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Actuator force and speed decisions

Discussion in 'Motor actuators and drivers' started by brzez, Jul 7, 2017.

  1. brzez

    brzez New Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2017
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    I'm in the process of building a 6dof using DIY linear actuators. My main use of the system will be flight sim plus racing.

    I've found a motor that has a continuous duty spec at 4000 rpm and 80 oz in torque (about.57 Nm). I've tested the motor using a lever and weight scale and it can peak at 2.5 Nm while stalling for a second or two (got very warm and there was burnt smell afterwards so I cant do this test too often but it looks like the motor can go over 1 Nm for a few seconds) so the motor is pretty strong.

    I used the ball screw calc at https://servotak.eu/tools/engineering_calculator to determine what my potential actuator can handle given this motor and I should be able to easily handle 60 kg at continuous duty torque spec of .57 nm. My ball screw actuator in the calcs has a pitch of 5mm whcih gives me a speed of .333 m/s at 4000 rpm of the motor. In reality, I don't know if that speed will be always achievable since it takes some acceleration to get there -- the peak torque of the motor should help here.

    Since peak torque is so much higher, I'm wondering how much headroom I have to play with regarding weight and speed and keep the motor safe. I can take the safe route and and go with a 5mm ballscrew knowing that 6 actuators with 60+kg lifting force should handle my weight (90kg) plus the seat and platform (I'm hoping to keep to total lifting weight around 200kg but 250kg may be more realistic). Or I can go with larger pitch actuator to get faster velocity and greater acceleration and utilize my motor's peak limits more often (maybe at the cost of overheating or burning out the motor).

    Does going faster than 333 mm/s make any difference in immersion or replication of actual forces?
    How often will the full use of motor torque at continuous duty come into play on average (I know some games are more demanding than others but it seems like a lot of sim motion is small movements)?

    I know I can build two actuators and try each out with varying loads to see the behavior but was wondering if others had already worked through something similar.

    Thanks in advance for any insights.
    brzez, Jul 7, 2017
    #1