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Three times a charm

Discussion in 'SimTools DIY Version' started by terry wells, Apr 27, 2014.

  1. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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    Did you make sure you exited out of SMC utilities before opening Simtools?

    In the Game Engine under Interface settings the output - Bit Range should be 10 not 8. There is no need for anything under startup nor shutdown (that I know of).
  2. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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    Additionally; your PWMmax in the SMC3 utility looks very low at 110, you might boost that up, if you look at the PWM line (yellow) you will see that it is not on very often at all.
  3. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    Yes, I did exit out of SMC, I will make those changes and let you know.
    Terry
  4. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    OK, works with mouse and I now have virtual axis, and input and output on the tuner screen. I think the sliders need to be adjusted/inverted
    Terry.

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  5. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    Question! How do you invert the axis and what do I need to do to get "MORE" movement on my motors? (CW / CCW)

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  6. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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    In Simtools you can invert the axis by clicking the button next to each axis, this reverses the direction. It is usually best to keep the Simtools axis going the same way in other words for both axis in pitch they would both be either checked or unchecked. For roll one would be checked the other not.

    You can get more movement on your motors by adjusting the settings in SCM3 utility or in Simtools by increasing the axis range.

    How much range are you getting on each motor and how much do you want? You really only need very little on the motors depending on how long the arms are, longer arms less range but less ability to move a weight, the inverse is also true.

    By the way, why do you think the sliders need to be inverted?
  7. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    Right now I am getting about 20 to 25 degrees of angle both ways. That probably is ok but I was looking for about 40 to 45 degrees both ways. I tried the uncheck and checked box in sims tools( Axes assignments) roll and pitch to see if that would work however nothing changed. Now keep in mind that I am checking this using the mouse in the Quick Start Guide under Checking the direction of movements. I wanted to make sure all was working before I download a Game Plugin. I will change my default like you said before I check it again. Thank You
    Terry W.
  8. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    I ran the game (LFS) with no power applied to see the movement on the virtual axis screen in Sims Tools and this is what I have. How do I get the sliders to the center position, and I tried to change dir by clicking in axis assignments but when I run the game the roll (left/right) is reversed.
    Terry

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  9. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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    Hi Terry, you cannot manipulate the sliders on that page. They are only there to give you a graphical representation of what information the game is sending to simtools and where simtools is sending the axis. Great tool for tuning your rig.

    If you want to adjust the forces for each DoF while in game you can use the profile editor in game manager or adjust the min/max in tuning center.

    EDIT: The sliders represent the orientation of the car in the game at that moment. So the car is probably on a hill/incline. Not at all unusual for LFS as the track that you can use in the demo starts out on a hill side.
  10. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    Next question, when my motors are at their max movement I get a lot of jittering on the actuator using my mouse to check my axis.is this normal?
    Terry
  11. RufusDufus

    RufusDufus Well-Known Member

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    Hi Terry, The SMC3 driver has some safety built into it... if the position of the motors moves into the "Limit" zone setup with SMC3Utils, it reverses the motors as a braking mechanism and then to drive them back out of the limit zone. In theory this is intended to help stop you sim get broken from the motors turning too far.

    I am guessing as you try to move to the limit with your mouse this reversing keeps kicking in making it appear as though it is stuttering. If it is happening elsewhere maybe we need to investigate.

    You can check the Limit zone setting in SM3Utils. Between 50 and 100 is common but not mandatory.
  12. eaorobbie

    eaorobbie Well-Known Member SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

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    Vibrations can be caused by noise on the pot lines or quality of pots too, @RufusDufus can a deadzone be set for the pots to soften these vibrations.
  13. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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    You can check if it is a bad pot or noisy lines by looking at the feedback in the SMC3 utility, the blue line should move smoothly, if there is a lot of spiking you know something is wrong.

    The jitter might be from your mouse's ability to move smoothly. If you are dragging the slider try very slow and precise left and right movement. Moving the mouse up or down at all will cause the slider to lose connection with the mouse pointer for a moment or more.

    If the two above suggestions do not pan out then the only thing that I can think of is that Rufus is absolutely correct (not that I doubt him in the first place, just giving other suggestions as to what to check).
  14. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    Thank you all for your help and explanations. I will check them out and let you know I found.
    Terry W.
  15. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    I have a problem, I downloaded the game plugins today and tried my proto type platform. With DCS the game shows game connected (blue) on the game manager and on the game engine, but there is no movement on the platform what so ever. With FSX I get an error message, is shutting down. With LFS it is working, but I need to tweak some things to make the platform move in the direction of my joy stick. Why will it not work in the game plugins?
    Terry W.

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  16. insanegr

    insanegr !N$@n€

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    i don't know if you already tried , run it as an administrator.
  17. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    I copied the file into sim tools and FSX seems to be working however I do need to a lot of tweaking because there is hardly no movement to my platform when moving my joy stick" but" it is working. I have input and output in the tuning center. Now as for DCS I am getting nothing. I have everything setup the same for FSX and DCS. what can I do to make this work? Terry W.

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  18. AceOfSpies

    AceOfSpies Living the Dream!

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    Hi @terry wells, the values shown in the Tuning Centre are too high. The lower the value, the more intense the motion.
    Try reducing the values to 20 and go down from there until you have the amount of movement you want.

    Mike
    • Agree Agree x 1
  19. AceOfSpies

    AceOfSpies Living the Dream!

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    Sorry, I'm talking about the values for roll, pitch and yaw.
  20. terry wells

    terry wells Active Member

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    The only numbers/values that I can change in the tuning center are the game data input and they are all "0". What numbers/values should I lower? OK I figured it out, I can change the values however the game is not getting any input into the tuning center. I did a repatch but that did not work
    Terry W.
    Last edited: May 15, 2014