a G-helmet ;).
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  9. AussieSim

    AussieSim Member

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  10. UAlberta Formula SAE

    UAlberta Formula SAE New Member

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    Neat!! I'll have to put some thought into how I could implement something like that...

    At first I was thinking I could jerry-rig some VR goggles like that but I guess smacking the goggles into somebody's face would be painful and potentially cause focus issues :/