wannabeaflyers 6 DOF with 24V DC gearmotor

i may be heading towards ZigZags Sabertooth / Arduino mega Config , seeing as how all the bits are in place and all id have to do fit the Ardunio mega i bought as spare for my 3D printer, Sorry for the Rant in previous Post ,

i was so so close and had what i thought was a decent basic system, which just needed Fine tuning and sorting the source of the Control Error that Kangaroo kept throwing up every now and then ( disconnects motor drive) so its a case of "Close but no cigar"as they say

Looks like a long weekend ahead with many hours in man cave , here's hoping that with fresh eyes and double checking everything again gets me back up and running or at least platform movement testing .. soooo close i can taste it LOL but yet so Far, Cheers Guys

a Bit frustrated but not giving up regardless of my Rantings

@wannabeaflyer2 perhaps you should just switch to the pololu controllers ? Seems you would save so much time and possibly your mind

Hi Craig LOL im a determined bugger , Been lurking here so long i should know by now " No Pain No Gain" Love the DE stuff and cant really find Fault with the 2 x 32's , the Kangaroos on the other hand ( dont go there LOL ) ,
Chances are it will be down to methodology and me missing a trick , Not many mates close by who are into this so missing the bounce ideas off each other over a few Beers , But i love a challenge, even though it's doing my head in at times ,

Trawling through other members posts to see if there are any Tips iv'e missed , safe to say if im gonna find the answer its gonna be here, The Motor are Great , The Motor Controller is Great, 180° Hall Pots seem up to the Job, Just need that last link to Either BFF or Simtools , be it Kangaroo or Arduino Mega or 2 Uno's as you have done and i'll be happy as Larry , Ultimate is to get this 6 DOF baby to shake the Buggery out of me LOL ( in a controlled fashion you understand )

Big day tomorrow as i'll fit the Optical encoders to 1 pair of actuators and see how that goes .. its gotta be possible to get this Kangaroo lark to work with our sims ( DE say so LOL )

i first looked at MM's then considered sabertooths then finally just went with an AMC1280 (the cost was no different to 3 sabertooths for 6 dof). Couldnt stand the impending issues of janky MM's or such problems.

good luck and keep at it.

Hi Paul I have the AMC 1280 as well but decided to use the Sabertooths al la (6dof[at]primusnetz.de) Working Wooden Motion Simulator project , but he mentioned that he could not get the AMC configured for driving DC motors so went with the Kangeroo Option , that and the stuff the guys are doing here allowed me to jump on this bandwagon .. Found some dodgy solder joints on the hall sensor connections and Some of the Anderson Motor Connectors so maybe the kangaroo was struggling due too erratic signals, that could explain some of my frustration and me blaming the Kangaroo when in effect it was having to deal with Rubbish signal ..

System all cleaned up and dusted , ready for tomorrows big push , fingers crossed i'll be able to eat massive amounts of humble pie and report that the platform is performing .. Cheers

Hi Guys just a shout for some advice , i noticed that when i tried to put a 24vdc Battery in parallel with my server PSU ( not powered up ) the fans came on so i disconnected it quickly , should i have a diode of some sort in the +v line from battery to PSU or is that normal ?
i dare not power it up with the battery in parallel until i get this sorted , i do have the Option of fitting high wattage resistor to the Sabertooth as it has voltage clamp option on board , but i wanna test the system tomorrow and it will be a few days before the 2.5Ohm resistor arrive . Cheers

Ok guys i found the info in this post " 2000 watts server supply: DPS-2000BB (A) " Cheers ​

I have been hoping that you would prove these statements I made earlier to be inaccurate!

Unfortunately, it appears your experimentation with the kangaroo controllers have only bolstered them so far.

Yeah, bad solder joints can cause big headaches and good luck with implementing those encoders. Maybe they will be the key for getting an easy setup and good motion from the kangaroo.

Hi Guys small update , Platform works when using describe But one motor still throws up Control error every now and then , so im triple checking all connections, it seem to fail error 3 and i suspect for some reason the driver thinks the actuator has hit a mechanical stop or see's Whats called a runaway fault ? in both instances the issue seem to come when i put a load over that Actuator ( Heavy gell cell battery used as dummy load) it will hold position ok so long as i dont move the direction cursor , as soon as i move the Cursor to change actuator Position it disable the motor Power and " Control Error Message " Appears . Checked the PID values in describe and nothing jumps out as being way out of the ball park when compared to the other actuator Channels , so i'll be bending Charleens Ear again ( dimension engineering tech support) ,

Another factor i have noticed is the Possible backlash in the gearbox being a factor , so i have added Bungie Cords to each axis to Load the lever during tests( i know it has 50KG of sand in the seat but just feel they take out some of the slack ( seems to have improved positioning fix so will see if this will at least allow me some decent testing time without diverting my attention away from hopefully fine tuning the system..

i have since been informed that FSX10 and Windows 10 dont play nicely together so that could explain some other issues ,

Gotta get a XP pc and go back to FSX 2004 for testing as it seemed better at the time , and im sure my windows 10 upgrade messed with laptop as i still cant get FSX 2004 to run even after rolling back to Win 7 Premium :-(

Not been a discouraging day so the Saga continues at least till i change over to ZigZag49's Arduino Mega ( Kangaroo not used ) Option .

Forgot again to say thanks BlazinH for all info , its never wasted , will hang in there trying this Configuration for a little longer as i seem to be making some good steps today, even after problems arise. Cheers Sir

Ohhh im in a happy place at the moment LOL , Just finished my test setup using Optical encoders ...what a difference , clean signal no noise on the Autotune and seems to be just what i needed to step up a gear on this project.
i removed the brake assembly from one of my spare Wheelchair / Gearbox actuators and made an adapter so that i could mount the encoder directly to the motor shaft ( no Backlash to worry about) ,drilled a hole in the plastic cover and fitted a flexi coupler to the 600 Count optical encoder,, Connected it all up to Kangaroo and set dip swithces,, Reset Kangaroo to default and made some changes to Describe ,,,Powered up (No Smoke good, No Movement Good for this phase of test and No error lights on Both sabertooth and Kangeroo ( Bloody Great ) anyways the damn thing worked a treat so far my actuator was lifting 3 x 12V lead acid Car batteries at a leaver length of 40mm centers ,

The result to my mind was impresive. I'm able to use the cursor in describe to control arm position and its spot on (no Hunting or Judder at set point ) rapid motion using 50% step function did not cause any issues ( so Far ) and even though i used a small 7 amp 12 Volt battery supply to my 24V Motor it lifted all 3 batteries no problem ( NO CONTROL ERROR reported ) now thats a YEEEEE Haaaa Moment if ever there was one) .. early days yet and it will mean i will have to tear down system to upgrade each of the 6 motors ...

That'll be a small price to pay if this option does the trick . Tomorrow i'll see if i can mod another Motor and swap em out on the sim, Then i can test it using just 1 pair to see if it still performs in situ... Fingers crossed i will be at last able to give some decent info to you guys . The Kangaroo option may not be dead yet

back again just a few pics of my rough and ready test setup , will repeat the lift test tomorrow and show movie clip of it in action

Hi Guys Good news Continues , Was able to Reconfigure one pair of actuators had to change location of the motors because they would not allow the Optical encoder Mod. Well nothing ever goes to plan with me Turns out the second Optical encoder has a fault ( Bummer )
Bought 2 of them a while back but not opened the boxes seeing as how i was still battling with the Hall sensor option. Next time Test before storage ,
Problem surfaced when i tried to Auto-tune the Other actuator. it went loopy and i thought "Gimme a break moment LOL" anyways after checking and rechecking the sensor fitting and wiring problem still there ( Scratching Bald spot time again then swapped the Optical sensor for the one that works and Bingo Tuned 1st Time and worked as i had hoped it would ( even with 25KG Bag of Sand loaded over the actuator , Great Stuff cos at least i know it works and the motors are good to go ,, also refitted the iffy sensor to the good working actuator and problem followed it there so Yep Sensor Problem ...

Does any one have any tips for checking these Optical Encoders?

Ok so now placed an order for another 6 ( 1 spare) and @ £8.00 inc free shipping i guess its another 3 Weeks Delay waiting for parts ( Bummmmmmer ) ..

One last issue with this new set up will be the Homing function . i figure the weight of the platform will always drift to Lower end stop when system is un-powered, and because of the way the optical Encoder works ( No Index Pulse on these cheap ones ) so will need to fit homing switch ( easy with Kangaroo ) but not sure how the system will park at preset position once the encoders know where they are (ref Home switch activated)

I should at least be able to test this out with one actuator whilst waiting for the rest arrive..

whilst searching to Optical encoder test options i found this on Youtube and loaded it to a spare arduino uno to test my suspect optical encoder, well the first thing i quickly learnt is that of the two optical encoder units i bought for the supplier, one works without Pull up resisistor required, and the Other does not ???? this was why the unit actuator went loopy during autotuning , good news is that once i fitted the 1K pull up resistors to the encoder A+ B channels, then the so called faulty unit seems to work on both the Ardunio test and now autotunes the Kangaroo controller on my platform , it also seems to perform as well as the other working opto without Pull ups fitted . therefore i will fit Pull up's on all 6 Optical encoders just to be on the safe side ... Just thought i would pass that lesson learnt onwards ..

i wrongly assumed that as the 1st encoder worked without Pull ups the other should as well D'ohh ..

At least its another nice step so just waiting for the others to turn up

Happy to report another positive step along the path of my Project , Finally received & fitted all 6 Optical encoders to my rig , a lot of faffing about but great news is that all systems are back to GO ,,

Just did some basic movement testing and and all 6 axis seem to respond well no control errors so far so later this evening i'll try to get a Video Posted ..
)
Major relief on my part ,cos the bill is mounting up LOL but like i said, from my point of view this last round of mods seem to have put me back on track..

The Control system is presently made up of 3 x 32 Sabertooth Motor Drives , 3 Kangaroo modules, 6 Gearbox Motors( which seen to be able to shift me around with relative ease ) , 6 x Optical encoders (600 PPR Type ) and i have built s small interface Boards to fit Pull up resistor in line with the Sensors ( some seem to need the Pull ups , Some Don't) , software is currently Ians BFF software ( Simtool software to be trialed once i nail this build ) initially it will be a Flight sim platform but once i get Project cars , then i'll see how the system handles aggressive movements....

just took a break to give you guys the latest scoop and yeah im def in a happy place at moment , Learning bucket load's and aside from build mistakes i have created , made . missed can at least say she's getting there . Video to follow guys ,,,, Cheers

some before and after pics 1st is the latest version and the second is the earlier config . have decided to keep the sections as Almost contained units which include Controller as well ( the Onle lead outs will be the 3 wire Coms line to PC USB-TTL interface and the 24Vdc power line the server PSU .. man cave seriously cluttered i know but sim will be moved once is up and running decently enough ....

Quick walkaround the Platrom now its working again , been trying to upload 2 videos of it moving with me in the seat but Youtube still Processing WTF its a 6 Minute clip .. Good news though guys
The dimension engineering Controller and Kangaroo with Optical encoders Fitted seem to be a good combo so far , Done some weight testing and No screaming from Motors or Software Control errors , Will stick the Amp meter back in the Circuit tomorrow to get an idea of the current drawn under load , i dont have a race sim Program at the moment so all trials are being done with FSX,,

Did some serious Yanking and Banking and hitting the deck during several test flights just to check the mechanics and other than my setting the Travel limit to half and speed Lowered for testing its looking good ( Hope that last statement did not Jinx this Project LOL)
More to come

Yeah i know the workshop is a bit of a tip but once sim is running it will be moved to a better environment ( Heated to )

Back again finally got some footage downloaded but forgot to edit it down , skip the 1st 2 mins as i was activating each actuator to check load lifting capability , Yeah its a bit slow but i have turned things down and limited travel so that i did not kill anything during these initial tests ...

was using the cursor to move the axis's so finger trouble comes to mind ,, joystick controlled motion video being uploaded to you tube for the 5th time so finger crossed you'll see a better view of the movement and speed in the next Video.

Yeah i know the place looks a TIP :-( , a lot of projects shoe horned into a small space , Paraglider , Paramotor , 2 x CNC routers , 3D printer and all the diy Kit and garden furniture LOL .... thinks me needs a bigger workshop ( hmmmmm the neighbors may have something to say about the plan though ,,,,,Bugger )

the sim will be moved to a better environment ( meaning Warm ) once the initial testing has been done, early days yet , but progress at last being made.. Cheers Team

Really impressive! It must be nice to have that moving! I've got a similar space to yours - with the sim sharing a spare bedroom with a homemade CNC router, laser cutter, and 3D printer, plus various projects.