2 DOF Seat Mover - GIB

I am fully expecting various problems and frustrations. And I'm almost positive that the occasional swear word might be heard... BUT, that will not stop me from reaching that, what you fittingly called, magic moment.

@GIB SimRacing - I'm getting excited for you!!!!

Hey mate, guess what???

It's nearly the weekend!!!! All the best with getting things started this weekend.

Thanks champ! I'm looking forward to it. Those last few hours at work today will drag I reckon...

Right'o! I did some building over the last 2 days.

I started with the actual seat frame and brackets. Normally I'd build from the ground up but in this case I thought that if I had the seat frame built, I could then set it up temporary and take some good measurements to work out where exactly I want the motors to be mounted. At least for me, having something physically built makes it a LOT easier to work out what is needed next.
Space is not the biggest concern for this build as it has a dedicated room. But still I want to keep it as compact as practically possible.

So, I started with the aluminium seat pan. This is made using 3mm thick aluminium plate and it will connect the frame to the actual seat.

The carved out sections on the sides are where the seat belts will go into the side of the seat once it is mounted. The 2 bigger holes in the bottom are for the tactiles. You'll see later how it works.

Next was the seat frame:


This is made from 20mm x 20mm x 1.6mm RHS.
To be able to fit the rod ends to the RHS later, I got some end pieces made that will fit into the RHS and then get welded into place.


These have been machined to fit tightly into the RHS and have a 10mm thread cut into them.



The Uni Joint:


I made it so that the uni joint is as close as it could be to the top plate here. This means it will later be as close as possible to the bottom of the seat.


Time to put things together...

Seat Pan, Seat Frame and Uni Joint:



And with the seat. The rod ends have been put onto some threaded rod at this stage. This is only temporary so the seat stays upright to take measurements. Also you can see the tactiles mounted to the bottom of the seat showing through the seat pan.



Now I can measure up for the base frame and work out where exactly the motors need to be mounted.

One step closer!

Get in!!!

Thanks @noorbeast
Hopefully people can get some useful info from some of the pics.

Thanks @dualclick57 .

This working during the week thing has to stop. There is just not enough time for the hobbies!!!
I vote for a 5 day weekend!

Anyway, here is the progress of the last 2 days:

The base frame - Made from 25mm x 25mm x1.6mm RHS:



The brackets for the motors to mount to: These are 50mm x 50mm x 5mm steel angle. Nice and solid. No flexing here!



Motors mounted to the base frame. I made up some spacers and used threaded rod to fix the top of the gearbox to the base frame as well. There is no way that the motors will have any flex in any direction.
The levers are made from 5mm Steel plate and the holes between drive shaft and push rod connection are 40mm CTC. The levers are spaced far enough away from the gearbox body that everything clears and nothing can bind up or hit anything. Again, 5mm steel should not flex.


I'm still waiting for my flex coupler to arrive so I can mount the pots.


Proof of concept!


So far so good. Everything seems like it should work, at least from a mechanical point.

Thanks mate.
Now I'm hoping that I will get a few more parts during the week so I can get things done next weekend.

Looks nice! keep going

Cheers @RacingMat . I can't wait to have it finished so I can take it for a spin

I can imagine that. I will be very relieved once I get the software side working.
Expect a ton of questions when I get to that stage, though.

the Longer the Axle is on the back side of the gear box(Pot side) the greater chance there is for more deflection from the axle to the Pot mount, Yes flex couplers will belp out Big time, But i would shorten it up a bit if possible. Out of curiosity why do you have the axle bolt soo long ? I would also suggest drilling that Capture nut to ensure it can NEVER loosen off.

Great build

Count me in for the 5 day weekend

I hope to have that moment somewhere in the next week or so, really hope it will be magic.

@Nick Moxley - I will eventually close the sides of that base frame. The thought was to have the pots on the inside of the frame, hence the long axles. But I think you are right, I will shorten those and have the pots closer to the gearbox.
When you say axle bolt, do you mean where the push rod joins on? If so, these bolts will be cut to length. I just haven't done that yet.

@HoiHman - Good luck with your setup