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Question My 3dof motion simulator

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by Hale L, Jun 17, 2020.

  1. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    Capture.PNG Does this look correct? this is all very very new to me
  2. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    Not sure what Im doing wrong but i cant seem to get anything to move. Also I was a little confused about the arduinos. Do I have to download smc3 onto both of them or will it do it to both automatically? Also Do I have to Click Upload or something? I tried that and it failed.
  3. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    I changed to com port 4 in arduino and that allowed me to upload. But I still cant get anything to move 1.PNG
  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    When plugged in the computer will assign com ports to each of the Arduinos, and you assign those comports in the SimTools Interface Settings, which is covered in the manual.

    I expect the Interface Settings will be the same for other SMC3 code:

    [A<Axis1a>][B<Axis2a>]

    Set for 10bit binary output

    Baud rate 500000 , N , 8 , 1 (10ms delay)
  5. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    I'm completely lost I've tried everything that you said and read through the manual. I cant get it to move at all still. 2.PNG 3.PNG 4.PNG Annotation 2020-09-06 023543.png
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    You have 2 Arduinos so they both can't be com port 4.

    Is everything configured and does everything work in the SMC3 utility as expected, as that has to be sorted first, before getting to SimTools?
    • Like Like x 1
  7. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    To be honest I have no idea how to configure the smc3, also how you figure out what port the second arduino is? Thank you for all of your help
  8. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Click on the Windows icon on your computer and type Device Manager, open it, then go to Ports, your Arduino's should be listed there, along with their port numbers.

    The Arduino IDE and SimTools both need to be configured with the correct com port.

    See the first 2 posts for the original SMC3 code to understand the basics of how to set it up and what each of the options does: https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...3dof-motor-driver-and-windows-utilities.4957/
    • Like Like x 1
  9. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    I was Able to get it to move on the windows utility. I have two motors on one Arduino and the other motor on the other Arduino. I am not sure how to have both Arduino's on the smc3 windows utility at the same time? Another option would be to rewire my third motor to the Arduino if that's the simpler option? Also where do I continue from here? Im guessing I need to get all my motors running smoothly on smc3. At what point do I move to sim tools?
  10. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    The motors are having A lot of vibration.
  11. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
  12. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    I went ahead and rewired to just use one Arduino for now
    Edit: Got all three motors working in smc3, well kinda. I can get all of them to move but nowhere near smooth.
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2020
  13. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Probably best to post pictures of all of your settings. I am away for work over the next couple of days but others can have a look and make suggestions.

    SMC3 settings should be fully sorted and working as expected before moving on to SimTools configuration. You can't run SMC3 and SimTools at the same time, it will cause a port conflict.
  14. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    I started out with the suggested settings and when I raise the pwmmax up it just starts stuttering back and forth 1.PNG snip.PNG
  15. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    Does anyone have any suggestions for settings?
  16. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    From the guide:

    1. Set Clip to 255 (you need to do this first) and Max Limit to 255 (This will give you plenty of margin if something goes wrong while setting up)
    2. Turn on the power to your motors – nothing should move at this stage!
    3. Set Kp to about 400
    4. Now slowly, increase PWMmax… at some point the motor should start to move. When it does check the “Green” feedback line is moving toward the “Blue” target position.
      • If it is then that motor and feedback is wired correctly - proceed to test other motors.
      • If it is moving away turn off motor power immediately (or quickly reduce PWMmax again). In this case you need to either reverse the wires to the motor being tested –OR– reverse the +5V and GND wires to your feedback pot for the motor being tested (do not do both). Restart the test from the beginning.
    5. Do the above for each motor
  17. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    That’s what I
    already tried but I’ll be super thorough and try again. Thanks
  18. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    I suggested going through the steps as the Max Limit is not assigned in the settings already posted, and it should be.
  19. Hale L

    Hale L Sim Racer

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    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Motion platform, 4DOF
    That’s was when I was messing around to try to figure it out. Another thing is smc3 keeps shutting down my motors. I got motor 1 working pretty good. Motor 2 works alright but I can’t turn on motor 3. Edit: motor three wont turn on at all now. It would move the other day.
    Another edit: motor 1 and 2 are working alright, motor three will only turn on if I set max limits to 0. But it doesn't work really.
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2020
  20. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Shutting down motors tends to suggest they are moving out of range.

    What type of motors are you using, are they wiper motors and if so are they ground isolated?