Presenting myself and my project. (5min read)

Hello everybody! :hi:

Let me introduce myself. I’m Fil alias simbuilder(.be), I’m 35, father of two great kids and married with the love of my life. I’ve been interested in aviation since the age of 7, and this fascination turn in to a passion the older I got. So obviously I wanted to make aviation my profession. At the age of 21, I started as an airplane engineer with DHL/EAT at Brussels National Airport. And I’ve been working at several different types of airplanes, like Airbus (A300), Boeing(727 & 757), Convair, and recently the Fokker 50 due to the fact I change company’s.( from DHL to CityJet Airlines at Antwerp Nat.) Because of my profession, and my interest in all facets of technique and electronics, and because I like to play pc based games, I was thinking of a hobby to combine all of this. So I ended up with a motion flight simulator, like lots of peoples on this forum. But a common motion platform was for one, not challenging enough because it’s been done a zillion times already, and most importantly, it's not compatible with the game I like to play. Being, Descent 2 and later on Descent 3. For those who don’t know this game, it’s rather old in terms of gaming. It dates back to 1996 (descent 2) and 1999 (Descent 3), but this last mentioned was very progressive in terms of 3D environment. It created a 360° world in which you can move freely and in every direction without being concerned about gravity. Panning left/right, up and down. And turning around every axis of movement, x,y, and z!

I started thinking of which system would be ideal to make these kind of movements in real life, to be able to follow what happens in the game or on screen. I discovered it would only be possible with a gimbal system like a gyroscope, or like the Orbitron from NASA (see Wikipedia).

This meant I was looking at a big simulator, in size, cost, but most of all a big challenge. This challenge is so big, that I’ve been researching and designing since 1996, contacted dozens of peoples and university’s all over the globe. : First of all to prove to myself that it’s feasible. This answer came finally in 2008, from the university of Delft, in the shape of the Desdemona.
:yippiee:
From this moment on I was curtain it could en would be done!

The Desdemona from TNO/AMST


But I have one main problem, besides the financial quest and the work space shortage, the biggest problem off all is one of know-how or knowledge. It’s due to the lack of knowledge on specific fields, that my first and rash attempt on starting a simulator business in 2005, on a quest of finding information I may not find on the regular way, came to short stop.
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The business got the name from my website I started at the same time together with an on-line web shop, being http://www.simbuilder.be/infosite/index.php?id=125,0,0,1,0,0. In fact it unfortunately never really went of the ground to say it in aviation terms( break-even). And in the meantime the online shop was closed(2006). But I’ve made some interesting contacts, so it’s not been all doom and gloom. I decided to put the business aside after 5 years, and put all my focus on the simulator it self. Which in fact got the name: Simbuilder’s Virtual Sphere, or just SVS. This simulator will consists of a cocoon in the shape of a large ball, 2 meter wide, with inside a cockpit, like inside the spacecraft out of Descent 3 called, the PyroGL (see pic.)

This ball pivots inside a gimbal ring system. All movements are controlled from inside the cockpit like the much larger version as the Desdemona. However, the SVS will not be able to move the gimbal rings like the Desdemona can, being up and down, and forward and aft. But only the gimbal ring system alone is already complicated enough! And is sufficiently enough as well to be able to create the sim to match with Descent 3.

I hope to finally find the answers I’m looking for, for the last 14 years, at this great forum. To be able to build the SVS and prove it can be done! All depends off course upon the financial capability of myself or third party. But that I rather avoid or at least keep as a last resort.
As soon as I scanned my drawings of my final design I made a few weeks ago I’ll put them on my site and as a reply on this post. Hoop to get some reply with answers I’m looking for. Lots of pic's to follow!!!


:cu:
Keep simming!
:

Gyro360
Simbuilder.be
Fil

PS: for those who wonder what I mean with my signature; “the sky is NOT the limit,…there are NO limits!”, I’m very interested in space, so I see the sky as a threshold to the next world! Take care!

Hi Fil and welcome!

First of all, you are not alone regarding this concept. There have been several discussions on this forum about it!

I'm pretty sure, by now you have realized the challenges and difficulty of a gimbal type simulator, mainly on the mechanical side.
It takes a lot of engineering to make such a simulator safe, enjoyable and strong enough.

Furthermore, there are a lot of challenges associated with the fact that in the game you are moving, where as in the simulator you are stationary. Some forces missing from one, but inevitable in the other, fault conditions, movement ranges and so on.

All in all, this type of simulator is not a DIY hobby project. It takes a LOT of time, engineering and money! The question is, how much do you have of these?

In my opinion the full 360° movement and all the complexity associated with it DOES NOT justify the possible performance difference in simulation/immersion quality. I said possible because the whole system is only as good as the weakest link. If you don't have proper motion profiles, it doesn't matter what hardware you use.

Having 180° motion range in the roll and pitch axis is a good compromise, and you can still expand on the number of axis fairly easily. Add 360° yaw and a couple inches of linear movement and you are still within a reasonable level of complexity.

ps: The simulator you are referring to is really nice! I would estimate it's cost to be around 1million euros and a couple thousand man hours to build the hardware and software!

Hello Frakk, ;D

Thx for the reply! I confirm what you say, it takes lots of,...everything, time, money, money, workspace, engineering, money, etc.

Believe me, I realize it nearly impossible to do. But because of that, the reward is going to be so much greater when I complete it. It's because of the high cost of this project, I decided to build a scale model half size from the real one. This I can fit inside my workshop. Which, by the way, is a part of my intensions when we bought our house and renovating the garage in to the workshop it is now. So if you wonder if I’m serious about this project, there’s your answer. I renovated my house to be able to achieve the goal of completing my simulator project!!! That’s serious enough I would say!! 8)

As a scale model it’s little bit easier and cheaper to design and build the gimbal drives systems, the safety systems, and all the other stuff. And yes I realize the force on the scale model will be different then on the real one. The goal is eventually to use this working scale model as a demo version for third party funding. I have made contact, during the period I had mine business as a second profession, with two Belgian firms who are active within the simulator business, one is building his own motion platforms, the other is building a new improved design of simulator instruments.

But lets just start at the beginning, building the scale model, and we’ll go from there….

Furthermore, I’m a believer of the American attitude; YES WE CAN !!! (with “we”, I mean humans can do anything if we put our mind to it.) Or like USURA states in there song; Open your mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPUpKGI1Z4
Any way, construction starts the first of next month (Oct 2010), pictures will follow!

So if anybody, like Frakk states in his reply, has already build something like this, let me know. I can use all info and suggestions/ideas I can get my hands on. All useful reply’s are always welcome.

@ Frakk; the Desdemona price tag is something I don’t know but you could be right, the only thing I do know is that it already ordered by the Dutch and Belgian Air force for training there F-16 fighter pilots! And that’s the big difference, the Desdemona is a professional build TRAINING sim, mine is a DIY home build gaming sim. Big diff., but never the less as amazing as the pro version!

Gyro360 :

check my post i,m building a 1 seater now.Just in its infancy but mine is same principal a DIY version light weigh but functional.Expensive . my-first-3-axis-flight-simulator-project-t2781.htm. Have some rough drawings now

Erik Morgan

I have researched mine for 2 years so I have a lot to offer in the way of links,Motor,slip ring sect.One main thing to consider will be you choice of motors.I did some torque calculations and found that you will have to produce roughly 130 fpt to180 fpt enable to spin a 250 lb man(and all extras) on that axis(bearing brings necessary torque down somewhat) so I am debating whether to go with a geared right angle servo stepper motor or just a servo motor with a right angle gear box to keep rings as close together as possible (keep total height as shot as you can)Remember parts will wear so if you have a separate gear box assembly and motor vrs a geared motor it may be cheaper to replace one or the other when needed instead of buying a new geared motor if something goes wrong, just replace them individually.($600.00 for a servo right angled geared 24:1---30:1ratio and electronic controller with electromagnetic break)Slip ring assemblies vary widely depending on ring count and type of circuits.($1800.00 to $4000.00 per assembly)If your doing a 3 ring setup it can get scary!

Hope we can work together P.S. Dont let Frakk bring you down lol
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