Damper Kit

Dear sirs,

I see many different types of frex type simulators.
Some have damper kit at bottom of bar which holds actuator.

Why is this. Is this just pure viberation stopper?

Kind Regards.

Based on their advertidsing verbiage I think it is more than just a mechanism to stop vibration from getting to the floor. It does stop bibration from getting to the floor, but that advertise it as a quick way (hand-turn knob) to reduce harshneess without having to mess with software settings. I am building an improved version of this dampening system into my next design for that same reason.

would you guys think it would be possible to use something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-RE ... ccessories

or these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-C7 ... ccessories

or something similar to that, any type of motorcycle shock absorber type thing?

I've thought about using some type of gas shock but I don't think I would use these for four reasons:

1.) It would be difficult to mount them inline with the actuators

2.) they need to dampen equally in both directions

3.) They need to be esily adjustable or it defeats the purpose which is to provide a mechanism to quickly and easily dampen harshness without making software changes.

4.) I think they would be too stiff

And yes, of course, they should also remove much of the vibration getting to your floor, which is the only criteria that I think these would meet unless I'm missing something. You are on the right track though. I think some kind of easily inline mounted and adjustable fluid dampener would be ideal.

i have them installed, they only absorb some vibrations, not more. never used the knob to adjust something.

alright i won't use anything like that then. hey bvillersjr, when you find a solution, can you please post it here? i'm following you and mr burns to try and get my simulator up and running. just waiting on my actuators now to get started.

Dear sirs,

I am in the same position as njracer. The following position. I will get in the line.
Please see picture. I had buttkicker once and these caster wheels stopped alot of viberation, more than these dampers I think can do. Because none of the frame is touching ground and only 3mm of rubber touches the ground x 4 wheels.


Kind Regards.

I am currently using vibration mounts. They help to reduce vibration from driving downward into the floor, but do not help much to prevent upward shock/jumping. The real issue with them is that they are not adjustable. I am looking into various small gas shock options, fluid filled rubber options and softer rubber/neoprene options that I can run a bolt through and tighten to my liking.

In a perfect world, I would be able to find something that I can adjust some of the harshness out of the gearshift effect with, eliminate most vibration to the floor, yet still feeel road surface effects and wheel hop. It's a pretty tall order. I'll post back once I have something figured out.

If you are anxious to build now, then I would suggest a configuration like Mr. Burns used, or these http://www.vibrationmounts.com/Store.asp?Page=Products2.htm

This post shows my current dampening bar. http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/post10931.html#p10931

Dear sirs,

Is this what a dampner is.

A peace of very strong rubber with a couple of metal thread on either side.
The only thing that compress is the rubber by maybe 2%.

No metal throughout.



IS this correct???

Well, here is what I came up with for dampening. This approach solved two problems for me.

1.) Most Frex and frex derivatives that I have seen tend to jump around on the floor, or display unrealistic vibration in other areas of the simulator.
2.) My simulator lacked realism in that the effects were very abrupt and lacked the fluid motion that you get in a real vehicle due to the springs.

I used one set of custom-built hand adjustable inline dampeners for removing hopping and unecessary vibrations in the non-seat areas of the simulator. This worked out very well.

The second dampener (the dampening bar) is not adjustable and is responsible for helping to provide more fluid motion like that of the springs in a car. It is able to torque left/right and forward/back due to the angle of the actuators. My simulator simply doesn't feel as realistic without it. To be quite honst, I made this discovery by accident. :lol:

Here's a quick picture of the final result.

Dear sir,

That adjustable damper bar. I seen these on ebay. Any good?

@Fahim..these are not the type of dampeners that I used. I considered shock absorbers like these originally, but they remove too much of the road texture. They do an adequate job of removing shock and vibration when sized properly, but they always removed too much.

Therefore I designed my own and experiemented with various rubber and neoprene options. I finally settled on the dampening bar, which has the ability to torque and twist a little...the effect of this torquing and twisting is that is has a controlled snap-back. This helps to create the illusion of weight transfer like a cars springs. Before adding the dampening bar there was no sensation of weight transfer.

The actuator mounts have inline adjustable rubber-based shocks as opposed to fluid dampened shock absorbers. This wound up working better because it could be adjusted to remove uneccesary jumping around of the motion base yet it still allows for the sensation of the road surface.

*moved*