Tutorial Ultra cheap 2/3 DOF motion simulator making use of scrap / second hand and low cost parts

I plan on creating a very cheap simulator. I plan/ have used as many things I could use that i already had. Also, this does not require welding and is mainly wood. Here is a list of components I have used.

• Arduino uno.
• Originally IBT_2 changed to VNH2SP30 monster moto shield. (this is useful as it has two h bridges to power two motors in separate directions).
• 12 volt wiper motors (I believe are out of a vauxhall).
• 12 volt PSU.

Step 1 (assembling the platform).
To start off, I used a scrap piece of kitchen worktop as a base. I plan on improving this as it's probably not very reliable.
I then bolted down 6 short lengths of stud work timber two,in a row like this. To form a raised platform to hold the Universal Joint.
I used coach screws for this. As you can see, I used a u joint. This u joint and the flange yokes were from a early Landrover; here's a link to one similar https://bearmach.com/universal-join...FaC7oSsJ8ybHctJDj7M3Qonwzjm1kbfkaAp8ZEALw_wcB. This cost around £20 or $24 for all parts of the u joint.

After a while, I thought of an idea to use the mattress support from an old bunk bed as the platform its self.
Simply, we used some scrap metal plate and we, again bolted it to the u joint; like this.

Then, I had a platform ready to fit the motors!
Step 2 (hardware testing) .
This was fairly simple and is where I tested the wiper motors and configured simtools, SM3C, arduino and the motor controller its self. First of all, I attached the wiper motor to a bench power supply and changed the voltage to 12 volts. Overall, it used about 1.3 amps without any load. For me, I cut off the insulation of the connectors cable to reveal multiple wires. Also, I cut off the connector. I connected the brown cable ( gnd ) and the yellow (fast speed/ power). In turn, it started spinning.

Then, I connected the power to the motor controller an the controller to the motor. This means I could now start configuring sim tools and smc3.

This is the controller I used:

Setting up smc3 and simtools was really simple. To do so, I followed this tutorial on youtube
.
A mistake I made was not closing SMC3 when trying to use simtools. This results in simtools not taking effect because smc3 did not release the COM port.
Here is a video of the wiper motor, simtools and live for speed all communicating.
Smc3 was used to fine tune and test your motor. I changed the settings to:
KP=50
KI=11
KD=41
KS=1
Also, I added a deadzone to stop the motor from unnecessarily correcting itself.
Here is a video of the SMC3 utility working (in this particular video the pot was slipping so the results weren't as good):

Step 3 (assembling the motion simulator).
I am currently working on a stl file for the cogs that will send position information from wiper motor shaft to pot. These I will 3D print.

Hello, for now, I've scrapped the idea of adding cogs and am probably going to add it in the future like many other things I have planned for. Anyway, to start off with, on step 3, I decided to mount the wiper motors. I bought 2 new ones as my first one was getting kind of old. Mounting it to the wood was straightforward and just required connecting 3 pieces of heavy duty strap flat to the wiper motor and then the wood. 1: #

(I used the provided screws in the wiper motor box )
Step 2:

(I used simple wood screws)
Then, I added another piece of strap flat (light duty) to the wiper motor using the nut; like this:











After, I used a bolt and a nut to connect a rod end or rose joint to the strap flat like this:
After a lot of bolting, screwing and more I finally managed to move the platform with wiper motor. Heres the diagram
Now, I repeated for the second motor.

I'll be interested to see if this is strong enough once you have a seat and a person on there. The bent flat strap from the wiper motor to the ball joint linkage looks like the weakest part to me. Those 2 screws into press-board for your motor mounts aren't likely to hold up either. I was surprised how much force my similator developed, easily bending a 3/8" (9 mm) steel rod during a malfunction. I also had to add reinforcements to my welded steel motor mounts that flexed a lot more than I expected.

Thanks for your comments. I did wonder about strength of the bent flat strap from the wiper motor to the ball joint. So far it has held up well with some weight. I'm considering a thicker gauge but it's all I had in my scrap box at the time. I'll keep you updated.

This is a picture after I mounted 2 wiper motors. To send feedback information, I create a mount for the potentiometer that, in my opinion, is very effective and works very well. For this, I used a bit of 15mm copper pipe a small knob (designed to fit potentiometers). You put the copper pipe over the nut and it moves with it (This makes the potentiometer very easy to modify). Here is a diagram :

Before mounting the second motor, I tested the first with SMC3.
I got to try it out with live for speed but it wasn't recorded.

Thankyou for your feedback, I will have a look at SimCalc.
Thankyou for your feedback, I will have a look at SimCalc.

Hello, here is a video of both wiper motors working together with simtools.

Hello, after weight testing I have come to the conclusion that the lever arm is not strong enough to support a load for a long period of time. I am going to replace replace the light duty flap strap with heavy duty. The good news is that there appeared to be no strain whatsoever on the chipboard/ press-board and the motor mounts held up very nice.

Hello, I've now installed the heavy duty flat strap as the wiper motor lever arm. I am going to weight test it after I've installed the second lever arm. Hopefully, it won't bend under pressure. I've also installed countersink screws so they don't stop the strap from spinning.

Most of the time, with weight, one of the motors on one or the other sides of the motion simulator completely turns off. Oddly, when I go into SMC3 it fully recovers. Also, I notice the motors are having trouble in pitch but not roll. Both 12v wiper motors were using more than 10 amps to lift the platform with no weight (Pitch). Compared to rolling, this was a lot (rolling used around 1.5 amps). Then i noticed the studs weren't aligned therefore trying to push into each over. I fixed it. Again, it was struggling a lot. So I shortened the length of the lever arm on the wiper motor. This time, it was a bit better but I was still getting the same results. I am still getting the same results as the start and am not sure what's happening. Is it cutting out because it's reaching the max limits? Is it to do with the moto monster?
Here are a few pictures.

Hello, I have now finished building the motion platform. There are still a lot of upgrades I am going to do. I have already ordered a bass transducer to fit under the chair. This project is not finished. There is even more to come. But for the most part the prototype's complete. I have changed a few things like the lever arms, added threadlock, shortened the arms and introduce force air cooling of the electronics. Here is a video of it in operation.

I have just completed taking the platform off to make it more compact. I am going to do this by creating a wooden skeleton of a chair to fit a chair on to this. I think, by doing this, I solved a problem I've had since I built this. These motors are not insulated meaning when i put a conductor between them (the platform) it was effectively short circuiting. I am very surprised the moto monster survived this. I found this out when I put a bar between them and it started sparking. I'm going to fix this by using wood as the platform. similar to this.
Here is my progress:

why if the motors do not connect them to the ground they jump?

Sorry, I don't understand. Do you mean why do they spark?
This is to do with the moto monster and the fact that because the motors are placed in different directions you have to reverse one motor meaning that the postitive of one motor is connect to where the gnd usually goes. This means that, because the ground goes through the case, there is a circuit being completed through the 2 motors when you put something in between them; this causes them to spark.

Hello, after trying the platform with live for speed, I decided I wanted to try a flight simulation game. I have x-plane 11. The problem is when I open it it works and gives the data outputs fine and simtools is receiving them. However, this only works for around 5 seconds and then sim tools randomly closes for no reason. Is this to do with my PC specifications or is this a bug with simtools. All the other games I have tried work fine.

It looks like I have configured it correctly. It does work for a bit and then simtools closes. Where would the error messages be?