A quick hello and a few basic questions

[MadBuilder]

Hi all.

Glad to find this site, looks like I will be learning a lot here

Currently I build custom arcade machines and I refurb old classics for my home. Here are a few examples of my projects...

Scratch Design & Build, Pololu driven rotating monitor cabinet


Kids Tabletop Cocktail Cab (In progress)


Paperboy Resto-Mod (In progress)


For my next custom scratch build, I want to make a dedicated sit-down driving and yolk game simulator. Which is what brings me to these forums to learn the mechanics of it all.

My goals...

1. Support older games that have no output by simulating movement from the controls.
2. Support games with output for simulator style accuracy.
3. Recreate 'extreme' accelleration and braking, moderate cornering and rumble.
4. Kid safety - I need to enclose the rig in a cabinet to make it safe around children.
5. Screen and controls mounted to the motion platform.

Based on the above criteria, do you think my goals are reasonable for a beginner in this field? I am not an electronics engineer by any means, I do have a small amount of experience with Pololu motors and driver boards from building the rotating monitor in my Revolution cabinet above.

I understand that simulating a 3 second 0-60mph accelleration puts me in the realm of 1G of simulated force, does that mean I have to be go full vertical to create that? Lol that would be fun, but how practical?

Looking forward to learning all the tricks.

Joel

[yokoyoko]

Hi Joel,

really cool to have you around here! I love your machines, it reminds me of my childhood. At this age I would have killed for owning something like this. Your picture awake something in me I need more space in my "play-room"

1. Support older games that have no output by simulating movement from the controls.
2. Support games with output for simulator style accuracy.
3. Recreate 'extreme' accelleration and braking, moderate cornering and rumble.
4. Kid safety - I need to enclose the rig in a cabinet to make it safe around children.
5. Screen and controls mounted to the motion platform.

1) Take some time and take a read here: http://www.x-sim.de/documents/X-Sim%20Extractor%20Motion%20Driver%20Guide.pdf hope this document helps you
2) I see no barrier in doing this -> have a look for "supported games via pugin": http://www.x-sim.de/manual/plugins.html
3) Let the engineer in you run free
4) Good idea! One of the biggest problem of my racing rig. Perhaps we can evaluate cheap and good solutions together
5) You can find everything here in the forum. A lot differnet solutions around here.

So far a short comment on your questions - I hope this help you a bit.

Based on the above criteria, do you think my goals are reasonable for a beginner in this field? I am not an electronics engineer by any means, I do have a small amount of experience with Pololu motors and driver boards from building the rotating monitor in my Revolution cabinet above.

You must try the impossible to achieve the possible. - [Hermann Hesse]

I think you are definitly qualified enough to manage such a project. Around here are alot of really helpful people that share their knowledge if you reach steps where you need some help. Important is - start a thread if you start building your sim. Share some infos with the community, post some pictures of progress, and so on .... -->the rest comes naturally

I am far from a electronic engineer away as the earth the sun! With the help of this forum I could build a functional 3dof simulator.

I understand that simulating a 3 second 0-60mph accelleration puts me in the realm of 1G of simulated force, does that mean I have to be go full vertical to create that? Lol that would be fun, but how practical?

Very interesting topic to discuss on! I think we need a thread for this - do we have one?
If you look around - there are different types of sim around here. Basicly "platform-based" and "seatmover". I prefer the theory behind the seatmover and so I builded such a sim. For sure you cannot reach 1G in this type it only works because of brain expectant attitude (hope my translaten is correct). All based on race games: You sit in a real seat, are strapped like in a real car, you look concentrated on the screen, the car on the screen moves --> the seatmover moves you away from the steering wheel. = Your body / your brain thinks you are accelerating. Really Interesting phenomenon!!! This works with acc, braking and cornering of course. The steering wheel is fixed. All movement have to be compansated by your arms/wrists - thats the key.

Best regards from Germany
yokoyoko

[motiondave]

As for frames for racing, you could also have a "frex" frame of which the wheel and pedals move with you. There is a similar effect, and adding pitch and roll to the frame, you get the feeling of going up and down hills.

[MadBuilder]

Fascinating. I never thought about the idea of pulling your body away from the wheel to give the illusion of accelleration, wow that's pretty crazy. It sounds like a frex frame would not give that effect if the pedals and wheel move with you?? Or do you mean they just move in the tilt axis while moving toward and away from you?

[yokoyoko]

I may be wrong but always thought that a "frex" style sim is always a simple seatmover. All videos of frex i know the whell is fixed - just the seat is moved. Like above...

[motiondave]

I like a seat mover as well, and my current ride in development is both, thanks to a set a seat rails. So I can slide the seat forward and have a seat mover, or back, slide in wheel and pedal frame and have a full frame to ride on.
Both are good I found.

The term "frex" is essentially a seat mover, but the term does get used to explain a full frame without a screen on it.
Some people think a full frame is like a joyrider, everything on it.

[MadBuilder]

I've been spending some time thinking over the different setups and think that the Frex approach may be the one I most interested in taking, but was thinking that it needed a modification to add more realism to the sensations.

When you change direction you are accellerating, and as such the forces applied to your senses give you the sensations that tell your brain what's going on, obviously what we do here is try and trick the brain into perceiving a sensation associated with a certain movement. Pulling the body away from a fixed point that we are deliberately trying to keep under control is pure genius and I'm sure must feel very effective. The point this part seems to miss though is the contact points of your body where it touches the seat and harnesses. To fully simulate the experience you need an opposite force to be applied on those contact points in scale and synchronization with the whole body movement toward and from the fixed controls.

So here's my basic idea.

In the driving seat, the base of the seat is seperate from the back of the seat. Only the base of the seat moves, the back stays in a fixed position. The racing harness is also attached to the back seat so it is also in a static position. WHY? Well, when being pulled away from the controls by the base of the seat moving, the driver is simultainiously 'pushed' into the back of the seat as it does not move with the driver. The reverse also works with the harness when being pulled toward the controls during decelleration with the driver's chest pushing against the fixed harness. This way we experience all of the forces at the right points in the body and in an analog scale that is in sync with the movement of the base of the seat. The technique may need to be refined to use a 'stiff spring' setup to allow a little give in the seat back and harness for comfort and tuning while making sure it does not move the same distances as the base. This technique would also apply to the side-to-side motions pressing the drivers body into the side lumbar supports of the 'resistive' seat back.

Thoughts?