SFX-100 + Next Level V3 Owners Thread

[anton_Chez]

Hello friends! It's me again back with another helpful and entertaining RD thread! This time focusing on combining motion's new kid on the block, the SFX-100 AC Servo full chassis motion solution with our current favourite seat mover, the Next Level Racing V3 Motion Platform. We already have extensive threads for either of these amazing pieces of sim racing hardware, you can read more about them both in the links below:

- SFX-100 / SimFeedback-AC DIY

- Next Level Racing V3 Motion Platform

This thread will focus on the owners or potential owners looking to combine these solutions for their sim racing motion experience. Looking forward to seeing everyone's input on getting the most out of this setup. Feel free to leave suggestion, questions, settings and profiles and anything in between. The other threads are huge now and have a lot of discussion, let's get this one up there, too!

 

[parney2000]

My fans were audible but never noisy. There is the odd time that the fan spins slightly faster and louder for a second and then goes back to normal. For fans might be stuck on that mode. You can actually change the speed but you need an administrator tool for that. Mine never squeaked at all.

hopefully Matthew can assist in trying to set them quieter, its way louder than first...very annoying. NL quality seems very inconsistent in my opinion.

 

[anton_Chez]

Well I've only ever had the one unit so I had nothing to compare it to. But nothing of mine ever felt out of the ordinary. I did have some issues with getting a response one time from Next Level themselves, but the fine gentleman Pawel from motionsystems.eu jumped in and pretty much gave me the best customer experience I've ever had. So I might have a skewed opinion. But on the whole whenever I've contacted NL themselves they've pretty much gotten back to me in an acceptable time frame and with helpful results.

 

[janne saari]

Off topic but I have also had opportunity to communicate with both Matthew and Pawel and at least for me it's best customer service I have had. We must understand that we call these "customer service representatives" by their first name even, so it must be understandable that work load and personal life can have huge effect on their response times etc.

My unit is bit similar in noise level than that in video. I definitely notice that the system is on, but it's not that noticeable that I would be annoyed. When driving I cannot hear it definitely etc

 

[Moe Ballout]

Man I really need to stop reading this forum lol. I have a v3 on my simlab p1 and been wanting to get started on the sfx but so much stuff going around it gets confusing at times. Plus I usually drool over it at night and get all these ideas haha. I have seen a video on youtube with somebody running the v3 and the sfx and it looks great. But I really miss the seat slider and adjusting seat position. Hopefully I can start placing some orders soon and get started on the sfx. Anybody here in USA? I am in Texas

 

[neokidgeo]

Have a v3 but not given it a good test due to waiting for the profile for base.

Is there any settings about for ats, ets2 and dirt 1? I wanna try and get my water wings with vr and but wanna get chucked about and

Nick

 

[RCHeliguy]

I've found that motion makes nausea much less of an issue.

In fact since I added the NLRv3 to my rig I haven't had one visitor get sick in Dirt Rally. Before motion almost all of them would start to feel nausea in under 10 minutes.

 

[Orchuman]

Combining SFX 100 and V3 is the best way forward i believe and i found a video of someone who did it! Looks sooo cool!

The Sfx 100 can simulate going up and downhill while racing and the seat the g forces. Btw anyone who has a v3 can it simulate going up and downhill on a racetrack or not?

 

[diablo2112]

I run both, they compliment each other very well. I put pitch, roll, and heave mainly on the SFX-100, and have surge/sway routed to the chair. A little motion in VR is plenty. Here's a very short clip of a buddy trying this out in PC2 at Watkins Glen. I'm still working on a better video to really show the capabilities of the system.

Also of possible interest. My v3 is on a slider system, with the entire v3 motion platform on the sliders. These keeps the proper center of gravity over the v3 as you move the chair. Super simple to get this installed (low) on my 8020 homebuilt profile.

 

[Flag Ghost]

I had the NLRv3 and sold it. I just couldn't handle the constant variable shortening of the pedal spacing. I would personally, keep the SFX-100, and sell off the NLRv3 and take the money and buy a GS-5. GS-5 + SFX-100 is heaven.

 

[diablo2112]

You may have noticed the flightstick mount on my seat. My rig does double-duty as a flight/space/roller coaster simulator. For these applications, the v3 is a superior option due to its much great range of motion compared to the SFX. The combination of SFX+v3 is particularly impressive in No Limits 2. Amazing how the v3 handles extreme changes in pitch/roll, while the SFX does tactile effects and rail/track feedback.

I'm very pleased with the combination, and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[Flag Ghost]

You may have noticed the flightstick mount on my seat. My rig does double-duty as a flight/space/roller coaster simulator. For these applications, the v3 is a superior option due to its much great range of motion compared to the SFX. The combination of SFX+v3 is particularly impressive in No Limits 2. Amazing how the v3 handles extreme changes in pitch/roll, while the SFX does tactile effects and rail/track feedback.

I'm very pleased with the combination, and would recommend it to anyone.

I've had both as well and also run rollercoaster simulators. No offense but the SFX range of motion is far and away better than NLRv3.

 

[diablo2112]

I can get almost 30-35 degrees of roll and pitch out of the v3. I get maybe a third that out of the SFX. Perhaps my setup is wrong. I'd love to know how you're getting in excess of 35 degrees of roll/pitch out of your SFX setup, I'd be thrilled to achieve this, seriously. Flight/Space/Coaster simulators benefit tremendously from extended roll/pitch with respect to gravity. That's the main reason I'm using the v3. What "range of motion" are you referring to?

My actuators have 110mm of travel (running Thanos+Simtools), and the fore/aft separation is about 100cm. That's a maximum of 220mm differential over a 1000mm base. That gives me a 12 degree max pitch, and that's clipping every other force. Is there another geometry that will triple this?

 

[Flag Ghost]

I can get almost 30-35 degrees of roll and pitch out of the v3. I get maybe a third that out of the SFX. Perhaps my setup is wrong. I'd love to know how you're getting in excess of 35 degrees of roll/pitch out of your SFX setup, I'd be thrilled to achieve this, seriously. Flight/Space/Coaster simulators benefit tremendously from extended roll/pitch with respect to gravity. That's the main reason I'm using the v3. What "range of motion" are you referring to?

My actuators have 110mm of travel (running Thanos+Simtools), and the fore/aft separation is about 100cm. That's a maximum of 220mm differential over a 1000mm base. That gives me a 12 degree max pitch, and that's clipping every other force. Is there another geometry that will triple this?

Well I'm not going to spend the time measuring every angle to attempt to undermine your argument. You may be technically correct, the NLRv3 may very well have more pitch and roll angle than the SFX. What I can tell you is that the quality of this motion, the speed, the strength, and most importantly the resultant feeling of the movement is much more effective for roller coaster simulation than the NLRv3 alone. Everyone I've had ride both before and after the transition to SFX exclaims how much better the new system is. YMMV of course.

 

[diablo2112]

Couldn't agree more with your comments about the quality of motion from the SFX. As I said, the combination of SFX + v3 is great, I'm very happy with these. The strengths of each system compliment each other very well. The range of the v3 + the tactile sensation (speed, acceleration) of the SFX really do work well together, it's crazy good on No Limits 2 in VR.

 

[Flag Ghost]

BTW @diablo2112 Very nice clean build. I really like the attention to detail w/ the wiring, and cabinet, etc..

 

[Flag Ghost]

In a head to head comparison of the NLRv3 to the GS-5 I surprisingly found the GS-5 superior for simracing even though the GS-5 isn't really a "motion" system. The addition of continuous simulated g-force with the rock steady stability of wheel and pedals that don't move to and fro from your body was much more satisfying and provided much better feedback from the car in my opinion. This is why I highly recommend using the cash from an NLRv3 sale to grab a GS-5.

 

[Orchuman]

Couldn't agree more with your comments about the quality of motion from the SFX. As I said, the combination of SFX + v3 is great, I'm very happy with these. The strengths of each system compliment each other very well. The range of the v3 + the tactile sensation (speed, acceleration) of the SFX really do work well together, it's crazy good on No Limits 2 in VR.

Flip that is a nice setup! holy ****, Where did you get your airduct fans from? Def make a better video , you can answer my question! Can the V3 go up and down on a track "up a hill and down a hill"? Can you set it to do that? i see the SFX can.

 

[diablo2112]

I've not tried to setup the v3 to provide exaggerted pitch/roll compared to surge/sway, which is what you'd want to do to have a feeling of going up/down hills. I have done this on the SFX side of my simulator, using SimTools, as you can briefly see in the video.

The wind simulator, including the black fans, are from Motion House of South Korea. Here's the link: https://en-motionhouse.imweb.me/shop/?idx=8

And I also agree that the one downside of combining the v3 with the SFX is the less than 100% rigid chair. If I was only doing sim racing on my rig, I'd probably swap the v3 for a G-seat. The points (above) are good ones. As I mentionned previously, I use my setup as a Sim/Flight/Space/Coaster rig and this is why I have kept the v3 to go with the SFX. For certain flight/space/coaster sims, the v3 really is the ideal motion platform.

 

[Orchuman]

I've not tried to setup the v3 to provide exaggerted pitch/roll compared to surge/sway, which is what you'd want to do to have a feeling of going up/down hills. I have done this on the SFX side of my simulator, using SimTools, as you can briefly see in the video.

The wind simulator, including the black fans, are from Motion House of South Korea. Here's the link: https://en-motionhouse.imweb.me/shop/?idx=8

And I also agree that the one downside of combining the v3 with the SFX is the less than 100% rigid chair. If I was only doing sim racing on my rig, I'd probably swap the v3 for a G-seat. The points (above) are good ones. As I mentionned previously, I use my setup as a Sim/Flight/Space/Coaster rig and this is why I have kept the v3 to go with the SFX. For certain flight/space/coaster sims, the v3 really is the ideal motion platform.

Thanks for replying, so you say you can set up a V3 for surge and sway, its not like it cant do it? im just looking at this from a money, small enough to ship, time perspective. if the V3 can do up a hill and down hill with the Gforces then i most likely will go that route and yea i might go into flight sim once the new microsoft flight simulator is out!

 

[anton_Chez]

The V3 doesn't generally relay vertical motion such as hill climb and decent and also suspension movement most commonly referred to as 'heave'.

You will get some track bumps and such but if you're looking for a platform that accurately and convincingly portrays the elevation changes of a track the V3 won't be the one that does it for you.