Showroom 3DOF (Changed to 4DOF) 50:1 motors

Hi Nick, your design is interesting. That fourth motor raises the rear of the seat platform, but I can't see the hinge you added. Did you add a second ball joint? What kind of configuration did you use, or what kind of feel does it give you?

hey @X.STTONER sorry for the late reply. I will take a few up close photos for you to see, but basiclly under my feet i have 3 door hinges (so it only moves up and down) and then the big 600W motor under my seat. Having this configuration means that the motor has a LOT of work to do becuase its got my full weight pluse the weight of the seat and all that metal frame. So I have a really powerful motor controller, plus I agumented the motor with gas struts to make the upward motion less painful for it. I think combined the gas struts are about 150 lbs of force, so the motor only has to worry about the frame weight plus maybe 15 lbs (Im 165 lbs). If I were a bigger dude I would just have purchased gas struts that support higher load.

And for your question about the feel, honestly, its incredible.
I originally built this rig as a 3DOF, with pitch/roll and traction loss, but after adding this, I would say this one axis of motion is the most sastifying. I feel every undulation of the road, rally driving has never been more fun. You get a real sense of g-forces if you come in fast to a hill and the motor drops you so it mimics that feeling of being pressed into your seat as you climb. On the nordschleife or other tracks with quick elevation changes you can really enjoy it. Plus it translates really well for flight sims too.

I know my rig looks like something out of mad max haha, it ain't pretty but it's a hell of a lot of fun

@X.STTONER you can get a better idea of that motors movement here:


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lDD3rf_7STs

and

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gTW3DZCyodE

Hi Nick, thanks for the information and images. You cleared up my doubts. I've seen your video and it's exactly what I'm looking for, and it's inspired me to create a design similar to yours. I'm designing to adapt it to the 2DOF I have.

One question: is the rear motor a 24V? And is the motor controller a BTS7960?

Lastly, the type of shock absorber I was thinking of using was a car tailgate shock. I don't know if that would work. What type of shock absorber did you use?

Thanks for the reply, brother. Aesthetics are the least important thing; the important thing is that it puts a smile on your face like a kid with a new toy, haha.

That's awesome @X.STTONER! I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
To answer your questions:

1. that 600w motor is 12v. I stuck with all 12v on my rig. From what I read on here, it sounded like 24v was more complicated to work with

2. The motor controller I bought from AliExpress, but I found out about it from this great thread: https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/reasonably-priced-100a-motor-controllers.17638/
I ended up buying 3 of them abnd I replaced ALL the IBT-2 motor controllers on my rig, so now I am rocking LOTS of power haha.

3. And for the gas struts, yeash exactly, they are car tailgate struts just like you mentioned. In Canada we have a store called Princess Auto where you can get that kind of stuff really cheap. You can also get them on Amazon.

Let me know how things go and don't be afreid to reach out!
Hasta luego hermano!

I thought I would show a video of the lastest on my rig. I guess I could change the title of this thread now becuase really the rig is 4 DOF. I added thos more powerful motor controllers to all my motors and man what a difference it has made. Esspically to my heave motor which has to lift so much weight. Hving this motor be able to move my without any issues now makes everything WAY more fun. I have playing a lot of flying games lately and this motor really adds to that. And having the undulations of the road in driving games come though the rig is so immersive. Love it

https://youtube.com/shorts/lDD3rf_7STs?si=mGw495iRUBmy3J_E

I really like the gas struts, I may have to perloin that idea, it may solve a problem I have with weight.
Will have to do some homework and see how long they last, etc.

Thanks @GettinBetter ! It definitely wasn’t my original idea, I seen it somewhere on here by someone smarter than myself

i’m not sure where you’re located, but in Canada, we have a store called Princess auto and it’s really cheap supplies for cars and tools. you can get these struts for 15 bucks each or so and they go on sale for half price sometimes. So even if you do go through them, replacing them is not too expensive. And honestly, I’ve been using my rig for a long time and I haven’t had any issues with them. They also come in different weights and lengths, so you have to make sure to get the right one for the job. I am actually using three on mine

Hello, I have a quick question about the 4th motor. How did you add it to the SMC 3 settings? Thank you.

Hey @titofe, if I understand your question correctly, I am adding this motor as a seperate aduino, with its own sketch and its own motor controllers. So it's completly on its own, and I can open smc3 utility and test its settings by targetting that arduino's pid.

Okay, I'm asking this question because I'm already using a 2DOF simulator. I'd like to switch to 4DOF. In that case, the best thing to do is get an Arduino board and install two motors on it, using two different ports, so you can control them with the SMC3. Could I configure and install the four motors in SimTools? Thanks!

@titofe yes, thats the right path forward. SMC3 can only handle 3 motors at a time anyway, so if you wanted 4 motors in total, so you would have to have 2 arduino boards. Note that I actually went with 3 arduino boards. 1 board for my sway/pitch (since they work together), 1 board for heave, and 1 board for traction loss. The reason I did this is because I was getting interferance on the single arduino when I had both heave and traction loss on it. I find this set up much easier because if I have issues with one of my motors, and need to debug, it makes it easier to isolate issues when they are all seperated like this.
And about SimTools, yes, you can easily set up even more then 4 motors in this app

Thanks so much for your reply! Actually, I'd like to test some electric verai. I'll show you photos of the verai with a potentiometer adapter later, along with two electric verai, a 100A board, and an Arduino. Thanks!