Floriske.nl's 2DOF Playseat GT Wiper motor Project

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After a lot of reading and contact with YoBuddy (thx m8!) it is time to start a topic for my first Sim project.

Since it's my first project it'll most likely go paired with a lot of trial and error and thus I'm going to take my time for it which might result in less frequent updates, but I wanna do it right the first time.

As the title says, the project will be based on the Playseat GT which I bought at about half price and was used only once for a photoshoot:



I want to build a simple platform out of birch plywood (reckon 15 or 18mm) which holds the complete structure, here's a first rough sketch (top view):



The seat arrived yesterday and I'm working out orders for other hardware atm.

Fortunatelly YoBuddy had an unused Pololu Dual VNH2SP30 Motor Driver Carrier and a AMC 1.5~EZ v1.0 PCB lying around which he was willing to sell me for a very fair price. With that the controls are settled.




For the motors at first I have been looking at some cheap (€ 55,-) winch motors:



They do about 1A/7,5KG and since the Pololu driver can handle 14A/channel continuously this would result in a max continuous load per motor of 105Kg which should be more than enough.

Problem is that the supplier doesn't know the RPM of the motor only that they do 3.2m/min and thus I don't know if they are suitable.

For that reason I decided not to order them and go for wiper motors at first. Currently I'm still trying to find a matched pair of the right type that is usable (if anyone has any suggestions ......).

So far for the first post, I'll keep you updated!

I want to start out as simple as possible, so without having to calculate/create gear ratios etc.

That's why I chose to go the wiper motor way at first. Eventhough it's still hard to find the right ones regarding amperage, equal speed in 2 directions etc.

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Made some minor progress on my project.

First of all, a friend of min is a classic Opel/Vauxhall enthousiast and he told me he has about 10 to 15 wiper motors lying around.
He's gonna scavage two of the same type so for now that's settled (hopefully they are powerfull enough).

Next I've mounted the Playseat GT in our attic with my xbox wheel on it for determining the optimal seating position:



(the computer in the back is one I got for free (Celeron D 2.66MHz) and has a serial port. This will be my Profiler system.

First thing I noticed is that the seat is quite upright and decided I wanted to tilt it backwards a litte.
So I made some simple aluminum bushes, wrapped in heatshrink to give them a nice black rubbery look:





at first I made the bushes in such length that I could still use the original bolts, but this didn't result in a large enough angle to my likings, so I bought some longer hex bolts and made the bushes about 2,5x longer.

This results in a comfortable seating position (sorry for the somewhat blurry pic):



Next step is finding the balance point, for this I informed at Fanatec what the CSR wheel, CSR elite pedals and CSR shifters wheigh, since that is the setup I'm planning to buy for the sim.

Guess I'll be using small beer crates instead of the pedals and wheel since a crate weight approx 1kg and a bottle about 0,5kg that way I can simulate the weight of the actual product quite easilly. (yeah I know: it's weird to know these weights by hard, but I've used this method before, that's why : ).

Now let's hope YoBuddy's package will arrive soon as well as the components so I can start building and testing the AMC.

I'll keep you posted!

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Just a tiny little status update: Managed to geld hold of two brand new Pololu JRK 12V12's for $ 140,- including shipping today

So now, when YoBuddy's package arrives, I have electronics for controlling 4 motors (will still start with 2 though)

de jrk's geven je software matig wel meer controle over de simulator ,in mijn ogen de simpelste en beste keus
gr Ad

Anybody own a Fanatec CSR Wheel with Elite pedals?

@Ad: That's why I'll start with the 2 JRK's, later on I might add a drift axis and winch motors in which case I will go for the AMC- and H-Bridge~ez from YoBuddy.

I was wondering if anybody at this forum owns a Fanatec CSR Wheel with Elite pedals and shifter set (Forza Motorsport CSR Wheel Value Pack XL)?

For ballancing my platform I need to know the weight of the wheel, shifter and pedals, but Fanatec only has the shipping weights:

• CSR Wheel: 5,6kg
• CSR Elite pedals: 7kg
• CSR Shifter set: 5,6kg

But I need to know the actual products weights (unfortunately I don't have the funds for buying the set yet).

Hope anyone has this setup and can help me out here.

thx in advance!

Just on the motors, the winches you suggest at 3.2 rpm are too slow, you would have to gear them up somehow. You really need minimum 55-65 rpm.
As for matching wiper motors, good luck, unless you get two from the same car.
You could try a golf buggy 12v motor, they spin about 140 rpm ish at the shaft I think, but would draw a LOT of current.
I use something similar http://www.motiondynamics.com.au/worm-d ... orque.html on my sim, they have good solid motion, but suck power something fierce.
If you are looking at winches, check with Aldoz and Eaorobbie, they use a similar winch to this http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online ... escription and get good results.
:

3,2 m/min, not rpm. I had one that looked just like that winch, and it was actually a little faster than the otherwinches we use, but much noisier.

winches are noisy, regardless. But that s a nice speed.

I thinkt translates to about 35 rpm.

ok then I cannot add up, thats a bit slow. Would need to gear it up in speed

@bsft: as mentioned a friend of mine is a classic opel/vauxhal enthusiast (mostly manta) and has about 10 - 15 wipermotors lying around, he was certain that there would be two of the same type between them so gonna start with them, who knows where it will end

Re: Anybody own a Fanatec CSR Wheel with Elite pedals?

Noöne? Too bad, I hate having to guess

Yet another question: I have three identical 300W PC PSU's lying around, which I'm thinking about using for the wiper motors (1 for each motor) by converting them to lab-style PSU's.

Will these PSU's be suitable for this purpose? (might add a car battery in parallel later, but for now these are all I have).

I used to run 2 cheap pc psu before and they were fine. No battery needed. I only need a battery now because my motors are bigger. The only thing to note would be what the psu actually puts out in terms of power. Mine were 500watt, but really only operated at 60% output.

Thx!

They are listed 18A on the 12V line, let's hope these specs are reliable

If not and they turn out to go up in white smoke nothing's lost, they are leftovers from one of my casemod projects

Edit: hmm, just found these psu's on ebay and they seem very interesting. 30A instead of 18A and if I substract the costs of banana plugs and chassis for my PC psu's not even that expensive.

Might even be able to embed the JRk's in/to the casing and an external 120mm fan instead of the current small one.

Edit2: Just ordered 2. They go for $ 50,- to $ 60,- each locally so can always sell them without loss.

The pc psu should have an overload circuit and just shut down if you mash them too hard. Mine did. All switch-mode power supplies should have an overload circuit in them
Also with the jrks, put a heat-sink on the big chip and a fan close to them. They will get hot, so look after them.
Cheers, David.

Didn't think of that, that would prevent the white smoke indeed
The 30A ebay psu's I ordered instead have an overload circuit as well. They cost me € 49,95 incl. shipping and materials for converting the PC psu's properly (banana sockets, 10W resistor, switch etc.) would have cost me about € 30,- including shipping so for € 20,- extra I now have over 50% of extra power.

I have some old CPU heatsinks lying around which I'm planning on modding for the JRK's, together with a couple of 120mm fans that should do the trick.

Can't wait for the first parts to arrive so I can start testing and getting familiar with the software :lol: Yobuddy's package is on it's way, the JRK's should be shipped today or tomorrow, some small stuff is on the way as well (rod ends, usb cables etc.)

I'm full of questions even before even having started the actual build

First of @bsft: thx for the simple guide link :thbup: bet this is gonna speed up getting to know the software for me!

Next my question:
Until now I've always been (bet this is gonna change to always was soon ) a console racer (xbox 360) not a PC gamer.

I've played quite a lot of racegames (dirt, race pro, race driver grid, nfs, F1) but am a great fan of Forza's gameplay (mostly playing FM2 3 and 4).

Of course I'll have to choose a game for my sim to start with and I was wondering by your experience which game is closest to FM regarding gameplay? Don't want to spend money on a game I turn out not to like :no:

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The JRK's arrived yesterday One of the more expensive parts of the sim, but damn those things are tiny

Finally I can start doing some minor work: Creating the heatsinks for them.

I am planning on modifying an existing CPU heatsink into 2 heatsinks for the JRK's that cover all chips on them.
This requires some downsizing and routing to the base of the heatsink because of the chip height differences.
Luckily I have a column drill/router (I'd rather hava a CNC router, but this will do ).




Edit:

Also did a redesign on the plaform:

Top platform:


Bottom platform:


Inspired by the body shape of an F1 car (a bit that is) and compared to the first design it's easier to create a cloth cover between the bottom and top platform for hiding the construction (Deriy style).

Still need the weight of the Fanatec CSR wheel, CSR Elite pedals and CSR shifter to be able to determine the balance point and thus the motor mounting points though. Trying hard to figure these out.

oftopic: isn't it possible to place 2 images next to eachother?