OpenFFBoard - Controller for custom direct drive wheels

While posting short ideas about this project for a while in a different thread i would like to show the current progress and discuss features and requests in its own thread.

The announcement video shows the progress i made in the last month, what the basic idea is and what it can already do.



Obviously its far from finished and requires some setup time but this should improve with time as a GUI is planned and the whole setup procedure will change.

The basic idea is to have a universal usb interface that can load different main classes for different applications based around HID FFB gamepad functions and CDC serial ports but different usb configurations are possible too.
This takes away some of the more complicated work of building a custom interface.
For wheels for example a configuration is provided and constantly improved.
It will support different sources for buttons, different motor drivers and encoder sources and later hopefully also multi axis setups for flight simulators as well.

A motor driver specifically for this project was also developed based on the Trinamic TMC4671 which is a brand new chip that supports FOC torque control of DC motors, 2 phase steppers and 3 phase servos.
If thats not what you need you can write your own motor driver class. Thats also supported.

Update1:
GUI was started and servo support implemented and tested with a 130ST-M15015


Update 2:
New TMC4671 motor drivers and more pins

Documentation on hackaday.io
Code will be updated on github

Interested project.
Currently i made ffb firmware for stm32 (ported from arduino leonardo)

Superb!

good work ! have you compared a stepper motor vs a 1kw dc motor ?

how much does it cost to build a wheel ?

I have not tested a DC motor or 3 phase servo yet myself. A servo would be the preferred option but before i can say that for sure i would need one for testing.
For the cost i can only comment on my stepper setup.
I would say a simple wheel setup with stepper motor, driver and power supply can be done for under 300€ but that depends on many factors like the motor, accesories, and mounting hardware. More with a servo, maybe less if you already have a power supply or get the motor shipped cheaper.
A nema34 stepper with encoder is normally around 100-120€. Servos can be much more. Or you are lucky and find a used one

The Open FFBoard with the TMC motor driver and resistor would probably be somewhere around 100€+ but of course still less than the really high end options and commercial wheels. (~15-20€ controller, ~90€ motor driver + some for resistor and terminals) depending on assembly and parts cost... With higher quantities the cost would go down for the parts.
Just a rough estimate. It would be really cool to be able to make some kits as i got a lot of questions about that but don't take this as a final answer as there are many fees and factors that could add up.

hmmm I have a nema23 stepper laying around (well spare for my cnc!), would just need to add an encoder and a driver to be able to maybe try this out with minimal cost to me, only 425ozin steppers but that would still be as strong as my G27!

Another video has been released

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=gG_dbnKfH5Q

A question :

The mige wheels are sold with a driver, the open ffb does not need a driver and uses mosfets. Does the mige driver convert ac to dc ?

Is there an advantage / disadvantage using a mige driver

Great project - what do you use to power your wheels

The motor drivers commonly sold with these servos are not really supported or tested. The TMC driver replaces them and allows a higher resolution and is optimized for this application.

With some coding you might be able to get the standard drivers to work via UART but i can't promise anything.

As the power supply i recommend a 48V psu.

is there a target price for the board ?

could the board be used also to control a motion sim motor ?

how many amps/volts will the motor drivers take ?

Im interested in building a osw using a mige 130st-m10015 and your open ffboard.
But the mige motors that I have found on alibaba and aliexpress have 2500ppr encoders, would it be worth upgrading to a biss-c absolute encoder or a 10000ppr encoder?
If so could you give me a link to buy a 10000ppr/Biss-C encoder because I can't seem to find any for sale. Preferably from the EU or UK but from alibaba or aliexpress would be fine to
Thanks a bunch.
Hikari

Sorry for not seeing this earlier.
Biss-C is nor really supported by project yet because the motor driver only supports SinCos, 3 phase UVW, quadrature incremental and hall sensors.
For other stuff we would have to stream it through the stm which is not that great but may be possible later.

Also: Update 2 is out with some info about SinCos. I would use SinCos instead of Biss-C if you have the choice and want to use our driver later once ready.

Any updates on this? Recently lost my trusty G27 and now looking into a DIY dd setup. I noticed in the first video you're using a logitech shifter, is use of other logitech items something that would be integrated into the chip?

Go to the video and look in the channel for updates, also, join the discord in the description for more live updates

Someone can disclose more details about openffboard's use of odrive and VESC

I found information about openffboard + VESC.
https://github.com/manoukianv/OpenFFBoard/wiki/Vesc-interface-manual
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The information of openffboard + odrive is blank ???