My SFX100 Ultimate rig

[DJ_Psymon]

Update 10/10/20: Now completed with Traction Loss and Surge platforms; running at 90% of 110m travel with Thanos + SimTools; and a new fully anodised rig

 

[Ramón Clemente]

Amazing rig!! I am very interested in acquiring a DIY, do you recommend it? any tutorial to configure thanos? I am very very bad!

 

[Tronicgr_6DOF]

Amazing rig!! I am very interested in acquiring a DIY, do you recommend it? any tutorial to configure thanos? I am very very bad!

Barry gets into details on his video here:

 

[d69morpwr]

Amazing rig!! I am very interested in acquiring a DIY, do you recommend it? any tutorial to configure thanos? I am very very bad!

Its really pretty easy. Especially with the videos.

 

[DJ_Psymon]

Yeah the Thanos board is very easy to configure, and very simple when adding extra axis.

I made some fine tune to the rig. Will post an update shortly.

 

[wingert]

see often, also the PT motion system,confusing me that the surge direction under braking is forward instead of backward.

 

[DJ_Psymon]

see often, also the PT motion system,confusing me that the surge direction under braking is forward instead of backward.

What PT? I don't any PT motion system. Can't afford
Also the direction has nothing to do with the hardware, it's how the user sets it up on the software.

 

[TedBrosby-]

as someone else whose job deals with IP, here's my take on it:
You can still DIY, so I feel like as a community, we aren't necessarily affected by someone using an out of box kit.
Now, if this company were to try to patent this idea, sue people who DIY or help people with CNC/printed parts that are similar to the ones in SFX because they think it's now "their" thing, that would be another story.

I am a little uncomfortable with OP putting the name of the company here, but it's not necessarily a violation of the "product advertisement" rule that RD has, since OP isn't the actual owner or affiliated with the company.

Long story short: kind of gray area. They didn't necessarily violate the patent since they designed the CNC part themselves and they're not trying to block people from going the DIY route.

 

[wingert]

Also the direction has nothing to do with the hardware, it's how the user sets it up on the software.

yes, but in this case the user is the reference tester.

 

[DJ_Psymon]

So which user on this post set the surge direction under braking is forward instead of backward? Barry?

 

[wingert]

Barry?

yes, on his video its forward, as many other user wrongly do.

 

[Tronicgr_6DOF]

yes, on his video its forward, as many other user wrongly do.

The braking on Barry's video is forward because he is using tower for the belts that requires the cockpit to move forward to tight the belts... I assume no one noticed this detail??? Its absolute correct on his cockpit layout...

 

[wingert]

In physics or real, braking is acceleration in the opposite direction of the forward moving car, the moving driver resist this acceleration creating a inherent body force.
If you move the seat in a static condition forward you get additionally a wrong push force from seat back.

 

[Tronicgr_6DOF]

In physics or real, braking is acceleration in the opposite direction of the forward moving car, the moving driver resist this acceleration creating a inherent body force.
If you move the seat in a static condition forward you get additionally a wrong push force from seat back.

Remember, when you brake the cockpit moves forward, the belts are pressing against you like in real car, and the surge travel ends with the cockpit pitch down (sustained acceleration forward)... seems legit to me

...unless your surge has infinite motion backwards to sustain acceleration as you describe.

 

[wingert]

a position is only optical, the feeling comes from the force affected the driver therefore its important to have the right direction.
Another point surge commonly mapped the longitudinal acceleration (m/sec^2) value to a position value (m) that is apparently a dimension error that needs some additional adaption.

 

[mechsicko]

Remember, when you brake the cockpit moves forward, the belts are pressing against you like in real car, and the surge travel ends with the cockpit pitch down (sustained acceleration forward)... seems legit to me

...unless your surge has infinite motion backwards to sustain acceleration as you describe.

It might make more sense to some people to equate a surge based harness tensioning system with the way a g-seat works rather than normal transient acceleration or gravity based effects.

That said, some platform systems utilize a combination of surge+pitch up to achieve the sensation of sustained acceleration. The initial acceleration is generated via a translation movement while simultaneously a rotation axis is setting up for sustained acceleration via gravity. When I worked for E2M Technologies making high end 6dof machines it was pretty amazing to see this synchronization in action.

This brings up a question. Are SimTools or PT Flyer able handle accelerations this way on platforms with the appropriate axes?

 

[Tronicgr_6DOF]

It might make more sense to some people to equate a surge based harness tensioning system with the way a g-seat works rather than normal transient acceleration or gravity based effects.

That said, some platform systems utilize a combination of surge+pitch up to achieve the sensation of sustained acceleration. The initial acceleration is generated via a translation movement while simultaneously a rotation axis is setting up for sustained acceleration via gravity. When I worked for E2M Technologies making high end 6dof machines it was pretty amazing to see this synchronization in action.

This brings up a question. Are SimTools or PT Flyer able handle accelerations this way on platforms with the appropriate axes?

Yes, simtools and FlyPT mover, can both combine multiple axis (actuators) with DOF motion cues to generate the correct braking effect for example. On Barry's rig, he is using the tower for the belt system so if he used the theoretical "proper direction for surge, his belt will get loose instead of tighten when braking. Watch closely his video, he explains why he did the direction of surge the way he did.

 

[DJ_Psymon]

I've tried multiple set ups, forward, backward, belt (reverse tension), vr, mornitors, with/out light... etc. And I agree with all of the comments above.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to what cues the user is looking for when he is on the rig, both physically and visually, and how his brain process them.

I initially had the surge moving forward when braking (no belt), it feels nothing to me. The +/-75mm travel just isn't enough to produce the kind of g-force that you would feel at high speed. Then I added the belt and it started to make sense with the added tension on the shoulder and waist. However, I get motion sickness due to the visual change in the ambient messing up my brain. Then I switched to VR (my default) and re-tuned everything... etc.

At the end I settled with backward when braking and add a little bit of pitch down, plus the seatbelt linked back to the surge actuator so it (passively) adds tension when the surge (actively) goes backwards.

After playing in VR with this set up for a while, I switched to triple with the same set up. This time I switched off all the lights in the room and it feels great!

 

[DJ_Psymon]

And here's the beast in action at the Ring

Running at 90% of 100mm is an absolute joy on this legendary track (ambient light left on for video).

 

[hershann]

And here's the beast in action at the Ring

Running at 90% of 100mm is an absolute joy on this legendary track (ambient light left on for video).

Why do you think ambient light makes a difference?
I will try the belts underneath and towards the front - so it tensions when surge move backwards on braking and try again. Now it’s set to moving forwards under braking with pitch down

HerShann

 

[DJ_Psymon]

Why do you think ambient light makes a difference?

Because with the ambient light turn on, when you surge backward, you can see the visual of you room moving forward which is the opposite direction from the visual on monitor. In real life the car is still moving forward direction when braking so the visual of the world outside of the car continues to move backward, just in slower speed.

This breaks the immersion and cause motion sickness for me. Turning off the ambient lights helps to take away the distraction from the ambient and my brain doesn't need to process visual going in the opposite directly.