Introducing A-SIM: Airspeed SIMulator hardware peripheral

LOL, that's why you talked about hoses....
GREAT WAY to show airflow, but this kind of airflow is like a narrow powerful jet-stream,
i have to warn you, the fans create a much wider airstream..

(thinking out loud I WILL upgrade your A-SIM design for more power (more fans), you will be needing goggles, trust me. The upgraded version will be able to handle both simple 12V dc fans, and these babies (Bilge Blowers)..though I do not believe your pocket (68Euros each) NOR face will be able to..

LOL you have a point, however to be honest i want this for a long time so my pocket is not the problem. i will try first with some simple 12v dc fans as you mentioned. so you think i will do better if i go with two simple 12v dc fans and your A-SIM? its for openwheelers mainly but i will try it on other ones as well (me thinking out loud more power the better...lol

Regards,

Rob

I have a question for sirnoname (or others) witch games could support this? it works by speed output no? (like Simon mentioned in his thread)
So RFactor and Simbin games? what about the codies games, or others?

Thanks in advance for any anwser!

I am totally(!) upgrading to more power!

I have already ordered some IRFZ44N power MOSFETs, which means that the A-SIM v.2 will be capable of using up to 186 simple 12Vdc fans (yeap ONE HUNDRED and EIGHT-SIX computer fans). NOT KIDDING! This means you could easily connect to it any blower that can draw up to 40A (Amperes), in our case, up to 4 Bilge Blowers like Simon's ON EACH SIDE..



PS: I am using an somewhat expensive MOSFET transistor to be able to add more power to it without problem in the future..BUT If you really are going to draw more than 10A of current, i should use cables not copper trace (PCB) and HUGE heatsinks.. Other than that, I do not think i will have to upgrade it any more..

Ok let me know when you have this tested, love to see a video too!
You can count on it that i will want your upgraded version! btw is this with blowers?, and what will be the price aroundabout, i would like to buy a full package from you!
:clap:

Cheers

If you are talking about A-SIM, it works with any game from which X-SIM can read SPEED data. If it can read SIDESLIP data, it will have vectored airflow (differential right-left)..

The list on this page shows you all of the game plugins. Click into each one to see supported data: http://www.x-simulator.de/wiki/Read_her ... _developer

Alternatively, I have assembled a list here that can be viewed in a single glance.: http://www.simxperience.com/Support/XSi ... fault.aspx

Any game that outputs current speed should work

:

OK! I will be building it next week. But i will show you the results with powerful 12Vdc fans, i am not in a position to invest 140 Euros in blowers at this moment :

I understand, no worries!
And Bernard, thanks for the heads-up! btw: WIP means work in progress?

Still have to look where i can buy those blowers then.. Australia is kinda far away...

Something you guys should consider:

Every fan has mass and momentum. It takes time to speed up the fan and it takes time to slow it down.
You have limited control over the increasing airflow part which depends on the actual fan used, but you have no control over decreasing and stopping the air flow with a PC fan. Other DC fans need more complex driving circuits than just a PWM signal with a MOSFET to do this.

Imagine driving down a high speed(200km/h+) straight into a low speed (70km/h-) chicane, then onto an other high speed straight. The fan won't be able to keep up (or keep down? ) and you will feel only a slight reduction in airflow over the turns, when in reality it should be reduced proportionally to speed and in real time.
An other example is when you crash into a wall and suddenly stop. The fan will gradually slow down and you will feel the wind even when the car is standing still.

An other thing is that neither PC fans or DC motors are linear to PWM, but sort of logarithmic depending on the construction and load on the motors. That means at 50% PMW, you are not going to get 50% RPM for the fan, but more like 30%. At about 70% PMW you get about 50%, 90%PWM - 80%RPM, and so on.
You can compensate for this in software but it will be a guessing game, you won't get accurately scaled output and air flow.

Keep it up and good luck! :

Dittos to Frakk!

In reality it will be a guessing game, as any approximative technique is.

Fortunately, for the simulation, the speeds in which the changes from 0% to 100% need to be done is not so difficult to achieve with 12Vdc fans. It takes far more for a 700kg Formula1 to accelerate to 280+ kmh than a 11 g fan-propeller to reach 2200 RPM. The magnitude of difference in inertia and power is huge.

As Frakk has very correctly stated, there in NO control in the deceleration of the fan! Once again, this slips away from reality, but at these speeds, if the power of the fan is switched off, the very light rotor will rapidly slow down because its remaining energy will be dispersed into the moving airmass.

The DC motor fans are NOT LINEAR! Thats why the curve in the X-SIM output configuration is not linear. There has been effort to compensate to this using software.. The result, i have found it to be satisfying. This is actually NOT REALITY, but i have never expected any home-based airspeed project to output my 400+kmh of diving airspeed. It would rip my eyelids clean off!!

Frakk has pointed out many correct points that distinguish this approach from reality. Through A-SIM i have tried to offer myself (and others) the best achievable solution..

I am upgrading myself to the more powerful MOSFET, i hope it will be is as good i expect it..(At least it seems like it will be )

Vehicle speed is the most easy effect to gather in games. So you can use the fan in pretty much every game, which provides data at all.

:rofl:

Too much airspeed causes red/wet/burning eyes anyway.
Did you every tried to ride a motorbike on the Autobahn with aventail open? It is nearly impossible, as you wont be able to see anything.

LOL!
I rode my friends BMW R1150GS at 210Kmh and i was barely able to breath without the helmet-face down!!

I don't think that would be even possible. Even reaching 100km/h airspeed isn't doable in a compact and economic way.
The way I see it, you will need some sort of eye protection no matter what. After 30mins of air constantly blowing in your face your eyes will feel it, at least mine do.

My point is: Everything has to be appropriately scaled, proportional to each other and reproduced in real-time without lag.

Just like in the motion generation part, you are not trying to aim for real G-forces because it is impossible. Berney has pointed out the most important concept with regards to the motion seats: All forces need to be scaled so they are proportional to each other, otherwise you will get immersion break. If you feel twice the G-force at full acceleration than at full braking, it will be very unrealistic. If the force lags the sound and picture, it will be even worse.

The same applies to airflow. If there is a big difference in the acceleration of the car and the acceleration of the airflow (or deceleration), the whole thing is useless unless you just want it for the cool factor. But then it might be cheaper just to put a small room fan in front of you and turn it on and off with your feet and pretend it is your NITRO BOOST.

In schematic, you used PIC16F877. In the parts list this PIC16F887.
Does this work with the PIC16F877 one because of that?

PIC16F877 and PIC16F887 are PIN-to-PIN compatible!
The A-SIM was developed with PIC16F887, but there was no PIC16F887 model in the designing program (EAGLE) so i used the pin-to-pin compatible older PIC16F877..
It works with 887, but it should work with 877 too (NOT TESTED!!!). If you have a choice, go with 887.

Possible to connect this circuit to the fan 220V 60W????
If not directly then as????

No, it is not possible to connect directly to a 220V/AC 60W fan!
You will need a modification, probably using a TRIAC instead of a transistor.

You can put this scheme connection? Because I do not know too much in electronics. : : :