Erich's FlightSim

Hello fellow simbuilders,

Update 16.Jan.2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rgwXlD6WHk

here are some general-view pics of my Flight-Simulator project.

I hope to be able to add a video soon.

Merrry X-Mas
Erich...

Hey Erich,

good in time for christmas you're making us an acceptable gift :

Cant wait to see it in motion :thbup:

Regards
Christian

The sim is so well balanced at the moment I can move both axes, fully loaded, with my little finger, FOR MY WEIGHT--88. The extra motor will come in handy so maybe a +/- 20Kg difference won't matter. Right now it's a hassle balancing each time for a different occupant.

As far as adding an extra motor per axis to increase power, it's easy. I just need to place two other motors in line with the present ones, and loop the cables 2 turns around an identical drum-type 'pulley'---only longer cable needed, that's all. No sprockets/chains/belts, etc. It's simply wired in parallell with the existing motor.

Thanks & Regards,

Erich...........

You could consider to apply an adjustable system somewhere under your sim.

For example:


regards
Christian

Hi Erich,

I love the way you made that cockpit canopy on your sim! And what a lovely cockpit panel with levels, switches, leds and a fresnel lens!!!! :clap:

Can't wait for a video!!!! Make it a two stage please, half with a GA plane and other half with a more acrobatic plane to be able to see better the range of motion and the speed! A view of the game screen while seeing the cockpit moves would be great too!

About the weight that Egoexpress suggested: Its the best way you can go! I would made it motorized though, perhaps by sensing the load current on the motor and acting as servo moving that weight front and back and actually helping the pitch motor!!! (IDEA!! :brows: )

Best Regards ,Thanos

Hi Ego & Thanos,

Great ideas! I worked out (empirically!) that for my construction that movable weight should be around 4-5Kg. And using the current draw and an electrically moved weight to get the correct balance is pure icing on the cake (just in time for X'Mas!!).

I owe the switching, LEDs, levers, my whole control system, and use of a Fresnel Lens and tactile transducers to the goldmine of information available from Roland, http://www.simprojects.nl

Now, if only I can find a way of tightening my proposed active seatbelt with just one motor, instead of the two I had in mind, one for each axis, I'll have one spare motor for moving that balance weight----today!!!

Great stuff!! :clap:

Thanks & Regards,

Erich...........

Hi,
As promised above, here's a video I made for testing my AMC1.5 DSMhb1.2. To give it some 'action', I used a jet fighter aircraft and did some contour flying in the mountains somewhere in Italy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEp6wDqVUi0

Hope you enjoy.

Erich..........

I carried out a preliminary trial of the sim with the objective of testing the response speed. This test was necessary particularly after I was able to remove ~6Kg. of forward ballast by a change of the cockpit frame CG. I used a Cessna and set up for very rough conditions.

There's a small video I made here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rgwXlD6WHk

Regards, Erich.

Hi,

I already advised Erich to turn off the LCD update on the AMC1.5 (DIP switch 1) to make it respond faster on the proportional motion and run more smooth :lol:


Regards, Thanos

Congrats Erich! Good job!

Does it work with passenger yet? Cause I remeber you wanted to add an addtional motor per axis.

Anyway, thanks for the vid!

@René and Thanos
If you have a look at the pitch movements, they look pretty syncron I think. The bank movements are harder to rate, as they are initated by sidewinds perhaps, and represent the g-forces, and not the plane position.

I'd curious to know which effects Erich does have in use.

Regarsd
Christian

Hi Thanos, RaceRay & Ego,
Thanks for your observations, comments and suggestions. The limited objective at this point was to check if the sim would move at all with a reasonable degree of agility. I had a whole lot of doubts with balance and power, being too heavy and not enough, respectively. The balance problem I was able to solve, removing an absolutely useless deadweight of ~6 Kg. located at a 30 leverage point (please see Post #2, Pitch Frame Bearing Location' in the DIY FAQ Section). I'm impatiently waiting to improve the DSMhb's power with the IRF3205 from where I have three options-- a) increase single motor torque by reducing pulley size from 4 1/2 to, say 3, and run the motors in high speed mode--b) use twin motors parallelled, with the cable wrapped over both (though I have some reservations about this)--c) look for a more powerful 12 or 24V motor. There is another option brewing also--use the WW motor (all steel in my case) gearbox section only and on it graft an 80/90 watt radiator fan motor. A lot of work to do neatly, but not too difficult!

For the moment, I didn't question anything too much myself-- I was just glad to have some movement. Be assured, I will be addressing all the issues you all have so kindly pointed out. For one, I have been having the LCD on!! Big mistake (thanks Thanos!) I had the FS turbulence set at severe for wind and cloud turbulence, a 16Kt headwind and gusting 8kts. Yes, at the moment it does look a bit synchron, doesn't it? My friend STP weighs about 53Kg only--a bit light. It will definitely be a bit more sedate with an 85Kg pilot aboard. And RaceRay, sure, I'll be testing also under glassy conditions!

Another thing I'm not happy about is my drive system. One deadloss thing I removed today was two springs located at the pitch cable ends that I think are causing secondary oscillations (a sort of mechanical ringing) when the motion is supposed to stop dead. (Ego, you have the pics).

I have a long way to go, but I'm getting there! I have a benchmark in front of me--Thanos' Athens video---from which there is much to be learnt. Thanks for the encouragement.

Regards, Erich.

Hi Eric just to congratulate you and some nice work ... You Guys amaze me with just how much your getting out of a Humble wiper motor... have you considered Electric Wheel chair Motors/gearbox units if you decide the WW motors cant handle the extra inertia when fully loaded? on My sim i found that small movement either side if the center line were fine but with the sim cranked over at full bank or pitch my actuator setup got sluggish? Nice Work me i am still looking to change my actuators and your idea using a pulley seems to extract the maximuum torque from the motor/gearbox :clap:

Hi Thanos,
That was a priceless piece of advice! Turning off DIP Sw1 made all movements silky smooth and accurate. Even with the turbulence on, the movements were smoother---some of the roughness gone. The other thing I did was to remove the two springs at the ends of the pitch cable. These were the culprits causing some 'hunting' I could not get rid of even at Kp3!

Many thanks for that advice.

Regards, Erich.

Hi Ego,
To answer your Q, Does it work with a passenger yet?

Yes it does, and very well too! I am more and more amazed at what the 'humble' WW motor can do. It balances perfectly at my weight, 86Kg., but so far I have had passenger weights of ~70 to 95Kg. and actually forgot, in all the excitement here, that balance had to be corrected. So much so that I am rethinking the need for twin motors at all, which will be heavier on my 28AH battery (I dropped broke the case of the 40AH battery yesterday! :uups: ). But a definite need is a weight, variable, but unfortunately no space for a sliding bar underneath, which is the best solution. (Still thinking!! :bulboff

Everyone here has become a 'beta tester passenger'. I have arranged for them prerecorded joyrides from a sedate Cessna circuit (for the nervous) to to a 22 minute fighter (Hunter/F16) 'roughride', again in the mountains in Italy. The recordings are done using Matthias Neusinger's brilliant freeware program Recorder 1.32 available at <a class=postlink href=http://www.flightsim.com target=_blank>http://www.flightsim.com</a> target=_blank for FS9 and FSX. Meanwhile, I am able to observe things from in and out, and with all the extreme maneuvers waiting for something to break!! :no:

I intend to revisit that turbulence flight video paying more attention to the settings now that 'hurricane' motion (Rene, your word!!) has been established, so the scenery/motion synchronism can be better observed. Also some smooth flying. For which I shall look forward to your expert comments.

Regards, Erich.

My Dear Rene,
Of course I didn't forget!! Now that you've reminded me, I'm getting onto the interviews at once! Suggestions for menu?

Seriously, I have been finalising and polishing things up a lot. For once, in the last two years, I'm actually doing more flying than fiddling. Necessary to see if working is sustained--and trying hard to break something!! Working on an alternative way to adjust for different weights---lots of kids (50Kg) on the block. While Christian's method is neat and logical, I have low clearance and a lot of stuff underchassis, precluding use of that method, as is.

Videos. I'm afraid one of the snags of using a Fresnel Lens is that video quality is awful, no matter what. I'll try to reposition things to use the external cloned monitor, so you can see the identical instrument panel as in the cockpit, and at the same time a meaningful bit of the cockpit itself. But for the pilot its great--there's nothing cheaper to beat a Fresnel!! And all this with a real person aboard. Let's see how it all goes! :uups:

Regards, Erich.

Whaoowwww !
I am simply impressed. Good job.
OrscarH

That's really impressive!