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Showroom 6 DOF Motion Platform for Helicopter Simulation

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by Reinhold R, Jan 5, 2020.

  1. Reinhold R

    Reinhold R New Member

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    Hi Everyone,

    I'm new to this scene in pretty much every way. I plan to get the commercial pilot's license for helicopter this year with the plan of continuing work in my current job during the off-season until I get my hours up to where the new job can sustain me financially. To stay sharp during the months when I'm not flying, I want to set up a solid sim rig with VR and a 6 DOF motion platform.

    I plan to go the DIY linear actuator route, inspired by FlyPT and others. And go as much DIY as possible in everything else as well. I have a background in electrical engineering which will hopefully help. But it's also good to know that there are plenty of commercially available controllers, etc available these days in case I get stuck.

    The timeline for the actual platform is far in the distance though, after I have my license, workstation, peripherals, VR headset, etc. set up, so bear with me.

    I did have some time over the holidays though to build a 1:10 scale model with the structure built from 3D printed parts, and R/C servos in place of linear actuators with the whole thing controlled by an arduino. For now I'm just using 3 pots to manually control XYZ offset and Yaw/Pitch/Roll.


    DSC_1234.JPG
    Test print of a section of the servo base

    DSC_1238.JPG
    Finished 1:10 scale model with 3D printed servo arms

    I also built a functional virtual model first to verify the math and figure out the proportions:




    Here is the finished model in action:




    There are still some kinks to work out, especially with my very crude range limiting in Arduino, but I'm really encouraged by how it's looking so far.

    That will be it for now. But I'll no doubt be back with a ton of questions down the line.

    Stay tuned ...
    • Like Like x 4
    Reinhold R, Jan 5, 2020
    #1