2dof Arduino uno & Sabertooth 2x32

[kokopelli]

Hi everyone, my name is Andy, i live in England, and have been sim racing for about 5 years. I bulit my first seat mover about 3 years ago, but wanted a full frame sim this time around. I've bulit this using stuff from around the house, an old garden swing set, a Target hi fi rack unit, plus the pedal section & steering section of an orignal playseat. I do not have all the images from this bulid (sorry), but, happy to share the images i do have.

Here's a couple of pic's of the sim:

[kokopelli]

and here is a close up of the engine:

[kokopelli]

But the sim started life as the back end of a 'Go Pride mobility scooter,' you can buy these on ebay.co.uk no problem. In fact, i got 2x, i wanted to bulid a sim for the kids as well.

more pic's

[kokopelli]

as you can see, you could easily bulid a compact seat mover.

more pic's

[kokopelli]

but i found the i had to make a couple of changes.

see pic's

[kokopelli]

because of the way the motors are mounted, mounting the potentiometers was always gonna be difficult..............unless you can bag some of these. Double ended 10k 10 turn potentiometers. These are called 'Helipots', old skool potentiometers. Got 4x of these on ebay.com, and to my delight, they work 100% perfect.

check it out:

[kokopelli]

difficulty level when up 2 notches when it came to doing the cogs for the motors and the potentiometers,..........but after weeks contemplation, without food or water, in a deep dark hole at the back of my garden, i came up with this: (see pic) .I brought a couple a pairs 2x for the motors, 2x for the potentiometers.
Then i had 10x 4mm thick MDF circles made, 75mm O.D x 6mm I.D, and 10x 4mm thick MDF circles, 75mm O.D x 19mm I.D. I then used super glue to stick 2 circles together making them 8mm thick. Once the glue had dried i stuck the MDF cirles to the inside of the metal rings...............which means the cog problem has now been solved and my life can now return to normal.

[kokopelli]

My next problem was 'how to mount the cog onto the motor shaft', sounds easy, but it has to be on there straight.....dead straight. Plus, on my old seat mover the lever was always slipping off the motor shaft regardless of how tight you tighten the m12 nut,... the nut would come loose half way though a race. So to kill two birds with one stone i brought 2 of these. (see pic). My idea is to put the cog on the motor shaft, then weld the Taper Lock Bush Shaft Fixing to the motor shaft, then weld the lever onto the Taper Lock Bush Shaft Fixing, When the welding has cooled down, super glue the cog to the back of the Taper Lock Bush Shaft Fixing. Then do the same to the other motor,.....job done.

[kokopelli]

and this is what it looks like finished,(painted the motors black with spray paint) see pic's.

[kokopelli]

the potentiometers wre much easier, simply slide the cogs onto the potentiometers, and hold the cog in place with a plastic washer and super glue. see pic's