DIY Wind Generator

[ears]

I have a bit of spare time next week as the family are all away so I decided to have a go at this.

I had seen a review of a commercial product (linked below) and the 'two fan' version together with delivery and all the extras was over £200 - a bit much for something that's just a bit of fun.

Now I realise that most of the time I race in cars with windscreens and even open wheeler drivers wear helmets so whether this introduces any realism is up for debate.

However, realism and immersion are not necessarily the same thing and I'm open to this adding some immersion to the experience.

Additionally, summer has come early and I do get very hot and sweaty inside that VR hat, so the idea of some cool wind blowing at me is appealing.

I managed to pick up everything I needed for this project on Amazon for around £80.

If it works, I'm a progremmer by trade, so might take a look at connecting to APIs in other sims to see if I can use the fans on those two - the scripts provided only work with AC so far.

If anyone's interested, I'll post updates. Should be building it over the weekend, early next week.

 

[Peter Klawitter]

GameManager

 

[LeecarL]

As another option, Simhub has the ability to run a windsim. The program is free, and if you like what he does, you can donate whatever you like for a License. However, a License is NOT required to run the software, nor are there ads to deal with. He legit does it for the love. Check it out https://www.simhubdash.com/

Also I'll leave this here for those interested https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3416305

 

[F1Aussie]

My 6 year old is a windsim.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

hi guys, i am completely stuck and no clue how to get SimTools (i have the Pro version) working for my WindSim. would you guys be able to help out? i have SimTools, but everytime i start it, always get a message "no game plugins found".
i got the plugin rfactor2 from the XSimulator/SimTools forum, installed it, but not sure now what to do, all starts but i am looking at screens, i have no clue about and don't understand. any help, guidance or instructions would be greatly appreciated.
thank youACH]

I did read the whole stuff on that Xsimulator.net website and I still think it is to complex. While going to Simhub, it was just like a matter of installing, simple adjusting and my left/right chair shaker is working. I would give Simhub a try, it is so userfreintly, the only negative aspect: it is a rather recource eating piece of software, if somebody knows how to make Simhub lean please let me know.

 

[cfischer9009]

Hey Peter I can throw some knowledge your way.
So far you've posted images of the game manager and the game engine. There is a third application in addition to these two you need running called game dash. Game engine is designed to output physics for motion, game manager is designed to get telemetry out of the game, and game dash is designed for details you might see on a dash board like speed, rpm, and others. You will need to use the speed data from the game for wind so you need game dash running. If you haven't already installed game dash it can be downloaded here.
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/marketplace/simtools-v2-game-dash.76/

Once you've loaded game dash you will find an icon on your system tray. Right click and select interface settings. You will put the details of your controller here. If you're using an arduino and monster moto to pwm control a dc fan then this link has all the settings and the arduino sketch ready to go.

After you get the interface setup go back to the system tray and left click it to see the game specific settings. It's nice to run the game in windowed mode while looking at this page because when its running you can see all the telemetry data that comes from the game and the values they output (the game could give you mph, km/h, or some unitless game number etc.). You can then setup whichever telemetry slot gives you speed (probably dash1) with a command to your controller. If you're using the above arduino solution then the sketch programmed on the arduino is looking for a three digit number between 000 and 255 to be sent after the character S. That's why in the example above, you click on the pencil icon next to dash1 to get the command editor so you can type in some rules.

(In the example above)
MATH * 5 - multiplies every speed value by 5 since the speed value from the game in this example was some small number.
ROUND 0 - rounds to a whole number because the output was a whole bunch of numbers after the decimal point.
PAD 3 0 - to make sure that there is always 3 numbers going to the arduino IE 10 units of speed becomes 010 units of speed or 1 unit becomes 001 unit.

Since every game could give different units for speed you will need to tune this in yourself using the above details as a guide. (post up if you need help)

After getting the math correct you then need to pass the data to your interface. This will usually be accomplished by adding S<Dash1> to the interface - output as seen in the link I posted. This code means that the character S, and then the number value for dash1 will be output over and over. In fact the drop down after the interface output defines how fast. In this example its every 20 milliseconds for the packet rate.

When the program runs you will get a constant stream of S000S000S000S000... to the arduino. As you go faster the output will change. For example S001S003S012S111S255...


Give this some thought, read the post on xsim, and mess around a bit and let us know if you have any more questions.

PS if you don't need motion data then you dont need to set anything up in game engine for game dash to work. You have already turned on the game dash telemetry in game manager so you are done there too.

 

[Mr Latte]

Those that have wind sims, after the initial novelty of trying it out, how many of you still use it regularly or feel that you now don't want to race without it?

What puts me off it, is uncertainty in what it adds towards fun factor might wear off quickly and the noise it generates could become annoying. Looked into it in the past but not fully convinced on the concept of it.

Gotta say that Simhub looks much nicer and easier to use.

 

[Insert Coin]

I'm still using it. Driving the Highlands Long track with the Lotus 311 (open car) still brings a smile on my face when I feel the wind blowing. It's much more immersive.
I have swapped the fans for Noctua A14 3000rpm PWM fans: more wind, a tiny bit less noise. Added fan ducts for more wind pressure:

 

[nerdthewise]

I have the sim racing studios two fan kit and I could not race without it. I adore it and dollar per smile it ranks among the best money spent anywhere in my cockpit.

I am however, getting frustrated with their software and eyeing some of those bilge blowers folk like henk are singing the praises of. Going to be rebuilding my cokpit on a new platform soon and am open to the idea of an upgrade, but a little daunted by the seeming complexity of it. Can someone dumb it down for me or point me to any posts along the lines of a direct guide or Arduino basics for an application like this? I am using sim hub for all of my tactile and would love to have that power the fans as well.

 

[nerdthewise]

I think I have it figured out now (parts ordered and en route), but would like some feedback from Seaflo owners out there. On my existing fans I have some small flow straighteners, but they won't easily adapt to the different shape of the Seaflo blowers. Can anyone speak to either the need for a straightener or how they were able to find or make one?

Avenga76 seemingly used to make them, but the topic seems to have died some time back: https://www.isrtv.com/forums/topic/23623-complete-wind-simulators-and-kitsets-for-sale/

 

[Insert Coin]

Air straighteners always help a lot on any fan you use, highly recommended.
See here: https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...ulator-for-assetto-corsa.133999/#post-2674973
If you make them yourself do mount the air straightener as close as possible to the fan. Do not put the air straightener on the 'outside' of the tube with a gap between the fan and the air straightener: air will start to swirl in the tube instead of being pushed out of it.

On SeaFlo fans:

 

[nerdthewise]

I was looking at a pair of these and cutting them to fit inside the nose of the fan:

https://www.ebay.com/i/263049763984...Ave20D_mritv3b5S1N6eaceCBXvK_30oaAskjEALw_wcB

Once I have it tested and configured my plan is to plastidip both of those horrible white seaflo fans black and mount the straighteners flush with the front edge of the fan and put them both on Ram mounts so I can get the angle perfect (something missing from my current setup). Debating whether not to test without the the straighteners before spending $50 on metal hexagons...

 

[Insert Coin]

You can use large straws as I did , works perfectly. You could simply tape them together. Put them in the Seaflo, not on the outside for maximum effect as mentioned before.

 

[asteroulis]

I was having this idea the other day, where the wind sim is working in a closed loop style. Having the air get sucked in behind of the drivers head, and through a tube getting in front to be blown and then getting sucked again etc.. . I think this has some interesting possibilities of increasing the wind effect..

 

[nerdthewise]

You can use large straws as I did , works perfectly. You could simply tape them together. Put them in the Seaflo, not on the outside for maximum effect as mentioned before.

Straws are on the way, seaflos are painted and ready to go, just waiting on the Arduino a s shield to arrive now.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

just waiting on the Arduino a s shield to arrive now.

Are you sure you need the shield if using this connection (scroll below) you will notice he is connecting his fan direct to the 12v adapter. https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/easy-diy-wind-simulator-for-assetto-corsa.133999/

 

[nerdthewise]

I am using a pair of seaflo bilge blowers which I was under the impression required a motor shield for their higher voltage. But what do I know, I am learning as I go here...

Here is what I ordered to power the fans:
Aruino: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021
Motor Shield: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10182
Power Supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073QTNF9F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It only occurred to me today that the board I ordered comes without the headers attached so I will also need a soldering iron and a little time with youtube to figure out how to solder in the first place. If anyone has any advice or resources that might help I'm all ears, otherwise I will just take my time and see if I can figure it out without blowing anything up...

 

[nerdthewise]

From @AlexN via email after talking through my plan with him, posting here in case it helps anyone down the road:

Alex:
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-soldering-irons/
All solder is toxic, even lead-free, so do it in an area with adequate ventilation and wash your hands thoroughly after. That said, people do it all the time, so just do some light reading on the subject.

If you want the wires themselves to be non-permanent, you can use something like these:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8432
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8073
The "pitch" parameter is the spacing between the pins. From a quick glance, the monster moto looks to have 5mm pitch between the 3 sets of power pins, and 2.54mm (.1") pitch for the lower amperage logic pins. You still need to solder the connectors on.

"Dupont male to male" aka "breadboard jumper wires" might also be a good combination with the above (plus the typical headers on an arduino) vs using bare wires. Verify your amperage is OK for the wire gauge (see the accepted answer + links in the OP)
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/33522/current-carrying-capacity-of-28-awg-wire

The 12v adapter you picked conveniently has a connector that goes straight to wire leads. It looks like a screw-terminal type. Insert wires (or dupont male end) and screw tight. The other end goes to the PWR pins on the motor controller. This 12v input gets time-sliced by the motor controller using the PWM signal from the arduino, then output to each motor (the PWM signal effectively controls the "duty cycle", aka what % of time the output is on, at a very high frequency). The 12v input also powers the arduino via the motor controller, see below.

I think the size and pin layout of the two boards is designed such that you can stack the motor controller on top of the arduino and just run the pins right through to connect them using something like these:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11417
(soldering still required on the motor controller side for proper pin contact)

Arduinos typically have a few options for powering them, including just using the USB cable. In this case, it looks like you will wire the power to the motor controller, which in turn will feed the power to both the motor outputs AND back into the arduino via the V_in stacked pins. Your 12V power supply should be safe for both boards to operate at, but you wouldn't want to go higher than 12V in the future as the Uno is not rated for above that.

From here, I suggest you just follow this guide for the lower-power motor controller. It looks pretty straightforward and I don't see anything missing.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ardumoto-kit-hookup-guide

Nerd:
This is great, thank you so much!

I did a bunch of reading last night and ordered the tools, looks relatively straight forward actually. When we see each other next or I am not typing on a phone I'll lay out the full plan for you but the basics are: uno powered by USB, motor board connected with stackable through headers on top of the uno, with the power supply's breakaway connection wired into the motor shield using a short length of cable and screw terminals on either end. Is there any reason I can't use the 14 gauge speaker wire I have for that I should I cut up an unneeded power cable?

I'm a week from the materials all being here, so no hurry with any of this. You are welcome to borrow my kit of course if you need to for small thing before you buy your own.

Alex:
Speaker wire should be fine, it just might be a little thick to work with. Good for the power connections, though.

Be careful with powering the Uno over USB. The suggested wiring I saw is to power the motor controller, and have the motor controller power the Uno through the stacked V_IN pins.
1) if the Uno is smart enough to only use USB for talking to the computer when V_IN is active, great! (Just double check whether it auto-detects this)
2) if the Uno gets power over USB, you probably want to snip off the stacked header pin for V_IN so there’s no electrical connection. I expect this would work fine for having the two boards powered independently.

 

[nerdthewise]

Received all the parts and got started, though full install will not be until my new cockpit gets here and I can wire everything permanently.

Soldering, having never done it before, was surprisingly easy, all pretty straight forward. Used stackable headers connecting all headers from the monster motor to the Arduino uno without issue. Power supply came with a quick disconnect which I wired to the screw terminals on the board with 14g speaker wire. Got it connected in simhub and after a false start with the motor spinning backwards had it working as telemetry in probably 2 hours total time spent. Really not that hard, would recommend to the dubious out there.

Will try to post something once everything is wired permanently if anyone is curious.

 

[nerdthewise]

If anyone is still tracking this I can post something about the finished project. Totally spaced on following up with this. Sim Hub ended up causing problems with other aspects of my configuration so I am using something I found on the iRacing forums to control the arduino.

My only issue at this point is the noise generated by the Seaflo’s bleeding into the rest of the house. Trying to find something that can move a similar amount of air while remain quieter in operation and still able to be powered through the motor shield.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

If anyone is still tracking this I can post something about the finished project. Totally spaced on following up with this. Sim Hub ended up causing problems with other aspects of my configuration so I am using something I found on the iRacing forums to control the arduino.

My only issue at this point is the noise generated by the Seaflo’s bleeding into the rest of the house. Trying to find something that can move a similar amount of air while remain quieter in operation and still able to be powered through the motor shield.

I’m very curious on what you did found on iRacing.
About Simhub I did have the same problem regarding picking up the signal for the fans, iow it does not work for controlling the fans. https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/simhub-windsimulator-does-not-work.174209/
Think for low noise you could use fans that are much bigger, so getting the same amount of wind only at an lower rev.
Motorshield is not needed if using @Insert Coin solution https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/easy-diy-wind-simulator-for-assetto-corsa.133999/ I use it and it is working great, very limited recourse are using, only I need to figure out how to reduce low rev at stationary and increase the rev at top speed.
I do hope mr @Insert Coin can make an chair shaker because the alternative I have https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/drivevibe-body-shaker.117172/page-5 is more working on game sound waves and not by telemetry. So one star put of 5 review for this rudimentary shaker mod.