Wickie´s 6DOF Sim

Hi wickie,

I am now, macking my choice for choosing the right servomotor for my 6 dof flight simulator with linear actuator. I don't understand, your choice for the turnigy 190 KV. Ok, it have good dimension for your cylinder, and high speed (190 KV x 37 V = 7030 rpm/min) with an ideal torque 3,3 N.m according to my calcul.), but with the AASD-15A servomotors, you have a strong motor, plug and play, with the encoder integrate, torque 2,9 N.m . OK the speed is less, just 3000 tr/min, but is not enough for a simulator ? With this speed, you can get a linear speed about 250 mm/s with a ball screw 1605. So, why to choose more difficulty, when you can have an easy way .... Thanks for your answer.

Hi @Will974
For me personell, there are lot of reasons for going this way:
-My motors had cost me only 30,- € per piece from China.
-The motors are BLDC that have higher power density than common servomotors.
- My motors fit easily into my 90mm pipe actuator-design.
- The whole system is very simple (after forgetting the long learning curve with Odrive ), small and powerful.... Today I went back to my 1,8 kW Meanwell power supply and now as I have a new firmware it seems to be no problem anymore. So my complete system for the whole power train will look like this....


(Note: here you can see an older picture of my 3 Odrives and the 1,8 kW Meanwell power suply. The short wires from the PSU to the Odrives are not shown in this picture. Thats all!!!! pls. compare this to some other setups)

- I personally dont prefere to go the easy and known way. I like the adventure to try new things. And the Odrive motor controllers are really new with lot of potential for the future. Although I had lot, lot of setbacks, I still believe in Odrive!

As a small teaser: Today I made the first LFS rides with my 6dof although lot of things are still not ready....... believe me - the power and precision already blew my mind (although nothing is optimized).

So for me this all is definitely the right way.
Unfortunately, I know the Thanos solution too little to be able to make a comparison.

Wickie

Hi wickie,

You convince me definitively to use the brushless technology in my 6 dof project. I will open a topic about my project when i will enough evolved. Thanks for your detail answer. However, i can remark that you don't connect the power resistor at each Odrive controller. Is it an oversight ? How do you calculate the necessary PSU for the 6 motor through the odrive ? I have read a link about that on the topic project of silent chill, but i don't all understand.....

Hi @Will974
The picture is an older one, I made some weeks ago - the power resistors are connected now of course ;-)

Although I made some simple calculations, choosing the Power supply was more a trial and error process. I made my first tests with my Actuator with a extremely small lipo-battery and also with an 12V 4A PSU, that showed me, that the efficiency of the whole system is verry high and the power consumption will not be so high than someone would expect. Based on this experience I bought a 36V , 10A PSU for my prototype and the first load tests (means 360W) . This was perfect for pushing 30 kg at high speed. As I dont expect that all 6 actuators will need the maximum power the same time, I decided to buy a 1800W PSU for all 6 actuators together. This means min. 300W for each. Because of problems with the firmware i thought the power supply was too weak, but with the new firmware i use now, everything works fine with the power supply. For a final opinion it is still too early, but yesterday I let myself be shaken hard for 1 hour and the power supply, the odrives and the motors didn't even get hand-warm. So I am confident but not 100% sure yet. I think in a few weeks I will be sure and if the PSU will be too weak, I go back to the car battery-solution.

For your final decision regarding the BLDC - way, I would recommend to wait some more weeks until FlyPTś, SilentChills and my 6 DOF is running....

Wickie

Hi wickie,

OK, i will wait, but when i look differents videos of you, silent chill abd flypts, it seems to be in a good way. BLDC seems to be a good solutions even at low speeds (See your last video). I can not wait to see a video of a BLDC simulator in high speed, considering the the great performances of the BLDC that you and silent chill have chosen.

Hi Wickie,
Is there some news about your simulator like video ?
I can't wait to see it in action

Hi Will974
here is a litle update on my project. The last weeks I didnt have as much time as I wanted to have, so things went on little slow.
Making the Odrives reliable was a lot of work, but due to help of InsectaTech and SilentChill, now it works really good!
Today my son and me made the final cable management and the first test drives.....its mindblowing fast, strong and detailed, but we need to understand the mover interface much, much more and need to optimize lot of parameters....feels more like driving a speed boat than driving a car
I am looking forward to the next mover release that will have some pre settings..
Wickie

wow @PeterW
itss like you have a mercedes 6 DoF hexapod...
did you just finished?
i am 95 percent finished constructing, but i have dove into the wonderful world of tuning..
which is another monster in itself...

your project is a beauty.. fine craftsmanship.
i am admiring your build along with @SilentChill 's new odrive 6doF!

i am learning about FlyPT mover as well. the 3d and graphical displays help in tuning.

thanks for the heads up on upcoming mover interface with pre settings.
finding the right formula in the pose module is tough with alot of trial and error

@PeterW your simulator looks amazing!
Good luck tuning it, looking forward to some videos of its performance.

Oppie

Wooww !!!! The design of the simulator is awful !!! I can't wait to see it in action !!!

Hi Peter

I just read through your thread.
And i have half way changed my mind about my future 6DOF build, after seeing your rig.

I was wondering if you are going to share a guide or something to set up the Odrives ?
and a schematic of your electronics ?

Best regards

Hello @RKG90 !
I am very pleased that you like the design of my simulator! The mechanical design works fantastic, but I cannot (yet) recommend the Odrive motor control. I have everything up and running at the moment and it runs smoothly, but the Odrive is extremely sensitive and difficult to set up. Currently I am still stuck on an error message when I increase the speed of the actuators. It's a known problem, but there is no generally working solution (yet). Next weekend I will try some more settings and adjustments . The Odrive is a love-hate relationship. When it runs it is awesome, but finding the right settings is a long and painful way. SilentChill, which has virtually the same drivetrain, also had also a lot of problems, but seems to have solved them. Just have a look at his new thread (the one with BLDC!).
When I'm done and everything works, I will publish all settings, special features and the (simple) schematic. But that will take several weeks.
Just be patient and I will post my final opinion about the ODrive.
Wickie

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Hi,

Of course, when we see differents recents videos of Silent chill, it seems that he have find the solution about setting O-Drive !!!! His simulator is awesome ! Perhaps it could advice you about setting o-drive Peter ;-)

Hi all!
Today we had a breakthrough in our long sim building journey. The last days my son and me were struggling with an error code in Odrive so that it was not possible to set for maximum actuator speed. Always one actuator was switching off. BUT today we tried a different pre setting for dirt rallye in the in the mover-interface (many thanks to FlyPT !!!!) and now all problems are gone!!!! Everything, the speed, the drive feeling and the precise response is just mindblowing now!! We dont know why, but the the Odrive is stable now. The force feedback from the rig is so strong, that we dont want to increase it. A crash feels sometimes as you would die the next moment. So we are super happy now and finally got the reward for our hard work over one year
Regarding the noise of the actuators I can report that it is no problem at all. When driving with headset and without a crash somebody could even watch TV in the same room . But a crash is a crash!
What I dont understand is, that in videos taken with a mobile phone cam, the noise seems to be horrible - but believe me, in reality its not loud nor annoying.

Wickie

Hi wickie,

I'm happy to see the result of your work !!! And it's a success as i suspected ;-) Congratulation !!!!
I can observe that you finally use batteries to supply your rig ?
I suppose that the error from odrive caused by the axial rotation that you have into your linear actuator concept ? FlyPt talked about this error on his topic....
Personally, i have solve this problem by placing the axial rotation at the end of the piston of my linear actuator, but i will present you and all the members of xsimulator my work about that ;-) and for sure, you are an important example for me ....

Thanks for your advice and your sharing

Hi Wickie and congratulations on your hard work, the platform looks amazing!

The long road of difficulty has lead to a great and satisfying success, I knew you could do!

Now I suppose its time to enjoy your work; I'll be waiting for the stream; with the popcorn

Regard Jerry.

Really love the result. Nice job! I may have missed it, but what did you end up with the upper platform spacing between the actuators (long leg)?

Hi Nisch!
Sorry for my late reply!
The distance of the universal joints on the upper platform is aprox. 134 cm and on the base aprox. 140 cm. This dimensions are highly recommendable!
Wickie

Hi wickie,

What about your choice to supply your rig now that you you have enough tested it ? Do you finally used the 1800 W PSU or the battery ?

Hi all!
here you can look at or download the CAD-model of my 6DOF-motion platform.
The download and use is on your own Risk!
Also I cannot guarantee a proper and safe design!
The file and the construction is my property and only permitted for further private use!

Edit: currently not available

Wickie