Question AC or DC

My question is, Is their a Arduino sketch for AC motors for SCM3 and what kind of motor controller are needed?? The reason I am asking this question is because I converted my motion flight simulator to worm gear boxes and 1/4hp dc motors and I have since then found out that the torque is not strong enough to handle my weight. I was told that 3/4 to 1 HP might work but I think I should look at even larger HP. I have found that AC motors are less expensive but I also know that a special controller is needed and that may be more expensive so what do you think??

Terry Wells

With the cost of AC servos setups now days bang for buck they are certainly worth the investment. Same for the Thanos controller, although there is another simple sketch that does work OK with some modification, but has nowhere near the same features https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...o-mega-for-aasd-15a-and-similar-driver.14421/. IMO If you can at all afford it, save some hair and go for the Thanos solution.

Even if you can afford AC servos you may not wish or have the desire to spend that amount of money. And they may not be necessary depending on what you type of motion system(s) you want.

Therefore I've developed a new hair saving PID DC motor controller alternative I will be introducing any day now that blows away everything else I know of that's currently available for motion simulation. Technically its a PID+D- controller. This is due to its breaking down of derivative into it's two discrete functions; acceleration and braking. Therefore you can use one or the other or both and can set each of them individually for precise control. Here's a partial list of some of its additional features:

Awesom-O Advanced DC Motor PID+D- Controller for Motion & G-force Simulation

1. Full 12 bit controller (input and output)
2. Position, torque, and mixed control modes
3. Controls 1 to 6 motors with continuous onscreen monitoring of all motors simultaneously
4. 1 motor PID+D- loop time is 330 µs, 6 motors is 2ms
5. Dual USB serial port controller; Put Simtools on one computer and Awesom-O on a second (or same)
6. Plug and play drivers for USB ports when using Windows 10 computer(s)
7. Sabertooth V3 (2x32 @12bit) & V2 (2x60 @8bit) motor controllers supported
8. Cytron Smartdrive Series (8bit) motor controllers supported
9. Split PID+D- controller; separate values available for each direction of each motor
10. Real-time PID+D- graphing shows each individual functions output and the total power output
11. Split derivative; D+ is acceleration only and D- is braking only; use one, both, or none
12. Set maximum output values for each individual PID+D- output for precision control
13. Record all motion data and save it to a file for playback and later analysis (10ms sample rate)
14. Lay markers during a session so areas requiring analysis can be easily found
15. Global or independent power up/down for each motor
16. Global PID+D- linking for easier initial setup (set all motors at once then de-link to individualize)
17. Global settings linking also
18. Set offsets to middle position
19. Hardware level fast pot reading with 32 times oversampling for each pot
20. Scale Hall Pots that output less than a full 5 volts to faux 5 volt output
21. Soft startup and shutdown motor routines
22. Multiple other options that uniquely alter PID+D- behavior
23. Built-in data acquisition and interface for wind simulation
24. Built in motor testing waveforms

I'm also considering adding BLDC ACT Motor support if there is interest in it. I'm also open to adding other features if they are worthy.

@BlazinH, please keep me informed as to when your controller will be available. I am very interested.

Terry Wells