Just in case anyone is interested, here's a little blog of my latest endeavour! I figure it's more useful than just posting the end result as it's certainly a learning process... I'm also more than open to suggestions along the way so feel free to add your thoughts.
The brief:
- Build a sim rig for the man cave.
- Dual (well triple) purpose... both for racing and flying/space games.
- Needs to be able to compact up to a reasonable size while still being nice and solid. I won't accept any wobble!
- Must be easy to move around the cave so I can move it out the way as needed.
- Ideally not completely ugly if I can help it since it'll always be visible.
- Upgradable in future.
- primarily for VR but possibility of mounting a screen.
I intend to run this as a 3 stage process. Stage 1 is the general structure to a usable state, and a transducer for haptic feedback. Stage 2 will be fleshing out the haptics possibly with further transducers, a seat belt tensioner, and a G-seat* using pneumatics. Stage 3, which is likely much further down the line, will be to then put the entire thing on actuators like the SFX-100 style rigs for full motion.
*G-seat concept for those that don't know - either mechanically or pneumatically actuated pads in the seat move to apply pressure from beneath/side/back to simulate being pressed into that side of the seat. Haven't tried it but supposedly very effective in VR without needing to go for a full motion platform. Also has the advantage of being able to simulate sustained G, so potentially complementary to a motion platform further down the road.
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Enough waffle!
Here's the 3d design I came up with after a few iterations, I decided to make it mostly from 44x44 planed all round wood (meranti as it happens) and plywood as I thought it would look nicer and I'm currently working on my woodworking skills... you could substitute 40x40 or 45x45mm aluminium profile for the PAR timber at similar cost and a significantly easier build but I have a habit of making my life harder than it really needs to be!
While working on the geometry:
The pedal platform is designed to be electronically actuated, and uses some spare HG25 rails and carriages I have had lying around for the last couple years from my CNC builds. They actually aren't overly expensive since you don't need genuine HIWINs for this, but they are potentially overkill... I love overkill though so, whatever.
The upper section is also designed to slide back to allow easier entry/exit and will also be driven by electronic actuators, because its cool. This part is definitely not really necessary, but given for games like star citizen I want to use tablets as MFDs and I think getting in/out may prove tricky without some mechanism to give yourself more space to move.
Anyway, that's the brief overview... more to follow once the little one is in bed!
The brief:
- Build a sim rig for the man cave.
- Dual (well triple) purpose... both for racing and flying/space games.
- Needs to be able to compact up to a reasonable size while still being nice and solid. I won't accept any wobble!
- Must be easy to move around the cave so I can move it out the way as needed.
- Ideally not completely ugly if I can help it since it'll always be visible.
- Upgradable in future.
- primarily for VR but possibility of mounting a screen.
I intend to run this as a 3 stage process. Stage 1 is the general structure to a usable state, and a transducer for haptic feedback. Stage 2 will be fleshing out the haptics possibly with further transducers, a seat belt tensioner, and a G-seat* using pneumatics. Stage 3, which is likely much further down the line, will be to then put the entire thing on actuators like the SFX-100 style rigs for full motion.
*G-seat concept for those that don't know - either mechanically or pneumatically actuated pads in the seat move to apply pressure from beneath/side/back to simulate being pressed into that side of the seat. Haven't tried it but supposedly very effective in VR without needing to go for a full motion platform. Also has the advantage of being able to simulate sustained G, so potentially complementary to a motion platform further down the road.
------------
Enough waffle!
Here's the 3d design I came up with after a few iterations, I decided to make it mostly from 44x44 planed all round wood (meranti as it happens) and plywood as I thought it would look nicer and I'm currently working on my woodworking skills... you could substitute 40x40 or 45x45mm aluminium profile for the PAR timber at similar cost and a significantly easier build but I have a habit of making my life harder than it really needs to be!
While working on the geometry:
The pedal platform is designed to be electronically actuated, and uses some spare HG25 rails and carriages I have had lying around for the last couple years from my CNC builds. They actually aren't overly expensive since you don't need genuine HIWINs for this, but they are potentially overkill... I love overkill though so, whatever.
The upper section is also designed to slide back to allow easier entry/exit and will also be driven by electronic actuators, because its cool. This part is definitely not really necessary, but given for games like star citizen I want to use tablets as MFDs and I think getting in/out may prove tricky without some mechanism to give yourself more space to move.
Anyway, that's the brief overview... more to follow once the little one is in bed!
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