SimXperience II - 2DOF Driving Simulator With SCN5's

For those of you considering deviating from the actuator angle of the original Frex design, I contacted Mirai about thiis issue. I asked the question is several different ways, and the answer is, that it is OK to deveiate from the original Frex actuator angle, and that it may in fact be better to place the actuators in a more upright position.

They are not aware of anyone that has done any testing on this, so our conversation was about theory, not proven scenarios. I will be doing some testing this evening and logging the maximum amp draw at various angles.

Also, there is no need to put fuses on the actuators in order to protect them. I was told by Mirai that if an actuator was overloaded and attempted to draw more than two amps, that it would safely shut itself off.

They expressed that the greatest concern about actuator life is ensuring that the actuator does not get ran at high speeds beyond its end point because this would cause catastrophic internal failure of a pin that is not designed to be servicable.

It is OK for sure, as it does not harm the actuator.
But it wont be efficient to decrease the angle. Have a look on this image:


Regards
Christian

Thanks for the detailed explanation! What you are saying makes good sense. I was unable to do any conclusive testing tonight because I am waiting on a friend to lend me an amp / current data-logger so that I can see the true peaks.

Based on your diagram, there is no question about which would be more efficient from an overall push / pull perspective. Now I need to find out how the difference impacts the motors and try to come up with the most efficient angle that minimizes radial load and factor that in as well.

Your explanation was very helpful. Thanks again.

The Devantech USB<-->RS485 adapters mentioned previously are working out quite nicely. I haven't had any issues with lock-ups, they recover well from Vista power-saving, and are simple to setup and wire. Changing of device ID and speed / acceleration parameter changes were also successful.

I have not needed a resistor with them either, which really helps to simplify things for future noobs. Does anyone know of a reason why I should use a resistor if I am having no connectivity issues?

It just stabilzes the signal when using long cables. It the connection is stable, you dont need resistor termination.

regards

The angled SCN5s should be angled backward of the chair and outward (left to right) of the chair as well. That would give you the best chair movement per SCN5 travel, negating a 150mm where a 100mm travel would work quite well.

Bernard, may I ask what you do for a living? You got quite a setup there with the finished trimming and all.

Of course, thats right.

I think Bernad is struggling with the limited space within the roll cage.
But the way he has placed them currently is suboptimal for sure.

An 80-70° angle in both directions would be a good compromise in efficiency and space consumption, I guess.

Regards
Christian

Thats right, I am trying to work within the confines of my current simulator design (including roll-cage). I am working on a second simulator design that will not place these limitations on the physical movements, placement of the actuators, etc...

BTW, I am Enterprise Business / Technology consultant which basically means large scale data-center hardware, software and business systems like SAP, etc..

My true passion is racing, and the simulator is just a hobby that gets me closer to racing without having to cough up $250,000 for the real thing.

Just a quick update n the Devantech USB<-->RS485 adapters. Through optimization of the driver settings for the FTDI chip, I am now able to get 154 actuator updates per second. Here are the screenshots for the settings. If you try these settings and your actuators are not detected at Profiler startup then they are probably a little too aggressive for your PC.





Can anyone post some comparison numbers of other adapters. I have no idea if these numbers are good or not. What type of outputs/sec are required for smooth motion?

Nice!

If you didn't tried yet, set the serial printer option. It should make it more accurate in terms on timing accuracy...

Here are instruction how to: post9707.html#p9707


Regards, Thanos

Here's a video of the SimXperience II test platofrm running X-Sim 2.0 Beta. I haven't got all of the bugs worked out if it yet, so it still isn't installed in the game machine pictured earlier in this thread.

Here's a YouTube video. Sorry for the quality. I need to find a better place to post videos. I will post a high quality version later tonight ot tomorrow. When I do, I'll update the opening thread.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIrDYcyDkNI

That's some very good driving there.

:clap: Good job!

There is virtually no lag noticable, and the actuators seem to work very good with X-Sim. I agree that the setup needs a litltle more tweaking (adding vertical g-forces). But you'll make it for sure!


Congrats!
Christian

PS: I hope all doubters are convinced now that X-Sim rocks :

Can you post a video of the bottom of the seat as well (to see how it moves - U-joint to floor part).

how did you attach the actuators to the seat too? it looks like you mounted them directly to the seat, this is what i want to do and would like to know how you accomplished this :

Superduper !!!
How did you attach the bottom of the SCN. Which screw size did you use ?

I purchased the mounting brackets from Mirai and used the included screws. The mounting brackets are welded onto the 1 square steel actuator arms that i made up. The actuator angles in the original post have changed. The bottom side mounts have been widened, and there is some additional forward lean of the actuator arms towards the seat.

The actuators are not mounted directly to the seat. You can see pictures of how they are mounted on the first page of this post.

I will try to post some updated pictures.

Here is a video of my custom simulator that I call the SimXperience I running X-Sim 2.0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ_c69_um2g

Here is a version in rFactor of the SimXperience DIY motion platform in the early stages of it's development running X-Sim 2.0.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxgOnNnJ708


Here is a version in Race 07 of the SimXperience DIY motion platform in the early stages of it's development. Also running X-Sim of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RMrq2Z2AuE

The profiles shown here are available for download in the X-Sim 2 Profiles Forum here:http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/x-sim-profiles-f60.html

thats awesome man, that has the be the fastest reacting frex style cockpit i've seen yet. it moved perfect to the car. i should be ordering my actuators by friday the latest, i can't wait that video is awesome, keep em coming :yes:

Acutally your profiles get better day by day :thbup:

regards
Christian