My Future "Motion" Cockpit

Was asked nicely to post my cockpit here. Glad to see some interest in it. Nice to meet you all, and thanks for the warm welcome.

Yeah, ok pretty much copied one of Frex's simconmotion's by studying all the pictures I could find, and watching some videos. BTW, I hadnt seen the 550/Spa video Race Ray linked me to, thank you that just makes me want motion more than ever now hehe. Obviously the hard part was finding something that worked as a good pivot for the seat. Figured out how much my seat and I weighed, and ordered the correct isolation damper (part # V10252-FB0240 7D) from vibrationmounts. The two stabilizer rods as well as the two rear struts use 3/8x20 threads per inch sperical tie-rod ends which I picked up at the local auto store. When I remove the rear struts, the seat gimbals nice and smooth and is well balanced when I'm in it. Obviously the rear struts keep it all static right now. Purchased 90% of the frame, t-nuts, and most of the straight and corner struts off of E-Bay from a company called 80/20inc. It uses the 1515 (1.5 x 1.5) series t-slot. Cost was right around 350.00 U.S. once I had it all here. Picked up a seat from a local salvage yard for 40 bucks, then incorporated my Ivibe motors into it. Already had the momo, ECCI's and Frex shift+. I won't know if the seat is sturdy enough with actuators until I get to try some on it. Would like to switch up to a nice Recaro, but this one works perfectly with my Ivibe motors for now. And is pretty darn comfortable in those 90 minute league races.

Egoexpress was kind enough to talk to me some today, and I am very interested in some of these electric actuators some guys are talking about on here. Especially if we were able to use the Force Profiler to power them up. I've been planning on setting up another pc here to run the GTR_PD program to race with, as I would like to keep my simming pc as free of uneccesary programs as possible when racing. Currently runing an AMD4000 clawhammer, DFI-SLI-DR, eVGA8800GTX, and a nice Viewsonic vp2030.


..Edit...sorry, not too familar with Linux servers. Thought I could use the img tags to show the pictures. Maybe an admin can assist me. Nothing like looking like an idiot with my second post lol.

Hi Tom,

your cockpit is really awesome!

Thank you for your detailed construction report!

Cant wait to see it powered by some actuators :mrgreen:

BTW, are you content with the ecci pedals? They look very professional, but I think a load cell system would fell more real than those springs.

regards

hey das sieht ja genau so aus wie das aus dem forum damals wo ich nachgefragt habe, ob man mal grobe maße bekommen kann....keine antwort....aber nun jetzt hab ich ja eine neue anlaufstelle :lol: :lol:

Well the ECCI's are a huge improvement over the stock Momo pedals obviously. Especially with the PMBII brake pedal setup. I had to order some softer springs at first as I was having trouble getting full braking power with my office chair rolling backwards hehe. Thats not an issue anymore with my cockpit. To be honest I dont think load cells would improve the feel and sensitivity all that much over the high quality potentiometers in the ECCI's. From what I can tell the games would have to have some serious tweaking ability to see any real difference. I had the two pedal (brake, and throttle) for about six months, then bought the clutch pedal for GTL. It really has helped in the standing starts in sims like GTL, and especially Netkar Pro. The quality in construction and mass is amazing. By far their the best part of my sim equipment.

Hey Tom,

As our project is moving forward, we need to assure, that we have an functioning frame for our actuators.

Could you try to work out the frame setup together with Mike? It seems that he will be our european supplier for the profiles stuff.
His setup lacks the pivot point, the leading rods under the seat and the seat fixing at the back side. Thank you

regards

I would be more than happy to. Any questions he has he can post in this thread and I will do my best to answer them.

I have'nt disappeared from your forums here. I've just been lurking around trying to keep up with what all of you are talking about. Sounds like you are making some good progress on the actuators, and am looking forward to getting this setup and running.

Tom

Hey Tom

Congrats to your simconmotion
I've read it in the rsc.net

Could you, by chance, write a little review about it for all the I dont want the wheel seperated from the seat guys?

regards
ego

Heheh, thank ego. Yeah, I've been Frexed. Actually it was'nt my idea initially. I would have preferred to use the X-Sim software myself. But about 3 weeks ago my girlfriend decided she wanted to try out my cockpit one evening. She really like it, and really liked my Ivibe (imagine that heheh). While she was tring it out and she was pretty good at it I admit, I showed her what it could be capable of by popping up a minimized link I had sitting there to Frex's site. Well the next morning she sends me an email stating that she had purchased the aniversary special Frex is running right now (man, I love that girl lolol). Which consists of the Simconmotion parts of his cockpit for a reduced price. I was flabergasted to say the least. Well it finally shows up and I have it all assembled and running perfectly now. I thought about just using the t-slot that he sends, but decided to just bolt his actuators, and damping kit to my frame. I used a little heavier t-slot than Frex uses, and glad I just used mine. The sensation is truly amazing.

It does take a little getting used to. I am having to learn to hold my wheel a little lighter as it does throw you around pretty good. And that will cause you to oversteer quite a bit. Maybe thats why some guys would prefer to have the wheel move with thier bodies. To me, this feels like it should, except for the fact that it does throw the top of your body foward in heavy braking, whereas in a real race car, your body moves down into the seat from the g forces.


...

But this is imho similar in a real car. If you have just one hand on the steering wheel and you drive over a bump, you might turn your wheel a little, if you arent concentrated on driving
And dont forget that racecars do not have servo supported wheels. They should not be driven single handed.

The next birthday or x-mas gift should be a beamer.
Or a wellness weekend for your gilrfriend for her bonhomie

ego

Here you go my friends. I feel kind of guilty posting it here as I really wanted to hold off and use X-Sims software. But when my girfriend said she had bought Frex's anniversary special Simconmotion components for me I couldnt hardly tell her no now could I hehehe? I'm already thinking of the possibilty of using X-sim software to make an adjustable seat belt tightener somehow. The video is huge (500 mgs zipped), sorry about the size, my neighbor shot it with his new high defintion camera. Theres two videos, one small one showing just the actuators working, then the large one showing some ol ugly guy (that would be me ) giving it a good workout. The only components of Frexs that I used were his actuators, damper kit, and control boxes. The t-slot he uses is 25mmx25mm, and I constructed my cockpit out of the 1.5x1.5 t-slot. Its about a 20% bigger profile and I believe it has helped in the rigidty of the frame. I have heard from other Frex simcon owners that his t-slot material tends to flex a little too much.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N10ODDH0

Hi Tom

Its incredible how fast these actuators drive!

And even you've set them to 10000 tough 16000 is possible! That actuators are a damn miracle

Admit it! You wanted to make us jealous only

I think 10000 cannot be sustained for longer than 5mins? I assume it shakes the body too hard. Especially when shifting, its seems someone would kick you in the back.

Thanks alot for the vids.

Btw, nice camera, very sharp picture.

ego

Very Nice!

Hey Tom , your Sim is amazing!!
somebody can help me to assy one motion kit like that?
where is that software? I can't see that soft in this website, somebody can give me the link?
keep going Tom!
thanks

http://www.frex.com/gp

What is the total cost?
How long to assemble if starting with all parts?
Does any one assemble for a fee?
rfsalter