Showroom 6DOF Stewart AC Servo Motion Helicopter Simulator Build

A simple latch circuit will do.

Pressing the start button powers the contactor which holds itself latched in the ON position with the NO contact. An alarm or an E-stop will cut power with one of the NC contacts. For the alarm you can use a relay that is powered from all the alarm outputs of the servos in parallel, or servo-ready signals (alarm inverted) in series.

Thank you, I understand your thinking.

Looking at the manual, the servos have a dedicated configurable fault output but the circuit board I have, doesn't have any connection to it, and I'm not sure if the cables have been wired internally to use those pins.

I want to check my docs, and see what I have, before I can create a solution.

To keep it clean, I'd like to have the servo signal define the fault, and all cabling contained in the existing cables. From memory, I vaguely remember counting the number of wires required and buying a multicored cable to suit. Whether I had any redundancy built in or not I can't remember.

@Aerosmith I was looking at a project on this forum by @Nicki9knuckles and this character has put gas struts on his sim to offset the weight and reduce the load on his motor.

My first reaction to this is, it's a bloody good idea, except for longevity. I have yet to find any reliable data on gas strut MTBF (type stuff). Any thoughts?

The cheapest gas struts are for trunk lids. They are build to last maybe 10,000 strokes (~10 years, 2 cycles per day) which could be reached within a few hours of sim operation. But I think they last a lot longer if operated indoors and not in the weather. Be sure to mount them upside down (cylinder at the top, rod at the bottom) so the seals stay lubricated.

For our 3DOF two-seater project we had the same problem. 3 actuators have to carry ~300kg load which was close to the limit. So we have put 4 pneumatic cylinders under the rig near the COG to partially support the weight. They are a bit difficult to spot. See this picture * between the seats. However, with a 6DOF rig and longer stroke it gets harder to find suitable gas struts or pneumatic cylinders.

Pneumatic cylinders have less drag and a longer life, I hope. But they are also much more expensive and need a compressor and air tank.

Edit: * picture replaced (full size instead of thumbnail)

That's what I was thinking (i.e. short lifespan)
I'll have a look round and see if there are any with a longer lifecycle.

My plan was to have roughly 100 to 150 kgs of additional support. and divide that by 3 struts strategicaly placed so that they support each motor pair, that way each strut can be on the order of 40 kgs.
However, I don't want too much support, so that the helo doesn't sink after powering down. So from my spreadsheet I need in the region of 100~120kgs.

I also need them longer than the distance beween frame and base so that they are not working at their max length, but also the closed length needs to fit when the sim is at it's lowest position.