2DOF MotionSim long time project..

[jorgengust]

Hallo everyone.
First a thx to racemat who realy made a good thread about his build and much of my ideas comes from his work..

After alot of reading here in the forum i have started my own build. At the moment im just collecting all the parts and doing some small tests with different electronics. So i thought ill start to post some picture of what i have collected so far, and also some info about software used.

Please remember that the key word here is go CHEAP becourse my wife isnt to happy about my projects so officialy this sim is built for my son.. And actualy he is the one doing most of the driving anyway.

So her we go..

My main computer (Gaming computer) atm
Its an old laptop with intel gfx so not very good ingame gfx but it will do for now since the games are playable. It has no lcd so it is hooked up to my 50" 100Hz JVC.


My Control computer
This one will have all the controll software for the motors and guages.


The steeringwheel.
Its an old Thrustmaster Formula Force GP that i got at the flee market for 8$ ..


And the pedals


I made a side dash to house the handcontroller for now since i dont want to use the keyboard so i use JoyToKey so i can control the keyboard with the controller. It isnt finished yet..


The shifter prototype build.
The shifter is from a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon


The handbrake.
Also from from a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon


Some electronics.
My Arduino


My picopix projector.


Some of my buttons i will use for ingame controll. I have an usb keyboard interface for all the buttons and the buttons from the shifter and handbrake will also be connected to the usb interface.


Here is my youngest son testing the steeringwheel for the first time. He is the one doing most of the driving.. 3.5 years old and he loves his car games...


More images will come..

[jorgengust]

Worked a little with Desktop Dash. Not done this one i made in about 30min. So some adjustments needs to be done. Now im just glad its all working on my control PC.

*EDIT I Made the gfx in Gimp and not Photoshop as suggested in the tut, since Gimp is free and can do the same job..

Also doing some tests with Immersive Display PRO to get that projector 180dgr working..


Since there are some programs running to support all functions and we all want the best fps in our games ill be posting my inf file for disabling services and such that isnt needed i just need to test the script some more so i dont ruin your comps..

[jorgengust]

Working on the layout. It isnt perfect but i will adjust things as i go along.

This "design" is based on "Project Immersion" and floriske´s designs. And with inspiration from Racingmat.

[jorgengust]

Ok i havnt written much but that dont meen i have been on tha lazy side. I have worked on real guages and came to the conclusion that its not realy worth the effort when we have desktop guages. Some might argue that its cheaper to use guages than an extra comp for the desktop guages but i think it equals up if you consider the cost for guages and mayby drivers for it. many already use 2 comps for the workload so why not add the desktop guages aswell.

Well thats my thoughts on that. And secondly i think i will restart my thread and make it more like a tut not that im an expert on the subject but more so people might get some ideas from a noob that dont have a lot of cash to spend. But for now ill write here and we will see if i start a new thread..

So here we go then.. Lets start with the "boring" parts the software..

Ok so i thought ill rewrite my introduction of my motionsim build so that it is more like a tutorial on how you can make a motionsim.

Ok so first we start with software that is nice to have in hand and what i use for different tasks.

X-Sim – Of course this is the base from were we build/develop our motionsim.

GIMP – For making gfx for Desktop gauges.

Paint – For quick editing Desktop gauges gfx. For some reason X-Sim don´t like the bmp´s exported by Gimp so I simply just open the gfx in Paint and then save them again and then they work in Desktop gauges.

Arduino IDE – For uploading code to the Arduino and making schematics.

Sketchup 2015 – For making models of the motionsim.

Eventghost – For running extra programs when a certain game is started. For example in some games I want to be able to control the keyboard with my gamepad(This dont work in all games) so I tell eventghost to start JoyToKey when I start for example Need For Speed and then I also tell Eventghost to kill JoyToKey when I exit Need For Speed. Evenghost is a mighty program and is very usefull.

Keyboard Test Utility – For finding pinouts on the usbkeyboard interface.

Immersive Display PRO v1.9 r3 - For Imagewarping so I get 180dgr FOV with my projector. “Project Immersion” is my inspiration for the curved screen I will be using.

JoyToKey – For converting my gamepad actions to keyboard actions. This will be replaced with my usbkeyboard interface as I add more buttons to the interface. But its a nice program to have.

FFShifter – For The H-Shifter since I scraped the idea with a real gearshifter due to the weight. Instead ill use an old gamepad and use the left stick for the gear shifter and the right stick for the Clutch.

X360ce – I use this one in games that dont detect my pad or steeringwheel and it trix the program into thinking I connected an Xbox 360 controller.

FacetrackNoIR – This will be used later for headtracking so I dont have to push a button or key to look right, left and back.

FreePIE – Used together with FacetrackNoIR to map headmovements to events like keypress.

Some of the software above isnt realy needed for a sim but i think they have a place in a sim since we whant to get away from the computer feeling as much as possible so thats why some software is inclded that some might think is totaly unessesary.

Thats the software part and im sure that list will change as we move along but for now thats about it..

P.S Links will be provided for all the software.

And the Hardware. Now the fun begins..

I USE...

1 comp for the games and the extractor.
1 comp for the Converter(MotorControll) and guages.
1 Arduino for controllng the motor drivers
2 Moto Monster these i just got my wife to order after i explained that i will be building a rolercoaster sim for our youngest son..
1 USB-Keyboard interface for ingame buttons.
1 Old Joypad for making a gearshifter and a clutch (the buttons can also be maped for different things)
1 Steeringwheel uhm yea most figured that one out..
1 set of pedals
1 Projector
1 Curved screen (approx 166dgr FOV 21:9, those values will be delt with later and explained)
Power supply (This isnt etched in stone yet so i leave it at that for *.
2 Wipermotors
And some other hardware that will be listed as i get along.

As with the software this list will also change.

[jorgengust]

Not much have happened on the hardware side but I have the headtracking set up so I don't have to use keyboard,game pad or wheel to look left and right.
For this I use Open tracker and Autohotkey. Not the final solution since I want to use free pie for it. But I'll use this for *