Motion4Sim Mk3 motion platform kit

Dear fellow simulator builders!

In 2021, a dear friend of mine got me hooked on the world of flight simulators by buying me MSFS 2020. It wasn't cheap, because I got the boxed version, but neither were my first peripherals (Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo) which I bought after a little research, and almost after I tried out this great sim.
I was enchanted and turned off at the same time. Thanks to the internet, I found a lot of interesting ways to make this world even more immersive, and that's how I learnt about VR simming, and then the world of moving platforms. While marveling at their potential, my partner and I successfully moved into our new apartment, and I felt the opportunity to purchase and install a seat mover in our study. I could only thinking about of complete products as I have very limited opportunity for machining, and somewhat strict budget, so after some research again I opted for the 6DOF kit that is being made by Motion4Sim. I corresponded a lot with the maker of the set and his attitude seemed very sympathetic, and he also seemed very attractive in terms of value for money so last November, 5 moderate size boxes (of 20 kilos each) arrived at our flat. The components were nicely packaged, but unfortunately the paintwork on two parts was still damaged, but I was able to have these repaired by a powder coating company in a neighbouring town.



So, to make the long story short, the parts are laser cutted steel material, with varying thickness from 3 mm to 5 mm. Anyone ordering from Motion4Sim could ask for some phases to be readily done but that would also increase the price for the kit. For me these were pre-cutting all the threads (there are a lot of threads for M4, M6 and M8 bolts) and powder painting the sheets. Pityfully, as the threads were cut by hand by the seller, there were some misaligments that made me doubtful, but the maker of the sim was very kind and open to swap those I was concerned about for free of charge, for a raw laser cutted ones into those I managed to cut the threads more precise (probably only for my more stricter needs)

BEFORE:

AFTER:



After powder painting, including some profiles those paint chipped off during shipping



To be continued...

Some of it's moving parts must be put together by the user using a Loctite 638/648 cylindrical fitting glue. I do not have any experience with these, but looks interesting and probably will do the job. The blocks consist of 2mm steel sheets those are glued and fitted together with M6 bolts. The seller of the kit didn't recommend and found it unnecessary but I still swapped all the bearings and ball joints to japanese made for better longevity and reliability.







Gearboxes are from Aliexpress (model: TNF090-050-S2-P2 19-70-90), must be purchased seperately, with attention to it's lenght as they will be fitted into the base and it has some restrictions at the centre. Also, the type the buyer's recommended to purchase has a smaller output flange holes (accomodate only M6 bolts instead of M8 bolts those are used for this design) so it must be enlarged or you could just ask the supplier to modify them. The only tiny problem with this that the spacer have to be grinded off a bit to fit under the holding nut and next to the brim of the GB.






Servos are 80ST-M02430 AASD servos, those pwr cables must be shielded.

The gearboxes and the servos fitted together with M6*25 bolts. Shafts must be cleaned before the mating with disk brake cleaner fluid, and the keystones removed. I've found inserting a long M3 bolt into the keystone the easiest method doing this.

The base frame put together some couple of dozens of M8 screws, different lengths. It wasn't advised at all, but I have backed all the bolts with nuts and spacers for more rigidity. Some threads angles were off here too, but after tightening them up pretty well managed it.

The upper base that will hold the cockpit structure is put together the same way with the use of the previously glued bearing blocks. I used locking nuts where I found necessary.

Electronics are not that complex, only that one must put a timing relay between 3-3 servos to not to trip the fuse as turning on 6 servos and their drive units at the same time would probably do. Everything, including making the electronics are documented very nicely in the tutorial videos Motion4Sim would provide the customer purchasing this kit. I had to purchase a crimp tool as I didn't have those, I used to soldering

Putting the servos and planetary's into the base frame

As it was mentioned above the servos power cables have to be shielded. This is done by a use of 3m's of tinned copper mesh that is put over the cabling, and earthed together with the frame.

The base frame then put together with all the cabling, (including a LED strip) gearboxes and servos.
A bit modification I made into these 3D printed side covers that the M4 bolts enlarged to M5 and they were countersunk to give an extra clearance to the moving crank arms.