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Hydraulic 6 DOF Motion Platform for F-16 Cockpit

Discussion in 'Commercial Simulators and Peripherie' started by Pascal Thanheiser, Mar 5, 2021.

  1. Pascal Thanheiser

    Pascal Thanheiser New Member

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    Hey there guys, i am Pascal from germany and quite new in simulator games. i was dreaming since i was a little guy, well i didnt grow that much but okay, to fly planes. i never reached that goal. 2 years ago i build my first cnc and startet to build a full scale F-16 Viper cockpit. due lack of space i couldnt make it at home, but my boss liked my idea and told me i could build it at our company. i got my own workshop and alot of space to build. one day we found an old 6DOF hydraulic motion platform from bosch rexroth, which were build for the expo in hannover in 2000 for really really a few bucks. we bought it, the parts are still 500% more worth than we paid.

    so, how the hell we should get it working without any experience with hydraulic or motion systems? you dont find any about it online.

    it started to beeing hard to figure out how i can get it work. the motion control computer was missing, the second control box for start the hydraulic pump, emergency stop also. so alot of studying the plans and measuring the voltages and so on. the goal was to control it with an arduino.

    i got the system running and could move single cylinders by give some volts to the prop valves. i found out that the valves work with negative and positive voltages, in or out. so i took my rc transmitter, an old servo and removed the motor out of the servo and wired it up to the pro valves. i really could move it up and down with my rc transmitter.

    now i think i won the game, i took an arduino and testet with some servo basics to move the cylinders. works really good. then i added the pods including in the cylinders for postioning to my servos and the dof works like it should. i tried simtools with the free live for speed and yup, it works nicely.


    i am sure you want to see some pics now, but its not combined yet. the F-16 Cockpit is not fully completed. 20200129_144559.jpg 20200206_162206.jpg 20200208_200210.jpg 20200216_152851.jpg 20200219_194340.jpg 20200320_162009.jpg 20200828_112517.jpg 20200929_155801.jpg 20201002_104652.jpg 20201112_222458.jpg 20210119_165509.jpg 20191111_163017.jpg 20191111_163024.jpg 20191111_163038.jpg 20191111_163222.jpg 20210302_100841.jpg 20210302_100852.jpg 20210302_100900.jpg

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    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 5, 2021
  2. Pascal Thanheiser

    Pascal Thanheiser New Member

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    i just realised that i cant edit the posting? it seems that some pictures are 2 times uploaded?! and probably the important thing that i forget to say that i used the servo .ino from eaorobbie. i changed just the actuator count from 2 to 6 and added the pwm pins and the actuator scale.
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  3. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
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  4. Gadget999

    Gadget999 Well-Known Member

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    thats a neat hexapod seat - how much can it lift ?

    moving it will be possible by editing the code to drive a h-bridge - the direction pin can be used to fire the correct solenoid

    what does it use to measure distance ? does it use potentiometers
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  5. T R Para

    T R Para i make stuff up

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    @Pascal Thanheiser Very nice project. The full scale Viper cockpit is amazing.
    Do you know if the hydraulic solenoid valves are proportional?
    Repurposing sophisticated systems like this is one of my favorite things to play with.
    Very ambitious project. May I ask how old you are??:):):)
    Thanks
    tp
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  6. T R Para

    T R Para i make stuff up

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    P.S. That seat looks like it came out of Proctologist's office... Ouch!:grin
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  7. Pascal Thanheiser

    Pascal Thanheiser New Member

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    @noorbeast Many thanks

    @Gadget999 thank you, it should lift round about 350kg on 80bar pressure.

    Yeah i think that will work too. Thats my second idea. I just bought by mistake 10 Double H-Bridges. I actually just need 3 .

    Yes, kinda potientiometer. I didnt open any cylinder. There are build in and 3 wires comes out(to the 4 of the solenoid). On one i can measure changes in the movement.

    @T R Para thank you very much. Glad there are so many communitys to get dimensions because i never sit in a real one.

    I think they are. Its a STW 0153/10. And what i found online it says yes.

    You are so right, on of my workmate wasnt happy because he didnt noticed that "thing"

    I'm 38.
  8. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Nice work, those proportional hydraulic systems are very expensive, so a good find:thumbs. Will be interesting to see if it performs better then a modern AC servo setup :think.
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  9. Pascal Thanheiser

    Pascal Thanheiser New Member

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    Thank you,

    Yes it is. We got the seat, the platform, hydraulicpump. cables and controlbox twice, some additional prop valves and so on. Just one prop valve(used) cost on e bay 350 Bucks. Thats what we paid for the whole thing. I has been ridiculus not to buy. No matter if working or not. Gladly every single part is working. I will post a video when its finally done
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  10. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Recommend you move onto control software which has higher resolution then just 8 bit (256 positions) as it will be noticeably choppy over the length of those actuators.
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    Last edited: Mar 6, 2021
  11. Pascal Thanheiser

    Pascal Thanheiser New Member

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    Okay, i will check it out. What you think will be okay? 10 or 12 Bit or something up to 32Bit? I still do need some research.
  12. SeatTime

    SeatTime Well-Known Member

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    Anything more than 8 will be a vast improvement. I and many others use 16 bit.
  13. Motion4Sim

    Motion4Sim Member

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    Hi great, interesting project, maybe I can help. Send you pm
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    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 8, 2021
  14. hideki

    hideki Active Member

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    Brutal!
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  15. Juan Fernnado montoya

    Juan Fernnado montoya New Member

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    Hi, did you finish the proyect? , I would like see a video please, I am workin in a 2DOF hydraulics sim , but i had have the hydraulics valves twice, now I am using proportionals valve, but it is expensive