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My motion car simulator

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by CW, Sep 11, 2007.

  1. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday all,
    finally got some time to get the car simulator running and a couple of videos made. 7 year old Ashleigh is the driver, she can also pilot the Beech Baron 58 simulator as well!
    Going to fully enclose the simulator now that it all works OK

    You tube video 1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yBKMd0tFUY


    You tube video 2

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rihjQdfZKA
  2. egoexpress

    egoexpress Active Member

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    Nice to see some progress!

    But to be honest. I think you suffer from the same problem like the ones with pneumatic simulators.

    Because the movement speed is not proportional to the USO offset, it moves too much on straight lanes. The g-forces at higher speeds let the simulator go too much left and right.
    And it seems even worse, because it seems that you have only single speed.

    If you reduce the senitivity, then you have not enough movement in the curcves.

    The I/O controlling of the motors, even with washout, isnt that good.

    Perhaps I am wrong. Its hard to estimate, because the game cannot be seen while the sim moves.

    I think your simulator would move way better with a proportional controller like Tronicgr's basic stamp setup.

    Perhaps his new controller would be attractive for you as well...

    Anyway, keep on!

    ego
  3. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    Good Job CW!

    How many 4am sessions did you put in to finally get there!?!
    Have you had a look at the Velleman or still using your old i/o board?
    Are you using your new car-jacked actuators or still on the wiper motors?

    Keep up the good work!

    Evan
  4. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday Evan, no just the wiper motors on this sim. I made a 8055 but havent used it yet, I think the only advantage would be to use the analogue output.Because the on board digital output is the same as I already have.
    Saw that website buggiesforfun today, the man is absolutely brilliant, I may go down the same track.
    I have got the linear actuator for heave running on the 4 DOF platform and managed to lift a 120 KG man with ease, no counter weight!

    Gidday Ego, point taken. I am working on output speed control at the minute, the videos were merely to show that motion was a happening thing.
  5. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    LOL, so you are in the same boat as me, with a Velleman board sitting on the shelf not being used! I am hanging 5 on the i/o until Thanos comes up with something I want to look at.
    I'm hoping the oceancontrols board will be compatible with his output seeing as it is so versatile with it's input. You can use it as a straight h-bridge or as a pulsed servo.
    My pots on my tripod aren't up to the test with the cogs slipping on flex under load. I bought some Dick Smith formula1 kitsets (only $5 on special) today to see if I can bodge up some pulley drives with the pulleys that come with it.
    But when the Tripod went temporarily under 12V it looked promising. Can't wait till I can let rip with 24V !

    How do you think you'll take advantage of the analogue out of the 8055? sirnoname mentioned sometime back something to do with lack of pot support, not sure what he meant but could have something to do with the analogue out side of things.

    keep in touch

    Evan
  6. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday again Evan,
    To get the 8055 to do analogue out it needs analogue in which wont appear until profiler 2.0 is among us, however I may be talking out of school because I am seriously I/O challenged at the minute and am looking at all the options.

    That video is with the wiper motors on 24 volt (nominal 12V) they rock! but the smell of hot armatures permeated the room after a couple of minutes! (It take 30mins on 12V)

    The 8055 is giving me the chance to play with the source code in VB and am learning quite a few things about how it works and what i can do with it.
  7. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    Yes I agree, this I/O issue seems to be the bane/achilles heel of the sim world. There must be a way to integrate one I/O board for the 3 disciplines of gaming. Once this is achieved yahooo!
  8. egoexpress

    egoexpress Active Member

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    I am not sure what you mean. But regarding the analog output, there would imho be a possibility to use the analog output of the velleman as a proportional output within the latest beta of X-Sim. The more current, the higher motor speed. It outputs raw xy values as a current from 0 to 5V when opertated in USO mode, and It would have to be amplified.

    Regarding the pot input. There was a lag within the pot input, which Sirnoname was able to fix in the with an own pot code for the velleman, instead of using the velleman one.

    ego
  9. RaceRay

    RaceRay Administrator Staff Member SimAxe Beta Tester

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    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, SimAxe, SimforceGT
    Hi CW,

    What kind of actuators are them? Cylindrical, like gate openers?

    Sounds, that it is not very smart to power the whipper motors with 24V for more than a very short period, as the began to smell. Maybe a change of the transmission will be enough for getting faster movements?!?

    We would be very happy, if you publish some more detailed pictures of the mechanical and electrical components. Some printable PCB Layouts would be very interesting, as Sirnoname has indicated ;-) ...and YES, i make backups :mrgreen:

    Nice work, very cool .... keep us informed!
    regards

    Ray
  10. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday Sirnoname,
    What I can do is use a K3072 which is a DC controller with MOSFET output

    http://search.dse.co.nz/search.php?sess ... &submit=Go

    In my flightsim I replaced the adjusting pot with with two pots in parallel controlled by a relay refer :

    [​IMG]

    This gave me washout return speed and a control of movement speed, a further refinement was to put another pot and relay in to control the speed fore and aft (in pitch) to compensate for weight change. I can pick up more output bits on my PP interface, my problem is trying to get the X-Sim output in the calibration toolbox to do what I want as I am unsure of how you have programmed it, it appears to me that as the x,y coordinates get to a certain place it changes to fast mode, I cannot get it to start in fast mode by rapid changes and slow by small changes if you see what I mean, any advice or a demo output file would be appreciated.
    As I get some time I will put more details up, however there are quite a few pictures, diagrams etc on my web page.

    Gidday RaceRay

    No not very smart but lots of fun at 24 volts, made it come alive!
    I will post a pic of the mechanism, but I am probably going to scrap that idea, more on that later


    Cheers

    Craig
  11. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    Hey CW,
    Had a look at the DC speed controller, damn cheap!
    Question, have you run this controller at 24V before? I imagine you are running 2 car batts in series to achieve your power supply. 14v x 2 = 28v. Do the mosfets cope okay.

    Do you have any suggestions for me on how to knock back 28.8volts to 24volts? My bank of SLA cells and float charger is putting out 28.8V/18amps and I really want it back to a safer 24V. Where would I find a whopping big zener diode that willl handle more than 28V breakdown voltage and a load resistor that can handle 400watts?

    I'm wondering if I can use that DC controller to knock back the voltage first before I direct it into my h-bridge drivers. Not sure how a pwm voltage supply would cope when influenced by another pwm source. (the h-bridge switching)

    BTW I've read that it is common practice for roboteers to overvoltage their DC PM motors by a factor of 2. Also read elsewhere that wiper motors can be run at 24v. mebbe you can confirm this over time :)
  12. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday sirnoname,
    I think I understood some of that!
    I see how the fast slow works now and I will alter the registry I think the minimums are too high, if I can get the fast/slow output working, the rest is easy, I think this is more important with FS because controlled movement is very important, however driving a race car sim that is covered in getting thrown around like the real thing probably isnt that bad.

    Evan, I guess it was 28 volts after all, the K3072's arent connected to this yet, all I have electronic is a ULN2803 and its still going!, I aint going to make a habit off it because I can bring the mounting points in closer to the pivot for more mechanical advantage, there is more than enough servo power to do this.
  13. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    How are you connecting your actuators to the platform. Tie-rod ends?
    How close do you think you can get the mounting points to your (I assume your) universal joint before you sacrifice platform stability?

    Yeah and the faster digital gets the closer to analogue and the real thing we find ourselves! What fuzzy irony.
  14. CW

    CW Member

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    Gidday Evan.
    I am using the cable operated base as per the Baron sim so it is just a matter of drilling another hole closer to centre refer my webpage under 'platform'

    Sirnoname, it works, I set slow 1st and then got it right then brought a fast motion to it, I will set up some hardware to test it, I may get away with a ballast resistor (automotive ignition part) to slow it down instead of the PWM output for the meantime, I can see that it will make a major difference to it all.
    Trouble is I am doing 2 things at once, getting my car sim right and sorting out actuators and stuff for my 4 DOF FS platform!
    Although the mechanical and hardware parts are no problem, I am (at the minute) lost with the electronic and programming side that a few people are doing, just a learning curve I guess, thanks Sirnoname!
  15. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    I am looking at this page for reducing voltages. ...If your ballast resistor doesn't work.

    http://www.cpemma.co.uk/diodes.html

    I have a swag of MR750 rectifier diodes rated at 50v 6amps. If you run them inline you get a good way of reducing voltage without big resistor or regulator dramas.
  16. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    sirnoname you are a goldmine of information :)

    the mr750's have a operating range of -65 to +175 celcius with a current breakdown of 22amps when heatsunk @ 1/8 lead length. If wired in series and also in parallel to increase the current loading it may do as a temporary cheap fix... at least in the testing stages.

    but that K3072 for NZ$20 bucks and the pot replaced with a selection of different resistor values looks a really good option!
  17. CW

    CW Member

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    I just drew this, should show how i will integrate the K3072 into the hardware
    Could work with three speeds as well, on my old flightsim this was how I attained roll washout and soft start.


    [​IMG]
  18. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    Looks so simple and yet does the job! good kiwi stuff
    Once you fully enclose your sim the desired effect should be good.
  19. CW

    CW Member

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    Sirnomane,
    yes 20 amp dual Mosfet DC PWM speed controller adjustable by trim pot on board.



    [​IMG]
  20. EvanF

    EvanF Member

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    And for only NZ $20 as well! Trouble is there is only 1 left in Auckland according to the website.

    @ sirnoname

    Is this the type of board you meant?