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Showroom Onii77's Customized SFX-100 Build

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by Onii77, May 1, 2021.

  1. Onii77

    Onii77 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2021
    Messages:
    14
    Occupation:
    Programmer
    Location:
    North Carolina, USA
    Balance:
    146Coins
    Ratings:
    +17 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, 4DOF
    Hi all!

    Just starting a thread here to Document some of the work I am doing on building a customized SFX-100 sim platform.

    First let me say I am very new to the simracing scene. I have been into "making" for a while now and a couple of years ago I got into vr. I played Dirt Rally 2 in vr with a PS3 controller and knew that I had to try this with a steering wheel. I went out and bought a Logitech 920, and was amazed by the immersion, and was hooked. It was all down hill from there.

    That was three months ago, and I have an essentially new 920 sitting in the closet, because I went insane, and went all-in:

    upload_2021-5-1_13-48-10.jpeg

    Parts are still coming for the base platform. You can see that I don't have the gearshift and handbrake mounts, or the chair rails, but for the most part I'm starting from a P1-x for the base platform, and am now building out the motion aspects.

    About a month ago I started to get serious about the SFX-100 project, but there were a couple of things that I wanted to change. First and foremost I wanted more travel, since I wanted to do more than road races. I really enjoy Elite Dangerous and some flight sims as well.

    So with that, I knew I would need to depart from the build guide a little bit, and that I would not be able to use the controller or the software. I began sourcing the modified hardware needed for the longer travel and started to research what other controller options there were. I ultimately went for parts that would increase throw by 50mm for a total of 150mm of travel (more on this later). I also selected the Thanos controller, because, as you probably already know, it's AWESOME, and as you probably also know, the brains behind this controller is a great person who goes out of his way to help us all!

    I have some of the work already started and I will have more posts to catch up to where I am in the process, but as a teaser of some of the stuff that I have customized, is I have redesigned the linear bearing mount on the bottom of the profile to add another 25mm or so of travel for a total of about 185mm (original 100 + 50 from longer parts, + 25 from my mod + 10mm internal overhead in the design).

    Anyway, that's it for the inital post, I just wanted to get this out here so that I have a place to post the rest of the work as it happens.
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  2. Onii77

    Onii77 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2021
    Messages:
    14
    Occupation:
    Programmer
    Location:
    North Carolina, USA
    Balance:
    146Coins
    Ratings:
    +17 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, 4DOF
    Future plans / notes to myself for future posts.

    • Finish the SFX-100 build
    • Design and print an estop button box
    • Simtools testing/tuning
    • Hook up x56 Hotas
    • Maybe disassemble Shakekit plus and put the transducers into the seat/put back 2 transducers on their own channel.
    • Seatbelt tensioner, active? passive? (starting research on this one now)
    • More DOFs?
    • Maybe take a few minutes to stop building/making and race/play :D
    • Like Like x 2
    Last edited: May 3, 2021
  3. Onii77

    Onii77 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2021
    Messages:
    14
    Occupation:
    Programmer
    Location:
    North Carolina, USA
    Balance:
    146Coins
    Ratings:
    +17 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, 4DOF
    Adding some pics of progress!
    1. Printing case for Thanos' controller
    2. Printing fixed bearing mount
    3. Custom designed linear bearing top
    4. Custom designed linear bearing bottom

    Because I wanted to have extended throw, I needed to move away from vanilla SFX100 build in a couple of ways. First, I needed to move to a different control board, I selected Thanos' excellent controller, and I went with the remote control version. Shot 1 on this thread is the printing of the main enclosure for that board.

    Next shot is the start of the print for the fixed bearing mount. That part is vanilla. Nothing interesting here, but adding it to remind everyone that there is a LOT of 3d printing in the SFX project. I have quite a bit of printing background before this project so this is an easy step, but many ppl that have never done printing, don't expect it to take so long, but it does.

    After that, the next customization that I made to extend the default throw is to design a custom Linear Bearing Mount. Images 3 & 4 are the top and bottom view of that component. this design allows the bearing to be inverted, and save around 30mm of throw since the sleeve of the bearing is no longer in the profile.

    Next posts I expect to show are the mechanical parts, and the new issues that the extended throw caused. IMG_1820.jpg IMG_1841.jpg IMG_1837.JPG IMG_1838.JPG
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  4. Onii77

    Onii77 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2021
    Messages:
    14
    Occupation:
    Programmer
    Location:
    North Carolina, USA
    Balance:
    146Coins
    Ratings:
    +17 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    AC motor, 4DOF
    Adding a few more pictures of progress. Been working hard on getting it all set up.

    I have previously posted pictures 1&2 that show the modified mount for the linear bearings, but hopefully this time I will do a better job describing how they're set up and what advantages they bring.

    The first picture shows the bottom of the mount, so now, instead of the sleeve of the bearing turning up into the profile, eating into the precious travel space of the slider, there is extra room inside. Also, because the flange of the bearing is too large to fit into the space in the center of the profile, I countersunk the flange into the mount itself, as seen in the second picture.

    The "top" of the flange now presses against the bottom of the profile. Also since I am using the "Item 24" profile (https://opensfx.com/mods-item24-extrusion/), I had the profile holes tapped in M10. The bolt heads of the M10 bolts are large enough that they press the mount into the flange, and the flange into the profile, providing a very rigid connection. I have been running this for a couple of weeks now at increasingly aggressive profile settings with no issue.


    Image 3 shows all the hardware and printed parts for one actuator, this was before I received the profile and the motors, so all I could do here was imagine how awesome it would be to get it all built. Note that the tube and the ball nut were each increased by 50mm from the "stock" designs (the profile was also increased by 50mm, but pictures of that later).

    Never being one with a lot of patience, (and to make sure that I could make any fixes while there was time) we see in picture 4 that I did a rough assembly to see the first of the issues that I would run into. The ball screw was a little too short! The picture does not show it well, but if I were to run the slider to the bottom of the 300mm profile, the ball nut would be off the end of the ball screw and that would mean bearings everywhere.

    ... to be continued...

    IMG_1843.JPG IMG_1844.JPG IMG_1834.jpg IMG_1849.jpg
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